The Three Perils of Man is a novel steeped in Border tradition. While the plot displays many motifs taken from Scottish folk material, the novel frequently draws from traditional forms such as the ballad and the folk-tale. Folk culture is also a prominent feature of the book through the extensive use of epigraphs taken from traditional sources. These epigraphs raise questions of sources, canonisation, cultural legitimacy and literary filiation. However, authenticated folk songs are juxtaposed with literary quotations, compositions of Hogg’s own making that are presented as authentic folk material and unidentified quotations. Many of Hogg’s epigraphs are thus forgeries. This paper argues that Hogg’s use of epigraphs in The Three Perils of Man complexifies his treatment of questions of cultural and literary inheritance. While Hogg celebrates a diverse cultural and literary Scottish heritage, epigraphs enable Hogg to make a commentary on the antiquarian taste of his own time. He thus foregrounds the fact that at the heart of the late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century fascination with Britain’s cultural heritage lies the question of inauthenticity.