PUBLISHER’S PREFATORY NOTE
Of
the matter contained in the present volume the
General Notices (pp. 1-80) are now for the first
time printed, with a considerable number of new
illustrations reproduced from the author’s own
drawings. The subsequent Sketches of North Rona and
Sula Sgeir, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, the
coasts of Argyle and Wigton, Barra Head and the
outlying islets of the Western Sea, and the nearer
but not too well known islands of the Firth of
Forth, which follow in their chronological order,
have been re-printed from a series of booklets
thrown off from time to time as occasion or
inclination prompted, and used exclusively for
distribution among the author’s personal friends.
Partly in consequence of the exceptional
circumstances of their production (sometimes limited
to an impression of 25 copies), but chiefly on
account of their quaint individuality of character,
which speedily attracted the notice of collectors,
they have long been practically unavailable. The
increasing interest in the subject of Scottish
Ecclesiology, which may truly be said to have been
created and maintained by the researches here
recorded, has suggested the collection and re-issue
of these fugitive pieces in a more permanent and
convenient form, and with the General Notices
prefixed by way of introduction. From their nature
it was inevitable that there should be occasional
repetition; but whatever may be their imperfections
in this or other respects, they constitute a record
of researches which is unique of its kind.
Castle Street,
February 21, 1885.
Ecclesiological
Notes of some of the Islands of Scotland
By T. S. Muir (1885) (pdf)
