The _new edition_, (of which _Waverley_ has just appeared,) is, without
exception, the handsomest book of the day, in editorship, literary and
graphic embellishment or typography. Perhaps little persuasion was
necessary for a second reading of so delightful a novel as _Waverley_, but
the author's piquant notes to the present edition would alike tempt the
matter-of-fact man, and the inveterate novel reader to "begin again." The
prefatory anecdotes to _Waverley_ are extremely interesting--and the
little autobiographic sketches are so many leaves from the life of the
ingenious author. We hope to introduce a few of the notes of the Series;
but content ourselves for the present with the following: being the
original of the legend of Mrs. Grizel Oldbuck:
Mr. R----d of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of Gala,
was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated arrears of
teind (or tithe) for which he was said to be indebted to a noble family,
the titulars (lay impropriators of the tithes.) Mr. R----d was strongly
impressed with the belief that his father had, by a form of process
peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased these lands from the titular,
and therefore that the present prosecution was groundless. But after an
industrious search among his father's papers, an investigation of the
public records, and a careful inquiry among all persons who had transacted
law business for his father, no evidence could be recovered to support his
defence. The period was now near at hand when he conceived the loss of his
lawsuit to be inevitable, and he had formed his determination to ride to
Edinburgh next day, and make the best bargain he could in the way of
compromise. He went to bed with this resolution, and with all the
circumstances of the case floating upon his mind, had a dream to the
following purpose. His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to
him, he thought, and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams
men are not surprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought that he had
informed his father of the cause of his distress, adding that the payment
of a considerable sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he
had a strong consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to
recover any evidence in support of his belief. "You are right, my son,"
replied the paternal shade; "I did acquire right to these teinds, for
payment of which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the
transaction are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney,) who is
now retired from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near
Edinburgh. He was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a
particular reason, but who never on any other occasion transacted business
on my account. It is very possible," pursued the vision, "that Mr. ----
may have forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may
call it to his recollection by this token, that when I came to pay his
account, there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of
gold, and that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern."
Mr. R----d awaked in the morning with all the words of the vision imprinted
on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the country to
Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he came there, he
waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very old man; without
saying any thing of the vision, he inquired whether he remembered having
conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The old gentleman could
not at first bring the circumstance to his recollection, but on mention of
the Portugal piece of gold, the whole returned upon his memory; he made an
immediate search for the papers, and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d
carried to Edinburgh the documents necessary to gain the cause which he
was on the verge of losing. The author has often heard this story told by
persons who had the best access to know the facts, who were not likely
themselves to be deceived, and were certainly incapable of deception. He
cannot therefore refuse to give it credit, however extraordinary the
circumstances may appear. The circumstantial character of the information
given in the dream, takes it out of the general class of impressions of
the kind which are occasioned by the fortuitous coincidence of actual
events with our sleeping thoughts. On the other hand, few would suppose
that the laws of nature were suspended, and a special communication from
the dead to the living permitted, for the purpose of saving Mr. R----d a
certain number of hundred pounds. The author's theory is, that the dream
was only the recapitulation of information which Mr. R----d had really
received from his father while in life, but which at first he merely
recalled as a general impression that the claim was settled. It is not
uncommon for persons to recover, during sleep, the thread of ideas which
they have lost during their waking hours. It may be added, that this
remarkable circumstance was attended with bad consequences to Mr. R----d,
whose health and spirits were afterwards impaired by the attention which
he thought himself obliged to pay to the visions of the night.--_Notes to
the Antiquary._
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