Introduction

THE Author, on a former occasion, declined giving the real source
from which he drew the tragic subject of this history, because, though
occurring at a distant period, it might possibly be unpleasing to the
feelings of the descendants of the parties. But as he finds an account
of the circumstances given in the Notes to Law's Memorials, by his
ingenious friend, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., and also indicated
in his reprint of the Rev. Mr. Symson's poems appended to the Large
Description of Galloway, as the original of the Bride of Lammermoor, the
Author feels himself now at liberty to tell the tale as he had it from
connexions of his own, who lived very near the period, and were closely
related to the family of the bride.

It is well known that the family of Dalrymple, which has produced,
within the space of two centuries, as many men of talent, civil and
military, and of literary, political, and professional eminence, as any
house in Scotland, first rose into distinction in the person of James
Dalrymple, one of the most eminent lawyers that ever lived, though the
labours of his powerful mind were unhappily exercised on a subject so
limited as Scottish jurisprudence, on which he has composed an admirable
work.

He married Margaret, daughter to Ross of Balneel, with whom he obtained
a considerable estate. She was an able, politic, and high-minded woman,
so successful in what she undertook, that the vulgar, no way partial to
her husband or her family, imputed her success to necromancy. According
to the popular belief, this Dame Margaret purchased the temporal
prosperity of her family from the Master whom she served under a
singular condition, which is thus narrated by the historian of her
grandson, the great Earl of Stair: "She lived to a great age, and at
her death desired that she might not be put under ground, but that her
coffin should stand upright on one end of it, promising that while she
remained in that situation the Dalrymples should continue to flourish.
What was the old lady's motive for the request, or whether she really
made such a promise, I shall not take upon me to determine; but
it's certain her coffin stands upright in the isle of the church of
Kirklistown, the burial-place belonging to the family." The talents
of this accomplished race were sufficient to have accounted for
the dignities which many members of the family attained, without any
supernatural assistance. But their extraordinary prosperity was attended
by some equally singular family misfortunes, of which that which befell
their eldest daughter was at once unaccountable and melancholy.

Miss Janet Dalrymple, daughter of the first Lord Stair and Dame Margaret
Ross, had engaged herself without the knowledge