The review was written, and appeared in No.

32 of the _Quarterly_, in January 1817, by which time the novel had already gone to a third edition.

It is curious now to look back upon the author reviewing his own work.

He adopted Murray's view, and besides going over the history of "Waverley," and the characters introduced in that novel, he introduced a disquisition about Meg Merrilies and the Gypsies, as set forth in his novel of "Guy Mannering." He then proceeded to review the "Black Dwarf" and "Old Mortality," but with the utmost skill avoided praising them, and rather endeavoured to put his friends off the scent by undervaluing them, and finding fault.

The "Black Dwarf," for example, was full of "violent events which are so common in romance, and of such rare occurrence in real life." Indeed, he wrote, "the narrative is unusually artificial; neither hero nor heroine excites interest of any sort, being just that sort of _pattern_ people whom nobody cares a farthing about." "The other story," he adds, "is of much deeper interest." He describes the person who gave the title to the novel--Robert Paterson, of the parish of Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire--and introduces a good deal of historical knowledge, but takes exception to many of the circumstances mentioned in the story, at the same time quoting some of the best passages about Cuddie Headrigg and his mother.