PRINTED FOR A. BROWN AND CO. ABERDEEN; W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, LONDON, 1818. TO THE CITIZENS OF ABERDEEN, THE FOLLOWING WORK IS HUMBLY INSCRIBED, BY THEIR MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT AND FELLOW CITIZEN, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. Ir is, perhaps, of little importance to the public to know the motives by which I have been induced to publish the ANNALS of NEW and OLD ABERDEEN. To this step I have not been led either by the solicitations of numerous friends---by the expectation of emolument---or by the vain hope of acquiring literary fame. Of great intimacy with literary or scientific men I am not entitled to boast ;---of the profits of authorship I am altogether independent ;--and if vanity could prompt me to imagine that I possess any claim to genius or learning, I am well aware that a work of this nature is not the field in which either of these could be displayed to advantage. It is the mere offspring of dry, patient, and laborious research. If, therefore, a candid and indulgent public shall consider it as possessing any merit--that merit must consist entirely in the strength of the evidence by which facts are supported--in the accuracy with which these are detailed---and in the perspicuity of the narrative, and of the general arrangement. Though, for the attainment of these ends, I can honestly affirm that I have exerted my utmost abilities, I have not the presumption to think that a reader of discernment may not discover in my work many defects which have escaped my own observation. If mistakes, errors, omissions, or redundancies, of any kind, shall be brought to view, I hope I shall not be excluded from common indulgence. ¡Conscious that I possess no claim to bright or eminent talents for composition, whatever I might have written for my own amusement, I should not have obtruded upon the public the fruits of my labour a 2 |