Excerpt from The Historians of Scotland, Vol. 2 The earliest historians of a country are undoubtedly the most valuable, if, upon a fair critical trial of their agreement with the writers of the neighbouring countries, but more espe cially with the sure testimony of public records and charters still remaining, they appear to have made a faithful use of the works of preceding writers and of other vouchers extant in their times, most of which being now lost, they, as the earliest faithful Copiers of them, are entitled to our respect and grati tude for furnishing us with the only means of obtaining the knowledge of many of the transactions of past ages. Hence it evidently follows, that the truest and most essential service that can be done to the history of any nation, is to lay before. The public genuine editions of its most antient and authentic historical monuments, and of the works of those who first attempted its general history. 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.