BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR

by Sir Walter Scott

INTRODUCTION TO THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR

THE Author, on a former occasion, declined giving the real source

from which he drew the tragic subject of this history, because,

though occurring at a distant period, it might possibly be

unpleasing to the feelings of the descendants of the parties.

But as he finds an account of the circumstances given in the

Notes to Law's Memorials, by his ingenious friend, Charles

Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., and also indicated in his reprint of

the Rev. Mr. Symson's poems appended to the Large Description of

Galloway, as the original of the Bride of Lammermoor, the

Author feels himself now at liberty to tell the tale as he had it

from connexions of his own, who lived very near the period, and

were closely related to the family of the bride.

It is well known that the family of Dalrymple, which has

produced, within the space of two centuries, as many men of

talent, civil and military, and of literary, political, and

professional eminence, as any house in Scotland, first rose into

distinction in the person of James Dalrymple, one of the most

eminent lawyers that ever lived, though the labours of his

powerful mind were unhappily exercised on a subject so limited as

Scottish jurisprudence, on which he has composed an admirable

work.

He married Margaret, daughter to Ross of Balneel, with whom he

obtained a considerable estate. She was an able, politic, and

high-minded woman, so successful in what she undertook, that the

vulgar, no way partial to her husband or her family, imputed her

success to necromancy. According to the popular belief, this

Dame Margaret purchased the temporal prosperity of her family

from the Master whom she served under a singular condition, which

is thus narrated by the historian of her grandson, the great Earl

of Stair: "She lived to a great age, and at her death desired

that she might not be put under ground, but that her coffin

should stand upright on one end of it, promising that while she

remained in that situation the Dalrymples should continue to

flourish. What was the old lady's motive for the request, or

whether she really made such a promise, I shall not take upon me

to determine; but it's certain her coffin stands upright in the

isle of the church of Kirklistown, the burial-place belonging to

the family." The talents of this accomplished race were

suifficient to have accounted for the dignities which many

members of the family attained, without any supernatural

assistance. But their extraordinary prosperity was attended by

some equally singular family misfortunes, of which that which

befell their eldest daughter was at once unaccountable and

melancholy.