JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College; London_
H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
EDNA C. DAVIS, _Clark Memorial Library_



INTRODUCTION

In his collection of Scottish proverbs from literary texts
written before 1600 Bartlett Jere Whiting has laid a solid foundation
for the investigation of early Scottish proverbs and has
promised a survey of later collections. [1] The following
brief remarks are not intended to anticipate his survey but rather
to suggest the place of this particular collection in the historical
development and to point out the questions that it raises. Before
1600 men in Scotland had begun to make collections of proverbs. A
manuscript collection made by Archbishop James Beaton (1517-1603)
seems to have disappeared, but may survive in a form disguised
beyond all chance of recognition. Although editions of it published
in 1610, 1614, and "divers other Years" with "Mr. Fergusson's
Additions" have been reported, no copies of them have been found.
[2] "Mr. Fergusson" is no doubt David Fergusson (ca. 1525-1598),
whose _Scottish Proverbs_ was published at Edinburgh in 1641.
[3] This collection presumably includes the earlier gatherings
by Beaton and Fergusson, but is arranged in a rough alphabetical order
that makes it impossible to recognize its possible sources. According
to Beveridge, it contains 911 proverbs.[4] A new edition of
1659 and the subsequent editions down to and including that of 1716