preserved in the Advocate's Library, in Edinburgh, and was pointed out to me by THOMAS THOMSON, Esq. Advocate, Deputy Clerk Register, to whom I am also greatly indebted for his valuable publication of the Chamberlain's Accounts of Scotland, which he kindly sent me in sheets from the press, and which greatly added to my stock of information with respect to the objects of my enquiry.
I have likewise availed myself not a little, in my account of religious houses and other local matters, of a MS. written by Mr. JAMes MANN, sometime Master of the Poor's Hospital in Aberdeen, and Author of the Notes of the Aberdeen edition of Buchannan's History of Scotland, which was published in the year 1762.
It was once my intention to have embellished this work with a few engravings of the principal buildings in both towns; but the difficulty, in this place, of procuring drawings suitable to an engraver— my great distance from eminent artists—and doubts respecting the reception which my labours may receive from the public, obliged me to relinquish this design.
Well, indeed, am I aware, that in the place where an author has spent his days, and is universally known, his first literary production, whatever may be its merits, is not likely to be much esteemed. His fame, if he shall have the good fortune to obtain it, must come from afar, before his writings can be duly appreciated at home. If this be generally true, the contempt arising from familiarity will operate with double force, when its object is a local history, which states, without reserve, the proceedings of the political parties of the day. The abuse, therefore, with which I was repeatedly honoured, at the commencement of this undertaking, even before the first of these sheets was prepared for the press, could neither surprise nor appal