The book Arran; - Cook Clan

PREFACE
The present volume completes the enterprise undertaken
by The Arran Society of Glasgow, the first volume of which,
dealing with the Archaeology of the island and edited by the
late Mr. J. A. Balfour, was published in 1910. It is matter
of regret that Mr. Balfour himself did not live to complete
the work to which he had devoted so much energy and
research. His early death was a distinct loss to Scottish
historical study.
Mr. Balfour had already collected a considerable part of
the material which has here been utilised. For the treatment
of this, however, as well as for much additional material
and for the whole plan and setting of the book, the present
writer is wholly responsible. It also seemed good to him
to depart from the method of the first volume, and make the
work that of an individual pen, so as to secure the necessary
continuity and sense of movement indispensable in history.
In this way, too, the overlapping and disproportion in-
evitable in separate contributions on particular subjects
would be avoided. The general framework of the narrative
is the study of the history of an island in an enclosed western
sea. This establishes a point of view which is at once
scientific and serviceable. Moreover, emphasis throughout
has been laid upon the social or popular elements, and the
great issues of the national history are introduced only in
so far as they are explanatory of or relevant to local matter.