Excerpt from A History of Scotland From the Roman Occupation, Vol. 1 of 2 Miss Violet Simpson, and (in the period of the first Jameses) to Mr R. S. Rait of New College, Oxford, author of a recent work on Queen Mary (n utt, But my errors be on my own head! No general history, perhaps, can ever be so written as to satisfy specialists in genealogy, ethnology, anthropology, law, sphragistic, archmology, heraldry, numis matics, philology, affairs ecclesiastical and military, and all the other themes involved in the narrative of the develop ment of a nation. On the other hand, specialists will never combine to write a general history, and are apt, each within the fence of his special science, to disdain the populariser. But it is not necessary here to enter into the dispute as to whether history is science, or a branch of literature, or both. A History of Scotland, said'the publisher of Dr Robertson's work in the last century, is no very attractive title. That'in the hands of a competent writer with the space of Hill Burton or' Tytler at. His disposal, and with the' mass of recently printed State Papers and Letters to work upon, a history of Scotland might be made extremely attractive, I am convinced. Perhaps the foundation of Historical Chairs in Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities, and the active Historical Schools of Oxford and Cambridge, may encourage some Scottish scholar, still young and eager, to do justice to the romantic past of his people. 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.