The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
Dr. Skene's first and most popular work, "The Highlanders of
Scotland," appeared in two small volumes sixty-five years ago, and for
the greater part of that period it has been out of print, and is now
extremely scarce, with the consequent enhancement of price. The
author did not produce a second edition, as he had in view the produc-
tion of a more elaborate work covering the same ; ground and
this he
published in 1876- 1880 in three volumes, under the title of "Celtic
Scotland." In this work Dr. Skene did not, however, condescend to
the writing of an account of the origins of the individual Highland
clans as he did in the earlier work, that, indeed, forming the bulk of the
second volume of the " Highlanders." The consequence of this has
been that those of the public who interest themselves in clan history—
and they are many —have to consult the second volume of the " Highlanders,"
and there is thus a much-felt want for a second and accessible
edition. Besides this, it is well known that the smaller book, with its
definiteness of narrative and youthful assurance, is still read in preference
to the elaboration and judicial balancing of "Celtic Scotland." It is to
meet this public preference and public want that this— the second—
edition of the early book has been undertaken ; but it was felt that the
defects of a work, published at a time when modern Celtic scholarship
was only just beginning in Ireland and on the Continent the great
career which it has been running ever since with ever-increasing volume,
should be pointed out in notes and appendices. Some errors in the
book are continually reproduced in treatises and articles bearing on High-
land history, though these errors have been carefully, if
silently,
eradicated in "Celtic Scotland." The Editor's first duty has been to
bring the work up, in his notes, to the standard of Dr. Skene's latest
expressed views ; he has also made the corrections that two decades of
scholarship (1880- 1902) have made necessary,
The Editor has, besides, taken advantage of this occasion to
emphasise and make clear the one great disservice which Dr. Skene has
done to the history of his country ; and that is his theory that the Picts,