dear lady grey.

with your permission, i now dedicate these volumes to you. i should do so with great diffidence, did i not know that everything connected with scotland is interesting to you.

by associating them with a name so universally revered i give them value; whilst i afford to myself an opportunity of expressing my admiration of those many virtues and amiable qualities which have rendered it so much beloved in your person by all ranks who have the good fortune to come within reach of their influence; and i have thus also the satisfaction of expressing my warm sense of the kindness i have received from you and lord grey ever since i have had the honour of being known to you, as well as of assuring you that i am,

with every possible respect,

dear lady grey,

very sincerely and faithfully yours,

thos. dick lauder.

in this volume the publishers present to the reading public a new edition of sir thomas dick lauder’s first collection of highland legends. originally published under the somewhat misleading title of “highland rambles and long legends to shorten the way,” it has been thought desirable that the title be abbreviated, and made more decidedly descriptive of the volume, as the “rambles” form no important part of the work. in all other respects the present edition is a verbatim reprint of the work as it came from the hands of the distinguished author.