A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

ADVERTISEMENT.
ollowing SYSTEM of HERALDRY was undertaken by the Author,
about the beginning of the last century, under the patronage of the Parliament of
Scotland, and in dependence on a public pecuniary aid of L. 200, in granted the
which bore a close
year 1 704, for enabling him to execute an undertaking
alliance to the honour of the nation.
The liberality of the Parliament having been rendered ineffectual, in conse-
quence of prior assignments on the fund out of which the grant was payable,
the plan of the Author was circumscribed, and the publication of the Work
delayed till the year 1722, when the First Volume was printed
at Edin-
burgh, for Mr J. Mackeuen, bookseller, to whom the Author had assigned the
property.
As this Volume was in many respects defective, an Appendix, or Supple-
mentary Volume, was intended by the Author to follow the First Volume; but the
death of that learned and industrious heraldic antiquary, at no great distance of
time, the imperfect state of his collections, and the property passing through dif-
ferent hands, delayed the publication of the Second Volume till the year 1 742,
when it was printed at Edinburgh by Mr Robert Fleming, who was assisted
in preparing it for publication by Mr Roderick Chalmers and other anti-
quaries.
The great utility of this Work, which is universally acknowledged to be of
the highest value and authority, joined to the consideration of its excessive
rarity and enormous price, induced the design of reprinting it.
In committing the Work, a second time, to the press, an opportunity has
been found of retouching the original plates, correcting many typographical
errors, and a very considerable number of mistakes, chiefly in the orthography
ofpersons and places, and adding a few notes, distinguished by
the letter E :
but the Publishers do not wish to be understood as having made any alteration
in the substance, style, or language of the Work.
It is in contemplation with the Publishers to print a Supplementary Volume,
containing corrections of the preceding volumes, -additional examples of Armorial
Bearings in Scotland, and a continuation and enlargement of the memo-
rials of our most ancient and considerable families to the present time. As it is
evident that the materials for such a volume mtist be derived from sources of
information inaccessible to the Publishers, they earnestly
solicit the communica-
tion of authentic memorials from the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland concerning
their respectivefamilies.
EDINBURGH,]
Oct. 24. 1804. I