Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

PREFACE.
ix
that I have examined, belongs to the Advocates
Library.
I have endeavoured to avail myself of the printed
histories of the period, and of hooks published in the
age of the Reformation, which often incidentally men¬
tion facts which are not recorded by historians. In
the Advocates Library, which contains an invaluable
treasure of information respecting Scottish affairs, I
had the opportunity of examining the original editions
of most of the Reformer’s works. The rarest of all
his tracts is the narrative of his Disputation with the
Abbot of Crossraguel, which scarcely any writer since
Knox’s time seems to have seen. After I had given
up all hopes of procuring a sight of this curious tract,
I was accidentally informed that a copy of it was in
the library of Alexander Boswell, Esq. of Auchinleck,
who very politely communicated it to me.
In pointing' out the sources which I have consult¬
ed, I wish not to be understood as intimating that
the reader may expect, in the following work, much
information which is absolutely new. Those who
engage in researches of this kind must lay their ac¬
count with finding the result of their discoveries re¬
duced within a small compass, and should be pre¬
pared to expect that many of their readers will only
glance with a cursory eye what they procured with