For the most popular of his Scottish romances, published at the end of 1817, Scott drew on the legends and historical anecdotes about Rob Roy MacGregor he had collected in his youth. The famous outlaw is only one of a series of vivid characters who cast their spell of the novel's hero, Frank Osbaldistone, on his journey through the wild northern territories of the new United Kingdom. Banished from his father's house, falling hopelessly in love with the spirited Diana Vernon,