Salt-foot controversy

REPLY TO CANDIDUS. 13
that it is a subject of regret, that the lives of virtuous
men, and the history of honourable families, how-
ever written, have not oftener been preserved. It is
not alone the intrigues of the statesman, or the ex-
ploits of the warrior, that deserve to be transmitted
to posterity : it is much more in the native fresh-
ness of narratives such as those to which I allude, —
it is in the minuteness of personal detail which they
supply, beyond the sphere of history, — that we must
look for an acquaintance with the true character of
past ages. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
Candidus.
III.
REPLY TO THE ARTICLE " ON SITTING BELOW THE SALT, ANI>
THE STEWARTS OF ALLANTON j" VINDICATION OF THE AC-
CURACY OF THE AUTHOR OF THE MEMORIE OF THE SOMER-
VILLES; WITH A VERITABLE STATEMENT OF THE ORIGINAL
ANCESTRY OF THE FAMILY OF ALLANTON. *
MR EDITOR,
It is one of the miseries attending any attempts to
illustrate ancient facts of Scottish history or man-
ners, that such praise-worthy labours have a tend-
ency to awaken the vexation of those whose forefathers
happen thereby, incidentally, to be exhibited in less
* Blackwood's Magazine for the Month of August, No. V,
p. 476.