'I am afraid that we do not admire "Waverley" as much as it deserves. The praise you give it would almost induce me to change my opinion, but I must be honest above all things; I did not like the hero, and thought the whole more a portraiture of individual than of general manners, but this may have arisen from ignorance, and I find in general the Scotch pleased with it. Walter Scott, if he did not write it, certainly must have had a good deal to do with it, but there is a sort of notice prefix'd to the last edition which they seem to say makes it very improbable that it should have been written by him'.