Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/67

 PEEFACE. lix i uto Norman French from a Latin original. It is stated at the end of the chronicle that the sum of the years between Kenneth Macalpin and King Alexander was 430 years one month and seven days, which, added to the year 850, as the era of Kenneth, fixes the date of the chronicle at the year 1280. But though the substance of the chronicle may have been compiled in this year, it is obvious that the narrative is interspersed with statements of a later date, such as the reference to the marble stone having been removed to Westminster. There is a peculiarity in this chronicle which seems to indicate its source. The king of the Picts, usually termed Brude, son of Derili, is here called Brude son of Dergert, and it is added " in which time came St. " Servanus to Fife." This is the only chronicle which contains any notice of St. Servanus ; and in the chartulary of St. Andrews (p. 113) there is a note of the foundation charter of the priory of the island of Lochleven, said to have been granted by Brude filius Dergard to St. Servanus and the Cul- dees. It may therefore be inferred that the chronicle inserted in the " Scalacronica " was the " Chronicle " of Lochleven." 33. Chronicle of Huntingdon. — In the year chionicieoi 11 -ni 11 TT Huutiugdoii. 1290, writs were addressed by Ldward the l^irst to the cathedrals and principal monasteries through- out England, commanding them to search their clu'onicles and archives for all matters relating to Scotland, and to transmit the same to the king