Charles W. J. Withers - Gaelic Scotland: The Transformation of a Culture Region

CONTENTS

This book owes much to many people for their advice, guidance, and patience. I have reviewed and discussed the work of a large number of people here but I am particularly indebted to Malcolm Gray, James Hunter, Annette Smith, Bob Dodgshon, Eric Richards, Anand Chitnis, and David Stevenson for allowing me to draw upon their work in the way I have. Several people have commented on earlier drafts of various chapters and have discussed with me the intriguing problems of Highland historical geography I should like to thank Ronald Black, John Christie, David Daiches, Nick Fisher, Mike Heffernan, Lindsay Hewitt, Jean Jones, Peter Jones, Peter OBrien, Susan OBrien, John MacInnes, Rudiger Schreyer, and Rick Sher for their help in this way. I am particularly grateful to Bob Dodgshon and William Gillies for their scholarship and critical advice freely and warmly given, and to Robin Butlin I owe special thanks for his perceptive comments and patience as Series Editor. I acknowledge with thanks the permission granted from the Syndics of Cambridge University Press to reproduce data published in M.Flinn (ed.), Scottish Population History from the 17th Century to the 1930s , especially from Tables 5.3.1; 5.4.1; and 5.5.5 reproduced in part here as have been presented in seminars at Loughborough University, Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University, and All Souls, Oxford, and I should like to record my thanks to the respective audiences. I am especially indebted to the librarians, archivists, and staff of those libraries and record offices I have worked in: the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee, Glasgow, and Oxford; the Sandeman Library, Perth; the City Archives and Local History Library, Dundee; Central Region and Grampian Region Record Offices; Strathclyde Regional Archives; the City Library and City Archives, Edinburgh; the National Library of Scotland; and, chiefly, the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. I am grateful to the Keeper of the Records and to the Registrar General of Scotland for permission to use and quote from documents in their care. Financial assistance has come from the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation, the Institute of Historical Research and the College of St. Paul and St. Mary. Sheila Taylor, Erica Breuning, Mary Lailey, and Gill Hunt have all turned rough drafts of maps and text into finished copy with cheerful professionalism. Peter Sowden of Croom Helm has been tolerant and a source of much good advice. But perhaps chiefly I am grateful to my wife Anne for her support and patience and to my children who helped keep things in perspective: to them, with love, this work is dedicated.