We can only add to this animated history of Rob Roy one circumstance; which, though accredited in the Highlands, has never been noticed in the popular accounts of our hero. In whatever degree his conduct was to be attributed to his own wrongs, or those of his clan, the disposition which prompted and carried him through in his daring enterprises, could be traced to the family temper of his mother, who came of the Campbells of Glenlyon—a peculiarly wild, bold, and wicked race. The mode of escape adopted by Rob Roy in crossing the Avon-dhu, so finely described in the third volume of the novel, seems to have been suggested by the following traditionary anecdote, which is preserved in the neighbourhood of the spot where the exploit took place:—A Cameronian, in the district of Galloway, flying from two dragoons, who pursued him hotly, came to a precipice which overhung a lake. Seeing no other means of eluding his enemies, he plunged into the water, and attempted to swim to the other side. In the meantime the troopers came up, and fired at him; when he, with an astonishing presence of mind, parted with his plaid, and swam below the water to a safe part of the shore. His enemies fired repeatedly at the plaid, till they supposed him slain or sunk, and then retired. PARALLEL PASSAGES. A resemblance will be discovered between the following passages—one being part of Bailie Jarvie’s conversation with Owen, in “Rob Roy,” and the other an extract from a work entitled, “A Tour through Great Britain, &c., by a Gentleman, 4th ed. 1748”—a curious book, of which the first edition was written by the celebrated De Foe:— “We found the liquor exceedingly palatable, and it led to a long conversation between Owen and our host, on the opening which the Union had afforded to trade between Glasgow and the British colonies in America and the West Indies, and on the facilities which Glasgow possessed of making up _sortable_ cargoes for that market. Mr. Jarvie answered some objection which Owen made on the difficulty of sorting a cargo for America, without buying from England, with vehemence and volubility. “‘Na, na, sir; we stand on our ain bottom—we pickle in our ain pock-neuk. We ha’e our Stirling serges, Musselburgh stuffs, Aberdeen hose, Edinburgh shalloons, and the like, for our woollen and worsted goods, and we ha’e linens of a’ kinds, better and cheaper than you ha’e in London itsel’; and we can buy your north o’ England wares,—as Manchester wares, Sheffield wares, and Newcastle earthenware—as cheap as you can, at Liverpool; and we are making a fair spell at cottons and muslins.’”—_Rob Roy_, vol. ii., p. 267.