This is one of Hogg’s longest and also one of his most original and daring works. Gillian Hughes’ uncovering of the original manuscript in the Fales Library of New York University in August 2001 allows the editors to produce here a text that will reflect Hogg’s original intentions.Alongside the two main plots (the supernatural located at Aikwood Castle and the chivalric located at Roxburgh Castle) a series of embedded narratives provides the reader with, amongst other things, pictures of the traditional and timeless world of rural life in which Hogg had grown up and of early Scottish history.