The passion of the Scots, from whatever race derived, for poetry
and music, developed itself in the earliest stages of their history.
They possessed a wild imagination, a dark and gloomy mythology; they
peopled the caves, the woods, the rivers, and the mountains, with
spirits, elves, giants, and dragons; and are we to wonder that the
Scots, a nation in whose veins the blood of all those remote races is
unquestionably mingled, should, at a very remote period, have evinced
an enthusiastic admiration for song and poetry; that the harper was
to be found amongst the officers who composed the personal state of
the sovereign, and that the country maintained a privileged race of
wandering minstrels, who eagerly seized on the prevailing superstitions
and romantic legends, and wove them in rude, but sometimes very
expressive versification, into their stories and ballads; who were
welcome guests at the gate of every feudal castle, and fondly beloved
by the great body of the people.--_Tytler's History of Scotland_.
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