ANDREW OF

See also:

• ANDREW OF WYNTOUN (?1350-?142o)

WYNTOUN (?1350-?142o)  , author of a long metrical history of Scotland, called the Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, was a canon regular of St Andrews, and prior of St Serf's in Lochleven . He wrote the Chronicle at the request of his patron, Sir John of Wemyss, whose representative, Mr Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss Castle, Fifeshire, possesses the oldest extant MS. of the work . The subject is the history of Scotland from the mythical period (hence the epithet " original ") down to the accession of James I. in 1406 . The earlier books are of no historical value, but the later have in all outstanding matters stood the test of comparison with contemporary records . The philological interest is great, for few works of this date, and no other of like magnitude, are extant in the vernacular . The text is preserved in eight MSS., of which three are in the British Museum, the Royal (17 D xx.), the Cottonian (Nero D. xi.) and the Lansdowne (197); two in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh (19, 2, 3 and 19, 2, 4), one at Wernyss Castle (u.s.) ; one in the university library at St Andrews, and one, formerly in the possession of the Boswells of Auchinleck, now the property .of Mr John Ferguson, Duns, Berwickshire . The first edition of the Chronicle (based on the Royal MS.) was published by David Macpherson in 1795; the second by David Laing, in the series of " Scottish Historians " din., 1872) . Both are superseded by the elaborate edition by Mr Amours for the Scottish Text Society (1906) .