matter, and styled the whole work the "Scoticronicon." The work was now made public, and numerous copies of it were made, and transcripts preserved, in the principal religious houses, which became known under the name of the "Book of Paisley," the "Book of Scone," the "Book of Cupar," the "Chronicle of Icolmkill," etc. In some of these copies, the continuation bears to be by two other writers; viz., Patrick Eussell, a Carthusian monk of the monastery of Charter-house in Perth, and Magnus MacCulloch, who was secretary to William Schevez, Archbishop of St. Andrews; but although these names are attached to some of the continuations, they are all in substance that compiled by Walter Bower.[1]
The leading features of the early history of Scot- chm"s'ristory"' land, as told by Fordun in his five books, are these : The Scots derived their origin from Gaythe- los, son of Neolus, king of Greece, who went to Egjrpt in the days of Moses, where he married Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and led the Scots from thence to Spain. Prom this country several colonies went to Ireland, the last under Leadin] features of For-
- ↑ There are twenty-one MSS. of the " Scoticronicon " still preserved, and, besides the imperfect copy printed in Gale's "Scriptures," vol. iii., two separate printed editions, one by Thomas Hearne in 1 722, the text of which is taken from a Jis. in Trinity College, Cambridge, which appears to contain the work as Fordun left it ; and another by Walter Goodall in 1759, taken mainly from the Edinburgh Col- lege MS., which contains Bower's additions. A new edition of For- dun, from a collation of all the MSS., and discriminating between the original text and the additions of the different continuators, would be a great boon to the Scottish historian.
