Scott, in brief, was not as Dry-as-dust; all the dead bones that he touches come to life.

He was as great an archeologist as a poet can be, and, with Virgil, was the greatest antiquary among poets.

Like Monkbarns, he was not incapable of being beguiled.

As Oldbuck bought the bodle from the pedlar at the price of a rare coin, so Scott took Surtees's "Barthram's Dirge," and his Latin legend of the tourney with the spectre knight, for genuine antiquities.

No Edie Ochiltree ever revealed to him the truth about these forgeries, and the spectre knight, with the ballad of "Anthony Featherstonhaugh," hold their own in "Marmion," to assure the world that this antiquary was gullible when the sleight was practised by a friend.