In reference to the History of the Clans, I have to acknowledge, and I do so with the greatest pleasure, my obligations to the work of the late Mr Donald Gregory, and more particularly to that of Mr W. F. Skene, in as far as it treats of the origin, descent, and affiliations of the different Highland tribes. Many of the opinions and views promulgated by the latter I have ventured to dispute, at the same time assigning the reasons which have led me to differ from him; but it must, nevertheless, be unequivocally admitted, that, without the benefit of his researches and those of his immediate predecessor, Mr Gregory, it would have been a task of no ordinary difficulty to compile even the faintest sketch
of the History of the Highland Clans, far less to arrange it in any thing like a systematic form. The labour of half a lifetime would hardly have been sufficient to collect, examine, and digest the materials which still remain buried in the repositories of the principal families of the North; and it is more than doubtful whether the result of such researches would have, in any degree, repaid the anxiety and toil which the prosecution of them would have imposed.
I have further to state, that, throughout the whole of this Work, I have endeavoured to exercise that strict impartiality, which is incumbent upon every one who undertakes to write history. If I have any prejudices, I am unconscious of their existence.
