The Surgeons Daughter

The Surgeon's Daughter

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Surgeon's Daughter, by Sir
Walter Scott #27 in our series by Sir Walter Scott
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Surgeon's Daughter
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6428] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 13,

2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
SURGEON'S DAUGHTER ***

Produced by D Garcia, David Moynihan, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER.
CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE.
SIC ITUR AD ASTRA.

INTRODUCTION.--(1831.)
The tale of the Surgeon's Daughter formed part of the second series of
Chronicles of the Canongate, published in 1827; but has been separated
from the stories of the Highland Widow, &c., which it originally
accompanied, and deferred to the close of this collection, for reasons
which printers and publishers will understand, and which would hardly
interest the general reader.
The Author has nothing to say now in reference to this little Novel, but
that the principal incident on which it turns, was narrated to him one
morning at breakfast by his worthy friend, Mr. Train, of Castle Douglas,
in Galloway, whose kind assistance he has so often had occasion to
acknowledge in the course of these prefaces; and that the military

friend who is alluded to as having furnished him with some information
as to Eastern matters, was Colonel James Ferguson of Huntly Burn, one
of the sons of the venerable historian and philosopher of that
name--which name he took the liberty of concealing under its Gaelic
form of Mac-Erries.
Abbotsford, September 1831.
* * * * *
APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.
[Mr. Train was requested by Sir Walter Scott to give him in writing the
story as nearly as possible in the shape in which he had told it; but the
following narrative, which he drew up accordingly, did not reach
Abbotsford until July 1832]
In the old Stock of Fife, there was not perhaps an individual whose
exertions were followed by consequences of such a remarkable nature
as those of Davie Duff, popularly called "The Thane of Fife," who,
from a very humble parentage, rose to fill one of the chairs of the
magistracy of his native burgh. By industry and economy in early life,
he obtained the means of erecting, solely on his own account, one of
those ingenious manufactories for which Fifeshire is justly celebrated.
From the day on which the industrious artisan first took his seat at the
Council Board, he attended so much to the interests of the little
privileged community, that civic honours were conferred on him as
rapidly as the Set of the Royalty [Footnote: The Constitution of the
Borough.] could legally admit.
To have the right of walking to church on holy-days, preceded by a
phalanx of halberdiers, in habiliments fashioned as in former times,
seems, in the eyes of many a guild brother, to be a very enviable pitch
of worldly grandeur. Few persons were ever more proud of civic
honours than the Thane of Fife, but he knew well how to turn his
political influence to the best account. The council, court, and other
business of the burgh, occupied much of his time, which caused him to
intrust the management of his manufactory to a near relation, whose

name was D------, a young man of dissolute habits; but the Thane,
seeing at last, that by continuing that extravagant person in that charge,
his affairs would, in all probability, fall into a state of bankruptcy,
applied to the member of Parliament for that district to obtain a
situation for his relation in the civil department of the state. The knight,
whom it is here unnecessary to name, knowing how effectually the
Thane ruled the little burgh, applied in the proper quarter, and actually
obtained an appointment for D------ in the civil service of the East