Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Scotland was published in 1847 as a 3 volume set (2 for the topographical dictionary and 1 for the atlas), and is very important reference work for historians and genealogists of the mid nineteenth century Scotland.
He gives details about every parish, town and village in Scotland, including numbers of inhabitants, the economy, history, topography, religion and parish structures, administration and courts, schools and much more. It includes a comprehensive index of the places described "embracing the mountains, hills, lakes, rivers, headlands, seats, antiquities, &c."
The third volume containing the Atlas is extremely rare, contains a series of maps covering the whole of Scotland in six parts in full colour. Scanned at high resolution, these can be enlarged to read the place names written on the maps.
Example entry:
CROY and DALCROSS, a parish, partly in the county of NAIRN, but chiefly in that of INVERNESS, 7 miles (S.W.) from Nairn; contains 1684 inhabitants. The etymology of the name Croy is altogether uncertain: the word Dalcross is derived from a Gaelic term signifying "the dale at the end of the ravine," and this description is strikingly applicable to the locality.
...The parochial school affors instruction in the usual branches; the master has the maximum salary, with a house, and about £20 fees. The parish contains several Druidical circles ...
High quality scanned images of the whole of the original books. This CD has been bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.
Click here to download a file of sample pages from this book
Right click on the link and select "save as" - to a location on your hard drive. The sampler can be opened, navigated and searched as with the full CD file/s.
Sample files usually contain the title page, contents, some introductory pages and sample pages from the body of the book. Often the complete index from the original book is included.
