PREFACE. SCOTLAND has from time immemorial enjoyed a due share of reputation for learning and good sense, but it has generally been thought deficient in wit. This deficiency has been ascribed to various causes, some contending that our dullness was owing to our high northern latitude, and the rigour of our climate.-According to the poet, 66 Our Northern country seldom tastes of wit, "The too cold clime is justly blam'd for it." But time, which discovers most truths, has shown that the Scots are a nation not destitute of wit and fancy, more than any other people in Europe. From the period of the reformation indeed, there seems to have been a kind of Boeotian mist that clouded the hemisphere of our learning. The incessant quarrels of the clergy with James VI. and Charles I. in which the people took so deep an in terest, engendered a severity of manners, and moroseness of character, ill suited to the sprightly sallies of wit and humour. The cruelties and severities exercised by the profligate Charles after his restoration, and his bigoted brother James, on the poor covenanters, converted the people into a nation of gloomy enthusiasts, where wit was criminal, and humour profanity. " 46 Nothing our hearts could move, or fancy bribe, But now that the days of religious animosity and intolerance are passed away, and the despicable jargon in which it was carried on forgotten, Scottish wit shines out in its genuine lustre, founded upon good sense and a refined taste. We have had "the Spirit of English Wit,” and "the Spirit of Irish Wit," collected into a focus, while the spirit and substance of Scottish wit has been left, to evaporate in the desert air. This defect we have attempted in some measure to remedy by bringing forward the following collection of Anecdotes, Bon Mots, Jests, Puns, and Droll Stories, no inconsiderable portion of which are original, which it is hoped will show that the Scots are possessed of some wit, both in spirit and substance. To this we have added some curious arti cles of literature, and a pretty copious collection of Epitaphs and Inscriptions, both original and selected, the whole almost exclusively Scottish, making altogether a miscellany not ill suited to its title, "a haggis," which to our northern palates, is a very agreeable dish, although the materials of which it is composed, are like old chaos, jumbled together without order or regularity. The editor embraces this opportunity of returning his most grateful acknowledgements to his numerous friends who have kindly favoured him with original communications towards the present work. He likewise requests such gentlemen as may be possessed of articles of a similar description, particularly Epitaphs and Inscriptions, not before printed, that they would transmit them to the Editor by the earliest opportunity, when they will most probably see the light in some shape or other at no very distant period. EDINBURGH, 4th December, 1822. } D. WEBSTER. |