The curious may consult Mr.Cook's work on "The Dandie Dinmont Terrier." The Duke of Buccleugh's breed still resembles the fine example painted by Gainsborough in his portrait of the duke (of Scott's time).

"Tod Gabbie," again, as Lockhart says, was studied from Tod Willie, the huntsman of the hills above Loch Skene.

As for the Galloway scenery, Scott did not know it well, having only visited "the Kingdom" in 1793, when he was defending the too frolicsome Mr.McNaught, Minister of Girthon.

The beautiful and lonely wilds of the Glenkens, in central Galloway, where traditions yet linger, were, unluckily, terra incognita to Scott.

A Galloway story of a murder and its detection by the prints of the assassin's boots inspired the scene where Dirk Hatteraick is traced by similar means.