PREFACE.

In recent years the study of the human race has been prosecuted in many directions, and the range of the historic view has been much extended. Researches have been made in the departments of anthropology, ethnology, philology, archæology, and craniology, and thus a great body of materials, more or less valuable for historical purposes, has been collected. It is the special function of the historian to discriminate and estimate the value of such materials.

Fifteen years have elapsed since the issue of the first volume of the present work. Since then there has been much investigation into prehistoric subjects, many ancient structures within the limited area to which this work is specially devoted, having been carefully examined; while, by the publication of the series of Exchequer Rolls, Burgh Records, and other important documents, the materials relating to the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, have been rendered more accessible. In preparing this volume for a new edition, I have found it necessary to recast and rewrite the whole. Two new sections have been added to the Introduction, while most of the others have been much enlarged. About one-fourth of the volume is new.

This is the first attempt to present a synthetic narrative of the condition, progress, and development of the civilisation of the people from the earliest traces of their occupation of the country down to the present day. The difficulties in the way of successfully accomplishing such a work are obvious, and I can scarcely hope that I have completely vanquished them; still, I trust that this effort will prove interesting and valuable. While the statements of ascertained facts may be implicitly relied upon, yet the more obscure prehistoric phenomena may be susceptible of different interpretations; in such cases, I have endeavoured to make the best use of such evidence as is available.

Amongst the works which have appeared on the early history of Scotland, Dr. Anderson’s two volumes of the Rhind Lectures, entitled, Scotland in Pagan Times, are especially valuable. Sir Arthur Mitchell also has made some very important suggestions. To Mr. Alexander Macbain, an eminent Celtic scholar, and author of a work on Celtic Mythology, I am indebted for information touching the religion of the Celts in early times.

Regarding the Normans, and the introduction of Norman feudalism into Scotland, after a full examination of the evidence, I have rejected many of the conclusions of preceding historians, especially on questions relating to the land and the people.

The social state of the nation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has been treated at length, and many interesting points explained; while the chapters on the disputed Succession, and the War of Independence, have been much enlarged. The tenth chapter contains an exhaustive view of the social state and characteristics of the nation in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the materials for which have been mainly drawn from the National Records and other original sources. The chapters on Literature, Education, and Art, have been improved and rendered more complete.

J. M.

Aberdeen, February, 1892.