_We have travelled so many roads together, highland and lowland,
pleasant and dreary, that I ask you to accept this book of travellers'
tales. For Scotland is a wide place to travel in for those who believe
that it is not bounded strictly by kirk and market-place, and who have
an ear for old songs and lost romances. It is of the back-world of
Scotland that I write, the land behind the mist and over the seven bens,
a place hard of access for the foot-passenger but easy for the maker of
stories. Meantime, to you, who have chosen the better part, I wish many
bright days by hill and loch in the summers to come._
_R. M. S. Briton, at sea_
_J. B._
"Among idle men there be some who tarry in the outer courts, speeding
the days joyfully with dance and song. But the other sort dwell near the
portals of the House, and are ever anxious and ill at ease that they may
see something of the Shadows which come and go. Wherefore night and day
they are found watching by the threshold, in fearfulness and joy, not
without tears." Extract from the writings of Donisarius of Padua, circa
1310.