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The History of Dundee, With a Copious Appendix and Statistical Account (by R. Small) of the Parish and Town , in 1792
The History of Dundee With a Copious Appendix and Statistical Account of the Parish and Town in 1792 - by R. Small Author:Robert Small General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1842 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: THE HISTORY OF DUNDEE. CHAP. I. NAME AND PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE TOWN. WAR BETWEEN THE SCOTS AND PICTS. BATTLE OF DUNDEE. SCOTS DEFEATED, AND ALPINE THEIR KING BEHEADED. Examinations which have for their object the elucidation of a point placed beyond the reach" of written records, degenerates into the ravings of easily satisfied tradition, which are only to be admitted, and with great caution, when other evidences are not to be procured. Traditions are commonly grounded upon some principle flattering to individual vanity, and the kind of validity lent them by time will be carefully scanned by the candid and impartial inquirer. It is for this reason, that we reject the ordinary derivations of the term Dundee as childish, or at least merely fanciful ; containing nothing calculated to gratify the curious, or to satisfy the philologist. These rejected derivationS; however, shall be submitted to the reader, that he may be enabled to judge for himself. Dr. Small informs us, that Dundee "formerly, and even so late as the beginning of the present [18th] century, was generally spelled Donde or Dondei, and in Queen Mary's charter, Dondei: In Law-Latin it is Dei-donum, and I have been assured by various Highlanders that they consider it as signifying what this Latin imports, the gift, or otherwise the hill of God. These circumstances give probability to the tradition that it obtained the name towards the end of the 12th century, from David, Earl of Huntingdon, who landing here after a dreadful storm, in his return from the Holy Wars, designed by it to express his gratitude for his deliverance, and in conseq...« less