him; and, believing it, has carefully recorded it. After detailing at some length, and with great gravity, all the circumstances of the mysterious summons of Plotcock, previous to the battle of Flodden, "Verily," he says, "the author of this, that caused me write the manner of the summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which made his protestation." The earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is exceedingly amusing. He aims at nothing beyond a mere record of what he conceived to be facts, and these he goes on detailing, with a great deal of incoherence, and all the unintellectual precision, of an artificial process, neither feeling, passion, nor mind ever appearing to mingle in the slightest degree with his labours. These characteristics of the chronicles of Lindsay have greatly impaired their credibility, and have almost destroyed all confidence in them as authorities. External links Editions of the History of Scotland, the 1899 edition by Aeneas Mackay for the Scottish Text Society is usually cited by historians: Freebairn, Robert, ed., The History of Scotland from 21 February 1436 to March 1565, Edinburgh (1728) Dalyell, John Graham, ed., The Chronicles of Scotland by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. 1, Edinburgh (1814) Dalyell, John Graham, ed., The Chronicles of Scotland by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. 2, Edinburgh (1814) Aeneas Mackay, The historie and cronicles of Scotland: from the slauchter of King James the First to the ane thousande fyve hundreith thrie scoir fyftein zeir, 3 vols, Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, (1899), digitised at National Library of Scotland. References Mackay, Aeneas, ed., The historie and cronicles of Scotland: from the slauchter of King James the First to the ane thousande fyve hundreith thrie scoir fyftein zeir, 3 vols, Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, (1899) Robert Chambers and Thomas Thomson (editors), Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Blackie and Son, 1856. 1580 deaths People from Fife 16th-century Scottish historians Scottish chroniclers Year of birth uncertain Scots-language writers Historians of Scotland 16th-century male writers