Keppoch song

PREFACE.
A PREFACE to a book, particularly a
new publication, is so common that it may
be considered as necessary as a letter of
introduction to a stranger; and is the more
to be expected from me, who am a person in
a humble station of life, and quite unknown
to the literary world. I have no exterior
advantage or appearance to recommend
me, and must resign the following perform-
ance to its fate.
Perhaps, it may be acceptable to the
reader to see the history of a family, whose
name is spread all over the face of the earth,
and from which so many families are des-
cended, brought forward to his view, in re-
gular or historical detail, and he may be
led to sympathise with that unfortunate
branch of it, the family of Keppoch, a fa-
mily which never sold its honour, and which
for ninety-nine years past, has been expos-
ed to every species of depression and po-
verty, from an attachment to principle,
whether wrong or right, it is unnecessary
now to examine. All I shall say on that
topic is, that historians of the present
day, when speaking of 1715 and 45, call