All this, as Scott himself clearly perceived, was left confused, and not simply vague.

The goblin imp had been more certainly an imp of mischief to him than even to his boyish ancestor.

But if Lady Dalkeith suggested the poorest part of the poem, she certainly inspired its best part.
Scott says, as we have seen, that he brought in the aged harper to save himself from the imputation of "setting-up a new school of poetry" instead of humbly imitating an old school.

But I think that the chivalrous wish to do honour to Lady Dalkeith, both as a personal friend and as the wife of his "chief,"-- as he always called the head of the house of Scott,--had more to do with the introduction of the aged harper, than the wish to guard himself against the imputation of attempting a new poetic style.

He clearly intended the Duchess of _The Lay_ to represent the Countess for whom he wrote it, and the aged harper, with his reverence and gratitude and self-distrust, was only the disguise in which he felt that he could best pour out his loyalty, and the romantic devotion with which both Lord and Lady Dalkeith, but especially the latter, had inspired him.