THE SCOT IN HISTORY A Study of the Interplay of Character and History

New Haven: Yale University Press. Very Good+ in Very Good- dust jacket. 1947. First American Edition; Second Printing. Hardcover. xvii, (1), 371 pages; Clean and secure in original pale green cloth binding on very good dustjacket (price-clipped). "The folklore of the English-speaking people is filled with the exploits of the early Scots; there are innumerable stories about them, comic and otherwise; but little is known about how they came to be their hardy, dour, genial selves. Wallace Notestein in this learned but informal and amusing book tells what happened to mould the character of an extraordinary people, how they have been shaped and changed by history, and how their character has also shaped that history. In medieval times the Scots were regarded by the English and by the European people as little short of batbatians; they were looked upon as treacherous and cruel. Even as late as the seventeenth century the Scot was thought of as not wholly civilized; murders in the dark alleyways of Edinburgh were common, and the Border men of the ballads were still cattle and sheep thieves. .