Note 12 — INTRODUCTION

Aikman, Buchanan, i. 437. Buchanan is the source of the whole constitutional myth. The second founder of the legend was George Ridpath, who published, anonymously, in 1703, An Historical Account of the Ancient Rights and Power of the Parliament of Scotland. This brilliant and ingenious political tract is based on Buchanan, who is always the real, and frequently the avowed, authority for Ridpath's view; and by Ridpath, in turn, many more recent writers have been influenced.