Bride of Lammermoor, The

The, a romance by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819. The story belongs in the third series of Tales of My Landlord. It is a tragic tale, laid in Scotland in the days of William and Mary. The "Bride," Lucy Ashton, is forced by her mother and friends into a marriage with Bucklaw, while loving and betrothed to Ravenswood. On the night of the wedding Bucklaw was found severely wounded in the bridal chamber. Lucy died shortly after in convulsions. At Lucy's funeral, Ravenswood accepted a challenge from her brother. Riding to the place appointed for the duel, the unhappy Ravenswood disappears, evidently drawn by the quicksands into the "Kelpie's Flow." Thus was fulfilled the old prophesy:

The Bride of Lammermoor, which almost goes back to Aeschylus for a counterpart as a painting of Fate, leaves on every reader the impression of the highest and purest tragedy.--Emerson.