manner in which this trifle was introduced at the time to Mr. F.
M. Reynolds, editor of The Keepsake of 1828, leaves no occasion for a
preface.]

AUGUST 1831.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE KEEPSAKE.

You have asked me, sir, to point out a subject for the pencil, and I
feel the difficulty of complying with your request, although I am not
certainly unaccustomed to literary composition, or a total stranger to
the stores of history and tradition, which afford the best copies for
the painter's art. But although SICUT PICTURA POESIS is an ancient and
undisputed axiom--although poetry and painting both address themselves
to the same object of exciting the human imagination, by presenting to
it pleasing or sublime images of ideal scenes--yet the one conveying
itself through the ears to the understanding, and the other applying
itself only to the eyes, the subjects which are best suited to the bard
or tale-teller are often totally unfit for painting, where the artist
must present in a single glance all that his art has power to tell us.
The artist can neither recapitulate the past nor intimate the future.
The single NOW is all which he can present; and hence, unquestionably,
many subjects which delight us in poetry or in narrative, whether real
or fictitious, cannot with advantage be transferred to the canvas.

Being in some degree aware of these difficulties, though doubtless
unacquainted both with their extent and the means by which they may be
modified or surmounted, I have, nevertheless, ventured to draw up the
following traditional narrative as a story in which, when the general
details are known, the interest is so much concentrated in one strong
moment of agonizing passion, that it can be understood and sympathized
with at a single glance. I therefore presume that it may be acceptable
as a hint to some one among the numerous artists who have of late
years distinguished themselves as rearing up and supporting the British
school.

Enough has been said and sung about

"The well-contested ground,
The warlike Border-land,"

to render the habits of the tribes who inhabited it before the union of
England and Scotland familiar to most of your readers. The rougher and
sterner features of their character were softened by their attachment
to the fine arts, from which has arisen the saying that on the frontiers
every dale had its battle, and every river its song. A rude species of
chivalry was in constant use, and single comba