Skene, WILLIAM FORBES

Skene, WILLIAM FORBES, an erudite Scottish historian, was born at Inverie on Loch Ness, June 7, 1809, the second son of Scott’s friend, James Skene (1775–1864). He had his education at Edinburgh High School, in Germany, and at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, afterwards, in 1834, becoming a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh. In 1879 he received the D.C.L. degree from Oxford, and in 1881 he succeeded Hill Burton as Historiographer for Scotland. He died on the 29th August 1892. Among his most important works are The Highlanders of Scotland (2 vols. 1837), The Dean of Lismore’s Book: a Selection of Ancient Gaelic Poetry (1861); Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (1867); Fordun’s Cronica Gentis Scotorum (2 vols. 1871); The Four Ancient Books of Wales (2 vols. 1868); Celtic Scotland, a History of Ancient Alban (3 vols. 1876–80); and Memorials of the Family of Skene of Skene (New Spalding Club, 1887).