The resemblance between the story of Vanbeest Brown and the hero of the diarist was scanty; but in a long letter of Scott's to Lady Abercorn (May 21, 1813), a the Editor finds Sir Walter telling his correspondent the very narrative recorded in the Branxholme Park diary.

Singular things happen, Sir Walter says; and he goes on to describe a case just heard in the court where he is sitting as Clerk of Sessions.

Briefly, the anecdote is this: A certain Mr.
Carruthers of Dormont had reason to suspect his wife's fidelity.

While proceedings for a divorce were pending, Mrs.Carruthers bore a daughter, of whom her husband, of course, was legally the father.

But he did not believe in the relationship, and sent the infant girl to be brought up, in ignorance of her origin and in seclusion, among the Cheviot Hills.
Here she somehow learned the facts of her own story.