Pitscottie, ROBERT LINDSAY OF

Pitscottie, ROBERT LINDSAY OF, the author of The Chronicles of Scotland, extending from the reign of James II. to the year 1565. There is nothing to learn of Lindsay personally, except that he was born about the beginning of the 16th century, and was proprietor of the lands of Pitscottie in Fife-shire. He is best known by his territorial appellation. His Chronicle was Sir Walter Scott's favourite Scottish history; and though Pitscottie was not contemporary with the whole of the events he describes, he must, for the latter portion of his history, have derived much of his information from eye-witnesses. His style is quaint and graphic, and his facts in general trustworthy, except where he deals in marvels, to which he is a little prone. It is he, for instance, who tells, on the authority of Sir David Lyndsay, Lyon King-of-arms, that striking story of the intrusion of the apparition to the presence of James IV. in Linlithgow, of which Scott gives a vivid picture in Marmion. The best edition of Pitscottie's history is Dalyell's (2 vols. 1814).