Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Second volume)

INTRODUCTION
These narratives form part of the great collection of papers
made by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, now in the
Bodleian Library. Reade’s Relation is Clarendon Manuscript
number 2984, Musgrave’s number 2867. Clarendon un¬
doubtedly procured these narratives from their authors with
the intention of employing them as authorities in his History
of the Rebellion. In 1649, when he seems to have obtained
one if not both of these documents, he had completed the
first seven books of the History of the Rebellion, and he looked
forward to finishing the rest of his task at an early period.
It was not, however, till his second exile from England, about
twenty years later, that he was able to find leisure to carry
out his plan. The eleventh book of the History of the
Rebellion, which contains Clarendon’s account of Hamilton’s
expedition into England, and of the Second Civil War in
general, is dated at the end November 21, 1671. It consists
of two parts, extracts from the life of himself, which Clarendon
had written in the winter of 1669-70, and passages written in
1671 to supplement and complete the account of public
events given in the Life. The two portions were put together
to form the published text of Book xi. The account of
Scottish affairs given in the passages written in 1671, which
are described in the footnotes to Mr. Macray’s edition of the
Rebellion, as derived from the History, is much more accurate
than the account of those affairs given in the passages said to
be derived from the Life. For in 1669 Clarendon, who had
left all his collection of papers in England, had to depend
entirely upon his memory for his facts. But in the spring