Researches into the History of Tain

PREFATORY NOTE

THE substance of the first chapter of this little work, as well as some portions of the conclusion, formerly appeared in a smaller volume, after having been delivered as a lecture in the Court-House of Tain in the early spring of 1865. The second chapter contains the substance of a lecture delivered in the Town-Hall in the autumn of 1881, to an audience from which the lecturer missed, alas! many of "the old familiar faces," but which included many of a younger generation, who, he trusts, will prove themselves inheritors of the old local enthusiasm, and some of whom may yet confer signal benefits on their native town.

The writer has not thought it expedient to divest his essay of its original lecture-form, lest the local spirit that seemed to make the lectures interesting to the audiences who have requested their publication should evaporate in the process. But as the lectures were at first prepared with anxious attention to correctness of statement, so now, in revising and re-arranging them for the press, their facts and conclusions have been scrupulously re-examined and verified, new facts have been here and there interwoven into the text, explanatory foot-notes have been supplied, and some longer notes, bearing on questions of especial importance or local interest, have been placed in an Appendix. References to authorities have also been added where this has seemed necessary. To refer, indeed, perpetually to works on general Scottish history, or to such books as "Origines Paroehiales," or to the writer's own juvenile attempt in the "New Statistical Account," or to local records, has been thought needless. These and others have, however, been carefully examined. One or two of the books to which reference is made the writer has had no opportunity of consulting for himself. He has therefore to express his obligation to several friends, who have most obligingly taken the trouble of doing so in his behalf, and even of sending him long extracts for his own examination; as well -as to several others—some of whom he names in the following pages--who have assisted him in his personal researches with a courtesy and kindness which he cannot forget.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Earlier History

Chapter 2 - The Later History

Chapter 3 - Conclusion

Appendix