Goblin first made his appearance. That the minds of his readers may be as perfectly prepared, as he could wish, for the manners of the age in which it is laid, he apprizes them, that the poem opens on the last day of April 1806, and concludes with the death of a fox on Flodden Field twenty-four hours thereafter. The country over which he has accompanied his elfin fay and merry pack, he has viewed with the rapid glance of a sportsman, and therefore trusts, that his hasty and imperfect sketch will not be regarded with the too scrupulous eye of rigid criticism. With all its faults, but without further apology, he commits it to its fate, and, notwithstanding the protecting influence of wire-wove,—broad margin,—high price,—and hot-press, he is not without feeling some apprehensions concerning its success.

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