t's opinion that the author was the historic Thomas, who flourished
in the thirteenth century. It is important, however, that Scott's
scholarship in the matter passed muster at that time with such men as
Ellis, who wrote the review in the _Edinburgh_, in which he said, "Upon
the whole we are much disposed to adopt the general inferences drawn by
Mr. Scott from his authorities, and have great pleasure in bearing
testimony to the very uncommon diligence which he has evinced in
collecting curious materials, and to the taste and sagacity with which
he has employed them.... With regard to the notes, they contain an
almost infinite variety of curious information, which had been hitherto
unknown or unnoticed."[79] John Hookham Frere said, as quoted in a
letter by Ellis, "I consider _Sir Tristrem_ as by far the most
interesting work that has as yet been published on the subject of our
earliest poets."[80] Scott's opinions were in 1824 thought to be of
sufficient importance, either from their own merits or on account of his
later fame, to call forth a dissertation appended to the edition of
Warton's _History of English Poetry_ published in that year.

The first edition of the text swarms with errors, according to
Koelbing,[81] a recent editor of the romance, and later editions are
still very inaccurate.[82] It could hardly be expected that a man with
Scott's habits of mind would edit a text accurately. But no one of that
period was competent to construct a text that would seem satisfactory
now. The study of English philology was not sufficiently developed in
that direction, nor did scholars appreciate either the difficulties or
the requirements of text-criticism. It is not to be wondered at that
Scott failed, in this instance as well as afterwards in the case of the
text of Dryden, to give a version that would stand the minute scrutiny
of later scholarship.

His sympathies were rather with the scholar who opens the store of old
poetry to the public, than with him who uses his erudition simply for
the benefit of erudite people. The diction of the Middle Ages was
interesting to him only as it reflected the customs and emotions of its
period. He used the romances as authorities on ancient manners. The
_Chronicles_ of Froissart, because they give "a knowledge of
mankind,"[83] were almost as much a hobby with him as Thomas the Rhymer,
and in this case also he endows characters in his novels with his own
fondness for the ancient writ