Bannatyne Club > Buke of the Howlat

THE PREFACE.
Since the foregoing Preface was written, the Editor
has been kindly favoured with the following communi-
cation from Sir Walter Scott, which he is happy to
have it in his power to present to the reader ; and which
probably will satisfy most people on the point at issue : —
" After the opinions entertained and expressed on
the subject by great antiquaries, it may seem bold to
doubt whether the Howlat contains any political allu-
sion either to James II., or to the state of Scotland ; or,
indeed, whether it means any thing more than a mere
apologue, vnih such a fanciful adaptation of the charac-
teristicks and pecuharities of the various tribes of birds
to the classes of mankind, as has been made in our own
time in the witty and ingenious poem called " The
Peacock at Home," — the authoress of which, we will ven-
ture to say, never heard of Sir Richard Holland, or read
a word of his Howlat, though the pieces bear a singu-
lar resemblance to each other. Another satire of the
same kind appeared at Paris, about the beginning of the
Revolution, in which the various orders of Catholic clergy
are ludicrously classified, as birds, according to the sys-
tem of Linnaeus.