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of the. late Mr. Andrew Lang, with his kind encouragement were completed shortly before his death. Mr. Lang read them in manuscript. He was good enough to approve them, and had promised to write an Introduction when they came to be published. Thus, by his sudden passing, which has left literature so much the poorer, the reader is deprived of what would have been the most attractive feature of the book. Dickens has noted the exclusive nature of a true professional relish, as shown in the enthusiasm of Mr. Dennis; and while, personally, I find the people of our causes célèbres more " con- vincing " than those of many popular and prolific writers, it is quite possible that the reader may not share my taste. I know the disadvantages under which the subjects of these studies labour in competition with their rivals of the circulating library. The fact that they were real men and women, who sinned and suffered in their day, and whose stories are unfor- tunately true, is alone enough to alienate the sympathy of a fiction-loving public. Yet here we have characters and incidents as curious, and problems in psychology as perplexing, as any wherewith the modern novelist delights his votaries; and although the fitness of my rascals to adorn a tale may be questioned, their ability to point a moral is beyond dispute. So I venture to hope that, if their regrettable actuality be overlooked, they may even afford some measure of enter- tainment. The selection of the cases dealt with is purely arbitrary. They were chosen as being unfamiliar, and, in my view, worthy of rescue from orthodox interment in the official records and the pages of old historians, or less hallowed burial in the files of bygone newspapers. Whether or not the result will sustain my judgment is for the reader to say; it may at least be claimed that in each instance the best available sources of information have been consulted, and no pains spaired to make the several narratives faithful and complete. So far as my subject permitted I have sought to lighten its technical obscurities and to garnish the unpalatable fruits of research, but, as Sir Thomas Browne has observed, with greater occasion, "A work of this nature is not to be performed upon one legg ; and should smel of oyl, if duly and deservedly handled." A certain historical, even romantic, interest attaches to the earlier trials; and if, in the course of time, the original colours have somewhat faded, the figures are still sufficiently distinct. The Reverend John Kello and Lady Warriston, who flourished in the reign of our sixth James, were justified (as the phrase went) for solving their marital difficulties in similar savage fashion, and enjoyed an equal notoriety by reason of their edifying confessions and godly ends. Major Weir, the covenanting wizard, needs no introduction; his presence confers distinction upon any company, however evil. Philip Stanfield (who aggravated his other crimes by boring Mr. Lang) played with much success the part of the Prodigal Son, but overacted it at last by slaying, in the year of the Revolution, "his natural and kindly parent," his guilt being established by supranormal means. The Sergeant's ghost, that temerarious spirit, vainly seeking to convince a jury of David Hume's fellow-citizens, succumbed to scepticism, and so was laid for ever. For the rest, the cases of Katharine Nairn and Keith of Northfield are in themselves remarkable, and throw a strange light upon the domestic manners of Scottish society towards the close of the eighteenth century. The next three exemplify the use of the verdict Not Proven, " that Caledonian medium quid" hated by Sir Walter Scott. No account of the Dunecht mystery or of the Arran murder has hitherto been published, and, as cases of such importance should not remain unchronicled, an attempt is here made to supply the want. I wish to thank those friends to whose kindness I am indebted for some of the accompanying illustrations, especially Mrs. Stewart Smith, who has allowed me to reproduce her unpublished sketch of Major Weir's house, which forms the frontispiece to the present volume. The views of Dunecht House and the Clachan of Inverey are from photographs by Messrs. Valentine & Sons, Dundee. W. R.
8 OXFORD TERRACE,
EDINBURGH,
April, 1913. |
