The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

xiv LI VK OF DR. SKENE
connection a work entitled "(iospel History for the Young" (3 vols.,
1883-4). In Church polity he belonged to the Episcopalian communion.
He died at Edinburgh, unmarried, in August, 1892.
His first work was the " Highlanders of Scotland," published in 1837.
He contributed many valuable papers to the " Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries "; in 1862 he wrote a long preface to Dr. Maclachlan's
edition of the " Book of the Dean of Lismore," where he defends
Macpherson's Ossian ; he edited the Chronicles of the Picts and Scots in
1867— a most valuable work containing most Irish and Scottish
documents relating to the ancient history of Scotland ; next year he
issued the Foi/r Aticient Books of Wales in two volumes, with an
and he edited Fordun and Reeves's " Adamnan "
elaborate introduction ;
for the Historians of Scotla/id series. Lastly came his chief work,
' Celtic Scotland." The second volume of this work, dealing with the
••( "hurch and Culture," is the best piece of work that Skene has done;
the first and last volumes are not so satisfactory. They are both spoiled
by his ethnologic views in regard to the Picts. Much of the third
volume applies only to the Irish tribes, the Picts being supposed to be
like them in polity and culture. Of Dr. Skene's intellectual qualities,
I'rof. Mackinnon says (Proceedings of Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, 1894) :
" He had a vigorous intellect, a powerful memory, a judgment in the
main calm and clear. He possessed in no small measure, the con-
structive faculty that was able to fit together into whole isolated facts
that could
gathered from many quarters, the historical imagination
clothe the dry bones with flesh and skin, and make the dead past live
again."
Dr. Skene was undoubtedly possessed of high constructive
ability, but he was weak in the critical faculty. This is shown in his
method of dealing with his authorities and his historic materials. The
Sagas, for example, throw little real light on Scottish history from 800 to
of Scotland for that
1057 : yet Skene undertakes to write the history
period by their light. His belief in the " Albanic Duan " as against the
native Chronicles is another case. The Celts of Scotland, however, owe
Dr. Skene a deep debt of gratitude, for he was the first to draw their
early history out of the slough into which it had got, and to make it
respectable. For this end he lent the weight of his learning and position
to the cause of the Scottish Celt at a time when it was sorely needed ;
and he made writers of Scottish history devote fuller attention to the
Celtic side of Scottish affairs.