Excerpt from The History of Dundee: Being an Account of the Origin and Progress of the Burgh In justification of a new book, and more especially one of historical character, two things may fairly be required, - that the subject should possess some interest in itself, and that it should be presented with some degree of skill and completeness. That the first of these conditions will be apparent in this case the author is well assured, however diffident he may feel as to the merits of his performance. That was undertaken more from regard to the necessity of meeting a want long felt to exist than from any sense of special fitness for the task. Until the appearance of Thomson's work in 1847, no proper History of the town existed. Dr Small's contribution to the Statistical Account of Scotland, published toward the end of last century, although valuable in its way, did not profess to cover the ground required in an exhaustive history of the town. Since 1847, the researches of a host of able writers have thrown much light on local as well as national history, and made the incompleteness of the original edition, in many respects, more obvious; besides which it has long been out of print. In proceeding to supply the want referred to, the intention at first was to reproduce the original work so far as it went, with such corrections as might be derived from later authorities, and accordingly the earlier sheets were revised, with the emendations indicated in the text, or put in the form of notes. Before proceeding very far, however, it became apparent, from the necessity of large excisions and additions, that this course was unsatisfactory, and the greater part of the work has therefore been re-written. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.