Poet and song-collector William Motherwell responded to his friend R. A. Smith's polite request for a preface, along these lines: yes, fair enough, but it'll take me a week to get over Hogmanay!
To all those staff and students just wearily psyching themselves up to some 'real' work on 2nd January 2012 - one can only imagine how Motherwell celebrated Hogmanay in 1824, if it was going to take a week to get over it!
And did he write the preface eventually? Yes, after a fashion. Smith and his committee of "ladies" drafted a preface for The Scotish Minstrel, and Motherwell rearranged it a bit. Gee whizz!
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