Maitland Club > Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland from Fergus the First, to James the Sixth, in the year M.DC.XI [i.e. 1611]

PREFACE. XV
Kennedies may have been the composition of the elder Mure of
Auchindrayne, during the period of his long imprisonment ; and
certainly, it is impossible to doubt, that it must have been written
by some one, who had been actively engaged in all the Carrick
feuds of that day. The Chronicle, too, seems to bear evidence
of having been written by a person connected with Ayrshire,
and it closes abruptly in March 1611, while Auchindrayne's trial
and conviction took place on 17th July following. Who the au-
thor was, must now, perhaps, ever remain unknown ; but, from
an obsei-vation in the translation, we learn, that it was executed
after the accession of James to the English throne.
From the carelessness of the transcriber, many of the passages
in the MS. are quite unintelligible. In the Translation, these
have been corrected, by collating them with the original work ;
and in the Continuation, I have endeavoured, in most cases, to
supply what was required, by conjectural readings, printed
within brackets.
In the names of persons and places in particular, he has often
gone very far wrong ; but the greater number of these I have
been enabled to correct from other sources. I find this has been
omitted to be done in two instances, however, — one on page 125,
where Captain Cullayne is called Captain Cowan ; and another
on page 153, where Alexander Seytoune is designed Commen-
dator of Paisley, in place of Pluscardine.
The dates, too, of various occurrences narrated in the work
differ from those stated elsewhere, but these I have left as in