H.P. Lovecraft, in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" had this to say about WW: "In the novel WITCH WOOD John Buchan depicts with tremendous force a survival of the evil Sabbat in a lonely district of Scotland. The description of the black forest with the evil stone, and of the terrible cosmic adumbrations when the horror is finally extirpated, will repay one for wading through the very gradual action and plethora of Scottish dialect."