Series 1 > History of Greater Britain, as well England as Scotland

XXVI
EDITOR’S PREFACE
swarms with errors in the printing of proper names—errors of such
a nature that the discovery of the true reading, in the great
majority of cases in the edition of 1740 does credit to the care
and ingenuity of Freebairn and his editor. Except in this matter
of proper names, and the extending of the contractions of the
original text, the edition of 1740 neither shows, nor needed to
show, many changes from the original. The one unfortunate
change made in Freebairn’s edition is in the reading of the clan
names (p. 334), on which the footnote iti loco may be consulted.
In the ordinary course of translation, and for convenience of refer¬
ence, I have used Freebairn’s edition, but I have in some cases
preferred the punctuation, or the freedom afforded by no punctua¬
tion, of the original; and in those cases, not very many, where the
text seems to be corrupt, I have drawn attention to the fact in
a footnote. Freebairn’s edition is nothing but a reprint of the
original, with correction of its errors of names of places and
persons. In the footnotes I have referred to Freebairn’s edition
as ‘ F.’, and to the original as ‘ Grig.’
The many footnotes to this book bring to my remembrance the
help which has been most willingly rendered to me, in answer to
my inquiries, by friends almost innumerable, and by many men of
learning and position to whom I was quite unknown. Let me
have the pleasure of here gratefully recording my obligations to
Mr. iEneas Mackay, who was good enough to read with me a large
part of the manuscript, and to suggest many notes connected with
Scottish history and in other directions; Mr. P. Hume Brown;
Professor Herbert Strong; Mr. David Patrick; the Reverend Dr.
Jessopp; the Marquis of Bute; Professor Copeland, Astronomer
Royal for Scotland; Dr. Dickson, of H.M. General Register House;
Count Ugo Balzani; Mr. James Gairdner; M. Delisle of the Biblio-
theque Nationale in Paris; Mr. John Taylor Brown; Mr. J. R.
Findlay; M. Beljame of Paris; Sir Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B. ;
Captain G. D. Clayhills Henderson of Invergowrie; Mr. Robert
Bruce Armstrong; Mr. Gordon Duff; Mr. Francis Hindes Groome■
Mr. David Mac Ritchie; the Reverend J. C. Atkinson, D.C.L.; the
Reverend John Owen of Dulverton, perhaps the chief authority in
Britain on the Scholastics; Professor Kuno Meyer; my cousin, Mr.
Archibald Constable; Mr. W. B. Blaikie; and Mr. Ian Mackay,
whose kindly service to me during a temporary residence at Rouen
I like here to remember in connection with the large service
rendered to Scottish history by his grandfather, the late Mr. Cosmo