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 Bower additions, carefully distinguishing them from the work of his predecessor (whom he speaks of as the author) by prefixing the word 'Scriptor' to his own insertions. The last eleven Bower claims as practically his own : 'Quinque libros Fordun, undenos scriptor arabat;' though even here he has made use of Fordun's 'Gesta Annalia,' down to the middle of David II's reign, and, to a very slight extent, beyond this date (Scotichronicon, prologue, pp. ii and iii, also i. 7 and 9, vi. 23). With the reign of Robert I, towards the end of the fourteenth book, Bower becomes a contemporary writer, and continues his narrative till the death of James I. Soon after the completion of the 'Scotichronicon' its immense length and verbosity induced its author shortly before his death to write the abridgment, generally known as the Book of Cupar, which still exists in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh (MS. 35, 1, 7); it has not yet been printed, though an edition has long been promised in the 'Historians of Scotland.' A year or so later (c. 1451) the 'Scotichronicon' was condensed once more for the newly founded Carthusian monastery at Perth, probably by the Patrick Russell 'spoken of below (MS. Adv. Lib. 35, 6, 7). Another abridgment of the 'Scotichronicon' (ib. 35, 5, 2) was drawn up in 1461 by a writer who had been in France in attendance on the Princess Margaret (, preface, liv). This work, which, according to Mr. Skene, after the twenty-third chapter of book vi. differs greatly from the original 'Scotichronicon,' was copied several times, notably about the year 1489, by a writer who tells us that he had himself seen Joan of Arc (, preface, liv; MS. Marchmont).

Besides these abbreviations the 'Scotichronicon' itself was copied several times during the fifteenth century, notably by one Master Magnus Makculloch in 1483-4 for the archbishop of Glasgow (Harl. MS. 712), and in the large volume in the royal library at the British Museum, known as the Black Book of Paisley (13 Ex.) Another transcript (Donibristle MS.) assigns the work to one Patrick Russell, a Carthusian of Perth. Each of these last transcribers has sometimes been considered as the author of the larger work; but, after careful consideration, Mr. Skene has rejected both their claims in favour of Walter Bower. Many other manuscripts of the original work (a) and the abbreviations (b) exist: notably of (a) in the Edinburgh College Library (from which Goodall's edition is published); in the British Museum Royal Library (the Black Book of Paisley); and at Corpus Christi, Cambridge. The only complete printed edition of the 'Scotichronicon' as it left the hands of Walter Bower is that printed from the Edinburgh College Library MS. by Walter Goodall in the middle of the last century (Edinburgh, 1759). The edition of Fordun published by Hearne in 1722 (Oxford, 5 vols.), though apparently containing a good deal of Bower's work, notably the history of St. Andrews, appears to be mainly Fordun's production. The exact relationship, however, of this manuscript to Fordun and Bower has yet to be worked out. Some thirty years earlier (1691) Thomas Gale had printed a portion of the same manuscript belonging to Trinity College, Cambridge (, i. 6, ix. 9) in the third volume of his 'Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores.'

[Scotichronicon (ed. Goodall), Edinburgh, 1759; John of Fordun, ed. Skene, ap. Historians of Scotland, preface and introductions); Tytler's Lives of Scottish Worthies, ii. 198-202; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, ed. George Burnett, iii. and iv.]  BOWERBANK, JAMES SCOTT (1797–1877), geologist, was born in Bishopsgate, London, in 1797. We have no reliable information as to his early education; but he certainly exhibited in his youth a strong attachment to natural history, and in his boyhood he was especially fond of collecting plants, and of studying books on botany. Bowerbank was most happily placed in this world; as the son of a highly respectable city merchant and a distiller he enjoyed all that wealth could afford him. He succeeded with his brother, on the death of his father, to the well-established distillery of Bowerbank & Co., in which firm he remained an active partner until 1847. His energy and industry secured for him amongst the most intelligent of his city friends the character of a careful and attentive man of business. He, however, found sufficient leisure to pursue his scientific studies, and early in life he obtained much exact knowledge, as is proved by his having published papers on the Insecta and their anatomy at an age which is generally considered as immature. Bowerbank also, in the years 1822–3–4, lectured on botany, and in 1831 we find him conducting a class on human osteology, and studying the works of Haller, Alexander Monro, and other osteologists. When of age he joined the Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, and remained a member until its incorporation with the Astronomical Society in 1845. In 1836, Bowerbank, associating himself with several geological friends, originated 'The London Clay Club,' the members of which devoted