The aim in this edition of SCOTT'S POEMS has been to give a correct text, with such portions of Scott's notes as are likely to be useful or interesting to the general reader, and with fuller and better pictorial illustrations than are to be found in any former edition. The volume contains all the poems (not the plays, which are seldom, if ever, read nowadays, unless as mere literary curiosities), with the exception of a few bits of personal or occasional verse which Scott himself would never have printed, and which are not worth preserving. The original contributions to the Border Minstrelsy are included, except Scott's portion of Thomas the Rhymer (the Third Part only), which could not well be separated from the rest Of the Songs scattered through the novels and plays, the best of such as are comparatively independent of the context are given, together with all the poetical mottoes written by Scott himself for the heading of chapters.