The writer continues: "But it is not the Editor's present intention to enter upon a history of Border poetry; a subject of great difficulty, and which the extent of his information does not as yet permit him to engage in." It was, in fact, nearly thirty years later[35] that Scott wrote the _Remarks on Popular Poetry_ which since that date have formed an introduction to the book, as well as the essay, _On Imitations of the Ancient Ballad_, which at present precedes the third part.

The more purely literary side of the editor's duty--leaving out of account the modern poems written by Scott and others--was exhibited chiefly in the construction of texts, a matter of which I shall speak later, after considering his views of the origin and character of folk-poetry in general.
But first we may recall the fact that Scott was following a fairly well established vogue in giving scholarly attention to ancient popular poetry.

A revival of interest in the study of mediaeval literature had been stimulated in England by the publication of Percy's _Reliques_ in 1765 and Warton's _History of English Poetry_ in 1774.

In 1800 there were enough well-known antiquaries to keep Scott from being in any sense lonely.

Among them Joseph Ritson[36] was the most learned, but he was crotchety in the extreme; and while his notions as to research were in advance of his time, his controversial style resembled that of the seventeenth century.