Series 1 > Geographical Collections relating to Scotland > Volume 3

PREFACE
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what closely the print of the Description as given in Barry’s
History of Orkney, 1805. Errors, however—chiefly gramma¬
tical—also occur in Barry’s print, and these too have been
corrected, but no change has been made that affects the sense.
The translation of Ben’s Orkney (p. 313) here given formerly
belonged to Captain F. W. L. Thomas, and is now in the
possession of Sir Arthur Mitchell. The translator, whose
name is not known, follows the Latin very literally, but there
is sometimes a quaintness about the phraseology that gives
it a certain charm.
After the text of Macfarlane, with the above translation of
Jo. Ben’s Description of Orkney, had been printed off, it was
discovered that another old translation existed, and was in
the possession of the Rev. Thomas Mathewson, Lerwick. It
is headed as having been made by ‘ W. Henderson.’ It
begins with the date 14th October 1812, and each day’s work,
as the translation proceeded, has its own date on the margin,
till the end is reached on the 17th October. It has the look
of an original document and not of a transcript. There is no
indication of where the Latin existed of which it is a transla¬
tion. The Note in English on the Husbandry of Orkney, that
is given both in Barry and in Sir James Balfour’s transcript in
the Advocates’ Library, is absent.
At first the translator was accepted as being the William
Henderson of Bardister, who gave large assistance to Hibbert
in preparing his History of Shetland (1822), who was a man
of considerable culture, and who, according to Mr. Francis J.
Grant, died unmarried at Leith in 1824. The Rev. Thomas
Mathewson, however, says that he was married but lived apart
from his wife; that he had two sons, one of whom was called
William and was buried at Ollaberry; and that the transla¬
tion was made by this son and is in his handwriting. The
date does not exclude either view. The script of the elder
Henderson, Hibbert’s friend, has been seen, through the kind¬
ness of his descendant Mr. A. Shaw Mellor, and it is found to