The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . ir fore-fathers, of which they are proud. 161. It would do your heart good, continued he, to seea number of our poor country people seated round the inglenook, which is generally capacious enough, and passing thelong dark dreary winter nights listening to some oldwife, or strolling gaberlunzie, dealing out auld-world storiesabout bogles and warlocks, or about raids and forays, andborder skirmishes; or reciting some ballad stuck full of thosefighting names t
The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . ir fore-fathers, of which they are proud. 161. It would do your heart good, continued he, to seea number of our poor country people seated round the inglenook, which is generally capacious enough, and passing thelong dark dreary winter nights listening to some oldwife, or strolling gaberlunzie, dealing out auld-world storiesabout bogles and warlocks, or about raids and forays, andborder skirmishes; or reciting some ballad stuck full of thosefighting names that stir up a true Scotchmans blood likethe sound of a trumpet. These traditional tales and balladshave lived for ages in mere oral circulation, being passed fromfather to son, or rather from grandam to grandchild, and area kind of hereditary property of the poor peasantry, of whichit would be hard to deprive them, as they have not circulatinglibraries to supply them with works of fiction in their place. ABBOTSFORD •249 162. I do not pretend to give the precise words, but, asnearly as I can from scanty memorandums and vague recol-. The Library at Abbotsford lections, the leading ideas of Scott. I am constantly sen-sible, however, how far I fall short of his copiousness andrichness. 163. He went on to speak of the elves and sprites, sofrequent in Scottish legend. Our fairies, however, saidhe, though they dress in green, and gambol by moonlightabout the banks, and shaws, and burnsides, are not suchpleasant little folk as the English fairies, but are apt to bearmore of the warlock in their natures, and to play spitefultricks. When I was a boy, I used to look wistfully at thegreen hillocks that were said to be haunted by fairies, andfelt sometimes as if I should like to lie down by them andsleep, and be carried off to Fairy Land, only that I did notlike some of the cantrips which used now and then to beplayed off upon visitors. 250 THE SKETCH-BOOK 164. Here Scott recounted, in gr
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