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THE EDITOR TO THE READER
I AM apt to imagine you
may be curious to know by what Means the following Letters came to my
Hands, after the Space of between twenty and thirty Years.
The Gentleman in whose Possession they were, died some Time ago, and
through Losses, unsuccessful Law-Suits, and other Disappointments, left
his Family in none of the best of Circumstances; and, therefore you will
believe I could obtain them no otherwise than by a mineral Interest.
The Person who writ them, has not set his Name to any one of them, and,
it is very probable, he made Use of that Caution for Reasons given in
his introductory Letter; but this is not very material, because, if I
had known the Name, in all Likelihood I might have thought myself under
an Obligation to conceal it.
I cannot but think the Writer has kept this Promise he made his Friend,
of Writing without Prejudice or Partiality ; and this I the rather
believe, because, at my first Perusal of these Letters, I met with
several Facts and Descriptions, pretty nearly resembling others I had
heard from Officers of the Army, and Revenue, who had been in that Part
of the Country; but their Stories would have been the same, or very near
it, if they had been free from the ludicrous and satirical Manner in
which they were delivered.
Ill-nature will excite in its unhappy Vassals, a malignant Satisfaction
to find the Truth (especially relating to Mankind) disguised in an
antick Dress; and there is nothing more easy than to furnish out the
Masquerade with ridiculous outward Appearances. But neither of pur
Correspondents seems to have been inclined that Way; for if the Person,
to whom these Epistles were addressed, had been of that Trempe, there is
no Doubt but the Writer, who took so much Pains for his Information,
would likewise have gratified him in that Particular.
It must be owned, there are some few Strokes that savour a little of the
Satyrical, but they are very few, yet just enough to shew, that if
Inclination had prompted, Humour would not have been wanting; and even
those few are only relating to such Vices and Vanities as might easily
be reformed; and, as they are now made publick, they may serve as
Admonitions to such as apply them to themselves.
What shameful Portraits have been drawn for a Highlander! I shall only
mention one, and that is, in the True-born Englishman.
His Description is much more shocking than entertaining to any one who
has the least Humanity. But the owner of a chast Mind might have been
well pleased to see the unknown Face divested of the odious Vizor.
It may be said--That Poem is a profest Satyr, but I even deny it to be
one; for a true Satyrist is too delicate to Lash with a Flail.
There be some who have made a Reproach of unavoidable Poverty, and of
Customs and Methods of acting, which, (I now find) according to the
Nature of the Country, and Circumstances of the Inhabitants, could not
be changed for others to be more reasonable and commodious. But, far
otherwise, the Writer of these Letters. lie seems to have catched at all
Opportunities for Excuse, and even Commendation, and has not spared his
own Country, or Countrymen, when the one deserved his Animadversion, or
the other required an Acknowledgment; so far has he been from invidious
Comparisons.
I must own he has likewise kept his Word in observing little Order or
Method, for it plainly appears he took no Pains about either; But then
that very Neglect has been the Cause of more sudden Variety, (to use his
Correspondent’s Phrase) and the little Stories that are scattered here
and there, (I think not much known in England) serve now and then to
break, as the Painter says, a too-long-continued Line of Description.
I shall say no more in Relation to his Style, than that a Nicety is
seldom much regarded in familiar Epistles from Friend to Friend,
especially in long Relations of Facts, or other Narrations; besides, he
says himself, it would have taken up too much of his Time to smooth his
Periods; and we all know that Words and Phrases will not dance into
elegant order at the Sound of a Fiddle.
It may possibly be said, by some of the Northern People, that the Writer
has borne too hard upon a Part of the then Inhabitants of Inverness. Of
that I cannot pretend to make myself a Judge, only that, as a Reader, it
does not seem to me to be so by the Tenor of his other Fetters, and
particularly by his Appeal to the Officers of the Army who had been in
those Quarters; and surely this he would not have done (when he might
have been so easily disproved) if he was conscious of Untruths, and had
the least Regard to his Friend’s Opinion of his Veracity.
To conclude: If the Facts, Circumstances, and Descriptions, contained in
the following Letters, are allowed to be just and genuine (as I really
believe they are) may they not be given in Evidence, against such as are
fond of shewing the Wantonness of Invention and Drollery, upon Objects
altogether improper for that Purpose! and might not any one reasonably
conclude, that such Jokers believe all Mankind to be ridiculous, who
have not an Affluence of Fortune, or that entertain a Garb, or Customs
different from their own, and were not born in the same Parish ? And, if
so, I think they themselves are the fittest Subjects of Ridicule.
I am,
The impartial Reader’s
Obedient humble Servant,
THE EDITOR
The author of the
following letters (the genuineness of which has never been questioned in
the country where the accuracy of his delineations may best be
appreciated) is commonly understood to have been Captain Burt, an
officer of engineers, who, about 1730, was sent into Scotland as a
contractor, &c. The character of the work is long since decided by the
general approbation of those who are most masters of the subject.
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