The memoirs are valuable, especially as regards the masterly Criticisms on Fiction, as no authority greater than Scott’s can be found on that subject - features Jonathan Swift, John Dryden, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet, Richard Cumberland, Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, Laurence Sterne, Henry Mackenzie, Horace Walpole, Clare Reeve, Mrs Ann Radcliffe, Alain Rene Le Sage, Charles Johnstone, Robert Bage.