Chalmers's greatest work is his Caledonia; which, however, he did not live to complete. The first volume appeared in 1807, and is introductory to the others. It is divided into four books, treating successively of the Roman, the Pictish, the Scottish and the Scoto-Saxon periods, from 80 to 1306 AD. In these we are presented, in a condensed form, with an account of the people, the language and the civil and ecclesiastical history, as well as the agricultural and commercial state of Scotland during the first thirteen centuries of our era. Unfortunately the chapters on the Roman period are entirely marred by the author's having accepted as genuine Bertram's forgery De Situ Britanniae; but otherwise his opinions on controversial topics are worthy of much respect, being founded on a laborious investigation of all the original authorities that were accessible to him.
The second volume, published in 1810, gives an account of the seven southeastern counties of Scotland — Roxburgh, Berwick, East Lothian ("Haddington"), Edinburgh/Midlothian (all as "Edinburgh"), West Lothian ("Linlithgow"), Peebles and Selkirk — each of them being treated of as regards name, situation and extent, natural objects, antiquities, establishment as shires, civil history, agriculture, manufactures and trade, and ecclesiastical history.
In 1824, after an interval of fourteen years, the third volume appeared, giving, under the same headings, a description of the seven south-western counties — Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Wigtown, Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew and Dumbarton. In the preface to this volume the author states that the materials for the history of the central and northern counties were collected, and that he expected the work would be completed in two years, but this expectation was not realized.
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