THE HELP OF many people, both individuals and institutions, has been
invaluable in the preparation of this study.
The Rare Books Department of Cambridge University Library bore
the brunt of my demands for printed books. Its staff, as well as those of
Emmanuel College Library and the Seeley Historical Library, deserve special
thanks. Elsewhere, the British Library in London, the John Rylands University
Library of Manchester, and on a number of occasions the Bodleian Library,
Oxford were of signal service to an otherwise isolated student of Scotland's
history. The collections of the National Library of Scotland pre-eminently, and
also of the University Library and New College Library, Edinburgh were
unsurpassed in their richness. Along with Glasgow University Library and the
libraries of the universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, I found my work in
their portals as fruitful as it was unfailingly agreeable. To each, in addition, I
should express my gratitude for being allowed to consult the unique manuscripts
in their care.

More personal debts also accrued along the way. My former tutors at the
University of Edinburgh, Nicholas Phillipson and Richard Mackenney, were
enthusiastic in first motivating my studies, and offered periodic advice and
encouragement as my work progressed -- frequently in the inspirational
surroundings of an Edinburgh hostelry not twenty yards from the residences of
James Boswell and David Hume. I would also like to think, however, that
several other members of the Department of History there might recognise their
benign influence in the succeeding pages. In Cambridge I was well served in
having Mark Goldie as a perceptive supervisory critic of my developing ideas
-- though it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the value of later having
had Istvan Hont and J. H. Burns as doctoral examiners, both of them subjecting
my fledgeling arguments to the most rigorous and penetrating scepticism.
Among the other scholars who offered help or advice at different stages were
Duncan Forbes, Jan Golinski, Peter Burke, Peter Jones, Clare O'Halloran,
Roger Mason, Richard Sher, Jeremy Black, Ian Rae, Jonathan Clark and
Antony Flew. Each allowed me to discuss matters Scottish and to develop
further the arguments deployed herein -- though of course, any culpability
attaching to this study remains entirely my own.

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