single word; but such a word! such an anachronism!
Claverhouse says he has no time to hear _sentimental_
speeches. My dear sir! tell Jedediah that Claverhouse
never heard the sound of those four syllables in his
life. We are used to them; but _sentiment_ and
_sentimental_ were, I believe, first introduced into the
language by Sterne, and are hardly as old as I am. Let
alone the Covenanters' days, I am persuaded you would
look in vain for them in the works of Richardson and
Fielding. Nay, the French, from whom they were borrowed,
did not talk of _le sentiment_ in that sense till long
after Louis XIV.'s reign. No such thing is to be found
in Madame de Sevigne, la Bruyere, etc., etc., etc. At
home or abroad I defy Lord Dundee ever to have met with
the expression. Mr. Peter Pattieson had been reading the
_Man of Feeling_, and it was a slip of his tongue, which
I am less inclined to excuse than Mause's abstruse
Scotch, which I duly reverence, as she did
Kettledrummle's sermons, because I do not understand it.
Once more I shall be much disappointed if this work does
not quickly acquire a very great reputation. I fancy Mr.
Morritt is in the secret; yet, as I am not certain, I
will keep on the secure side and not mention it when I
write to him, however one may long to _intercommune_ on
such subjects with those likely to hold the same faith."

At the close of his reply, Scott says: "I must not
forget to thank your Ladyship for your acute and
indisputable criticism on the application of the word
_sentimental_. How it escaped my pen I know not, unless
that the word owed me a grudge for the ill will I have
uniformly borne it, and was resolved to slip itself in
for the express purpose of disgracing me. I will
certainly turn it out the first opportunity." This was
done in the second edition.--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i.
pp. 394, 400.]]

{p.132} I have disclaimed the power of farther illustrating its
historical groundworks, but I am enabled by Mr. Train's k