Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/23

 PREFACE. XV The object of this work therefore is, to form and bring together into one volume as complete a col- lection as possible of the fragments which still remain of the early chronicles and memorials of Scotland, prior to the publication of Fordun's History. It will contain a reprint of those pieces which have already appeared in scattered publica- tions, after collation with every MS. which was accessible to the Editor, with the addition of all such pieces as still remain in MS., including the materials bearing upon the history of Scotland in Welsh and Irish Mss. The great object of the Editor has been to make this collection of the materials for the early history of Scotland com- plete, and in his anxiety to attain this object, he may occasionally have included pieces which hardly seem to deserve a place in this coUectiou. In making the selection, it was, of course, necessary to do so within certain defined limits. His geo- graphical limit has been the kingdom of Scotland in its present extent ; and every event, which can be supposed to have happened within the Limits of that territory, has been considered as falling within the scope of this work. As the Anglic kingdom of Northumbria extended to the Firth of Forth, and the Cymric population to the Firth of Clyde, this has led him to include many events connected with the early Saxon and Welsh annals. He has fixed his limit in point of time at the conclusion of the reign of Alexander the Third, in the year 1285,