Series 1 > Geographical Collections relating to Scotland > Volume 3

PREFACE
xiii
a transcript prepared for Barry, in which case the original
would not have been given to him on loan.
It does not appear that more can be said about Jo. Ben.
Indeed all that is known has been said. Perhaps the attention
here drawn to this very early Description of a part of Scot¬
land may lead to some additional knowledge regarding it. The
mere earliness of the Description gives it much interest. The
date on all the known transcripts and prints is 1529, and it
has never been suggested that this is erroneous. Its interest,
however, largely depends on its character as a record of obser¬
vation, set out in homely Latin in as formal and systematic a
fashion as if it had been written in the twentieth instead of
the sixteenth century. Dean Donald Monro’s Description of
thee Western Isles of Scotland, 1549, is its only rival in date
and character. All other early topographical accounts of
Scotland are little more than chance occurrences in writings
having a quite different purpose. After Monro comes Nicolay
d’Arferville’s Navigation round Scotland with James V., 1583 ;
then comes Fynes Moryson, 1598; and then Timothy Pont,
1604-8, who made ‘ The First Topographical Survey of Scotland"1
(C. G. Cash, Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 399,
1901), and who was the widest traveller in Scotland that has
lived, and the best single original delineator of its topography
that it has ever had.
It is no mean distinction to head the list of Scottish Topo¬
graphers. Jo. Ben may be called the earliest, and Tim Pont
the richest and best—odd names both.
For the Descriptions given in this volume, Macfarlane, as in
the case of the previous volumes (see p. vi, vol. n.), has been
largely indebted to Sibbald. With the exception of one or
two articles, the whole of this volume is practically taken from
the Sibbald MSS. 33.5.15 in the Advocates’ Library.