UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES !* of CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS O N T H E ORIGIN, ANTIQUITIES, LANGUAGE, GOVERNMENT, MANNERS, AND RELIGION, O F T H E ANTIENT CALEDONIANS, THEIR POSTERITY THE PICTS, AND THE BRITISH AND IRISH SCOTS. By JOHN MACPHERSON, D. Minifter of SLATE, in the ISLE OF SKY. DUBLIN: Printed by BOULTER GRIERSON, Printer to the King's moft Excellent Majcfty. 8 MDCCLXVIU. 5030; -7 "7*7 TO THE 'HONOURABLE Charles Greville, Efq; DEAR Si R, MY Father, who was the Author of the following DifTertations, would not, perhaps, have dedicated them to any man alive. He annexed, and with good reafbn, an idea ,of fervility to addrefles of this fort, and reckoned them the dilgrace of literature. If I could not, from my Ibul, acquit myfelf of every felfifh view, in prefenting to you the poft- humous works of a father I tenderly loved, you would not have heard from me in this public manner. You know, my dear friend, the fincerity of my affeftion for you : but even that affe&ion fhould not induce me to dedicate to you, had you already arrived at that eminence, in the flate, which the abilities and fhining a 2 talents DEDICATION. talents of your early youth feem ib largely to promife, left what really is the voice of fiiendfhip and efteem, ifhould be miftaken, by the world, for "that of flattery and interefted jdefigns. I am on the eve of fetting put for a very diftant quarter of the world ; without afking your permiC fion, I leave you this public tefti- mony of my regard for you, not to fecure your future favour, but to ftand as a finall proof of that attach- ment, with which I am, Dear Sir Your moft affe&ionate Friend, moft Obedient Humble Servant, John Macpherfon. t v ] PREFACE. , - . -V^^'ife' TH E following DhTertations are the production of the leifure hours of a clergyman in one of the remoteft of the Scottish ifles. Excluded, by the pecu- fituation of the place of his refidence, from the fociety of the learned, he indulged his fiflgular paflion for litera- ture among a few good books. Though the natural bent of his genius turned towards the belles-lettres, he fometimes amufedhim- felf in difquifitions of a more ferious nature, feeing matter of the Celtic, in all its bran- ches, he took pleafure in tracing other lan- guages to that general fource of all the an- tient and modern tongues of Europe. From investigations of this kind many difcoveries in the ancient hiftory of nations arofe. This naturally led to the examination of the mafs of fiction; which almbft every nation of Europe pofTeffes for the hiftory of their re- moteil anceftors. The more he looked into thefe legendary fabrics of antiquity;, the lefs he found them capable of bearing the tefi of criticifm. He therefore refolved to write fome general differtations on that fubjecl, a 3 which, vi PREFACE. which, if they could not eftablifh a new and more rational fyftem, would at leaft expofe the abfurdity of the old. IT was not altogether from a partiality to his own country that Dr. Macpher^on gave the firft place to Scotland, in his dif- quifitions. Though the Scots have as juft prctenfions to a high antiquity as any nation in Europe, yet their origin is peculiarly in- volved in darknefs. It was the misfortune of North Britain to have been almoft totally deftitute of letters, at a time when monkifh learning, and thofe religious virtues which arofe from afcetic aufterities, greatly flou- rifhed in Ireland, and among the Saxons in England. This was the cafe in the feventh and eight centuries, the a?ra in which the Hibernian fyflems of antiquity were form- ed. The fennachies and fileas of Ireland made then a property of the Scots of Bri- tain, and, fecure of not being' contradicted by an illiterate, and I may fay, an irreligious race of men, affumed to themfelves the dig- nity of being the mother-nation. The par- tiality of Bede for his holy cotem^fcraries of Ireland is well known. The good man be- lieved and retailed whatever fidions \vere didated to him by the religious of a nation for whom he had the greateil regard for their orthodoxy. THE PREFACE. vii THE almoft continual wars and anomofi- ties which fubfifted between the Englifh and Scoots for many ages naturally gave birth to violent national prejudices on both fides. The learned of England could not diveft themfelves of that antipathy to their North- ern neighbours which had feized their whole nation. Though at variance with the Irifh in every other point, they agreed with them wonderfully well in extenuating the natio- nal antiquities of the Scots. Some of thofe; gentlemen had the cruelty to extirpate the brave nation of antient Caledonians, left the detefted Scots of latter times mould derive any honour from the military reputation of a people who once poffeiTcd their country. HAPPILY for the prefent times, thofe prejudices which blinded both nations have, in a great meafure, fubfided. National a- verfions are loft in the antiquity of thofe national injuries from which they firft arofe. Whatever may tend to do honour to either nation is heard with candor, if not with pleafure, by both. They are, in fhort, now fo rnuci^ blended with one another, that whatever throws luftre upon the one, ought to be reckoned an acquifition of reputation to the other. If to throw a new and ftrong light on the antiquities of a nation, refleds a 4 any viii PREFACE. any honour upon it, the Scots of the prefent age are much indebted to the induftry and learning of Dr. Macpherfon. He travelled back, it is true, into the regions of anti- quity with more advantages than others have done, and therefore his fuccefs was propor- tionably greater. A few additional obfer* vations I am to make upon the general fut>- jec~t of the difTertations, arofe, if they have any merit, from the difcoveries he had made to my hand. . SOME time before the total dereliction of Britain by the Romans, in the reign of Ho- norius, we find that the Caledonians were diftinguimed into two capital nations, the Deucaledones and Veduriones. By thefe two branches I underftand thofe, who, a fhort time thereafter, were known by the names of Pids and Scots. It was after the departure of the Romans, that the defence- lefs ftate of the degenerated provincials gave the Pids an opportunity of extending them- felves to the Eaftern counties to the South of the frith of Edinburgh. From the joint teftimony of all writers who examined the jfubjed, the Pids of the earlieft ages poiTef- fed only the Earl and North-eaft ccaft of Scotland. From their fituation, with ref- ped to the Scots of Jar-ghael, their country was PREFACE. lx was naturally called by the latter An Dua- cbaeldocb, a word compounded of An Dua, or T^ua, North, and, Caeldoch^ Caledonian country* Some of the South-weft High-^ landers of the counties of Perth and Argyle diftinguimed to this day thofe of Rofs; Sutherland and Caithnefs, by the name of An Dua-gbaely and their country by the appellation of An Dua-ghaeldocb. This appears ib obvioufly the etymon of Deu-ca~ ledones y that nothing but a total ignorance of the Galic language could permit antiqua- ries to have overlooked it. THE etymon of Ve&urioncs is not fo ob- vious. We learn from the mofl antient do- meftic records in Scotland, that a ridge of mountains, called Drum Albin, was the ancient boundary of the ScottiCa territories towards the Eaft, The author of the Dif- fertations has clearly demonftrated that Drum Albin is the chain of mountains which runs from Lochlomond, near Dum- barton, to the frith of Taine, in the county of Rofs. This Dorfum Britannia:, 3G it is called by Adamnan, abbot of lona, runs through the Weftern end of the diftricts of Athol and Badenoch, That part of this ridge of hills- which extends between thefe dittricls, for a length of more than twenty miles, x PREFACE. miles, is called Drum Uachtur. This cir- cumftance is well known to many, befides the natives of that country, as the military road through the Highlands paiTes that way. If we mould fuppofe that Uachtur ; which is ftill retained as the name of a part of Drum Albin, was once the general appella- tion of the whole, the etymon of Veduri- ones is at once decyphered. Uachtur ', though now taken perhaps in a more confined fenfe than formerly, literally fignifies the upper country, Uachturlch is a word of the fame import with Highlanders ; and if the harfli Celtic termination is foftned into a Roman one, Ve&uriones differs only in a changea- ble vowel from Uacbtuncb. WE have reafon to believe, from the un- favourable climate, and flerile nature of the foil, in that part of Scotland which lies to the Weft of Drum Albin, that the ancef- tors of the Scots lived long in a very un- cultivated ftate ; as deftitute of great natio- nal events as of letters to tranfmit them to pofterity. Though the Scots of Jar-gbael muft, in the nature of things, have been very barbarous and unpolifhed, as far back as the latter end of the fourth century, yet it is to be hoped they were lefs fo than the Attacotti, their neighbours, or rather a tribe PREFACE. xi tribe of the Scots to the South of the Clyde, " In my youth," fays the holy St. Jerome, " I faw in Gaul the Attacotti, a Britifh people feeding on human bodies. When they found in the woods flocks of fheep or hogs, or herds of cattle, they ufed to cut off the buttocks of the herdfmen, and the breads of the women, looking upon thofe parts of the body as the greateft danties*." I have fuch a veneration for whatever has fallen from the holy father, that I cannot entertain a doubt of the truth of this flo- ry, however incredible it might appear from an uninfpired writer. The Irifh na- tion, not content to deprive their pofterity of Scotland of their antient bifhops, abbots, prefbyters and hiftorians of any note, have alfo endeavoured to rob them of their bar- barous and wild men. O'Connor, a learned difiertator on the hiftory of Ireland, has, in the name of his nation, claimed a right to the Attacotti. I wifh I could give them to the gentleman ; for as the infamous label of St. Jerome is tacked to them, they can do little honour to the Scots of the prefent age. IT was in the fifth century that the in- curfions of the Scots, as a feparate nation, * Hieronym. con. Jovinian. lib. 2. into xii P R F A C E. into the Southern Britain, rendered therri objedls of attention to the writers of other countries. It does not appear that letters were any part of the booty which they car- ried home with them from the deferted Ro- man province. The feminary of monks eftablimed by Columba, an Irimman, in the ifland of Ioria> i': the fixth age, feem to have been the only perfons, within the ter- ritories of the Scots; that could record events. If they kept any regifters of trarif- aclions, they were deftroyed or loft; in the Norwegian conqueft of the Hebrides by Harold Harfager, about the middle of the ninth century. THE fubverfion of the Piclifh kingdom is the firft aera in which it can be fuppofed 'the Scots begun to have authentic records of their own. Soon after the conquefl of Pic- tavia, the Saxons found means to extend their government to the frith of Edinburgh. The Picl:s and Saxons had alternately pof- fefTed, for fome time before, the counties between the Forth and the Tweed. The mod of the inhabitants of thofe counties were of the Saxon race, and no doubt, in a great measure, they retained the language of their anceftors. It was after the invafi- oiis of the Danes had totally broke the power PREFACE. xiii power of the Saxons, that the Scots extend- ed themfelves far to the South. The bar- barity of thofe Northern rovers who in- ceflantly harrafled England, as they them- felves were heathens, drove certainly a num- ber of pious Saxon eccelefiaftics into Scot- land. It was they that introduced the cuf- tom of recording events in monkifh chro- nicles; and upon the authority of Bede, they all adopted the Cyflem of the Hibernian ex- tradion of the Scots nation, THE Scots lament the deftruclion of their antient annals by Edward the Firft of Eng- land. Though Edward's policy in this cafe was rude and barbarous, he did very little hurt to the genuine antiquities of the Scots. Many of the domestic tranfadions of the latter ages were no doubt loft ; but what re- lated to the origin of the nation was Bede's tale re-told. I fhall endeavour, in fome meafure, to account, for that learned wri- ter's miftake. A miftake I call it, though it is more than probable that the venerable monk of Gfirwy had fome holy reafons for giving eafy faith to the fennachies of Ireland. THERE is reafon to believe, with Dr. Macpherfon, that the gofpel was firfl: preach- ed in Britain by mifli -naries from the LefTer Afia. The great zeal of Polycarp, bifhop of xiv P R E F A C E. of Smyrna, who fuffered martyrdom in the year 170, it is certain, induced him to fend apoftles to GauL His difpute with the fee of Rome, about the very momentous affair of Eafter, is well known, The zealous fchifmatic preferred the tradition of the Eaft- ern church to the authority of St. Peter's chair. An ardent defire of propagating his doctrine, occafioned his fending miffionaries to the very extremity of the weft, and of courfe to Britain. The opinion of the Eaftern church concerning Eafter, which prevailed among the Picls and Scots, is a corroborating argument on this head. The fee of Rome found means to recover the Southern Britons to the Catholic opinion upon this important point j but the barba- rians of the North were obftinately tenaci- ous of the faith of their anceftors. BEDE made many efforts to fave the fouls of his Northern neighbours, by endeavour- ing to bring them back to the true faith con- cerning Eafter and the Tonfure. Naitan, the great monarch of the Picls, was at laft over- come by the arguments of Ceolfrid, and, together with his nation, received into his religion thefe two articles fo neceffary to falvation. But the wicked and abandoned barbarians of Jar-ghael would not, it feems, be PREFACE. xv be perfuaded out of their error. From their obftinacy, no doubt, arofe thofe prejudices againft them, which are very confpicuous in the writings of the venerable Bede. Ireland at that time was defervedly called the Coun- try f Saints. The Catholic faith prevail- ed there in all its original purity. Tiie momentous articles of Barter and the Tonfure were received with that devo- tion which ought to attend the decifi- ons of St. Peter's chair. The venera- ble writer, fo often mentioned, regarded the Irifh with that partiality which good men have for the bed of Chriftians, and gave great faith to their traditions and records. BEDE was a very extraordinary perfon for the times in which he lived : pious and fer-. vent, but calm in his zeal for religion, his writings throughout breathe the fentiments of humanity and devotion. He certainly had more knowledge than all his cotempo- raries joined together. But it appears to me, that he was neither critically inquifitive, or knew much of national antiquities. The good man was much better employed. Mi- racles, vifions, dreams, martyrologies, Eafler and the Tonfure, and, above all, St. Cuth- bert and the fee of Rome, engaged his whole attention, xvi P R E F A C E. attention, and diverted his mind from a ftudy more amufing than important, THE few fcraps of antiquity which is contained in the fj.rft book of his ecclefU aftical hiftory, the venerable prefbyter bor-. rowed from Gildas, or from his own re- ligious cotemporaries of Ireland, Before I proceed to Gildas, it may not be impro- per to give one inftance of the great par- tiality of Bede to the Irim. Egfrid, King of Northumberland, had been, in the year 685, with the greateft part of his army, cut off by the Picls, This, fays Bede, was a judgment from God, upon Egfrid and his fubjecls, for committing the year before this fatal event, unheard of barbari- ties and ravages among the Hibernians, a nation very harmlefs and innocent* and of & moft friendly difpojitlon towards the Engli/h. BEDE, however, muft be blamed for his fervile copying after Gildas, a writer not worthy of fuch attention. Gildas was one of the moft palfionate, peevim, and queru- lous of mankind. He not only was immo- derately angry with the Scots * and Picts, * Exin Britannia, fo he calls that part of the ifland which had been fub- jed to the Romans, dt/akus gettiibus travfmarinh -vehcmcnter fee-vis, Scctttrum a Circio, Pifforurn ab aquilone, calcabllis multos fiupet, gemitque per annis. Gild. cap. 15. Bede explains, that Gildas gave the epithet of trattfmarini to the Picls and Scots, becaufe they came from beyond the firths of Forth and Clyde. Bed. Hirt. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 12. who PREFACE. xvii who perhaps deferved very ill at his hands, but even his. friends the Britons, and, above all, he was enraged againft the Saxons. From an exprefiion in this author, fome Englifti * and many Irifh antiquaries, to their great joy, thought they found an unanfwerable proof that the Scots came originally from Ireland ; and that in no earlier period than the fixth century. Gildas, fpeaking of the Scots and Picts, fays, Revertunfur ergo im- pudentes graffatores Hiberni domus, pofl non multum tempons reverfuri. THE epithet impudentes applied to Hiber- ni is not fufficient to eftablifh the juftnefs of this reading, though it might have fome weight v/ith men of wit. JBede was far from entertaining fuch an unfavourable opi- nion of the inhabitants of the holy ijle. In an edition of Gildas, given to the public by Dr. Gale, the paflage under confiderati- on, is read in a more grammatical way, and lefs to the difcredit of Ireland : rever- tuntur ergo impudentes graffatores Hibernas damus ; fo that Gildas meant no more than that the Scots returned hors for the winter, To juftify this reading, it is to be obferv- ed, that the ancient Scots and their pofte- Lhcyd and Srillinjfleet. b rity xviii PREFACE. rity gave the name of 'winter boitfes, the fame exactly with the Jrllbernas domus of Gildas, to thofe more comfortable habita- tions to which they retreated when the warmer feafon of the year was over. In the fummer they lived in the mountains and forefts with their cattle, and to enjoy the pleafure and advantage of hunting. The Arabian Bedowins, the ancient Nomades and Scythians, and the prefent Tartars, give in- to the fame practice. The Bedowins, in particular, gave the appellation of 'winter houfcs to the habitations to which they re- treated from the autumnal rains. Bede, a Saxon, was perhaps a flranger to this cha- radleriilical practice of the Scots, and not knowing what fenfe to make of Gildas's Hibernas domus, he altered the old reading. This opinion feems decifive, as he had re- tained the word domus , inftcad of the more proper word domum. THE times in which Bede lived, were the golden age of Ireland. That kind of learning which then fubfifted in the world, flourished much in that country. No ene- mies invaded it from abroad, and there was an unufual tranquillity at home. National profperity is the fource of national pride. Averfe to have themfelves thought deicend- ed PREFACE. xix ed from the Scots of Albany, who were far from being a powerful nation at that time, they began to fearch out for themfelves, anceflors of a more dignified character. It is probable that the fchifmatic difpofition of the Scots, about Eafter and the Ton- fure, had its weight in inducing the Irifli to inveftigate their origin among a lefs per- verfe people, THAT the Irim fyfterris of antiquity were formed after the holy fcriptures were known in that country, is beyond all doubt. All their fictions on that head are ingrafted upon names in the old teftament. This fubjecl is difcufTed at large, in the Diflerta- tions ROW given to the public. I only men- tion it now to afcertain that the fable of the Hibernian extraction of the Scots of Albany was formed at the fame time. The prefent identity of language, and the fimi- larity of cuiloms and manners which pre- vailed among the Albanian and Hibernian Scots of anticnt times, made it evident that they were originally the fame people ; fo it became neceflary to be very particular in the time and manner of their feparation. The Irim fabricators of antiquities furnifh- ed Bede with that account he gave of the firfl fettlement of the Scots in Jarghael. b z If xx PREFACE. If the Britim Scots had any national tradi- tions of their own, which contradicted the holy antiquaries of Ireland, Bede, from a pious averfion to heretics, totally rejected them. FROM what I have faid, it appears, that the Scots have been hitherto, unfortunate in the writers of the ancient hiftory of their country. There has been great expence of erudition on the fubject, both by foreign and domeftic antiquaries. But the grand defideratum, in the difquifitions of thofe learned men, was a thorough know- ledge of the old Caledonian language, which goes now under the name of the Galic tongue. Dr. Macpherfon hap- pily joined a critical knowledge, in that language, to his great learning in other re- fpedts. Something therefore, more fatis- factory ought to be expected from him than from thofe who have gone before him, and were not pofiefTed of the fame advantages. BEFORE the Doctor had thoroughly ex- amined his fubject, he paid great deference to the opinion of Tacitus, concerning the Germanic extraction of the Caledonians. The colour of hair and fize of body, which diftinguimed them from the Britons of the South, PREFACE. xxi South, were not conclufive arguments. Thefe circumftances might depend more upon food and the peculiar nature of the foil and cli- mate, than upon a different origin. The manifeft difference in thofe dialects of the Celtic, which the Scots of the mountains and the Welfh fpeak to this day, feems more to argue their remote feparation from one another. Their living as feparate ftates, from the earliefl times, could not have effectuated fuch a change : otherwife we can- not account for the identity of the Irifh and Galic tongues, efpecially as the nations who fpeak thofe languages were in no period of antiquity that can be affigned, fubjecl: to the fame government, THIS was one of the arguments that muft have influenced the judgment of the author of the Differtations in his firfr. view of the fubjecl. But this difference of lan- guage is eafily accounted for. The little progrefs that navigation muft have made in the North of Europe when Britain was firft peopled, is a convincing argument, that the firft migrations into this ifland, was from the nearefl continent, which was the Bel- gic divifion of Gaul. Thefe migrations certainly happened in the earlieft ftage of fociety. The fubfiftence of a colony of fa~ b 3 - vages xxii PREFACE. vages arifes entirely from hunting : it there- fore may be fuppofed that the Gauls found firft their way to the Northern extremity of Britain, in purfuit of their game. In pro- portion as the original colony advanced Northward, other emigrants from Gaul trod on their footfteps. Thus for a courfe of ages Gaul poured into Britain a fuccemon of colonies. The manners and language of the Gauls, in the mean time, fuffered ma- terial changes at home. The arts of civil life gradually arofe among them, and na- turally introduced new ideas and new words into their language. It is to this advancing civilization of Gaul that we muft afcribc the difference between the Northern and Southern Britons. The latter imported with them the changed manners, and adulter- ated, though improved, language of the more modern Gauls : the former tenaciouf- ly retained the unpolimed cuftoms and original language of their ancestors. IT would be as prefumptuous, as it would be idle, to hope for the warm atten- tion of the public to difquifitions of this kind. There are, however, fome who, could they be culled out of the mafs of mankind, have more enlarged ideas ; fome fhat are as impartial with refpeft to times, as PREFACE, xxiii as they are with regard to countries and in- dividuals. For thefe, and thefe only, the author of the DifTertations wrote. Difre- garding the inattention of the many, could he but fecure the approbation of the judi- cious few. THESE would be the fentiments of the author, could he fpeak for himfelf : but, I am forry to fay, he is now infenfible of praife or reproof. His death prevented his putting the laft hand to this work. His fon, to whofe care he left it, with a diffi- dence which ought to be natural to a very young man, chofe rather to give his father's differtations to the world as they flood, than to attempt any amendments, which perhaps might injure the memory of a parent he tenderly loved. THE moft of the nations of the modern Europe look back with a blum, upon the ft range fabrics of liclion they poffefs for their ancient hiftory. They coniider them as, at once, the monuments of the puerile credulity and folly of their anceftors. The Scots of this age faw with unconcern, if not with pleafure, forty of their ancient lift of Kings expunged at once by Innes. This furious regicide, endeavoured to make amends to his countrymen, by giving them forty b 4 grea t *xiv PREFACE. great Pi&ifti monarchs for the long lift of the petty Princes of Jarghael, of whom he deprived them. The offer was rejected with that fcorn it deferved ; and the monarchs of Pidavia, whofe exiftence depended upon the fame, or even worfe, if poffible, autho- rity, than that upon which the fidion of the firft forty Scottish Kings was built, funk away into their original non -entity. IRELAND, tenacious as it has been of its ancient annals, begins to regard lefs the indigefted fidions of her fennachies. Men of fenfe fee the impoflibility of tranfmitting events, through a feries of ages, without the affiftance of letters. They could not pof- libly aflign an earlier aera for the introduc- tion of letters than the apoftlefhip of St. Patrick, and confequently, with Ware they depended very little upon the accounts handed down concerning ages prior to the reign of Leogaire. IN this untoward fituation ~f the Iriih an- tiquities, ftept forth O'Connor to fupport the falling fabric. The zeal of this gentle- man can only be equalled by his dogmatifm. He has crouded the bottoms of his pages with the authorities of O Flaherty, Keating, and Buchanan, who had as few lights to gui(Jc them through antiquity, as a writer pf PREFACE. xxv of the prefent time can be fuppofed to pofTefs. The two firft are only remarkable for their confufed manner of compiling the indigefted fables of bards and fileas ; and the latter has fcarcely any thing to recommend him but the elegance of his diclion. IN vain has Mr. O Connor endeavoured to eftablifli an aboriginal knowledge of letters in Ireland. Irines had previoufly deftroyed the credit of that fyftem, and Dr. Macpher- fon has thrown it down for ever. From an additional dirTertation published lately by Mr. O Connor, he feems to have been ex- tremely gauled by fome obfervations made by the tranflator of the works of Offian on the ancient hiflory and poems of Ireland. If a judgment can be formed from O Con- nor's intemperate rage, he feels very fore on that fubjed. His perfonal abufe of Mr. Macpherfon feems to have proceeded from a very irafcible difpofition, or was intended to draw an anfwer from that gentleman, which might give importance to his own work. In this, it is to be feared, he will not fucceed. The tranflator of the Galic poems is not much in the humour of doing an honour of that kind to adverfaries who ufe low fcurrility in the place of argument difpafllonate difquintion. DOCTOR xxvi PREFACE. DOCTOR MACPHERSON, in the courfe of the following Differtations, has (hewn how ill-founded the fenachies of Ireland have been, in their pretenfions to the Bri- tim Scots. Before we proceed to a further difcuflion of that fubjec~t, it may not be improper to examine a new claim, from the fame quarter, on another martial^ nation, who poflefled a part of Caledonia. Mar- cellinus relates, that the Attacotti, a war- like race of men, in conjunction with the Pids and Scots, laid wafte the Roman pro- vince in Britain, in the reign of Valentin- ian. St. Jerome gives a very extraordinary character of the Attacotti : '* In my youth," faith the faint, " I faw in Gaul, the Atta- cotti, a Britim people, feeding upon human bodies. When they found in the woods hogs and flocks of meep, or herds of cattle, they ufed to cut off the buttocks of the herdfmen and the breads of the women, looking upon thofe parts of the body as the greateft danties*." I T would be perhaps thought uncharita- ble, if not impious, to call the holy Fa- ther's veracity in queftion, efpecially as he appeals to occular demonftration : but I muft * Quid loquar de caeteris nationibus, cum ipfe adolefcentulus, in Gallia viderim Scotos (Attacottot, Catacottos, -varite emmjunt h&iones) gentem Bri- sannicam, humanis vefci carnibus, & cum per fylvas porcorum greges & ar- mentorum, pecudetnque reperiant, paftorum nates & fcemmarum papillas folere abfcindere, et hat folas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Hieronym. adv. Jovin - I4b - ii - obferve PREFACE. xxvii obferve, that it is fomewhat ftrange that the Attacotti, notwithstanding of their barba- rity, mould have been Canibals, at a time they had hogs, meep and cattle before them. The policy of the Romans muft have been extreamly relaxed in their province of Gaul, when the buttocks of their fubjeds were fo much expofed to the barbarous gluttony of the Attacotti. BUT leaving this faft on the authority of Jerome, it appears certain that the Attacotti were a Britim people. Buchanan and Camb- den prove, from the Notitia, that fome of that nation were among the mercenary troops of the empire in its decline. Jn what part of Caledonia the Attacotti were fettled is difficult to determine. Buchanan, with great probability, places them between th** walls j and in that cafe they muft have been a powerful tribe of the Masatas of Dion. STILLINGFLEET obferves, that the ety- mon of Attacotti has not hitherto been un- derftood. The Doctor adds, by way of fneer on the whimfical etymologifts of Bri- tim names from the Punic, that he doubts much whether it ever mall, unlefs fome learned critic chufe to trace it to the Phoe- nician language-f-. A tolerable knowledge f Origines Britan. p. 187, Of xxviii PREFACE, of the ancient languages of Britain, will, I think, enable a perfon, unacquainted with the Phoenician, to decypher the meaning of this word. Attacotti literally fignifies The men of the woods'^.. THE Irifh not contented to deprive us, their poor pofterity in Caledonia, of our bi- fhops, abbots and hiftorians, of any note, have alfo endeavoured to rob us of our bar- barians and canibals. A late diflertator on the hiftory of Ireland claims a right to the Attacotti in the name of his country. I wifti I could give them to this ingenious gentleman -, for, under the afperfion of Je- rome, they will do very little honour to any country. To ufe O'Connor's own words, " The Attofotti were originally a Belgian nation, who occupied the Weftern parts of Ireland. They were a motly aggregate of rebels, who, in conjunction with fome o- ther Septs of the fame race, in the other provinces, were called Ahachtuata y for their cruelties. They took up arms againfb the government about ninety years before Chrift, J In the Welch language, the particle at is a prepofition of the fame im- port with the Englifli at or about. In the fame dialect of the Celtic, koed fignifies wood \ kuit does the fame in the Cornifh, coat in the Armorican, and coile in the Galic. Young brufhwood, and the twigs of any wood, are to this day called cold in the Galic. Attacotti may alfo be derived from attlcb, inhabitants, and coed, of the woods. Thofe who live in re- mote woody parts of a country are ftill diftinguifhed in the Highlands of Scotland, by thf appellation of 6ie dwellers of woods. overturned PREFACE. xxix overturned it effectually, and had very nigh buried the whole Scottifh nation, together with its memory, in one common grave*." How the Irifh were employed, what they acted, and what they fufFered, about a century before the commencement of the Chriftian sera, their own faithful annals can only tell ; and few in number are thofe chofen perfons who have accefs to thefe myfterious and fe- cret records. That the Attacotti were upon the point ef deftroying the whole Scottifh name, when the excellent Moran moil op- portunely interpofed, thofe felect perfons will perhaps only believe. THE Attacotti, in the fourth age, were a Britifh people. That they came rirft from Ireland ftill remains to be proved. The Scots indeed have been long ago faid to have been tranfplanted into Britain from that quarter ; and had thofe learned Hibernians, from whom Bede and Nennius derive their information, ever heard that the Caledonians, Maeataa and Attacotti had been once confiderable nations in North Britain, it is highly probable they would have given all of them the honour of an Iri(h original. But their traditions did not extend fo high as the fourth century, when thofe names fell into defuetude. The * Diflert. on the ant, hjft. of Irsl. Introdudlion. xxx PREFACE. Picls, it is true, were permitted to be of a different extraction : but the Picts, it Teems, were vaiTals of Ireland, arid unworthy of be- ing defcended from their Heremonian Lords. USHER, no doubt with fome degree of pleafure, found that, in the printed copies of Jerome, the British canibals of the holy Fa- ther were the Scots-)- The Primate remarks, at the fame time, that fome manufcripts cal- led them Attifcotti, Catitti, Cattacotti, and Attagotti : but Cambden conjectures, with reafon, that thofe names ought to be read Attacotti, according to the orthography fol- lowed by Marcellinus. Should we give the preference to the reading which Uiher found in print, there arifes a proof that the Scots, contrary to his own pofition, were fettled in Britain in the fourth age. If we adopt the opinion of Cambden, the Irilh cannot pof- fibly have any right to the Attacotti. That the Attacotti poiTefTed the county of Gallo- way, is highly probable : from a pafTage in Marcellinus, we may naturally infer, that they were more connected with the Scots than with the Picls ; confequently, that they pofTerTed a part of the wefiern coafl, rather than that of the German oceanj. j Brit. Ecclef. ant. p. 307, 308. \ Pidi, Saxonefque, et Scctti & Attacotti Bfitannos zrumnis vexavere Ammun. Marcell. 1. 26. CONTENTS CONTENTS, Page DISSERT. I. f | M-I E remote antiquities of na- X tions either entirely fabulous, or full of uncertainty, i DISSERT. II. General obfervations on the firft migrations of Afratic colonies into Europe. The Gauls the progenitors of the ancient Bri- tifh. Of the Caledonians. The etymon of their name, 1 8 DISSERT. III. Of the Pitts. That they were the pofterity of the Caledonians, 27 DISSERT. IV. Of the Pictifh monarchy, 34 DISSERT. V. Of the Pictifh language, 45 DISSERT. VI. Of the Scots, 56 DISSERT. VII. The Irifh antiquities peculiarly dark and fabulous, 69 DISSERT. VIII. Of the original inhabitants of Ireland. That they went from Caledonia. Why the Irifh and Britifh Scots were called Gaels, 83 DISSERT. IX. Why the genuine pofterity of the ancient Caledonians were called Picts and Scots, 93 DISSERT. X. The Highlanders ftrangers to the national name of the Scots. Call themfelves Albanicb^ or ancient Britons Gael, or Celtas. Obfervations on the Irifh, Galic and Welch Languages, 104 DISSERT. XL Of the genius, manners and cuf- tomsof the Caledonians, Pifts and Scots, 117 DISSERT. XII. A tradition preferved by Bede co-fider'rd. A parallel between the manners and cuftoms of the Caledonians and ancient Germans CONTENTS. Page Germans. General reflections on the fub- jeft, 137 DISSERT. XIII. Of the degrees and titles of ho-, nour among the Scots of the middle ages. Of obfolete law terms in Regiam Majeftatem. Of the Merchetae Mulierum, 158 DISSERT. XIV. Of the Bards, 181 DISSERT. XV. Of the Weftern Iflands of Scot- land. Accounts given of them by the Writers of Rome. Of their ancient names, Ebudes, Hebrides, and Inchegaul. Subject to, and pof- fefled very early by the Scots of Jar-ghael, 206 DISSERT. XVI. The hiftory of the Norwegian Principality of the Ides, commonly called the Kingdom of Man, 225 DISSERT. XVII. Of fome monuments of anti- quity in the Weftern Iflands of Scotland. Oc- cafional obfervations upon the genius, manners, and cufloms of the Hebridian Scots of the mid- ages, 285 DISSERT. XVIII. Of the Scottim and Pidifh do- minions, before they were united under one Sovereign, 304 DISSERT. XIX. Of the Religion of the ancient Caledonians, 311 DISSERT. XX. Of the time in which Chriftianity was introduced into North Britain. That the firft churches of Britain were planted by Orien- tal Miffionaries, 320 DISSERT. XXI. Of the converfion of the South- ern Pidls by St. Ninian. Of the million of Palladius to the Scots. Of St. Columba, 338 DISSER- DISSERTATION L The remote Antiquities of Nations either entirely fabulous, or full of Uncertainty. IN an age fo accurate as the prefent, it affords matter of fome curiofity to obferve thofe mar- vellous fabrics of fiction, which bards and antiquaries have erected as monuments of the antiquity and illuftrious origin of their nations. Li v Y has obfervedj that this credulous vanity of ancient times merits our indulgence rather than cenfure. The degree in which this indulgence is bellowed, and the readinefs with which belief is given, depend on the various opinions, and diffe- rent fituations of mankind. I N rude times, before the love of property takes fuch abfolute dominion of the heart, that all its romantic and generous views are excluded, the moit exaggerated tales, which reflect honour on the antiquity and illuftrious defcent of a nation, are attended to with rapture, and regarded as genuine hiftory. A HOWEVER 2 On the Remote HOWEVER abfurd the credulity ami romance of antiquity may appear to us, it is both ungenerous and unfair to turn them to fevere ridicule, without firft attending to our own weaknefles : on a com- parifon of both, it may be difficult to determine who is the greatefl object of contempt ; the brave Barbarian, intoxicated with the bloody atchieve- ments, and ideal antiquity of his nation, or the civilized fceptic, refined into a difbelief of every truth, and equally removed from the partialities and fuperior virtues of the heart. NATIONAL pride, an attachment to the mar- vellous, and eafmefs of afTent, are the flrong cha- radteriflics of mankind in their illiterate Hate. Hence it is, that, in their earlier periods, almoft all the nations of the earth have ardently vied with each other, in the invention and belief of the mod pompous and incredible tales, with regard to their origin and antiquity. A fhort furvey of the anti- quities of the moil confiderable nations of antient and later times, will eftablifh the truth of this ob- fervation. To begin with the Romans, a people whom national dignity and fuperiority have defervedly placed at the head of mankind. Lucretius, Vir- gil, Horace, and what is more furprifing, Saluft, Livy, Dionyfius HalicarnafTus, and almofh all the fucceediug hiftorians, hold forth with one voice that the Romans were defcended from ^neas : but the connection between that people and the Phrygian demi-god was no more than a perfect chimera. Homer's authority, together with the convincing arguments of a writer of great erudi- tion (VJ, have fet this matter in the clearefl light. [riftical epithet of rocky to Calydort, the capi- tal of that country. Horn. Iliad, xi. ver. 640. moniotis Of the Caledonians. 25 monious termination, formed the name of Cale- 4onia. From this etymon arifes an obfervation, of which we ftjall make ufe in the fequel of thefe difTertations. DURING the jnvafjons of the Romans, we find many other tribes, befides the Caledonian? and Maat&i in the north of Britain ; though probably they were no more than fubdivifions of thofe two illiiftrious nations. Every one of thofe tribes were governed by an independent chief, or petty King. In Caefar's time there were no lefs than four fiich chieftains in Kent, and each of them veiled with regal authority. The political government of Ca- ledonia was, in Domitian's reign, much the fame with that of Kent during Caefar's proconfulfhip. WHEN the tribes of North Britain were attack- ed by the Romans, they entered into aflbciations, that by uniting their ftrength, they might be the more able to repel the common enemy. The particular name of that tribe, which either its iiiperior power or military reputation placed at the head of the affbciation, was the general name gi- ven by the Romans to all the confederates. HENCE it is, that the Maeatae and Caledonians have ingrofled all the glory which belonged in common, though in an inferior degree, to all the other nations fettled of old in North Britain. It was for the fame reafon that the name of M prior of Hogulfted, another Engliihhi torian, who had better opportunities of knowing the ftate of North Britain than the archdeacon of Huntingdon* relates * that the Picts made a very confiderable figure in the army of David the Saintj during his difputes with Stephen, King of Eng- land. The battle of Clitherbow, in which David obtained the victory, was fought, according to the prior f, by the Engifh on one fide, and by the Scots afiifted by the Picls on the other. Before the battle of the flandard was fought, the Picts infifted with great vehemence on their hereditary right of leading the van of the Scots army, and were gratified in their requeft by the King t. It cannot be imagined that thefe Pi&s who held the pofl of honour in the Scottim armies had been perfecuted out of the ufe of their native language, nor can we fuppofe that they themfelves held it in fuch contempt, as to abandon it voluntarily. BUT mould it be granted without any necef* fity, that the Southern Picts had entirely forgot Hen. Hunt. Hift. L'o. i. Joan prior Hogulf. ad annum, 1 1 38. Rich, prior Hegulftad : ad annum, 1136. D at or 52 Of- tbe Pittijh Language. or loft the language of their anceftors, through the intercourfe they had for fome ages with the Walenfes of Cumberland, the Saxons of Bernicia, and the Scots of Jarghael, it may be prefumed that the Pids of the North, the Pidls of Murray particularly, would have preferved their native lan- guage long after the time of Henry of Hunting- don. The Picts of Murray, the Moravienfes of our old hiftorians, had frequent difputes with the pofterity of Malcolm Canemcre, in vindication of the rights and privileges enjoyed by their Pidtifh anceftors ; and it may be taken for granted, that they would have likewife fought with great fpirit for their language, 'if invaded or perfecuted : nor was it an eafy matter to root that language from among them, though totally reduced to obedience in the thirteenth century, as the interior part of their country was full of mountains and inacceffible faftnefles. IT is certain that the Pifls were in a refpecV able condition after the Duke of Normandy's ac- ceffion to the throne of England. The great char- ter granted by that conqueror to his Englifh fub- jects affords an unqueftionable proof of this fadl. It 'is -not therefore credible that either the Piftifh nation or Pidifh tongue could have been entirely sxtinguifhed in the time of the archdeacon of Hun- tingdon. INNES, as well as Cambden, is of opinion that the Pifts fpoke the Britifh language. Thefe two eminent antiquaries agreed in believing that the Picts or Caledonians had originally migrated from South Britain, and that the Scots were of Irifh ex- traction. To eftablifh thofe fyftems, it became neceffary for them to prove that the Britim was the Of the Pittijb Language. 53 the language of Scotland, and efTentially differ- ent from the Gallic. But the arguments which they produce are far from being conclufive. CAMS DEN obferves, and after him Innes, that Aber^ a word denoting the mouth of a river, or the confluence of two rivers, was frequently pre- fixed to local names, in thofe parts of Britain which the Pids pofle fifed, and that the fame word is very common in Wales to this day. This can- not be denied. But the fame word Aber is found in fome parts of North Britain to which the Pidifti empire did never extend. Lochaler is the name of a diftrict in the Weflern Highlands, which had always belonged to the Scots. SHOULD we fuppofe with Cambden, that the Irifh went originally from South Britain, and alfo agree with him and Innes, that the Scots of Bri- tain are of Irifh extraction, what could have hin- dered either of thofe nations from ufing the word Aber like the Pids or Caledonians? The Irifh might have very naturally borrowed that word and thou- fands more from their Britifh anceftors, and the Scots from their Irifh progenitors. But if the Irifh, and of courfe the Scots, muft be brought from Spain, a notion which Innes inclined to be- lieve, the Cantabri and Artabn of Spain might have furnifhed the Irifh, and confequently Scots, with the word Aber, a word in which the two former nations, and therefore the two latter, were peculiarly interefted. STRATH is another word which Cambden has gleaned up from among the remains of the Pictifh tongue. It fignifies, as he juftly obferves, a valley through which runs a river or brook. But among all the local names in thofe Weflern D 3 High- 54 Of the Piftijb Language. Highlands and ifles in which the Pidts were never fettled, there *is hardly any one fo common as thofe which have the word Strath prefixed to them. Nor is there any difficulty in finding the fame in- itial part of a local name in Ireland *. THE only fpecious argument urged by the two antiquaries in defence of their opinion, is founded on a difcovery which Bede has made for them. We are told by that writer, that penuahel figni- fies, in the Picb'fh language, the head of the wall, and very fortunately that word bears the fame meaning in the Britim. But it is to be obferved, that both Cambden and Innes were of opinion that Bede committed a miftake, when he affirm- ed that the Britim and Pidifh were different lan- guages. The fame miftake, which we may infer from them, arofe from Bede's want of critica.1 knowledge in the Britim tongue, might have led him to think that penuahel was a Piftifh word, when in reality it is Britim. THE author of theEulogium Britannias informs, us, that the fame extremity of the Roman wall, which the Anglo-Saxon calles penuahel, went un- der the name of cenuahil in the Scottifh tongue. Suppofing then that Bede did not through miftake give us the Britim name of the wall's end, inftead of the Piftim, the argument drawn by Cambden from pennahael proves with its full ftrength no, more than this, that the Pidifh and Scottifh tongues differed in the initial letters of one word. And ihall we infer from that immaterial difference that they were two diftincl languages ? We might as well conclude that the Doric and Ionic diale&s * Strathbane and Strabtane, and a hundred others. # Of the Piftijb Language. 55 of the Greek had no great relation to one an- other. We muft likewife maintain that the Latin authors who wrote Cains Caefar, and Cneius Pom- peius, ufed a language different from thofe who wrote Gaius Caefar and Gneius Pompeius. THOUGH I contend for the identity of the Pictifli and Scottifli tongues, I would be under- ftood to mean no more than that thefe languages were reciprocally intelligible to the refpective na- tions by whom they were fpoken. The Irifh of Ulfter differs in a confiderable number of words from that of Connaught, as does the Galic of the weftern ifles from that of Sutherland or Aberdeen (hire. But the immaterial variations in thefe fe- veral idioms will never hinder one from affirming that the people of Connaught and Ulfter fpeak the fame Irifh, and all the Highlanders of Scot- land the fame Galic. BY the Piclim tongue I mean, in the whole courfe of this diflertation, the language of the old Caledonians, If in the fequel it (hall appear, that the Scots as well as Picts were the genuine de- fcendants of the Caledonians, there will be no dif- ficulty in fuppofing that they fpoke the fame Ian- guage. DISSER- 56 Of the Scots. DISSERTATION VL Of the Scots. it is well known that the modern French and Germar.s are defcended of the an- tient Franks and Allemans, it is impofiible to af- fign the period of time in which they made the firfl great figure in their refpedive countries, Btfore the middl' of the third century, their very names were unknown to the writers of Greece and Rome. It is therefore no matter of furprize, that the Pi els a ,d Scors, who polTeiTed but a corner of a remote iiland, mould remain equally unknown to hiftorians till that period- EUMENIUS, the panegyrift, is the oldeil writer who fpeaks of the Pids, and Porphyrius, the phi- Ipfopher, is the firft who makes any mention of the Scots. It is well known that Porphyrius was #n implacable enemy to the Mofaic and Chriftian. inftitutions, and that he wrote with peculiar acri- mony againft both. In one of his objections againfl the former, he took occalion to fpsak of the Scottish nations. The words of that objection have been preferved by St. Jerome, who tranflated them into Latin, from the original Greek, and they run in Engiifh thus : " Neither has Britain *' a province fertile in tyrants, nor have the " Scottifh Of tie Scots. 57 " Scottifh tribes, nor has any one of the barba- " rous nations, all around to the very ocean, " heard of Mofes or the Prophets *." C AM B D E N, Ufher, and feveral other eminent critics, have quoted this paiTage, as the language of the pagan philofopher, without ever fufpecling its authenticity. But Innes is pofitive that it is Jerome's own invention. He fays, " That this *' paflage is not Porphyrius's, but Jerome's own, *' this the epithet he gives to Britannia, of fertilis *' provincia tyrannorum^ feems to demonftrate. " For when Porphyrius, about A. D. 267. wrote " the book againft the Chriftian religion to which " St. Jerome alludes in that paflage, there had fcarce " till then appeared from Britain any confiderable " tyrant, or uturper againft the empire : whereas, " betwixt that year 267 and the year 412, when " St. Jerome v/rote his letter to Ctefiphont, there " had ri fen in Britain no lefs than feven tyrants or " ufurpers." After Innes had enumerated thefe tyrants, and obferved that four of them were co- temporary with t. Jerome, he concludes, that Porphyrius had no real concern with the paflage now under confideration. IT will appear hereafter, that Innes had parti- cular reafons of his own for alcribing this paflage to Jerome. Had he acknowledged with other critics, that it belongs undoubtedly to Porphyrius, he would have pulled down his fyftem with his own hands. But whatever his motive may have been for giving the words in queftion to the holy * Neque enim Britannia, fertilis provincia tyrannorum, et Scoticas gentes, omnefque ufque ad oceanum per circuitunvbar- bara? nationes, Moyfen Prophetafque cognover ant. Hieronym. Epift. ad Ctefiphont. father 58 Of the Scots. father, we mall in the meantime do full juftice to his argument. THE ancient writer, whoever he was, calls Britain, a province fertile in tyrants. If Porphy- rius was the real writer, it is certain that he wrote in Greek ; and if he meant to fay no more than that Britain was full of Kings, he furely wrote proper Greek in calling thofe Kings Twpewoi, or ty- rants ; nor would he have given us a falfe ac- count, had he affirmed that Britain was divided between many Princes. This was certainly the cafe, before the Romans fubdued the bed part of this ifland ; and the very character that an ancient author gives of Britain is, " It abounds in nations, '* and Kings of nations *." BUT waving this confideration, Innes had no authority for maintaining that our author fpeaks of confiderable tyrants or ufurpers in the empire. There is not a fyllable in the paflage before us concerning tyrants from Britain who ufurped the imperial dignity. SOME of the thirty tyrants who tore the Roman empire into pieces, after Gallienus had abandoned himfelf entirely to floth and fenfuality, had, it is true, been governors of Britain, and had afliimed the purple there. Among thefe tyrants were Lol- lianus, Viftorinus, Pofthumus, Tetricus, and Maximus, whofe coins were, in Cambden's time, feen more frequently ia England than any where elfe. From that circumftance, that excellent an- tiquary concluded, with great appearance of rea- fon, that thefe ufurpers had been propraetors of Britain. He adds another to the number of ty- rants now mentioned, that is, Cornelius Laslianus, * Mela de Situ Orb. Lib. Ill Of the Scots. 59 a pretended Emperor, whofe coins are found in Britain only *. I T cannot be afcertained that Forphyrius wrote his book againfl the Chriflian religion in the year 267. His mafler and friend Longinus, the critic, was put to death by Aurelian the Emperor, who died about nine years after that period ; and Por- phyrius may have written the treatife,out of which Jerome quotes the paflage in difpute, fome little time before the death of Aurelian, or the year 275. But fuppofing the date of the philofopher's book to be precifely what Innes makes it, the learned infidel had a good deal of reafon to fay of Britain, that it had been fertile in Kings in former ages, or fertile in tyrants in his own time f. HAVING thus eftablifhed the authority of that paflage, in which the Scots are mentioned for the firft time, we are to inquire next, where that na- tion, or the tribes who went under that name, were fettled. I T mutt be allowed that Porphyrius has not fufficiently cleared up this point. But archbifhop Ufher was furely too hafty in affirming that the philofopher places the Scottifli nation without Bri- tain, that is to fay, fomewhere elfe rather than in that ifland t. The Scots were without Britain, in one fenfe, and within it, in another, at the very time when Porphyrius wrote againft Chriftianit);. The very learned primate could not have been ig- norant that the generality of Greek and Latin authors have appropriated the name Britannia to that part of the ifland which had been fubdued by * Camden's Brit. Rom. )- See Tribellius Pollio's little book on the thirty Tyrants. if Ufher. Antiquit. lib. xv. p. 380. the 60 Of tbg Scots. the Romans. Tacitus obferves, in the very be- ginning of his hiftory, that Britain had been loft to the empire, and was foon recovered. Claudian i .troduccs Britannia to Stiiicho, with a moft hum- ble and grateful addrefs in her mouth, for the ef- fenrial fervices done to her by that able general, who drove away the Pi&s and Scots from her ter- ritories : and Eede has frequently confined the name Britanni to the provincials, in contra- diilinclion to the Pifts and their allies. All this is undeniably true and therefore the Scottifh nations mentioned by the phiiofopher may have bseu within the ifland of Great Britain, though dif- crimiriated from the provincial Britons. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS is the next author who mentions the Scots : his account of them is, that " In the tenth confu'fhip of Conftantius, and in the third of Julian, the incurfions of the Scots and Fids, two wild nations who had broken the treaty of peace, laid v/afte thofe parts of Britain which lay near their confines : fb that the- provin- cials, oppreffed with a feries of devaftations, be- gan to entertain the moft frightful apprehenfions. Qefar was paffing the winter at Paris, when the Britons informed him of their diftrefsful fituation. He was quite at a lofs how to behave in a con- juncture every way dangerous. He could not pre- vail with himfelf to leave Gaul, as the Alemans at that very time breathed out cruelty and war again ft him ; nor did he at all think it prudent to crofs the fea, in order to relieve his Britifh fub- jecls, as the Emperor Conftans * had done on a * The Bririfh expedition of Conftans happened in the year 343- fimilar Of tbe Scots, 6i fimilar occafion. He therefore judged it mod con- venient to fend Lupicinus, an able general, into Britain, to re-eflablifh the peace there, either by force or treaty *." As a learned Englifh prelate has given his opinion that allthofe Scots who invaded the Roman Britain were Irifhmen, he found himfelf under the necef- lity of conftruing and expounding apart of this paflage of Ammianus in a different fenfe. To fa- tisfy the curious on this head, I have thrown at the bottom of the page the bifhop of St. Afaph's 'Conftrudtion of this paragraph. WHATEVER fuccefs Lupicinus had in his war or negotiations with the Pids and Scots, it is cer- * Lhoyd, bifricp of St< Alaph, far from allowing that the Ro- mans had entered into a treaty with the Scots and Picls, would have us believe that thoie two barbarous nations had previoufly agreed among themfelves to invade the Roman frontiers, in fome certain places which they had marked out, as moft fit for their purpofe ; and thefe places, according to him, are the ctmdifta /oca of Ammianus ; coiuiifla being joined in the conftruclion to loca, and not to rupta quiets, according to our tranflation. But how came the hiftorian to iearn that the Scots and Picls had made an agreement concerning thefe certain places, and followed with great exaftncfs that plan of operations which they had con- certed before the commencement of that war? Suppofing that Ammianus was privy to aii their plans and compacts, what could he mean by informing us, that the Picls and Scots difturbed the tranquiiity of the province, when they laid it wafte ? Devafta- tions of that kind are never leen or felt, without a previous breach of the public tranquiiity. Gentium ferarum excurfus, rupta. quisle, . condicla IQCU limitibus *vicina, harrafled the provincial Britons inceflantly, during the fhort reigns of Julian and Jovian *. In the reign of Valentinian, thofe barbarous nations re- duced the provincial Britons to extreme mifery, having killed Tullofaudes their general, and Nefta- ndus the warden of the maritime coaft. In a word, they carried all before them, till, in the year 368, Theodofms, the greateft general of that age, marched againft them, at the head of a nu- merous army, defeated their plundering bands in every place, recovered all the Roman territories which they had feized, and erected thofe territo- ries into a new province, to which he gave the name of Valentia. Having performed thefe ex- ploits, he returned in triumph to court, no lefs eminent for his military virtues, fays the niftorian, than Furius Camillus and Papirius Curfor had been in diftant ages t. TheodofiiiSjhowever victorious upon thisoccafion, was either not able, or too much in hafle, to tame the wild nations of Britain, fo far as to hinder them from renewing their incurfions and ravages. The mighty feats he performed in the Orkneys, Thule, and the Hyperborean ocean, are the poetical creation of Claudian, who flattered the grandfon of that ge- neral. The barbarous nations of the north were pouring in whole inundations of very formidable troops into the mod fertile and important provin- ces of the empire ; of confequence, the prefence of Theodofms near the throne and principal fcenes of action, became indifpenfibly neceflary. We Ammian. lib. xxvi. Ammian. lib. xxvii. have Of tie Scots. 6$ have therefore reafbn to believe, that he content- ed himfelf with regaining thofe territories which the Scots, Picts and Attacots, had wrefted from the provincial ; and it was undoubtedly in thefe territories that he erected the new province of Va- lentia ; though Gildas, Bede, and after them a great number of modern writers, were of another opinion. WHATEVER the extent or boundaries of Va- lentia may have been, it is certain that neither the Furius Camillus of the fourth century, nor Maxi- mus the Spaniard, nor Stilcho's legions, nor walls either new or repaired, obftructed or intimidated the barbarians of North Britain, or confined them within their native hills. Impatient of controul, greedy of plunder, and thirftirg for fame, they refumed their former fpirit of conquefl and deva- ftation. They frequently invaded the fouthern di- vifion of the ifland, recovered the diftrict of Va- lentia, and continued their hoftilities, till Hono- rius refigned all his pretenfions to Britain, and left the provincials to fhift for themfelves. It was be- tween the 420 and 435 of the Chriftian asra that this inglorions, though involuntary, dereliction of Britain happened. EVERY one muft acknowledge, that the Scots and Picts were by much too powerful for the Bri- tons, after they were abandoned by the Romans. The letter written by the degenerate provincials to ^Etius the conful, exhibits a mod lively picture of their diftrefles. The following paflage of it has been preferved by Gildas : " The barbarians drive us back to the fea : the fea drives us back to the barbarians: inevitable deftruction muft be our fate, in either of thei'e ways : we are either killed or drowned." SOME 64 Of the' Scots SOME learned men, whofe prejudices have lee! them far in extenuating the national antiquity of the Britifh Scots, have found themfelves under a neceility of allowing that the people who went under that name had fettlements of their own in this ifland, within lefs than a century after it was abandoned by the Romans. But no Greek or Ro- man writer has informed them that the Scots had no fettlements in Britain before the end or middle of the fifth century. Ammianus Marcellinus has not even furnifned them with a dark hint, that the Scots who invaded the Reman province in the reign of Conftans, Conftantius, Julian, Jovian, and Valentinian, were Irifh. This is fo far from being the cafe, that he fays, in plain terms, " That he had, in that part of his hiftory which related to the Emperor Conftans, given the exacted account of Britain, whether we regard its fituation or inha- bitants ; that it was therefore urnecefTary to re- peat that account in the hiftory of Valentinian ; and that, of courfe, it was fufficient for him to fay, that, in the reign of that Emperor, the Pi&s^ who were divided into two nations, the Deucale- donians and Vecturiones, likewise the Attacots, a warlike race of men, and the Scots, roamed about through different parts of the province, and corn+ mitted many depredations *." BUT, from the latter part of this very paiT?.ge, fome antiquaries of note have concluded, that the Scots of Valen-tioian's time were no more than vagabonds in this ifland, and confequentiy unpof- fefTed of any fettlements. The hiftorian, after mentioning the Scots, adds immediately, per di~ * Ammian. lib. xxvii. , virfa Of the Scots. 65 verfa vagantes y " a people without any fixed ha- bitations." BEFORE this criticifm is admitted, we mult take the liberty to afk, whether the Pi another grand- fon of Nemedius, who failed with his fquadron to the Northern parts of Europe ; the third was Briatan Maol, who landed in the North of Scot- laid. From this illuftrious leader Britain derives its name, and the Welch their origin. ABOUT two hundred and fixteen years after the death of Nemedius, the defcerdants of Simon Breac, and of his followers, returned from Greece into Ireland. They were conducted thither by five Princes or Chieftains of a very high reputa- tion ; ai d as a fifth part of the men who com- pofed this new colony fell to the (hare of each of the- faid Princes, it was agreed that the ifland mould be divided into five almoft equal parts, and that one of thefe divifions fhould be allotted to each of the five Princes. The Iriili hiftoriars have taken care to preferve the names of thefe old provincial Kings, and their fubjecls are the men whom they (hie Firkolgs. I F any one inclines to learn how thsfe Firholgs were driven out of Inland, or totally enflaved af- ter the lofs of a hundred thouiard men in one bat- tle, the Irifh hiftorians will inform him very par- ticularly. They will let him know likewife that the Tuatb de Dannans^ by whom thefe Firbolgs were deftroyed, or brought under the yoke, were a generation of Necromancers who came from Attica, Bceotia, and Achaia into Denmark, from Denmark into Scotland, and from Scotland into Ireland. "'" "RE Dark and Fabulous. 73 THERE are two very remarkable circumftances tn the hiftory of thefe 'Tuath de Dannans^ which we cannot pafs over in filence : the firfl is, that they underflood magic to fuch a degree of per- fection, that they could reftore life to thofe who had been flain in battle, and bring them into the field the next day : but in fpite of their enchant- ments, the Afifyrians were too many for them, and accordingly drove them out of Greece. The fe- cond circumftance that deferves our attention is this : from the four cities which the Tuath de Dan- nans poflefled in Denmark, they carried away fome noble reliques, a fpear, a fword, a cauldron, and a (lone. The laft of thefe curiolities was called lia fail, and was that fatal marble chair on which the monarchs of Ireland firlt, and after- wards the Kings of Scotland were crowned. Lia fail was pofTeiled of a very extraordinary virtue till after the birth of Chrifl. Whenever an Irim monarch was crowned, it made a ftrange noife, and appeared in a liirprizing agitation. BUT neither the wonder working forceries of the Tuath de Dannans, nor the ama?ing virtues of their Danifh reliques were able to deliver them out of the hands of the Gadelians, when they in- vaded Ireland. Thefe Gadelians were the defcen- dants of the celebrated Gathelus, and from him they derived their name. GATHELUS or Gathelglas was a great perfon- age who lived in Egypt, and contracted a friend- fhip with Mofes the legiflator of the Jews. His mother was Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh Cin-, gris, and his father was JV//, a Prince of extra- ordinary learning and rare accomplifhments. Niul was the fon of the illuilrious Feniufa Forfa, a Scythian 74 Vbe Irijh Antiquities Scythian monarch, cotemporary with Kimrod, and the fame monarch that, by the aififtance of two excellent fcholars, invented the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Irifh alphabets. THE precife time in which the pofterity of Gathelus came into Spain, after a long feries of ftrange peregrinations by iea and land, the man- ner in which they pofTeffed themfelves afterwards of Ireland, and the means by which they at laft conquered a great part of North Britain, are re- lated fully and minutely by that Irifh hiftorian from whom I have borrowed every thing told in this fedion concerning the Partholanians, Neme- dians, Firbolgs, and Tuath de Dannans *. ACCORDING to the fame writer, the Gadelians or Scots conquered Ireland about the year of the world two thoufand feven hundred and thirty-fix, or about thirteen hundred years before the birth of (Thrift. The chief leaders under whofe conduct the Gadelians made that conqueft, were Heber and Heremon, two fons of Milefius, King of Spain, who was married to a fecond Scota, the daughter of another Pharoah, quite different from him al- ready mentioned. From either of thefe two Sco- ta's, the Gadelians have been called Scots ; and it is becaufe all the Kings of Ireland, from the Spa- nifh to the Englifh conqueft of that ifland, were defcended from Heber and Heremon, the fons of Milefius, that the Irifh hiftorians call them the Princes of the Mile/tan race. A N ingenious author who lately publifhed fome differtations concerning the ancient hiftory of Ire r land, makes no difficulty of affirming that all the * Keating. antiquaries. Dark and Fabulous. 75 antiquaries of that country are unanimoufly agreed in fixing the epoch of the Milefian colony's arrival in Ireland about a thoufand years before Chrifl * ; but that gentleman could not have been ignorant that Keating, Kennedy and others had placed the fettlement of that colony in Ireland much earlier. DONALD O NEIL, King of Ulfter, informs Pope John XXII. that the three fons of Milefms had come into Hibernia from Cantabria, more than three thoufand and five hundred years before that in which he wrote his letter to his Holinefs, which was in the year 1317. This hiftorical cu- riofity has been preferved by John de Fordun, and it may be prefumed that the King of Ulfter, and thofe other Princes who joined him in his epifto- lary correfpondence with the Pope, would have * Mr. O Connor's Diflert. on the ancient Hift. of Ireland, p. 110 This O Connor, fince Dr. Macpherfon's death, has publiflied another edition of his work, and has given an addi- tional diflertation to the world, with remarks upon Mr. Mac- pherfon, the tranflator of Oifian's poems. He feems to have been fo galled with what that gentleman hat faid concerning the antiquities of Ireland, in his prefatory difFertatioris to, and notes upon, the works of Clfian, that he has totally laid afide good fenfe and argument, for fcuniliiy and perfonal abufe. It is however to be hoped Mr. Macpherfon will not ho- nour with a reply fuch an illiberal attack, which is as impotent as it is low and ungentlemanny. When a man appears extream- ly angry upon a fubjedt, which can only be fupported by cool and temperate difquifition, it is a conclusive argument that he is fenfible of the weaknefs of his caufe, or extreamly diffident of his own abilities to defend it. But as the character of modefty is not very confpicuous in Mr. O Connor's works, it would feem to me that his intemperate rage had its rife from a narrow and irrafcible fpirit, thrown into confufion by the difcovery made, by Mr. Macpherfon, of the fabuloufnefs of the Milefian fyflern, which he himlelf had been at much pains to adorn. Hinc ilfo lacbrym Antiquities eloquence, philofophy and hiftory. The philolo- gical parts of learning were in great requefl among them. Philofophy was patronized by their Kings, recommended by Fileas, and became the ftudy of their great men, as without it no dignities could be obtained in the ftate. The Irilh bards and fennachies had hereditary fees fettled upon their families ; and as they were obliged, by the (land- ing laws of the kingdom, to confine themfelves to the proper bufinefs of their profellion, it muft be prefumed that they made an extraordinary profV ciency. " BUT the Irifh hiftoriographers appointed by authority muft have been peculiarly induftrious and faithful. Their falaries were great ; and their compofitions were to undergo a very ftricl: and impartial examination, in the public afTemblies of the ftates of the kingdom. The Irifh held trien- nial parliaments at Tar a. A committee of every parliament was appointed to revife the work of every hiftoriographer, before it could be publifh- ed : and as it was prudently confidered that the fpirit of party might prevail in one of thefe com- mittees and parliaments, it was ordained, that the fame work mould be re-examined by a new committee of a fubfequent parliament." ALL that has been advanced here concerning the life of letters in Ireland, from the arrival of the Mi- lefian colony, and concerning the flouriming ftate of learning there, has been copied from Mr. O Con- nor's Diflertations. O Flaherty had likewife been at great pains to juftify the pretenfions of his countrymen to an early knowledge of the fcien- ces : But O Connor has equalled him in zeal, and exceeded him in dogmatical aflertions. IT Dark and Fabulous. 79 IT is needlefs to make any anfwer to the ac- count of the learning of Ireland given by this writer, fimply on his own authority. The inge- nious father Innes * has long ago convinced the candid and impartial, that the Irifh were wholly unacquainted with letters, till St. Patric brought them into their country, about the Year 432. ONE of his arguments, and a very plaufible one, is, that the very words in the Irifh tongue which exprefs what in Englifh we call books, pens, paper, reading, writing, and letters, are ma- nifeftly Latin ones Hibernized. INNES has totally deftroyed all the proofs which O Flaherty had piled up in fupport of this abfurd doctrine, and evinced, in the moft fatisfaftory manner, that the Bethluu nion of the modern Irifh is no more than the invention of a late age. All the Irifh letters may be feen in Latin manufcripts written in foreign countries, which had not the lead Intercourfe with Ireland. THOSE who defire to be more fully fatisfkd in this matter, may confult Mr. Innes t ; and to his arguments I (hall beg leave to add one or two more, with a particular view to the doctrine pro- mulgated by O Connor. WERE it true that Ireland had been the feat of learning, and the mother of the fciences, long before the commencement of the Chriftian sera, it is ahfolutely incredible that the old Hibernians fhould have been fo unfavourably characterized by Strabo, Mela, and Soli n us. It is impoffible * Mr. Innes's zd part of his Critical Eflay. f Mr. Innes's ad part of bis Critical EfTay, chap i. art. z, 3. 4- to So *Ths Irijb Antiquities to believe that no accounts of their extraordina- ry genius and paflion for literature, their unexam- pled proficiency in philofophical knowledge, their moft laudable rrmnificence to the profeflors of e- loquence, poetry, and theology, could have tranf- pired, efpecially as the fea-ports of Jreland were better known than thofe of Britain, and more frequented by foreigners. By what ftrange fata- lity has it happened, that the inhabitants of a country, fo wonderfully well civilized, fo early im- proved by their intercourfe with Phoenicians, Car- thaginians, Perfians, and Egyptians, and fo un- conquerably tenacious of thofe excellent inftitu- tions which their anceftors tranfmitted to them, could have been reprefented by Strabo as favages more wild and unpolifhed than the Britons ? Or could they have been defcribed by Mela, as the moft uncultivated of all nations ? The character which Solinus has drawn of them is equally un- favourable : he calls them a nation void of hu- manity > unfafpitable, and every way barbarous and atheijtical. Thefe characters were certainly too fevere : the vices and ignorance of the old Irifh mufl have been cruelly exaggerated, and the wri- ters now mentioned mufl not have been properly informed. But had the people of Ireland been that humane, generous, polite and literary people whom O Connor has defcribed them, it is impoflible to imagine that the world could have been fb unjuft to them, or that the writers now mentioned could have been fo grofsly miflaken. BESIDES, if it be certain that Ireland was the grand Emporium of the North in the firft cen- tury ; that the Kings and armies of that country fought in Caledonia, againft Agrico!a, before the Scots Dark and Fabulous. 2i Scots were fettled in North Britain ; that the Picts maintained a conftant intercourfe with the inha- bitants of Hibernia, from the commencement of their refpeclive monarchies ; and that they fre- quently intermarried with their bell families : If all this be true, how was it poffible that the old Caledonians and Picls could have been totally unacquainted with letters, and could have re^ mained in their uncultivated ftate till the third or fourth century ? IF it is true, that Anglefey, on account of its vicinity to Ireland, then the country of literature and fcience, was the great Britilh univerfity for Druidical knowledge ; if it is certain that there was the metropolitan's feat, and that the philofo- phersof Gaul came thither to finim their educa- tion * ; how could South Britain have been defti- tute of hiftories, books and letters, till it was conquered and polifhed by the Romans ? SIR James Ware, one of the moft diligent, and undoubtedly one of the moft learned antiqua- ries that Ireland ever produced, has, in feveral paffages of his works, given the fandion of his authority to the fyftem which we have been now defending. That learned gentleman, though very willing to do all poflible honour to his country, confeffes ingenuoully, that all the knowledge now remaining of ivbat pajj?d in Ireland before the light of the gofpel began to dawn there, is extremely little t. And for that very good reafon he has * O Connor fays, that the reafon why learning flourilhed fo early in Anglefey, was on account of its vicinity to Ireland. t Perexiguam fuperefTe notitiam rerum in Hibernia geftarum ante exortam ibi evangelii auroram liquido conilat. VVauus de Ant. Hib. in prxfatione. F fpoken 82 The Irijb Antiquities fpoken of thofe matters with diffidence and cau- tion. He begins his account of the Irilh Kings no higher than Leogaire, who 1 was cotemporary with St. Patrick, and makes no fcruple to acknowledge, that almoft all that is related concerning that King's predecefiors, is either mere fiction, or totally dif- guifed with fable. He defends Bolandus in his opinion that the famous Apoftle of the Irifli was the perfon who introduced letters among them, and owns at the fame time, that after the ftrifteft enquiry, he was not able to difcover any one to- lerable writer of the hiftory or antiquities of his own country more ancient than the Pfalter Cajhd, which was wrote in the tenth or eleventh age. THIS fyftem of the aboriginal literature of the Irifli nation being fubverted and ruined, the pre- tended accounts of their ancient colonies muft to- gether with it fall to the ground. In the differta- tion which immediately follows this, I fhall en- deavour to inveftigate the genuine origin of ths firft inhabitants of Ireland. D I S S E R- the Iri/b d Cslony DISSERTATION VIN. Of the original Inhabitants of Ireland.- That they went from Caledonia. Why the Irifh and Britifli Scots were called Gaels. unprejudiced part of mankind will al* \ low, with Sir James Ware, that the do- meftic hiftory of Ireland, prior to the time of St. Patrick, which is the earlieft sera that can be af- fixed for the introduction of letters, is irretriev- ably loft. Tradition might for a time have jpfe- ferved a confufed fhadow of great events. The" compofitions of bards and fikas rriay have tranf- mitted through a few generations, fome occadon^ a I atchievernents of their heroes ^ but nothing is more abfurd than to depend on either for the re- gular and continued hiftory of any nation. THE glow of poetry which animates fome' of the compofitions of the bards, the harmony of numbers, and the elegance of thought and 6x- preiiion, have, in fome cafes, taken fuch hold of the human mind, that they have undoubted!/ been handed down through fome generations without the aid of letters: The poems of Oflian lately given to the public, may convince the world 84 ?be Irijh a Colony of the truth of this obfervation, which, at firft fight, may appear paradoxical. But a number of circumstances have concurred in the prefervation of thofe monuments of genius. When the mind is impreffed by the boldnefs of poetical figures and metaphors the memory feldom fails. Thole figures cannot be introduced into a hiftorical nar- ration. The mind flags at the dull jingle of hi- ftory in rhime ; and therefore no argument can be drawn to ftrengthen the hiftorical traditions of fennachies and fileas from the prefervation of the poems of Offian. The period, moreover, to which Oflian is fixed, is not fo much beyond the introduction of letters into the North, but their affiftance might have very early been received to perpetuate his compofitions. We have among us many ancient manufcripts of detached pieces of his works, and thefe may have been copied from manufcripts ftill more ancient. BUT the tranfmiflion of merely hiftorical events, by the rhimes of a fuccefiion of bards, cannot de- ferve the fame degree of faith. We know, in the Highlands of Scotland, how little our bards can be depended on in matters of fact, fmce we had it in our power to examine them by the criterion of true hiftory. I theiefore have rejected their idle tales concerning the antiquity of our nation, preferring the fmall, but more certain Jight we have from the writers of Greece and Rome, to all their incoherent and indigefted fables. But as trie Irim nation have not hitherto rejected the legends of their bards and fileas, we are not to wonder at the ftrange mafs of abfurdity which they polTefs for their early hiftory. As from Caledonia. 85 A s it cannot be faid that the Irifli had the ufe of letters before the introduction of Chriftianity, Co it is impoffible to prove that they had any other infallible method of perpetuating the memory of events. The art of drawing hieroglyphics on pillars or rocks, notwithftanding their pretended intercourfe with Egypt, it is certain they had not. Their wildeft antiquaries do not even pretend it ; and Keating abfolutely difclaims it in the name of his whole nation. FROM the accounts which that writer, and others who have adopted the fame fyftem, have given of the firft inhabitants of Ireland, and its oldeft colonies, it may be fairly concluded that the origin of that nation muft be investigated any where rather than in its own annals. CAMS DEN, whofe conjectures are plaufible as his learning was immenfe, feems to have been perfuaded that the firft inhabitants of Ireland muft have gone from Britain. But afraid or averfe to provoke a whole nation, at that time defperately in love with their traditionary genealogies, he fpeaks too faintly and with too much brevity on that fubjed. THE arguments brought by that great anti- quary to fupport his hypothefis, are in fubftance thefe * : " The vaft number of Britifli words found in the Irifli tongue ; the fimilarity of old proper names in the two iflands ; that confor- mity of nature and cuftoms which point out the connection of the two nations with each other ; the denomination of a Britifh ifle given by fome ancient writers to Hibernia, and of Britains to its * See Cambd. Hibernia, cap. i. F 3 inhabitants 86 Tbe Infl) a Colony inhabitants ; and la.ft of all, the fliortnefs of the pafTage from Britain into Ireland." HAD Cambden told us in plain language, that by that part of Britain from which the firft and earlieft Colonies went over to Ireland, he meant the Northern divifion of it, his arguments with regard tp the origin of the Irifh nation, would have been more if not perfectly convincing. The vicinity of the countries is a proof which pleads much more ftror.gly for the Caledonians and Mxata of North Britain, than for the Silures or Devices or Brigantes of the South. The frequent yifits of the Hibernian Scots in the Northern part of the ifland, arid their long alliance with the Pis, furnifh ftrong enough preemptions that thefe two nations were united by the ties of con-. fanguinity, or fprung at firft from the fame ftock. The two promontories now called the Mull of Galloway, and the Mull of Cantyye, lie more contiguous to Ireland than any part of England or Wales. The languages of the Caledonians and Scots were the fame, and from the fame principles it may be proven that the Pidifh and Irifh tongues were fo likewife. All thefe confiderations taken together will induce any one to believe that the oldeft inhabitants of Ireland were colonies frorn the Wefterp parts of the modern Scotland. TACITUS underilood, by converfing with Agricola, that the Hibernians cotemporary with that great man differed not much in their genius, manners, and cufroms, from the Britains. TKE bulk of the IriHi nation \nere a very dif- ferent race of men fr0m thofe on the Weftein coafl of South Britain. Their languages, though plainly related to one ar 4 other, are far from being reciprocally from Cakdonia. 8^ reciprocally intelligible in both the countries : and till the Normans conquered fome parts of Ireland, the people of that country had rather better op- portunities than the Welfh to retain the language of their anceflors in its purity. Therefore as the Jrifh differs fo elTentially from the antient and mo- dern Welfh, and is fo nearly allied to trie Galic or antient Scotch, it feems decifive that the Irifh rnuft have derived their language, and confequently their original from North Britain. I SHALL endeavour in the fequel of thefe dif- fertations to fhew that the Scots of Britain are the genuine posterity of the Caledonian Britains. Jf that attempt mall fucceed, it wjll be readily granted that the Scots of Ireland went originally from Scotland. For it may be proved that a perfedt fimilarity of genius, language, arrns, drefs, man- ners and cuftoms, has fubfifted between the two nations from the earlieft accounts of time. THERE is one argument more which may be conficlered of fome force, though of the gramma- tical kind. THE Welfh to this day call the Irifh and Scots Giiidhill*. Thelrilh and Highlanders of this king- dom give themfelves this name reciprocally. We are told by a very able judge in fuch matters, that the Picts were called Guidbill by his countrymen of old. On the other hand, the Englifb, Welfh, and all who fpeak EngJifh only, are diftinguifhed by the Highlanders and genuine kifh, with the appellation of Gaul. * In the vord Guidkiti, the letters dh arc quiefcent, fo that Jt is pronounced aimoft in Oie fame manner with Gad or Cntl, the name which the Irifli and Highlander? of ScotlamJ giv? thwniclves to this day. F 4 NATIONAL 88 The Irijb a Colony NATIONAL prejudices and antipathies run much too high every where. From that fource national reflections will flow very naturally : for- merly an unfavourable idea was annexed to the name of Highlander, and the people of that country, in return, gave the name Gaul to every foreigner or enemy of their nation, and fixed to it the ideas communicated by the words, ftranger, ignoble, cowardly, penurious, and unbofpitable. But the true original meaning of the name is, a man from Gaul. The ancient inhabitants of Scot- land thought themfelves of a different race from the people of South Britain, a people who came at a later period from Gaul, and were of courfe ftrangers to them. It became therefore at lafl cuflomary with them to call every foreigner Gaul, and every perfon who had his education in a re- mote country, or who affected to imitate the man- ners and famions of other nations, Gauldi. FROM the appellation of Guidhil or Gael given indifcrimately to the Pi6ts, Scots, and Irim, by the antient inhabitants of South Britain, Wje may reafonably infer, that the latter were perfuaded that thefe three rations had the fame common ori- ginal, and fomewhat different from themfelves. The Welfh, who are reckoned the genuine remains of thefe ancient South Britains, call themfelves Kymre in their own language ; and had they been of opinion that the old Hibernians derived their blood from their own predeceilbrs, it is probable that they would have confounded them with the Pidls and Scots by giving the fame national deno- mination to all ? To ftrengthen the argument drawn from the appellation now before us, it may be obfervcd, that from Caledonia. 89 that the Saxons who came from Germany into England, gave the name Gaul, with a fmall dif- ference in the orthography, and lefs in the pro- nunciation, to thole Britains of the South to whom they bore the greater! hatred. They called the Britains IVeales in their own language, and Gauli in the Monkilh Latin of the rimes. Thereafon why they affixed this mark of diftinction to thefe Bri- tains was, that they were in their opinion defcend- ed from the Gauls on the continent : a nation a^ gainft whom the old Germans, like their modern poflerity, had entertained ftrong national preju- dices *. As it will be afkcd why the genuine Scots call ' themfelves Gael or Gael, their country Caeldocht^ and every thing that looks, like them and their country Gaeltich, I lhall take the liberty to offer a conjecture which may tend to illuilrate the fubject under confideration. MEN of letters will allow that the Germans, as well as the people of Gaul, were called Celtes by the Greeks t. It is likewife true, that the power of the letter G was in a vaft number of words much the fame with that of K among the Greeks, and C among the Latins t. Thefe two * The inin'al VV of the Teutonic is commonly equivalent to the Gu and fimple G of the Britiih, Irilh, French, and Italian languages. Thus the Weales of the Anglo-Saxons is by the French pronounced and written Galles, as it is by the Irifli and ancient Scots Gaullme : it is unneceflary to produce more inftan- ces. See Lhovd's Com. Etymol. under the letter G. f Suidas in his Dictionary. j Thus the Romans wrote Carthaco and Carthago, pugna ar.d pucna, vigefimus and vicefimus, and the Greeks inftead of the Latin Caius wrote Feu o>-, &c. obfervatjons oo Thg Iri/b a Colony obfervations being admitted, one may venture to fay that Gaehi y ' in the language or the ancient Scots and Irifh, is the fame with the Celt* of the Latins. I F we examine the changes made by the Greeks and Romans in the perfonal and local names of the Celtic language, the etymon now propofed can hardly be thought overftrained : at the worfl it cannot be fo abfurd as that which deduces the name Gael from the Gallaeci of Spain, with whom the Scots have perhaps lefs connection than with the Galatians of Afia and the Galat gave into this practice *. NOT to infift on the conjectures of thofe who give a Scythian origin to the name of Scots, it is evident that at beft it is no more than an idle fancy to bring the Scots from ei'her Scandinavia or Spain, till the learned are able to' difcover the * Bifaltse quo more (blent acerqufe GclOniis, Cum fugit in Rhodopen, atque in deferta Getarum, Et lac concretura cum ianguine potat equino. VIRC. Geor. Hi. Scots were called S'co'ts nnd Pifis. $ Scots among the old inhabitants of thofe diftant countries. The geographers and hiftorians of an- cient times condemn thofe two fyflems, by their total filcnce on that head ; and a hypothefis of this kind can never (land on fo feeble a foundation as the diflortion of the word Scythe *. AFTER all, it mull be cotifefled, that if is X- tremely difficult to give any fatisfadtory etymolo- gy of the name of Scots. It has puzzled the moft eminent antiquaries that Britain has produced ; and therefore I think it no dishonour to me to fail in a point where men of much greater abilities have not fucceeded VARRO and Dionyfms Halicamaffenfis difagree in their opinions concerning the etymon of Italia : nor are the derivations given of Gailia, Hifpania, * It was on the fame falfe principles that the Irifh {hewed their connexion with Spam ; but the affinity between the names Hibernia and Ibtria is no more than the flia.Iow >f a proof for fupporting their ideal genealogy. The Greek and Latin narttes of the ifltrtid are to be derived fiom its weflern fuuation, from the wintry temperament of its air and climate. It may he like- wile obfervcd, that the firft fyllable of the Latin word Hiber- uia is always long in tht Latin profody, a^id the finl fyliab'e of Iberia Jhort. From this cuctsmttance it may, wi;h fbme fhow of probability, be inferred, thai the poe'.s were Grangers to thd relation between the Spaniards and the Iiifii. To fiippofe that the Greek name of Ireland, that.is Jerne or loucrna, comes tiom the Greek word which fignifies Holy, is farely no more than a groundlefs fancy, though embraced by a kained gentleman. Kad it come from that epithet, it muft have been written with n afpiration, like H/era, one of the /l%ates t and Hfera, one of tire OEolian iflands. One of the riveis in Spam -is called hrrna by Mela. Ireland, like that river, was called lerna, from the- Celtic word lar, that is Weft ; and the name of Erin, by \vhich it has been always known by the Irifh and Highlanders of 86t* land,, is manifeftty a; compound of J&r,Wt/i, and In, JJtand. or 96 Why the Caledonians or Graecia, more certain. What (hall we make of Europa, Alia and Africa ? Cambden, with all his erudition and indefatigable induftry, was great- ly embarraiTed by the names Coritani, Si lures, and many more nations, who made a very confiderable figure in the country, which he illuftrated with vaft pains and equal fuccefs. Scaliger and Vof- lius, Grotius, Bochart, and Menage, have been very often unfuccefsful in their endeavours to folve difficulties of this kind. THERE is no reafon why the Scots mould be afhamed to acknowledge that the origin of their name is involved in darknefs ; while that of Rome, the Queen of nations, remains utterly inexplicable. Plutarch found and left it fo. Solinus gives no lefs than four different etymons, all equally un- fatisfactory. Why the capitals of Britain, France and Portugal, have been of old called Londinum, Lutetia and Olyfippo, are queftions which have not hitherto been fufficiently cleared up, and pro- bably never mall. ALL we know with certainty concerning the appellation of Scot amounts to this, that it muft have been at firft a term of reproach, and con- fequently framed by enemies, rather than afTumed by the nation afterwards diftinguimed by that name. The Highlanders, the genuine pofterity of the ancient Scots, are abfolute flrangers to the name, and have been fo from- the beginning of time. All thofe who fpeak the Galic language call themfelves Albanich, and their country Alia. CONTUMELIOUS appellations have been given in all ages not only to individuals, but to whole bodies of people, through fpite, or a fatiricai pleafantry natural to the human race. The Pa- ones were called Scots and Pit! s. 97 ones of Macedonia were a quarrelfome race of men, and therefore were called Pccones. The Proteflants of France and the Low Countries were nick-named Hugenots and Gueux, becaufe their adverfaries ftudied to make them ridiculous and contemptible. It isneedlefs to multiply inftances. The fame ill-natured humour has been hitherto general, and will always continue (b. THE Picts, who poflefTcd originally the nor- thern and eaflern, and in a later period, alfo the more fouthern divifions of North Britain, were at firfl more powerful than the Caledonians of the weft. It is therefore eafy to fuppofe that the Pids, from a principle of malevolence and pride, were ready enough to traduce and ridicule their weaker neighbours of Argyle. Thefe two nati- ons fpoke the fame language. In the Galic tongue Scodc llgnifies a corner, or fmall divihon of a country. A corner of North Britain is the very name which Gyraldus Cambrenfis gave the little kingdom which the fix fons of Jvluredus King of Ulfter were laid to have creeled in Scotland *. SCOT, in Galic, is much the fame with little or contemptible in Englilh ; and Scot tan, literally fpeaking, fignifies a fmall flpck ; metaphorically it ftands for a fmall body of men. For fome one of the reafons couched under thefe difparsging epithets, their malicious or fneering neighbours may have given the opprobrious appellation of Sect to the anceflors of the Scots nation. THE Allemans of Germany were at firft an ignoble multitude, or a motley compofition of * The kingdom of Argy!e, according to his information. G many 98 Why the Caledonians many different tribes and nations. For that very reafon, the reproachful name of Allemans * was framed by thofe who hated and defpifed them. But the deformity of that defignation was after- wards covered with laurels, like the blemifh which gave Casfar fo much pain ; and the whole Ger- manic body is now proud of a title, thought at firft difhonourable. In the fame way it may be natu- rally fuppofed, that the people of Albany were, after a courfe of ages, reconciled to the once dif- paraging name of Scots^ upon finding that all other nations agreed in diftinguiihing them by it. IT is generally believed that the Pidts derived their appellation from their charaderiftical cuftom of painting their bodies. This opinion feems to be fupported by an expreflion of Claudian f ; who mews, in another place, that the Pids conti- nued the old practice of drawing the figures of animals on their limbs, after it had been abolifh- ed in South Britain I. But when the fafhion of painting in the fame way was univerfal in Britain, it may be afked, Why were not all the inhabitants called Pifls by the Romans ? Why were the Cale- donians of the Eaft diftinguifhed by a name to which thofe of the Weft had the fame right ; for it is certain they ufed the Glqftum of Pliny, and the Vitrum of Mela, in common ? Pifltisno more than an epithet : and as Virgil would have been guilty of an impropriety, had he called ei- * AHemans, q. All mans, a compofition of nations. f* Ille leves Mauros, nee faifo nomine Pi<5tos, Edomit. J Ferroque notatas Perlegit exanimes Pidto moriente figuras. CLAUDFAN. iv ere called Scots and Pitts. 99 ther the Geloni or Agathyrfi, Pidi, without fpe- cifying the particular nation to which he applied that epithet, fo the Romans in Britain would have been guilty of the fame IbJecifm, had they called the Eaftern inhabitants of Caledonia P/>7/, without annexing a noun fubflantive to the ad- jedive. UPON weighing thefe difficulties, I am apt to believe that the name, -out of which the Romans framed the defignation of Piflt, was originally a Biitiih one, and of a very different fignification from ;he Latin word, which is equivalent to Paint- ed in Englifh. The name was very probably framed by the Scots to the Weft, or the Maatce to the South : and as it may have been impofed after the expedition of Severus, it is no matter of wonder that it was unknown to all the Roman writers till the very end of the third century. AFTER the reign of Caracalla, the defign of conquering North Britain feems to have been to- tally laid afide by the Romans. The frequent competitions of rival Emperors, the public difti ac- tions unavoidably attending fuch contefts, and a lo -g fuccefiion of Princes, foolifh, wicked and in- adtive, muft have diverted their attention to other obj^dts. The barbarians of Caledonia had fente enough to avail themfelves of the advantages which an adminiftration, fo feeble and uncertain, muft have afforded them. They made frequent incur- fions into the Roman provinces, and met with little oppofuion. Not lorg after, Conftantius Chlorus came from the Continent into Britain, with an intention to make war upon them ; but: he died at York, before this defign could be executed. It was probably much about that time G 2, that IOO Why the Caledonians that the Romans difcovered that the mod con- fiderable nation among the unconquered Britons was called Pitticb, a word correfponding in found with the Pifli in Latin : accordingly we find that Eumenius, the "panegy rift, is the firft Roman au~ thor who mentioned that people under this new iiame, IN philological inveftigations of this kind, it is much eafier to difapprove of the conjectures of others, than to offer a more rational one to the public. But as new opinions, which turn only on verbal criticifm, are very innocent, though per- haps they may be ill founded, I fhall venture to give a new etymon of the name of Pifli. THE Highlanders, who fpeak the ancient lan- guage of Caledonia, exprefs the name of that once famous nation, who were at Jaft fubdued by the Scots, by the word Piflicb. They could not have borrowed this epithet from the Romans ; for the illiterate part of the Highlanders have no idea that the Romans were in this Ifland, or ever exifled : yet the name now under confideration is very familiar to their ears. One of the ideas af- fixed to the word Pifidicb, or Piflub, is that odi- ons one which the Englifh exprefs by the word Plunderer, or rather Thief. Therefore it is not improbable that their neighbours may have given that title to a people fond of depredation : and Dion gives us to underftand, that the barbarians of North Britain took a peculiar pleafure in rob- beries ; nor was this character, in thefe days of violence and ignorance, attended with much in- famy : if the robber had the addrefs to form, and the fpirit to execute his unjuft fchemes, he was rather proud than alhamed of his conduct : all the were called Scots and PiSs. 101 the honefly required at his hands, was not to en- croach on the property of a friend or ally * 4 AMONG the Princes and chieftains whom Vir- gil has brought to the afliftance of Turnus, we find fome who bear a perfect refemblance to the plundering heroes of Pidavia. The picture which the poet has drawn of Ufens and his people may, without any impropriety, be applied to the an- cient Caledonian tribe now under conlideration. Et te montofae mi fere in praelia Nerfae, 'Ufens, infignem fama et felicibus armis; Horrida praecipue cui gens, afluetaque multo Venatu nemorum, duris /Equicula glebis Armati terram exercent, femperque recentis Conve&are juvat praedas, et vivere rapto. VIRG. JEn. 7. THE Brigantes of South Britain, the Brigantes of Ireland, the Brigantii near the Alps, and the inhabitants of Brigantium in Spain, derived their names from Brigand f, a Celtic word, which fig- nifies a robber. The French have retained the original word in their language-, and the Englifh, have the word Brigandne, which properly figni- fies a veffel ufed by pyratesl SEXTUS POMPEIUS obferves, that thieves were, in the language of Gaul, called Cimbri ; and ac- cording to Plutarch, robbers went under the fame name in Germany. The Cimbri had a ftrong * Thofe who may imagine that robbery was efteemed more honourable among the ancient Pids than among the other rude nations of mankind, rqay confult Thucydides, p. 3. b. i. t See Bullet. Di. Celt. Fol. ad, p. in. G 3 pro ; 102 Why the Caledonians propenfity to robberies of a private nature, as well as to that fpecies of depredation which goes under the name of war and public conqueft. But if the Cimbri of Germany, and the Brigantes of South Britain, have borrowed their refpeclive names from their ddlre of booty, or their fuccefs in plundering, it is far from being incredible that a Caledonian peo- ple might have been called Pifldicb by their neigh- bours, for their uncommon dexterity in the fame way. EVERY one knows, that the Borderers of Eng- land and Scotland diflinguifhed themfelves for many ages, by pillaging, plundering, and laying whole countries wafte. In time of war thefe ra- vages may have been in fome meafure excufable. But even after truces and pacifications had been folemnly ratified, the fame barbarous practices were too fafhionable on both fides to be defifled from ; efpecially as they were attended with ho- nour and encomium, rather than punifhment or difgrace. It is hardly neceffary to add, that this practice, though manifeftly incompatible with the laws of all civilized nations, was tolerated, and perhaps encouraged, till the acceffion of James to the throne of England *. THE explications I have ventured to give of the names of Picts and Scots may be defective ; but they can hardly be more fo than thofe etymo- * lam tempted to think that the ancient Selgovse of Scotland, who lay North of the Englifh Brigantes, were fo called from the word Sealg, which, if literally taken, fignifies Hunting, and metaphorically Theft The Gadini, who were at no great di- ftance from the Selgova?, ftem to be nothing elfe than Gadi- chin in Galic, that is to (ay, robbers or thieves. logies were called Scots and Pitls. 103 logics which have been infifted on by men who may be jufrJy called the oracles of erudition in matters of this kind. It may be likewife faid that I have dwelt much longer on this fubjedt than its importance deferves. In the mean time, I leave it to the judgment of common fenfe to determine, whether it is not more probable that the Pids de- rive their name from a Britifti word, than from a Latin epithet *. * Strabo, though a very judicious critic, hiftorian, and geo- grapher, imagined, very inconfiderately, that the Germans re- ceived their name from their being as like their neighbours of Gaul as if they had been their Brothers-German. Bede, though a Saxon himtelf, and the moft eminent fcholar of his time, en- tertained a fancy that the name Anglus (hould be traced up to the Latin word Angulus, or a Corner. This conceit was little better than the puns of Pope Gregory at Rome, upon the words Angli and Angeli, Deiri and De ira, Attta and Alleluja f. And can it be matter of wonder that Claudian fhould have found the etymon of the Piftifh name in the Latin tongue, efpecially as thefe Caledonians were painted, and as the analogy between the Britifh word Plalch and the Roman Pitfi was fo very clofe ? f Bed. Hift. Ecclef. lib. 2. cap. 1. > I S S E R- 104 The Scots called Albanicb DISSERTATION X. The Highlanders Strangers to the National Name of Scots. Call themfelves Alba- nich) or ancient Britons Gael, or Celtse. Obfervations on the Irifh, Galic and Welch Languages. FROM what has been faid in the preceding diflertation, it appears, that the names of Pifls and Scots were impofed on the two nations into which the Caledonians were divided, fome time before the Romans deferted Britain, by the malevolence of their neighbours to the South, or rofe from the animofities which fubfifted between themfelves. The indigenal name of the Caledo- nians is the only one hitherto known among their genuine defendants, the Highlanders of Scot- land. They call themfelves All/anich to this day. All the illiterate Highlanders are as perfect ftran- gers to the national name of Scot, as they are to that of Parthian or Arabian. If a common High- lander is afked, of what country he is, he imme- diately anfwers, that he is an Albanich, or Gael. IT in the Galic language. 105 IT is unneceflary to produce authorities to fhew that the ifland, which now goes under the name of Britain, was in early ages called Albion. To fearch for a Hebrew or Phoenician etymon of Albion has been the folly of fome learned writers. In vain have fome attempted to derive it from the white cliffs near Dover, or from a Greek word which fignifies a certain fpecies of grain, or from a gigantic fon of Neptune. \ N the Celtic language, of which fo many dif- ferent dialects were difFufed over all the European nations of the Weft and North, and let me add, the Scythians of Afia, the vocable Alp, or Alba, fignifies High. Of the Alpes Grajae, Alpes Paeni- nae, or Penninae, and the Alpes Baftarnicas, every man of letters has read. IN the ancient language of Scotland, Alpes fignifies, invariably, an eminence. The Albani near the Cafpian fea, the Albani of Macedon, the Albani of Italy, and the Albanicb of Britain, had all the fame right to a name founded on the fame characteriftical reafbn, the heighth or roughnefs of their refpe&ive countries. The fame thing may be faid of the Gaulifh Albici near Maflilia. THE Celtic was undoubtedly the language of the Belgic Gaul. For this we have the authority of Strabo. That from the Belgic divifion of Gaul the firft colony muft have transmigrated into South Britain, muft be readily allowed. The vi- cinity of the two countries, and the fhortnefs of the paflage, is an argument in this cafe equal to a demon ftration. It was natural enough for men, who had been once fettled in the low plains of Belgium, to give the name of Alba, or Albin, to Britain, on comparing the face or appearance of it to io6 Vbe Scots called Albahicb to that of their former country. Men who had come from the Netherlands would moil probably have called this new world Albin in an oblique cafe, and Alba in the nominative. And it is to be obferved, that almoft all the local narmes of the Celtic tongue are energetical, and defcriptive of the peculiar properties or appearance of places. THE Greeks became in feme degree acquainted with Britain, and its original name, long before the Romans had any opportunity of knowing either. Agreeably to the genius of their language, the former naturally gave a new termination to Albin ; and their Albion muft have, in procefs of time, pa(Ted to the Romans. But the true Celtic name of the ifland having travelled gradually into the remoter parts of it, was there retained, by a race of plain, uncivilized men, who having no iriter- courfe with the Greeks, and very little with the Romans, adhered invariably to their mother tongue, and particularly to the local names which had been tranfmitted to them by their anceftors. THAT all the territories once poflefled by the old Caledonians were formerly called Alba in Galic, and Albania in the Latin of latter ages, is certain, beyond contradiction. In the little ancient Chro- nicles of Scotland, publifhed by.lnnes at the end of his Critical EiTay, they go frequently under that name *; and Kenneth, the fon of Alpin, who was the firft Monarch of Caledonia, is tailed the firft King of Albany, in fome old Latin rhimes often quoted t. But had the Scots of Britain come * Innes's Crit. ElTay, in his Appendix, Num. I, fcfc. f- Primus in Albania fertur regnafle Kenethus, Fiiius Alpini, prceih muka gerens. originally in the Galic language. icy originally from Ireland, their Latin name would have been very probably Hiberni, and their Galic one undoubtedly remain Erinicb. AFTER the Germans had conquered the fouth- ern divifion of Britain, to thofe who remained of the old inhabitants they gave the name of Weales and Gauls, in their own tongue, and of Biitonnes, in the Latin of the times ; while they themfelves thought it more honourable to retain their here- ditary appellations of Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. AMONG the moft illuftrious nations of antiquity, few have been equal, and fcarce any fuperior, to the Gauls, in military glory. Sallufl makes ro difficulty of acknowledging, that in this refpeft they were before the Romans *. Be that as it will, it is certain they had great merit in that way. Yet the Franks had too high a regard for their own genuine fame, and too profound a vene- ration for their anceftors, to aflume the name of the Gauls, after they had poflefled themfelves of their country. T o ftrengthen the obfervation I am to make, it is almoft needlefs to mention the lonians of Afia, the Phocaeans of Gaul, the Boii of Germany, the Longobardi ot Italy, the Belgse and Atrebates of South Britain. All thefe, and other innumerable colonies, who left their native countries, and plan- ted themfelves in foreign regions, made a point of retaining the proper names of thofe nations from which they were originally fprung. HAD the Scots of Britain been a colony from Ireland, in fpite of all the hard things faid by Strabo, Mela, Solinus and others* to the prejudice Salluft. in Cacilina, cap. Hii, of io8 The Scots called Albanich of the old Hibernians ; nay, if the univerfal con- fent of mankind, inflead of three or four ancient writers, had agreed in calling the Irifh favages, cannibals, atheifts, and ftrangers to every virtue under heaven, the Scots, notwithftanding, would have admired their anceftors fuperftitioufly, and retained their name, rather than degrade them- felves into Albanich. But no Britifh Scot has ever yet called himfelf an Hibernian in a learned ian- guage, nor Erinicb in his own mother tongue. Every Scot who underftands the Galic calls him- felf, as I obferved before, either Gael, that is, one of the Celtas, or Albanich^ in other words, a ge- nuine Briton. NOT all the fenfible and quaint obfervatrons of civilized times will eradicate from the minds of the bulk of a people the high opinion they enter- tain of themfelves, for their connexion with re- nowned national ancestors ; and in every country national anceflors have a great deal of traditional fame. It is true, the merit of remote progeni- tors is fometimes very fmall, frequently dubious, and always exaggerated by the partial fidions of their pofterity. THE founders of Rome were a very flagitious race : the vagabonds that afTociated with them an ignoble and abandoned rabble. Thieves, ruffians, defperadoes, bankrupts, cow-keepers, fhepherds, Haves, ravifhers of women, murderers of men, opprefibrs and ufurpers, were the anceflors of men, lords of the world* Yet the Romans were extra- * Majorum primus quifquis fuit ille tuorum, Aut paftoi fuu, aut iiiud quod dicere nolo. JUVEN. Satyr, viii. ad finem. vagantly in the Galic language. 109 vagantly vain and proud of their origin. All other nations were in fome degree influenced by the fame puerile weaknefs. BUT in the annals of mankind it is perhaps impoHible to find a nation more vain in this re- fpetf: than the old Irifli. To fay nothing of the antediluvian inhabitants of Ireland, and not to mention the Partholaniar.s, Nemedians and others, the ideal connection they had with Scythian kings, Egyptian princefles, and Iberian heroes, infpired them wirh a very high idea of their own dignity, and perhaps with a proportionable contempt for almoft every other people. Had the Scots of Britain been the real pofterity of a people fo ex- travagantly fond of their ideal national anceftors, is it reafonable to believe that they would have rejected the name of Hibernians or Erinich with (corn, and preferred that of Albanicb, a name which the Picts and old Caledonians muft have carried in common v/ith them ? FROM the appellation Kymri, Cumri or Cu- meri, invariably retained by the Welfh, it has been concluded, and with reafon, that, inftead of being defcended from the Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, or other interlopers into Britain, they are the genuine offspring of the ancient Gome- rians or Cimbri. What therefore mould hinder antiquaries from concluding likewife, the argu- ment being exaclly the fame, that the Scots of Britain, who without interruption retained through all ages the name of Albanich, are fprung from the ancient inhabitants of Albany, and confe- quently were genuine Caledonians ? The Welm have prefcrved their original Celtic name. The Highlanders no The Scots called Albanicb Highlanders of North Britain retained the firft appellation given to the inhabitants of the who ! e ifland. It will be afked perhaps, why the Welfh have not retained the appellation of Albanicb. I mall offer a few remarks to clear up that diffi- culty. I T is certain that the languages fpoken by the people of North Wales, by the Highlanders of Scotland, and by thofe commonly called the wild Irifh, are the moft genuine remains of the ancient Celtic tongue now extant The Cornilh, Armo- rican, and Bifcayan dialects, mufl yield the pre- ference to the former three, however certain it is that in thefe dialects fome true Celtic words have been preferved hitherto, which the Welflb, High- landers, and Irifh, have totally loft. B Y the fuffrage of reafon, and from the expe- rience of nations and ages, we find that the lan- guage of a people out of the way of foreig r in- vafions, and unacquainted with the arts of com- merce and civil life, has the beft chance of con- tinuing the fame, or at leaft of undergoing the feweft alterations. Remote ifles, fecured by tem- peftuous feas, and mountainous tracts of land, eavironed with rocks, woods, and morafles, de- fended by a warlike race of men, and fterile enough to difcourage the avarice or ambition of ftrangers, are the beft means to fix and perpetuate a language. I T is true, no fituation of country can fecure a language altogether from the injuries of time, from the arbitrary power of fafhion, and from the common fate of every fublunary thing. Some words muft be imported by ftrangers, fome created by whim. Some will rife out of new difcoveries, anj in the Galic language. in and others muft be framed to exprefs new ideas conveyed by new objeds. Language, in fhort, even independent of the mixture of nations, muft be in a (late of fluctuation. But after all that can be faid to prove the natural and accidental infta- bility of language, rocks, feas and defarcs, igno- rance, fterility, and want of commerce, are its befl prefervatives, next to valuable books, and permanent records. WHETHER Wales, Ireland, or the mountainous parts of North Britain, have retained the Celtic the neareft to its original fimpiicity, purity, or ftrength, is a queftion which, like all other mat- ters of verbal criticifm, is more amufing than ufe- ful, and differently refolved by the learned in that way. Of thefe fome have declared for the coun- try firft named, others have determined the con- troverfy in favour of the fecond, while the third, unfortunate in many refpedts, and particularly in its fcarcity of domeftic writers, has been entirely left out of the queftion. EVERY one knows that the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, had long and bloody con- tefts with the ancie.it Kyrari. In fpite of all the brave ftruggles they made for liberty, and the honour of their country, it is certain they were enflaved by the firft of the nations juft mentioned, and brought under total fubje&ion by the Jaft. The intercourfe they had with the other two was too inconfiderable not to affect their language in fome degree. THE Norwegians and Danes made ftrong and fuccefsful efforts in Ireland. By them were the principal towns or cities there built. Turgefius and 1 12 Remarks on the Welch, and his army made confiderable acquifitions there, and was cruelly oppreffive. The Eaftcrlings and Normans could never be totally exterminated out of that country. One of the braveft of the mo- narchs of Ireland, Brian Boroimbe, loft his life in the famous battle of Cluantarf, righting agaii;ft thefe foreigners. The Hibernian antiquaries are agreed in complaining bitterly that the barbarians of the North made a dreadful havock of their churches, monasteries, feminaries of learning, and books. The wars, commerce, and intermarriages of the Irifh with the Eafterlings, muft have had fome confiderable influence on the language of Ireland. THE Norwegians and Danes did likewife infeft Scotland for a courfe ofages,made a conqueft of the Wefternlfles, and erected a principality there, called the Kingdom of Man, as that ifland was the feat of their fmall empire in North Britain. But fome of the Highland diftricls upon the Weftern continent of Scotland were never fubjefted to any foreign yoke ; nor has the language of thefe diftridts been either exterminated, or till of late corrupted in any confiderable degree, by an intermixture of that tongue which has been prevailing in the more civilized provinces of this kingdom for feven cen- turies back. IT will be readily granted, that the Irifh and Welfh diale<5ls of the Celtic tongue are more co- pious than the Galic of thefe diftri&s of North Britain which I have juft mentioned I mail allow Jikewife that the two former dialects were better polifhed, and rendered perhaps more harmonious. The countries in which they werefpoken produced many books, and encouraged men of letters. But from and Galic languages, its; from thefe very confiderations, it may perhaps with reafon be inferred, that they receded farther from the fimplicity of the original language than thofe who had neither opportunities nor inclination to refine or enrich it. Is it not certain that one of the academies of France, and the many book publifhed by the members of it, have contributed much to deftrdy what they call the old Gaulifri tongue in that country ? And is is not equally triie^ that the modern univerfities of England and Scot- land have, together with other caufes; almoft to- tally altered the language brought by the Saxqnig from Germany, and once common to milch the greateft part of the firft of thefe kingdoms, and ta the moft confiderable divifion of the laft. I SHALL not carry the parallel between the Welfh, Irifh, and Galic, much farther. They only who underftand the three languages perfectly have a right to decide in this difpute. Let me only obferve, that the learned author of the Ar- chasologia Britannica, one of the ableft judges the republic of letters has produced, made no fcruple to fay, though a Welfhman himfelf, that if the Irilh, Scorch, and Welfh, are compared with the ancient language of Gaul> the latter will be found to agree lefs with it than the other two. Ceftairi it is that the meaning of many Celtic words which have been preferved by the Roman writers, and particularly names perfonal and local, the fignifi- cation of which has confounded, the Ikill of but 1 bed antiquaries, may be eafily difcovered by tho(e who are no more than indifferently cbnverfant iii the Galic. To exemplify the general pofitibn laid down bj the author of the Archaeologia, the word Ifca, H er.ce ii4 Remarks on the Welch, once To common in South Britain, Ifca Silurum, Ifca DanmoniQrum, Ifca Legi^nis Secund tion. At length, after Douglas, .With a' few men of af -pioved refolution, had performed an extraordinary feat of prowefs, the Scots quitted their camp, and matched off toward their own country. ' Some of the Englifh, either to gratify curiofity, or iri expectation of booty*, took 'a view of the Scottifli camp, and found there three hundred bags made of raw deer-fkins, with the hair on them, and all thefe full of water and fleft, for the ufe of the men. The bags were contrived fo as to anfwer fhe defign of kettles. -They found likewife a thoufand wooden fpits, with meat on them, 'ready to be roafted. Such was the luxury ofthe pofterity of the ancient Caledonians, at the diftance of little more than four ages back, and fo well was their tafte calculated for a military life. See Buchanan and Abercromb/, umler the reign of Robert Bruce. *-< <-- -- : - THE of the Caledonians , Pitts and Scots. lai r r THE Britons of the South began tounderftand the ufe of the mint foon after the Romans came firft among them. There are extant to this day feveral coins belonging to their own native Kings, particularly Cunobiline and Caraclacus. The firfl of thefe Princes was cotemporary with Auguftus, and the latter with Claudius. If there were any pieces of money coined in North Britain within eight or nine centuries after that period, they are entirely loft or deftroyed. THE riches of the Caledonians confifted wholly in cattle. The cafe was much the fame in fevera! other countries, long after the world had been fufficiently peopled. An ancient author obferves, in his account of Geryon, King ot Spain, whom Hercules plundered of his cattle, that in thofe times herds were accounted the only wealth *. And Varro, the mod learned writer of his age, derives pecunia, the Roman word for money, from pecus, which 'fignifies cattle. IT is after property is long efr.abliflied v and fome degree of commerce introduced^ that money becomes the ftandard of wealth among nations. In the beginning of fociety, mankind do not think a piece of metal an equivalent for their flocks and herds. Should I be permitted to give my opinion concerning the origin of coin, I would trace it to that fuperftition which is inherent in human nature in rude times. The firft coin was probably a portable image of a Divinity^ which was worfhipped t>y a community. The beauty of the metal, and the facred awe arifing from the figure of a God, firft gave value to that kind of * Juftin. Ep- lib. xliv. cap. 4. medals 122 The Genius ) Manner s> &c. medals in the eyes of the favage ; and as enthu- fiafm often gets the better of the love of proper- ty, he would not fcruple to exchange his horfe, or his ox, for that Icon of the power he adored. AMBITION has been known, in every ftage of fociety, to take advantage of the follies and weak- nefles of mankind. Kings, obferving the reverence paid to thofe medals, by degrees fubftituted their own image, inflead of that of the God, and by their authority flampt a value upon what we now call coin. From that time forward money became, as it were, the reprefentative of property ; and the great convenience it affords, from the eafe with which it can be carried, made mankind al- moft univerfally adopt it as the ftandard of wealth. IT is probable that the barbarous inhabitants of North Britain imported the arts of hufbandry from the neighbouring Roman province. The advantages arifmg from fo great an improvement would have foon convinced them of their former ignorance : but among men inured to idlenefs, ra- pine and war, an art, cumberfome at firft, and afterwards flow in rewarding the labourer's toil, would have made no very rapid progrefs. WHATEVER may be (aid with regard to the rife and improvement of agriculture in North Bri- tain, it is certain that the inhabitants were nume- rous, robuft, high-fpirited, and martial, and con- fequently well fed. They muft have had there- fore fome means of fubfiflence, with which we are not thoroughly acquainted *. It has been already obferved, that no country could be better adapt- * See Sir Robert Sibbald's Mifcellanea cruditac antiquitatis Di Radice Chora. of the Caledonians, Pitts and Scots. 123 ed for an uncultivated life than the hills, vallies, rivers, woods and lakes of Caledonia. The in- habitants had no appetites of their own creation to gratify : happy in their ignorance of refinements, and by nature philofophers enough to reft fatisfied with a competency. If their fare was at fome times fcanty, that difadvantage was rendered eafy to them, by parfimony and patience, or was fuffici- ently compenfated by the abfence of luxury in all feafons. Want and toil could never enfeeble their bodies, or fnorten their lives, fo much as the excefles arifing from affluence have done elfewhere. AM the accounts of antiquity allow, that they were among the ftrongeft, and healthieft, and braveft men in the world. IN whatever degree the ancient inhabitants of Scotland poflefled the neceflaries of life, it is cer- tain that they were remarkably hofpi table. Hof- pitality is one of thofe virtues, which, if not pe- culiar to, is moft commonly met with in a ftate of barbarity. It is after property has taken ab- folute pofTeflion of the mind, that the door is fhut againft the ftranger. The Highlanders of our own time are beyond comparifon more hofpitable to ilrangers, and more ready to receive them into their honfes, than their more civilized country- men. Their manner of mewing this generous difpofition may carry along with it, in the eyes of the polite part of mankind, a degree of rudenefs ; but it is an honeft rudenefs, and expreflive of that primeval fimplicity and goodnefs of heart which they derive from their anceftors the old Cale- donians. " No people in the world, fays Tacitus, in- dulge themfelves more in the pleafure of giving a kind 124. The Genius,. Manners^ &c. kind reception to friends, neighbours and ftran- gersj than the old Germans. To drive away the ili a iger from one's door, is accounted a grots im- piety. Every one entertains according to his wealth ; and after the hofthas acted his part generoufly, he directs his guefh to the neareft good family, and attends him thither, without any previous invita- tion. This intrufion is fb far from giving offence, that they are both received with the greatefl franknefs and: civility. There is no diftinction made between the acquaintance and flranger, as far as the laws of hofpitality are concerned *.' ANY one acquainted with the manners and cuftomsof the inhabitants of the Highlands, would be tempted to think the celebrated writer drew this good-natured picture from them. It wa&once unir verfally a cuftom among them, nor is it yet totally difcontinued, to accompany their guefts to their next neighbour's houfe, and there, as it were, to refigii them to his care and protection. So far were the old Highlanders from denying any man the benefit of their roofs and fire-fides, as they exprefs themfelves, that many of them made a point of keeping their doors open by night as well as by day. They thought it inconfiflent with the rules of honour and hofpitality to afk the /hanger abruptly, from what quarter of the world he came, or what his bufmefs was. This queftion could not be decently put till the year's end, if the family in which he fojourned was opulent, and the gueft chofe to ftay fo long. * Tacit. De mor. Germ. cap. xxL of the Caledonians, Pifts and Scots. 135 IF it is an error to beftow too much praife on the good qualities of our anceftors, it is akb un- jufl to deny them every virtue, because we have taken it in our head to call them barbarous. Some people connect the vices and virtues of mankind with (he periods of fbciety in which they live, with- out confidering that what we call the barbar us and poliftied ftages of ibciety, equally afford a field for the exertion of the good or t>ad prin- ciples of the human heart. The only difference feems to be this : Among barbarians the faculties of the foul are more vigorous than in polifhed times ; and of confequence, their virtues and vices are more ftrongly marked, than thofe of a civili- zed people. THE old Caledonians were much addicted to robbery and plunder. Their pofterity inherited the fame vice through a long feries of ages. An - other high crime, of which the Caledonians and their pofterity of remote times flood impeached, was, that they had their women, and brought up their children in common. Thefirft of thefe vices was countenanced by neceflity, the opinion of the times, and the fituation of thofe who were plun- dered. Property muft be perfectly eftabli fried, be- fore the lofs of it can be hurt r ul, or an incroach- ment on its laws is followed by difgrace. Befides, as depredations took place only between different tribes and nations, they may be confider- ed as a fpecies of war. WITH regard to the other fpecies of immora- lity, with which Dion and Jerom * have impeach- Dion and St. Jerom. ed 126 The Genius, Manner s, &c. ed the old Caledonians, it is enough to fay, that it is a vice to which the civilized are more addict- ed than barbarians. It is only when luxury pre- vails, that irregularities of this kind tranfcend the bounds prefcribed by nature. Chaftity is one of the great virtues of rude life : when the foul is ac- tive, it feldom finks into fhameful enormities. Horace has given a very lively picture of thofe impurities which prevailed in his own time, and takes occafion to remark, that fuch criminal gal- lantries were very far from being fafhionable a- mong thofe Romans who defeated Pyrrhus, Han- nibal, and Antiochus the Great. THE Caledonians and Scots, like the ancient Germans, were remarkable for the virtue of con- jugal fidelity : " The men of that nation con- tented themfelves with one wife each, excepting fome few of their great ones ; * nor were the laws of wedlock obferved with greater reverence and flrictnefs among any people. The nuptial bed was defended on the females fide by an uncon- querable modefly, which neither public affemblies, nor private entertainments, nor love epiftles, had any opportunities of corrupting. Among the men, no one made a jeft of vice ; nor were matrimonial infidelities called the way of the world f." THE prejudice of Dion and Jerom againft the Caledonians or ancient Scots, concerning their * Severa illic matrimonia : nee ullam morum partem magis lau- daveris. Nam prope foil barbarorum fingulis uxoribus contend funt, exceptis admodum paucis. Tac De mor. Germ. f Nemo illic vitia redder : nee corrumpere et corrumpi fecu- lutn vocatur. Idem ibidem, cap. 1 9. having of the Caledonians i Pi fits and Scots. 127 having their wives in common, hasfome plaufible foundation. In thofe times of remote antiquity, it is very natural to fuppofe that the Caledonians were not very well lodged. The whole people of the family, with their occafional guefts, lay on rufhes, on the fame floor, and in the fame apart- ment. This cuftom, till of late, prevailed amongft the mod uncivilized part of the Highlanders, and was once univerfal over Britain. If we may judge of the ancient inhabitants of North Britain, by the prefent rudeft part of the Highlanders, this cir- cumftance of fleeping in the fame apartment was not productive of that conjugal infidelity mention- ed by Dion and the holy rather. THE inhabitants of South Britain were, in CK- far's time, equally unpolifhed, their domeftic ceco nomy much the fame, and their habitations juft as mean as thofe of the rudeft Highlanders. It was natural for a ftranger, of any delicacy, who faw the whole family lying together promifcuoufly, upon one continued bed of rufhes, fern, or leaves, to imagine that the wives and children belonged to the males in common. f Hence it was, that Caefar entertained that falfe opinion of the South Britons : and hence Dion and Jerom's opinion with regard to thofe of the North. But nothing could have been more rafh than the conclufions which they drew from thefe appearances. The people of Germany lay almoft indifcriminately together in the very fame manner * : and we have been already told, by a very intelligent writer, that * Tn omni domo nudi ac lordidi in Iios artus In hzc corpora which they fliook, to terrify the enemy with its noife. I have converfed with old Highlanders, who have feen fpsars of that conftruclion; The name they gave them was Trinifrdmma. The critics are at a lofs to find out what the Frdmea of the Germans may have been *. Tacitus mews that it was a fpear ; and it is highly probable that jt was contrived like thofe ufed by the ancient Caledonians. The Galic name juftifies this opini- on., Dion's Brazen Apple was called Cnap-Starra in the language of the ancient Scots, that is, a Bofs, like that on the middle of a fhield, ftudded with nails of brafsf. * Lipfius, i.n his notes on Tacitus de mor. Germ. cap. 6. t Among the ancient Scots, tHe common foldiers were cal- led Catberni, or fighting bands. The Kerns of the Englifli, the Kaitrine of the Scots Lowlanders, and the Caterva.bf the Ro- mans, are all derived from this Celtic word. The Gauls had a word of much the fame found and meaning. We learn from traditiori, that thefe Catherni were generally armed with darts and skians, or durks. Thefe were the weapons which the Ca- ledonians ufed in Dion's time; The helmet and coat of mail were reckoned incumbrances by that people, according to He- rodian ; nor can 1 find out that they were in famion among their pofterity, till the Danes and Norvegidns began to ihfeft the coafts bf Britain and Ireland. It was by thefe Northern invaders that this heavy fort of armour was introduced into Scotland, together with the weapons commonly called Lochaber axes. Thefe wea- pons were well fteeled, and extremely fharp, and deftruQive in the hands of ftrong men. Thofe who were armed with iuch axes, and with helmets, coats of mail, and fwofds, went under" . the name of Gallogluicb, (by the Englifli called GallogluJJes.) They were generally men of diftinguifhed tlrength, and com- monly drawn up againft the enemies cavalry. The defignatioa of thefe foldiers proves, that the Scots and irifh borrowed thefe weapons from foreigners. 132 The Genius, Manner s, &c. FROM the obfervations made on the military cuftoms and manly exercifes of the Caledonians, and their pofterity, in the more early ages,, it may be concluded, were hiftory filent, that they muft have been extremely well trained for war. They were certainly ftrangers to all the polifh of fine life : commerce, its fruits and advantages, were abfolutely unknown to them ; nor was a know- ledge of thefe arts at all fo neceffary for them, as the virtues which they poflefled are for men in a civilized flate. When a ftate is invaded, and is in danger of falling a prey to an enemy ; when the freedom and very exiflence of a people are at flake; the warrior, and not the merchant, is the ufeful and valuable man. Great as the bleflings of induftry and commerce are, they become fatal, when they overwhelm the martial genius of a nation. THE people of North Britain were in a ftate of war and military exertion for a thoufand years after they became known in hiftory. During all that time they had their freedom and fettlements to defend from enemies, foreign or domeftic. The fpirit of the times, a principle of juft revenge, or the laws of neceflity, taught them to be warlike, and perhaps barbarous. Romans, provincial Bri- tons, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and Englifh foes, made frequent attempts on their liberty and coun- try. When the Pids and Scots began to difpute for the empire of Albany, there was little room for the arts of peace ; nor was it poflible to cul- tivate them with any degree of fuccefs- After the Pifts had been fubdued, the numerous pirates of Scandinavia, for a courfe of three hundred years y difcouraged the Scots from minding the bufinefs of the Caledonians, Pifls and Scots. 133 bufmefs of agriculture or civil life. Upon the death of Alexander the Third, under whole reign the Norvegians obliged themfelves, by a formal trea- ty, to abftain from all future hoftilities againft the dominions of Scotland, the kingdom became a fcene of unparalleled miferies. Two fucceflive competitions for its crown, and the cruel ambiti 4 - on of two Englifh Monarchs, every way fcrmid* able, converted it into a field of blood and defo- lation. The felfifh views of two regents, during 1 the long captivity of James the Firft, the long minorities of his fuccefibrs, their conflant difputes with powerful Barons or Lords, too great to be loyal fubjecls ; all thefe, and many more unfa-r vourable circumftances, co-operated ftrongly in jdifcouraging induftry, and in encouraging violence and bloodihed. FROM thefe confiderations it follows, that the principal virtues of the nation were of the military kind. High-fpirited, enterprizing, and fea-rlefs of danger, they were almoft continually in the field, carrying fire, fword, and defolation into the ter- ritories of the enemy, defending their own againft foreign invaders, or fighting the battles of their Kings, Lorcjs and Chieftains, againft rebels and competitors. THOSE among the Scots of former generations who poflefled the wealth of the times, maintain- ed dignity of character, without pageantry. Their houfes were accefiible to the ftranger and the di- ftrefTed. Though void of fuperb decorations and a dazzling fplendor, they were adorned with nu- merous bands of bold warriors, who pafled their time in thofe amufements and exercifes I have fo particularly defcribed. I a THE ?34 ^ e Genius, Manners, &c. THE tables of the old Scottifh Loi ds and Chief- tains, however ill fupplied with exotic delicacies, abounded with the true pleafure of entertainment. The real generofity and unaffe&ecj complaifance pf the ppen-hearted hpft appeared confpicuoufly in every circumftance, and gave the higheft frafon- ing to the repaft. Next to the glory arifmg from martial exploits, the reputation acquired by acts of hofpitality was, in thofe ages, efteerned the higheft honour. The bards difplayed the whole power of their poetical abilities in celebrating the hero and beneficent man ; and they, in meriting the praifes beftowed by thofe heralds of fame. The great men emuloufly ftrove to outvie one an- other in the manly virtues, A portion of the fame noble, ambition fell to the (hare of every indi- vidual, according to his rank in life. That is pof- fibly the happieft period pf a nation, when the practice of the generous and martial virtues be- come, the amufement and object of every mem- ber of a community, in proportion tp their refpcc- tive fttuations *. IT mull however be cqnfefled, that the na- tional vices of thofe times were far from being few ; nor can it be Denied, that the Scots of our prefent times have greatly the advantage of their anceftors in many refpects. Property is now un- der the protection of the law ; and the civil ma- giftrate poflfefTes authority. Agriculture, the moft ujeful of all arts, is (ludied, and has made great * In the old Galic there is but one word for a brave and good man, and but one for a land-holder and an hofpitable man ; which fufficiently demonstrates the ideas the ancient Ca- ledonians entertained concerning bravery and hofpitality. jprogrefs. of the Caledonians ) Pifls and Scots. 135 progrefs. Commerce is underflood, and its ad- vantages purfued. The mechanic and manufac" turer furnifh their country with feveral commodi- ties, either ufeful or ornamental. Arts and fcien 1 - ces arc patronized by fome, efteemed by all, and with ardor purfued by many. Murders, robberies, and all the outrages and barbarities, are unfre- quent, and individuals enjoy that liberty which has diffufed itfelf over the whole nation. BUT notwithstanding all thefe great and eflen- tial advantages, a doubt may be raifed. Whether the virtues of our prefent times are more numerous, more fiiblime, more generous and difmterefted, than thofe of our anceftors, in the dark ages of barbarifm, poverty and confufion ? If that quefti- on muft be refolved in the affirmative, another will immediately rife out of the comparifon ; and that is, Whether our vices are fewer, or lefs un- jiatural ? N o reafonable man will deny that commerce naturally produces an infatiable love of gain, and together with that boundlefs paflion, all the arts of circumvention, perjuries, unmanly deceits, and grofs frauds. Avarice and luxury are infeparable companions of riches : nor is it an eafy matter to keep haughtinefs, infolence ard impiety at a due diftance from an affluent fortune. The fame in- genious arts which improve the tafte, and polilh the manners, have a tendency to effeminate the foul, fo as to prepare it for flavery. The refine- ments of good-breeding and infincerity go too frequently hand in hand. Falfe learning may be worfe than grofs ignorance. That philofophy which tends neither to ftrengthen the mind, or improve the happy feelings of the heart, is worfe I 4 than 1.36 The Genius, Manner s 9 &c. than the inftin&ive feelings of the foul of the favage. UPON the whole, it is difficult to prove, that opulent kingdoms poflefs a greater degree of vir- tue, and corifequentiy of happinefs, than the petty ilates from which they rofe. The queftion is of a complex nature, and would require a longer difcuffion than would fuit with a work of this kind. The heft writers of antiquity have declared in fa- vour of what we, with great impropriety perhaps, call barbarous times. Xenophon, towards the end of his Cyropoedia, has difcufTed the point with great ability. IMSSER A Parallel between the, &c. DISSERTATION XII. A Tradition preferved by Bede confidered. A Parallel between the Manners and Cuftoms of the Caledonians and ancient Germans.^ General Reflections on the Subject, IT was an eftablifhed tradition a thoufand years ago, that the Pidls were the original inhabi- tants of the Northern idivifion of Britain. Bede * fays, in his ecclefiaftical hiftory, that they came to Caledonia from Scythia^ the European part of which, according to PJiny t, comprehended Ger- many. The authority of the venerable writer was never queftioned on this head ; and a belief has ever fmce obtained that the Pidts were a different race from the Gau is, who pofleiled the Southern parts of Britain. Though the hypothefis of de- ducing the origin of the Caledonians from the old Germans is improbable, on account of the diftance of the two countries from one another, and the fmall progrefs that navigation muft have made in * Bede, Hift. Ecclef. t Pliny, Nat. Hift. Jib. ii, c. 1 3. fo 138 A Parallel between the ancient fo early a period, yet the opinion of Tacitus * on that fubjedt, weighed fo much with me, that I ex- amined this fyftem with a good deal of attention. THE refult was, a parallel which I drew be- tween the manners and cuftoms of the old Caledo- nians, and thofe of Germany, as defcribed by Tacitus. I am very fenfible, that all nations in their primaeval flate are very fimilar in their ge- nius, cuftoms, and manners. Similar fituations will, no doubt, create an identity of ideas. Hunt- ing and war feem to be the fole bufmefs of nations in rude times, and it is no matter of furprize, that there mould arife, from thefe occupations, a great affinity not only of fome charafteriftical cuf- toms but even of language. It is not therefore with a defign of ftrengthening the tradition pre- ferved by JJede, that I give this parallel to the public, being perfuaded that a fimiliarity of a few ftriking cuftoms is too feeble an argument for de- ducing the Caledonians from the old Germans, when common reafon declares againft a migration of this fort in fuch early times. THE military character of the Caledonians and Germans were very fimilar. As they fought with the fame fpirit, fo they ufed the fame kind of weapons ; the ('word, dart, and fhield. The fwords of Germany were long and unwieldy t. Thofe of Caledonia were equally enormous. It was this very circuniftance that gave a fatal difad- vantage to her braveft fons in the battle they fought againft Agricola near the Grampian moun- tains t. * Tacit. Vita Agric. c. 26. t Plut. in Mario- 1 Tacit, in Vita Agric. c. 26. WE Caledonians and Germans. 139 WE are told by Tacitus, that the German (pear was immoderately lorg*; and eveiy one converfant in the hiftory of Scotland muft know- that the fpear ufed of old in that country was remarkable in point of length. VIRGIL fpeaks of a weapon properly Teu- tonic, which he calls Cateia f. All the commen- tators, down from old Servius, and together with them all the compilers of dictionaries, have mif- taken the meaning of that word. Cateia is un- doubtedly of a Celtic original, and in the Gaiic dialett of that tongue, fignifks a fiery dart I. We learn from Caefar that fuch darts were ufed by the Perfians, a Belgic nation of German extract ||. THE compofitions of their ancient bards were the only records known to the old Caledonians. In one of thefe compofitions, Cuchullin, the fame hero that is fo much celebrated in Olfian's poems, is faid to have killed his friend Ferda in a miftake, with a dart kindled into a devouring flame by the ftrength of wind **. THE Caledonian fliield was fhort and narrow ft. That of Germany was contrived in much the fame manner tt. The authority of that excellent * Ann. 1. ii. p. 40. Ed Lips. f Teutonico ritu Soliti torquere Catefas, JfLn. vii. v. 740. j Buliet Diftionnaire Celt vol. ii. p 608. || Tacit, de moribus Germ ** That is, by a blackfmith's bellows. The words in the Galic original, are Gatbbu'ig and Craofach-dhearg, words of the fame import with Csfar's jaculum fervcfaflum, and Virgil's Cateia or Ga-tie, i. e. Gatb or Cath, a dart, and tei, of fire. The only difference is, that the Galic words are more poetically turned. ft Herod. I. iii. 47. jt Tacit. An. lib. iii. p 47. Vit. Ag. c. 36. writer, I4O A Parallel between the ancient writer *, who feems to have fludied the real cha~ rafter of the two nations better than any other, has decided this point. THE Germans painted their fhjelds with beau- tiful colours t. The old Britons adopted that cuftom. The rhimes of our ancient bards fpeak; frequently of foields ftained with red. Dio relates that the Caledonians upon whom Severus made war were armed with that fort of dagger, which the Englifh call Durk, and the Welfh, Irifh, and Scots, Bidog. This appears, likewife from an antique ftone dug out of the re- mains of Antonine's wall, and preferved among the curiofities belonging to the univerfity of Glaf- gow. On that ftone are exhibited two Caledonian captives, and each with a Durk hanging down be- fore him. I CANNOT fay whether all the Germanic na- tions ufed this kind of dagger ; but the Saxons certainly did, if we may credit Windichindus, an author born of Saxon parents J ; and it deferves notice, that the picture of a Saxon foldier, as it is drawn by that author, is in every one of its lines like that of a Highlander of the laft age, or ge- nuine Caledonian. HEROD i AN, in his defcription of thefe barba- rous nations of Britain, who fought againft Seve- rus, takes occafion to obferve, that they reckoned helmets and coats of mail abfolute incumbrances. The country they inhabited was full of lakes, morafTes, and inacceflible faftnefles, and that was the reafon, according to him, why they ufed no * Tacitus. -f- Seneca, in Apoiplocynthoifi. See Cambd. Brit. Art. Saxons. fuch Caledonians and Germans. 141 fuch inftruments of defence* But the true rea- fon feems to have been either a brave contempt for fuch unmanly impediments, or a natural at- tachment to the cuftoms of their forefathers. The Germanic Nations, in Trajan's time, had very few coats of mail, and fcarce any helmets f. If we go back beyond that period, it may be pre- fumed they had none at all. UPON a comparifon of the weapons ufed by the Gauls with thofe of the Germans, it v/ill be eafily found that the difference was very confide- rable : and hence fome might infer, that the Ca- ledonians borrowed the fafhion of their arms from the latter rather than from the former. THE Ihields of the Gauls were long, and their darts fhort. To prove this aflertion feveral paf- fages might be quoted from ancient authors. But one authority is fufficient ; that paflage in the j^Eneid, where, among a great variety of very beautiful figures, the picture of a Gaulifh foldier is (b finely drawn by Virgil %. THE armies of the old Germans were made up of feparate tribes. Their battalions confifted of men who had a natural connection with each other, men who had the fame common interefl in view, were engaged in the fame purfuits of glory, and ilrongly cemented by an inviolable attachment to the fame chieftain. Tacitus, who probably * Herod, lib. iii. v. 47. f -Tacit, de mor. Germ. p. 437. Ed. Lips. \ GaUi per dumos aotrant Duo qui r que aipini corufcant Gxfa manu, fcutis piotedi corpora longis. /Eneid viii. v. 660, &c. underilood i^Z A Parallel between the ancient underflood the art of war, as he undoubtedly did the art of thinking juftly, feems to give his hearty approbation to this part of the German difci^line*. " IN a day of battle, fays, that author, the Chieftain thinks it highly difhonourable to yield. His warriors follow his path in the field with the moft undaunted emulation and vigour. To die for him is their utmoft ambition. But to fur- vive his death, and to leave him dead in the field, are actions of everlafting infamy and difgrace. The Chieftain fights for victory, the warriors for the Chieftain t." THE Caledonians of Agricola's time were made up of feveral different tribes, and thefe headed by independent Chieftains or Kings, Galgacus was no more than one of thefe petty fo- vereigns. An univerfal monarchy was- unknown in North Britain till the ninth century ^ and after that form of government was eftablimed there, every diftincl: tribe or fmall nation fought, in a day of battle, under its own Chieftain or Lord. Thefe Lords and Chieftains were accounted the common fathers of the nations or communities at the head of which their birth and merit had placed them. They were the great protestors of all, the hope and dread of every individual, and the com* mon center of union, being equally dear to their kinfmen, their vaflals, and their clients^ It is na- tural to believe, without having recourfe to hif- tory, that their friends and dependents would have rifqued their lives in thefervice of their Chieftains with greater zeal and alacrity than any hireling * Tacit, de mor. Germ. cap. 7. t Tacit, ib. cap. 14. foldier Caledonians and Germans. 143 foldier will be apt to do for a Prince who happens to wear an imperial Crown. AMONG the Germans there was a powerful na- tion diftinguifhed by the name of Arians, of whom we have the following account. " The Arians are peculiarly fierce, and they fludy to heighten their natural ferocity by the help of art, and favourable opportunities. Their fhields are black, their bodies are painted, and they make choice of the darkefl nights for righting their bat- tles. The confequence is, that by the horrible appearance they make, and by the dreary afpect of their death-like armies, their enemies muft be greatly terrified : nor can any of thefe (land out againft fuch new, and one may fay, infernal ob- jects ; for the eyes of men are firft of all overcome in battles ." IT is needle^ to fay that the Caledonians painted their bodies like the Arians, and with the fame defign : nor will it be denied that the Bri- tons of the South were once addicted to the fame cuftom. Were we to admit the German extrac- tion of the Pids, we might alfo fuppofe that this cuftom travelled Southward from Caledonia. IT is an opinion generally received, that the firft inhabitants of South Britain came thither from Gaul. The vicinity of the two countries, and that clofe fimilarity which the Romans found in the religion, language and character of the refpedive inhabi- tants of the two countries, are the arguments with which Tacitus endeavours to eftablifh this opi- nion ; and thefe arguments are more than plaufi- ble. But whether the ancient inhabitants of South * Tacit, de mor. Germ. cap. 43, Britain 144 A Parallel between 'the ancient Britain came in general ; from the Belgic, Celtic, or Aquitanic divifion of Gaul, is a point which neither hiftorians nor antiquaries have determined. That they came from the Belgic Gaul is undoubtedly the moft probable hypothecs. But mould it be fuppofed and allowed, that the three feveral divi- fion s of Gaul fent their feveral colonies into this illand, it will be difficult topiove that any of thefe colonits could have imported the fafhion of paint- ing their bodies. Their mother country was an abfolute ftranger to a cuftom fo barbarous when they became firft known to the Romans. It is therefore not improbable that the cuftom of paint- ing faces and limbs, to ftrike the enemy with ter- ror, arofe firft from the fuperior barbarifm of the Caledonians, and travelled Southward to the Bri- tons, who had come in a later and more civilized period from Gaul. THE inhabitants of the Southern and Northern divifions of Britain muft have had fome intercourfe, either in a hoftile or a friendly way. And mould it be fuppofed that the Brigantes of South Britain were more than once intimidated by the horrible figures imprinted on the bodies of their Northern enemies, and of courfe vanquifhed in feveral bat- tles, it was natural enough for them to aflume the fame artificial ferocity which had given their enemies To manifeft an advantage. The fafhion of painting, being thus introduced into South Britain, was probably diftufed in a courfe of ages, over all that part of the ifland', and the fooner fo that it had been pradifed with fuccefs by the Brigantes, a people remarkably brave, numerous and powerful, SHOULD Caledonians and Germans. 145 SHOULD the fuppofition now made be thought not abfurd, it will be afked in the next place, how this barbarous cuftom of painting was intro- duced into Caledonia ? It is difficult to fay, un- lefs it arofe, as I have faid, from the fuperior bar- barity of a people living in a mountainous coun- try. The abettors of the Germanic extraction of the Caledonians might draw a plauiible argument from fo characteriftical a cuftom. The Arians of Germany, and the Caledonians of Britain, were men of much the fame character. Each of thefe nations was wild and ferocious. Each of them took care to heighten their innate ferocity by the help of art. Both nations exerted their whole ftrength of ingenuity, in giving themfelves the moft dreadful afpect poflible ; and to attack their enemy in the night time was one of thofe military arts which they praclifed in common *. It would therefore be a more rational fyftem, to derive the original of the Caledonian Britons from the Ger- man Arians, than to draw their defcent from the Agathyrfi, according to the opinion of Stillingfleet and Boece f, * Tacit, ut fupra, ec in Vita Agric. f- The Agachyrfi were fettled in a divifion of Sarmatia, at no final! diihnce from the fea *. The Geloni, another nation who ufed pairu ia Sarmatia, lay to the Eaft of the Boryfthenes. It is not therefore eafy to fuppofe that either the Agathyrfi or Geloni could tranfmit their cuftom of painting, or tranfport themfeives into B.hain. The feas that lay neareft to them, were the Palua iVixom, the Eux;ne, and the Baltic : neither can it be reafon- abiy luppoied that they had any tolerable knowledge of naviga- tion ; and if the practice they made of painting was a good foundation for the ftrange conje&ure made by Boece, a fimilar pia<5t:ce that prevailed among thofe Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes -j- will furnifh any oneehe with another genealogical ac- count of the Caledonians equally authentic. '* Vide Celt. Not. Orb. Ant. in Sarmatia. f Herod, lib. vii. c. 69, K 146 A Parallel between the ancient CJESAR has drawn a parallel between the Gauls and Germans. Upon comparing the manners and cuftoms of thofe two great nations with thofe of the Caledonians, one may eafily perceive that the cuftoms of the latter bear a much nearer refem- blance to the old Germans than to the Gauls. " THE Germans, fays Caefar, differ greatly in their manners from the Gauls. They neither have Druids to prefide in religious affairs, nor do they mind facrifices. Their whole lives are employed either in hunting or in cultivating the arts of a military life. They inure themfelves early to toil and hardmips. They are clad with (kins or fhort mantles made of fur, fo that a great part of their bodies is naked. To agriculture they give little or no attention. Their food confifls principally of milk, cheefe, and flefh. The only perfons among them who have a property in land, are their ma- giftrates and Princes. Thefe give annually to the tribes and families who afTociate together under their protection, as much ground as they think proper, and where they fee moft convenient. In the enfuing year thefe great men oblige their de- pendents to (hi ft their fettlements." " WHEN a German nation is engaged in a war, either defenfive or offenfive, they inveft the "general to whom they commit the management of it, with a power of life and death. In time of peace they have no public magiftrate : the Chiefs of the feveral diftri&s and Clans diftribute juftice and decide controverfies among thofe under their jurifdidlion. Robbery is attended with no degree of infamy, if committed without the territories of the nation to which the robber belongs : nor do thefe men fcruple to affirm before the world, that in * Caledonians and Germans^ 147 in order to exercife the youth, and to put a flop to the growth of effeminacy, that practice muft be not only indulged, but encouraged. In their public aflemblies when any of their Chieftains undertakes to go at the head of fuch an expedi- tion, thofe who give their approbation to his de- fign rife uf> before the aflembly, enlift themfelveg in the fervice, and are applauded by the multi- tude. They who break their engagements are reckoned traitors * and deferters : nor do they ever after recover their former honour f." "THE Britons of the North, fays Dio, till no ground, but live upon prey, hunting, and the fruits of the wood. They dwell in tents, naked and without fhoes. They take peculiar pleafure in committing depredations. They endure hun- ger, cold, and every kind of hardfhip with won- derful patience J." THE principal lines of this picture are ex- tremely like thofe of the original we have been jult now viewing ; and the more we compare the accounts which ancient authors have given of the fefpedtive nations, the more we are ftrtick with their fimilarity in genius and manners. Dio has indeed obferved that the Caledonians went naked ; but it may be prefumed, that he meant no more than that they were poorly clad. This is all that Eumenius, the panegyrift, has faid concerning the * One wpuld think that Cafar, in this pafTage, copied the manners of an American tribe of Indians upon a like occaflon. This is the very method ufed by them in their aflemblies, when They refolve on a war. There is a wonderful fimilarity between all nations in the fiift ftage of fociety. + Czf. de Bel. Gal. lib. vi. cap. 21, 22, 23. 4 Dio, lib. Ixxii. K z habitg 148 A Parallel between the ancient habits of thofe Pidts who fought againft the Bri- tons of the South, before Csefar invaded this ifland : and Casfar himfelf has told us that thofe who inhabited the inland parts of Britain in his time were cloathed with fldns *. Whatever the opinion of Dio may have been on this fubjeft, it is certain, that the Caledonians could hardly fe- cure their lives againft the natural feverity of their climate, without fome fort of cloathing, notwith- flanding all their conflitutional vigour and acquired hardinefs. I T muft be acknowledged that Herodian like- wife feems to make the inhabitants of North Bri- tain a naked people. His words are, " Thefe bar- barians are ftrangers to the ufe of cloaths, but they trim their bellies and necks with iron trappings, being poflefled with a belief that iron is ornament- al and a fign of opulence, in the fame manner that gold is efleemed by other nations. They mark their bodies with a variety of figures re- fembling many different animals. For this reafon they take care not to cover their bodies, for fear of concealing thefe figures t. BUT this author has told us in the paflage im- mediately preceding that now quoted, that thefe barbarians were far from being totally naked, the greateft part only of their bodies being fo ; and that muft in all probability have been true. THE Greeks and Romans knew very little con- cerning the habits of the Caledonians, excepting thofe they wore in a day of battle. Upon fuch oc- cafions they were indeed very flightly clad, if * Caefar de Bel. Gal. Jib. v. cap. 14. t Herod, lib. iii. cap. 47. cloathed Caledonians and Germans. 14.9 cloathed at all. Before the engagement bega n they threw away their upper garments, and march- ed up to the enemy having only a piece of thin fluff wrapped about their middle. The High- landers of Scotland inherited the fame cuftom fo late as the battle of Killicranky, in which they fought in their fhirts, having laid by their plaids and fhort coats before the a&ion began. The old Germans behaved in the very fame manner upon fimilar occafions. THOSE who are very meanly or thinly clad are in common converfation called naked. Agree- able to this ufual form of fpeech, Virgil advifes the Italian farmer whether in ploughing or fowing his ground to work naked ; that is to fay, without that part of his garb that was no more than a real incumbrance to him *. BESIDES the Ikins of beafls worn by the Cale- donians, like the more barbarous inhabitants of Britain and Germany, there is reafon to believe that they imitated the latter in another part of their habit. The Germans wore woollen mantles, and thefe fometimes party coloured, though generally otherwife. A mantle of the latter kind was by the Romans called Sagum, and a party-coloured one either Sagum or Braces promifcuoufly. The only garment of an ordinary German was, accord- ing to Tacitus, a mantle tacked together with a Fibula, or if that mould be wanting they ufed a pin t. The Fibula was a buckle or ring made * Nudus ara fere nudus. VIRG. t Tegumen omnibus fagum, fibula ant fi defit fpina conferttim. Csetera intedi, &c. Locupletiflimi vefte diftinguuntur. Strifta ct fingulos artus expnmente * Tacit, demon Germ. p. 442. K a of 150 A Parallel between the ancient of a thin plate of filver, brafs, or iron, with a needle running through the middle and joined to the buckle at one end. But if the pcrfon who \vore the mantle was too poor to afford the fibula, a fkevver made either of wood or bone was form- ed to anfw.er its ufe. The buckle or fkewer kept the two upper corners of the mantle together. IT mufl: be allowed that the writers of ancient hiftory are filent as to the garb worn by the Cale- donians, Pi6ts, and Scots; but in a matter of this kind, we may fafely depend on the faith of tra- dition, efpecially y/hen fupported by immemorial cuftom ; and we are informed by both, . that the rnoft ancient inhabitants of North Britain were clad with a Sagum tacked together about the neck with either a pin or buckle, If the agum was of one colour, it was called, in the language of the country, Plaide : if party-coloured or ftreaked with different dyes, it was called Breaccan. VARRO pbferved that the word Sagum is of Celtic extracT:. The word Bracc<$ is fp likewife. In the Galic tongue, which is perhaps the rnoft ge- nuine branch of the old Celtic, Sate fignifies a fkin or hide. The Germans, like many other uncivilized nations, covered themfelves with fkins before they began to manufacture woollen fluffs ; and as Sate was the name of their original garb, it is highly probable, that after the woollen man- tle was introduced in its p'ace, they gave it the well known name of their former covering. This conjecture is fo much the more plaufible that the form of their mantle was in a great degree fimi- Jar to that of their old covering. IF we confult either lexicographers, or the wri- iers of notes critical and explanatory, we (hall find fome Caledonians and Germans 151 fome difficulty in fettling the precife meaning of the word Brace a. But every Highlander in Britain knows that the Bracca was an upper garment of diverfe colours. The very word is to this day preferved in the Galic language, with the addition of onjy a fmgle letter, and, in the fame language, any thing that is party-.coloured is conftantly di- ftinguilhed by the epithet Breac. BLUE was the favourite colour among the Ca- ledonians *, or at leaft the mod prevalent. That their women of quality ufed blue mantles may be concluded from a paffage of Claudian t, as well as from tradition. THE only or principal difference between the drefs of the males and females was, that the mantle of the latter flowed down to their ankles, as it did among the women of Germany. The ufe of the Fibula was common both to the men #nd the women of Caledonia *. K 4 IT * Solin. cap. xxxv. f Inde Caledonico velata Britannia monftro Ferro Pitfa genas, cujus veftigia verrit Cserulus, occanique seftura mentitur amiftus. Claud. Imprim. Con. Sell. In this paflage Britain is perfonified by the poet, and is painted in the cheeks, and clad with a blue mantle in the Pictifh manner. It is hardly poflible to make fenfe of the words without taking them in this view. I liave it from very good authority, that a large filver buckle, once worn by Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, was till of late in the poflefllon of Macdougal, of Dunolly, a gentleman in Ar- gylefliire. Bruce, after the fatal battle of Methven, found hin> felf under the neceffity of flying to the Highlands, attended by oniy a fmall band of trufty friends. Macdougal, of Lorn, one of the anceftors of the gentleman now mentioned, being in the English intereft, attacked that illuftrious Prince in his flight, and overpowered '152 A Parallel between the ancient IT would be no difficult matter to carry the parallel between the Germans and Caledonians much further. Thofe who have enquired with care into the primaeval flate of North Britain, will fee the comparifon in a much flronger light, upon per- ufing, with attention, that admirable treatife of Tacitus concerning Germany and its inhabitants. There is certainly a flrong uniformity between all nations in a barbarous flate. The fimilanty muft be much more apparent between nations ori- ginally fprung from the fame fburce. But it evi- dently appears to any one acquainted with the early hiftory of the Germans and Caledonians, that the conformity between them, in point of cuftoms and national manners, is much more ftrik- ir.g than between the Caledonians and Britons *. This feems greatly to favour the opinion of Ta- citus, and the tradition preferved by Bede. But it muft be confefled, that nothing decifive can be faid on this h f ad, though I intend to do all juf- tice to the fyflem of the fuppofed (jjermanic ex- traction of the Caledonians. THE great objection againfl the fyftem is, that as in that early period wherein North Britain was peopled, the art of building and navigating veflels irmft have been either totally unknown, or very imperfectly understood in Germany, it is much overpowered him with fuperior numbers. Bruce performed pro- digies of valour, in a narrow pafs where he poftecl himfef'f fingly till all his friends were out of danger ; but he was forced at length to give way, and in his retreat loft his upper garment, or at leaft the buckle with which it was fattened. This fcuffle in. which Bruce was thus worfled, is fung by Barbour, an old Scot- tifh bard. * Sir William Teniple- more Caledonians and Germans, 153 more probable that the firft inhabitants of Cale- donia came rather from the Southern divifion of the ifland, than from any part of the Northern continent, at the diftance of feveral days failing from any part of Britain *. THIS indeed is a very plaufible argument, and difficult to be obviated ; at the fame time it is not eafy to afcertain the period of time in which the Germans could firft venture to commit themfelves, with fafety, to the ocean. WE know from good authority, that the Suiones of Germany had very confiderable fleets, either in the Baltic or in the Northern ocean, in Trajan's time t ; of confequence it may be prefumed, that they knew the art of building and navigating mips much earlier. The Teutones, who fought againft Caius Marius, muft have had fome tolerable veflels to trarifport themfelves and their families to Ger- many from the Northern parts of Scandinavia, when they went upon their celebrated expedition towards the South of Europe. This being the cafe, there is but little abfurdity in fuppofing that the anceftors of the fame Teutones, or of the Suiones, or of fome other maritime nation in the W-ftern part of Germany, might have ventured upon a voyage to North Britain, five or fix hun- dred years, at leaft, before the Suiones made fuch a confiderable figure at fea in the reign of Tra- jan. It does not appear that the Gauls underftood fea affairs much fooner than the Germans. If the Phenicians made early voyages to the coaft of Gaul, the fame love of gain that carried them thi- ther would have led them likewife to the maritime * Innes, Grit. EiTay, p. 71, f Tacit. Lips. p. 450. parts 154 -A Parallel between the ancient parts of Germany ; and nothing could hinder the Allemans, any more than the Gauls, from learn- ing the more limple branches of ihip building and navigation. IT may indeed be faid that the Gauls might have eafily learned the art of building mips from the Phocccans of Malilia, who were fettled among them, and confcquently might have underflood fea afFasrs much earlier than the Germans. But South Britain mull have been peopled, if we can judge from appearances, before the Phocoeans pof- fefled themfelves of the Maflilian diilridt of Gaul, an event which happened about five hundred years before the birth of Chrifl *. WITHOUT admitting an early knowledge of navigation, it is difficult to account how the Bel- gic Gauls tranfported themfelves into Britain. They certainly could not flow themfelves, their wives, children, and cattle, in Curracbs. They mufl, in fhort, have veflels of a larger and better conilrudion. Should this be allowed, what could hinder the anceftors of thofe Saxons, Friefians, Normans, and Oflmans, who harrafled the South- ern parts of Europe in after ages, from having veflels equally good with thofe of Gaul, or from making voyages into a country at the diflance of a few days failing ? The Saxons infefted the coafl of Britain under the reign of Diocletian ; and if we can give credit to Saxo Grammaticus, the Danes invaded Britain feveral ages before the Roman enfigns were difplayed there. But be that as it will, it is certain that the maritime nations of Germany and Scandia were very bold adventurers * Juft. lib. xiiii. c. 3. at Caledonians and Germans. 155 at fea, before the Roman empire began to de- cline ; and they may have been fo much fooner, though the Greek and Roman hiftories are filent upon that head. IF it fhould be faid, that the firfl Belgic co- lonies made their way into Britain in Curacbs or boats made of wicker and ox hides, it may be anfwered, that thefe Curachs muft then have been considerably larger than thofe ufed for many ages by feveral barbarous nations upon rivers and narrow founds. The Belgic colonies who tranfmigratecj into Britain, had originally cattle to carry along with them in their tranfports : and there is no reafon to believe that the ancient inhabitants of Britanny, Normandy, or Picardy, had more Ikill to build veflels fit for a national migration, or more courage to ufe them than the ancient in- habitants of Holland, Friefland, Weflphalia, Sax- ony, or Denmark. It is true, the latter lay at a greater diftance from Britain : But if the Britons of Lucan's time ventured out into the ocean in Curachs *, the old Germans might have likewife done fo. Should they even be too timid or un- fkilful to make at once a crofs voyage to Cale- donia, it was always in their power, after coaft- ing the Belgic Gaul and South Britain, to arrive at laft in the Northern divifion of this ifland. F R o H the parallel drawn between the Germans and Caledonians, and the observations I have made on the fuppofed ftate of navigation in thofe times, it muft be owned that there is fpme additional ftrength given to Bede's tradition, and the remark of Tacitus. But after all, the Gaulifli defcent of * Lucani Pharf. lib- iv. ver. 130, et feq. the 1 56 A Parallel between the ancient the Caledonians is the mod natural and the leaft liable to objections. In the obfcurity which in- volves fo early a period, probability muft take place of all arguments drawn from the fimilarity of manners and cuftoms which invariably fubfifts among all barbarous nations ; at the fame time, I am actually of opinion, that the Caledonians and Germans dcfcended originally from the fame Gaul- ilh flock. THE Gauls who firft porTefled themfelves of Britain, might eafily, at the fame time, fend co- lonies beyond the Rhine. In a courfe of ages the inhabitants of Gaul, as they pollefied a fine climate and foil, naturally formed themfelves into regular governments and communities, and made a more rapid progrefs towards civilization than the Celto- Germanic colonies they fent beyond the Rhine, and which, from the nature of the country they pofTeiTed, muft longer remain in a flate of barba- rity. In procefs of time the Gauls, no doubt, from an increafe of numbers, fent fucceflive co- lonies to Britain. The firft colonifts, from the preffiire of thofe new comers, gradually migrated to the North, till at laft they poflerTed themfelves of the inacceffible mountains of Caledonia. There they not only found fecurity to themfelves but to their original cuftoms and language, which, from the firnplicity of a life fpent in hunting, fuffered very few innovations. The northern Germans, certainly, from fimilar circumftances, gradually had moved towards the Baltic, and had the fame opportunities of prefer ving the ancient cuftoms arid language once common to the great Celtic ftock. Thus the refemblance between the old Germans and Caledonians is better accounted for, than from a Caledonians and Germans. 157 a deduction of the latter from the former in an af- ter age. A s the Gauls, as I have above faid, made a quicker progrefs towards civilization than their colonies in Britain, and beyond the Rhine, fo their language and manners fuffered a more rapid change. The arts of civil life introduce among mankind a new form of ideas, and of courfe new words and new manners. To this, and this alone, muft be afcribed the difference between the Cale- donians, and the Gauls and Britons of the South, in point of the conftrudion of 'their language, and the diverfity of a few national cuftoms. DISSER. 158 Degrees and Titles of Honour DISSERTATION XIII. Of the Degrees and Titles of Honour among the Scots of the Middle Ages. Of obfolete Law Terms in Regiam Ma- jeftatem. Of the Merchetse Mulierum. THE Galic dialect of the old Celtic was the common language of the greateft part of Scotland, from time immemorial, down to the eleventh century. The Scots who lay to the South of Clyde and the Forth had, for feveral ages be- fore the sera now affigned, a good deal of inter- courfe with the Saxons of Bernicia and Deira. That divifion of Scotland was, at intervals, fubjedt to a Saxon government *. Some of the Scots Kings were Lords of Cumberland, before their acceflion to the throne, and kept their little courts in that part of England. From thefe circumflan- ces we may conclude, that the Saxon tongue pre- vailed in the Southern divifion of North Britain for a confiderable time before it crofled the Firth of Edinburgh, in its progrefs to the North. * Bede. TOGETHER Among the ancient Scots. 150 TOGETHER with the language, cuftoms and laws of the Saxons, Malcolm Canemore introduced Saxon or French titles of magiftracy and honour, unknown till then in Scotland. BEFORE that time North Britain, like other un- polifhed countries, may be fuppofed to have been very defective in its laws, fie&or Eoece, and fome other Scottifh hiftorians, have given the world an abflracl: of feme excellent laws made by Ken- neth the Second and Macbeth : but their autho- rity on this head is extreamly queftionable. There is another body of laws which are commonly at- tributed to Malcolm, the fecond of that name, who in the year 1004 mounted the throne of Scotland : but our ableft antiquaries have been much divided on this fubjedt. The learned Sir John Skene, and Sir James Dalrymple, are pofitive that thefe laws ought to be afcribed to Malcolm ; but Dr. Nicolfon, Bifhop of Carlifie, Dr. Hickes, and before them, Sir Henry Spelman, contended for fixing them to a later period. I have thrown at the bottom of the page Spelman's own words *. MAL- * " Skene begins the laws of Scotland with thofe of Malcolm the Second. But it is far from being clear that the laws which go under that King's name are fo ancient. They contain many words and terms which belong to a more modern sge : befides, they refer to cuftoms, and names of offices, which btlong to a later period. Skene likewife attributes to David the firft thole four books which areimitled, Regiam Majeftatem Scotiae. This Monarch, according to his calculation, began to reign in the year of Chrift 1124, or about the tv/enty- fourth of Henry the Firft. But Randolph de Glanvilledid not write his treatife concerning the Jaws and cufloms of England, till after the twenty- fixth of Henry the Second's reign, that is, not till the year n8o; and they who compare this book of Glanville's, and the Regiam Majefta- tera i6"o Degrees and Titles of Honour MALCOLM MACKENNETH, or the fecond King of Scotland of that name, was cotemporary with Canute. He was long at war with the Danes and Englifh; and it is not likely that he borrowed thefe titles of honour from either of thofe nations. It is much more probable that his great grandfon Malcolm Canemore imported them from Eng- land. In theMacAlpineor MacKenneth laws men- tion is frequently made of earls *, among the barons. Sir James Dalrymple infers from this circumflance, that we had that degree of honour in Scotland during Malcolm the fecond's reign t. tern of Scotland, will readily find fuch an agreement and fimilitiuie in them, that they muft conclude one of the two was copied after the other. But I allow others to determine whether we have im- ported our fyftem pf laws from Scotland." " If it is impolfible to prove that the feudal lav/ was eftabliflied in England before the Norman conquefr., it is therefore far from being probable that the fame feudal law was known in Scotland about fixty years before that epoch. However ancient the league between the French and the Scots may have been, it may be doubted whether Malcolm the Second had intercourfe enough with that, or any other Continental nation, to learn the confli- tution of their government, or to know even their titles of dignity and honour, fo as to transfer them inro his own kingdom. It is hardly credible that he could have been the author of thofe laws which give exaft defcriptions of the offices of chancellor, justi- ciary chamberlain, fteward of the houfhold, conftable, marif- chal, fherifF, provoft, baillies of burghs, together with the pri- vileges and jurifdi&ion of barons. " The Britons, fays Cambdcn, difown the name of barons : nor is there any thing faid v. i.h re- gard to it in the Saxon laws. The firft mention of this tirlechat I have met with, is in a fragment of the laws made by Canute the Great-f-" See Spelman's Gloflary, under the words Lex Scoto- rum. f- Britannia, under the article, Degrees of all England. * Collections, p. 146. f Cornices. But among the ancient Scots. i 61 But the argument is not concluiive, till it is ad- mitted that that Monarch was the author of the MacAlpine laws ; and if the ancient copy to which the learned knight appeals ; be a fufficient autho- rity to afcribe thefe laws to Malcolm MacKenneth, the old tradition which attributes them to Mac- Alpin, is an argument equally good for making them much more ancient. EARL is originally a Danifh word, which anfwers to Conful, Comes and Dux, of the Latin ufed in the middle ages *. Dahymple infers, from two or three conclufive authorities, that we had Comites and Vice-comites in Scotland before the reign of Malcolm the Second t. But he allows that this title of dignity was not hereditarily annexed to families, till the time of Malcolm Canemore. The Scots hiflorians accordingly tell us, that MacDuff^ Thane of Fife, was the firft that obtained the hereditary title of Earl to his family. BUCHANAN I fays, that there was no title of honour in Scotland (uperior to that of Knight, ex- cepting thofe of the Thanes and Jufliciaries, be- fore the reign of Ma'colm the fecond. But it is not even certain that there were gentlemen of the equeflrian order in Scotland fo early H Cambden and Spelden fuppofe, that the origin of this dig- nity mull be inveftigated among the ancient Ger- " ma p .s. They quote the following paffage from * Spelm. GlofT. under the word Eorla. t Colleft. p. 146. * Rer, Scot- lib. 6. cap. J2. || We find no great mention of this order till Malcolm the. Third's time. Henry Fits-Emprefs was fent from England to receive the honour of knighthood from Dgvid the Ion of that Prince. L Tacitus ; 162 Degrees and Titles of Honour Tacitus : " Among the Germans, it is never cuf- tomary for any man to carry arms till the com- munity have firfl given their approbation. That done, one of the principal nobility, or the young man's father or relation, adorns him with a fhield or javelin, before a public aflembly. This cere- mony confers the fame dignity among them that the gown does among the Romans. Before their youth receive this honour, they are reckoned only a part of a private family ; but from that day forth they are confidered as members of the com- mon wealth *" BEFORE the titles of Barons, Earls, Duke?, TVJarquifles and Vifcounts were imported from fo- reign countries, all the degrees of honour known in Scotland were, as far as I can learn, the King, the Lord, the Tanift, and the Tofhich ; together with thofe belonging to offices, civil and ecclefi- aftical. Barons came in with the feudal law. The word Earl is of a Danifh extract ; and the language of the Danes was unknown here till after the mid- dle of the ninth century. Robert ihe Third cre- ated our firft Dukes, and James the Sixth our Marquifes, Vifcounts and Baronets. THE ancient Scots or Highlanders call the fo- vereign Ri \ the old Britons or Welfh Rhuy ^ the modern French Roy ; the Italians Re ; and the Spa- niards Rey. From this fimilarity of founds, and identity of fenfe, we may reafonably infer, that the Rex of the Latin is derived from the Celtic, and had originally the fame idea affixed to it which is conveyed by the correfpondent names in the fe- veral dialeds of that language. * Tacitus de mor. Germ. cap. 13. THE among the antient Scots. i6j THE meaning of Ri is a ruler ; and among the ancients the idea of defpotifm was not annexed to regal government. This opinion only obtained in the Eaft. The Celtic nations limited the regal -authority to very narrow bounds. The old Mo- narchs of North Britain and Ireland were tod weak, either to controul the pride and infolence of the great, or to reftrain the licentioufnefs of the populace. Many of thofc Princes, if we credit hiftory, were dethroned, and fome of them even put to death by their hibjedts ; which is a demon- ftration that their power was extremely circum- fcribed. They were not in poiTeflion of treafures, to keep Handing armies, or to corrupt thofe whofe avarice might induce them to be inftruments of tyranny. NEXT to the King were thofe great landhol- ders who are called Lords in Englifli, Lairds in Scotch, and Tierna in the ardent Galic. It it very probable that the Galic Tierna^ or the Welch Teyrn, was the firft title of fupreme dignity among the Celtic nations *. THE Highlanders and Irifh frequently addrefs the Supreme being under this name ; and hence it may be concluded, that their anceftors had no conception of power fuperior to that of the Tierna. From the fame eonfideration we may likewife in- fer, that originally every one called Tierna was an independent Prince. It was only after many fuch Lords had become the vafFals of mightier * Tkrna is derived very probably from TV, The one, by way 6f eminence, and Ferrari, l^and. Ftrrari, in the oblique cafe, produces Eran. So that Tierna is the fame with 'Tteran, A man of land) or a great proprietor of Inn A. L ?, Princes 1 64 Degrees and Titles of Honour Princes, that this name was given to perfons in a flate of fubordination. As the Romans formed their Rex out of the Celtic word Ri 9 fo the Greeks derived their Twp*o,- from Tierna. The word Ty- jant was originally no more odious, in the lan- guage of that nation, than King is in that of En- gland. It were an eafy matter to mow that fome excellent Princes were ftiled Tyrants in Greece, and agreeable to that mode of expreffion in ancient times, yEneas gives the very fame title to the good old Latinus. The third name of dignity among the Scots of ancient times was Tanift, or Tanijlear. This word has been confounded with Thane, which occurs frequently in the hiflory of Scotland. Buchanan fays, that before the reign of Malcolm the Second, Thane was the higheil title immediately after that of King. His explication of the word is, the Go- vernor of a country, or the King's Lieutenant in a certain divifion of his dominions *. Every one converfant in the hiflory of Scotland has read of Banquho, Thane of Lochaber, MacDurT, Thane of Fife, and Somerled, Thane of Argyle. THE appellation of Thane was known in Eng- land, and common there for feveral ages : nor was it difcontinued till after the Norman conqueft. In the Saxon tongue, Thane, Theger, and Tain, fig- nified a Servant or Minifter f. THE Irifh had their Tanift ; and in their lan- guage the meaning of that word is, the fecond perfon, or fecond thing t. It is not probable that * Prate: Thanos hoc eft prxfeaos Regionura. Buchan. in Milcolm. ^ Spelman's Gloffary, under thefe words. 4 Jxe Lhoyd's irifh Dictionary. they among the ancient Scots. 165 they borrowed the title from the EngJifh, as, not- withflanding of Bede's allegation concerning the friendly difpofition of the Irifh towards the Saxons of the fixth and feventh centuries, they had a mortal averfion to the Englilh ; and before the conqueft of Ireland by Henry the Second, the title of Tanift became obfolete : it may therefore be prefumed that Tanifl is an ancient Galic word. I N the fettlement of fucceinon, the law of Taniftry prevailed in Ireland from the earlieft ac- counts of time. " According to that law, fays Sir James Ware *, the hereditary right of fuccef- fion was not maintained among the Princes or the Rulers of countries ; but the ftrongeft, or he who had moft followers, very often the eldeft and moil worthy of the deceafed King's blood and name, fucceeded him. This perfon, by the common fufFrage of the people, and in the lifetime of his predeceffor, was appointed to fucceed, and was called Tanift, that is to fay, the fecond in dignity. Whoever received this dignity, maintained him- felf and followers, partly out of certain lands fet apart for that purpofe, but chiefly out of tributary impofitions, 'which he exadted in an arbitra- ry manner; impofitions, from which the 'lands of the church only, and thofe of perfon s veiled with particular immunities, were exempted." THE fame cuftom was a fundamental law in Scotland tor many ages. Upon the death of a King, the throne was not generally filled by his fon, or daughter failing of male iflue, but by his brother, uncle, coufm-german, or near relation of the fame blood. The perfonal merit of the fuc- * Antiq. and .Hift. of Ireland, chap. 8. L 3 ceflbr, 1 66 Degrees and Titles of Honour ceflbr, the regard paid to the memory of his imr mediate anceftors, or his addrefs in gaining a majority of the leading men, frequently advanced him to the crown, notwithstanding the precautions taken by his predeceflbr. THE hiftory of the Saxon heptarchy, or that of the Englifh monarchy, down to the time of the conqueft, fhews, that the law of Taniftry was very often the rule observed in the fuccefnon of Sovereigns. No great regard was paid to heredi- tary right : the Kirg's brother was frequently pre- ferred to his fon ; a baflard Prince fometimes took place cf a legitimate one ; and the will of the la/I reigning Sovereign had more than once ex- cluded the lineal heir. IT is plain that the law of Taniftry had a natural tendency to embroil families, countries and kingdoms. In all the p'aces where it pre- vailed, domeftic feuds, provincial infurreclio s, and national wars, muft have been unavoidafry frequent. But as the Scots and Irifh, and almoft every other Celtic nation, made arms the great occupation of life, they thought it highly inexpedient to intruft the direction of the flate to infants, minors, or unexperienced youths. With them it was the moil effential confide ration to have a brave and difmterefled Prince, who had been inured to war, and who could lead them into the field, infpire them with fpirit, and fupport them with conduft. They confidered the King at once as the fubject and leader of the community. I N Ireland the law of Taniftry not only deter- mined the regal fuccelTion, but likewife extended to every great eftate poflefled by a fubjecl:. The Lord of every country, and the Chief of every Sept among the ancient Scots. 167 Sept was fucceeded, not by his Ton or next heir, but by the Tanift, who was elective, and who fre- quently procured his election by force of arms*. In Scotland the cafe was much the fame, till the. eftablifhment of the feudal law, and in fome pla- ces long after that period. I N the Highlands and Weftern Ifles the Tierna's next brother claimed a third t part of the eflate during life, by virtue of a right founded on an immemorial cuftom. It is not above two hun- dred years back fmce the Taniflry regulation, and the difputes confequent upon it, prevailed in the Highlands. There have been fome inftances of it much later. TOSHICH was another title of honour which obtained among the Scots of the middle ages. Spelman imagined that this dignity was the fame with that of the Thane t. But the Highlanders, among whofe predeceflbrs the word was once com- mon, diftinguifh carefully in their language the Tojhich from the Taniftair, or the Tierna. When they enumerate the different claffes of their great men, agreeable to the language of former times, they make ufe of thefe three titles, in the fame fentence, with a disjunctive adverb between them. IN Gaiic, Tus, * Tos, and To f bich^ fignify the leginningj or the firft part of any thing, and fometimes the front of an army or battle ||. Hence the Name Tojhicb f ; that is to fay, the General, * Sir John Davis's Hiftor. Relations of Ireland. t Trian Ticrnis. t Spelm Glofl" under the word Thane. II St e Lhoyd's Irifli Dictionary. *[ The Moguls or Calmachs give the name of 7W/7v7 to their fctads cf tribes, and that of Contaifha to their Great Chan. L 4 Can 1 68 Degrees and Titles of Honour or Leader of the van. The interpretation now given of the word Tofhich is confirmed by the name of a confiderable family in the Highlands of Scotland the clan of M'lntofh, who fay, that they derive their pedigree from the illuftrious Mac Duff, once Thane, and afterwards Earl of Fife. JVfecDufF, in consideration of his fervices to Mal- Can itfelf is the fame with the Caen of the Galic, fignifying Head, and metaphorically the head of a family ; fo that &uttaijba, or grand Chan, would be expreffed by a Highlander Cantoijhich. Here it is worthy to remark the connection between the old Mo- gul or Tartar language and the Celtic. This connection offers fome kind of jprelumption that they fprung from the fame ori- ginal ftock. The great river Oxus, called by the Tartars Am, which, rifing in mount Imaus, once difcharged itfelf in the Cafpian fea, but now, having changed its courfe, falls into the Jake of Aral, naturally divides Afia into almo.1 two equal parts. The Tartars, and fome other Eaftern nations, called that divi- fion which lies to the South-weft Iran, that to the North- eaft luran, which are plainly Celtic words, Iran is compounded of Jar, South-weft, and ran, divifion ; and Turan, in the fame manner, is compofed of the two words Tua and ran, which fig- nify the Northern country or divifion. Se,e Abul Gbazi's Hift- of Tartary, vol. ii. p. 541. It were eafy to purfue the fimilarity between the Tartar and Celtic languages much farther. I (hall give one qther instance. The great Zingis Chan, firft Emperor of the Moguls, being one day hunting, and perceiving a foiitary tree, exceeding tall and beautiful, he ordered his ions to inter him under it, after his death ; which they accordingly executed with all the requilite ceremony. There grew, in time, fuch beautiful trees about the tomb, and in fuch numbers, that an arrow, fhot from a bow, could hardly find a paflage through them. From that circum- ilance, they have given to that place the name of Barchan Cal- din- y and all the Princes of the pofterity of Zingis Chan who fince then died in thofe provinces, have been interred in th fame place. Barcben Cahin is perfectly underftood by every Scots Highlander : it fignifies a beautiful thicket of birch and Jiazel trees. Hift, of Tartary, V9L ii. p. 145. cplm among the ancient Scots. 169 colm Canemore, obtained a grant, which gave him and his heirs a right of leading the van of the royal army on every important occafion. The Chieftain of the clan that is defcended from this great Earl is filled Mac in Tojbicb in Galic, that is to fay, the Son of the General. OCHIERN, or Ogetharius, is another title of ho- nour mentioned in the ancient laws of Scotland. Spelman, copying after Skene, fays, that the Of- cbiern is a perlbn of the fame dignity with a Thane's fon ; becaufe, in the laws of Regiam Ma- jeflatem, the marcheta of a Thane's daughter is equal to the marcheta of an Ocbiern's daughter *, as the Cro of a Thane was the fame with that of an Qchiern. The word is undoubtedly a Galic one, contracted from Oge-Tbierna, that . is, the young Lord, or heir apparent of a landed gentle- man. It is likewjfe not improbable that the Thane of our Regiam Majeftatem is the Tamil, or the perfon who poflefled the third part of a great Lord's eflate f. THE Brebon or Brit bibb, may be ranked, with- out any impropriety, among the old Scottifh titles of honour. The Brehons were, in North Britain and Ireland, the Judges appointed by authority to determine, on dated times, all the controverfies which happened within their refpeclive diflricts. Their courts were ufually held on the fide of a hill, where they were feated on green banks of earth. Thefe hills were called mute hills. It may be prefumed that the Brehons were far from being * Two kids, or twelve pennies. f Ogetharius is derived from Oig-thear, that is, a young gentleman, deeply i^o Degrees and Titles of Honour deeply fkilled in the intricate fcience of the law, which they profefTed. By converting with the ec- clefiaftics in their neighbourhood, they learned fome fcraps of the canon law, but knew little or nothing of the civil. The cuftoms which prevail- ed in the land wherein they lived, and the opi- nion of the times, were generally their rules of decifion. The office belonged to certain families, and was tranfmitted, like every other inheritance, from father to fon. Their flated falaries were farms of confiderable value. BY the Brchon law even the mod atrocious of- fenders were not punifhed with death, imprifon- ment, or exile, but were obliged to pay a fine, called Eric. The eleventh or twelfth part of this fine fell to the Judge's mare : the remainder be- longed partly to the King, or Superior of the land, and partly to the perfon injured ; or if killed, to his relations. WE learn from Tacitus, that the fame cuftom prevailed among the ancient Germans. After he had obferved that they hanged traitors and de- ferters on trees, and that perfons, either coward- ly or infamous for impurity, were drowned in miry lakes, he adds, " Men guilty of crimes lefs fcan- dalous, were, upon convidion, fined in a number of cattle. A part of this fine was paid to the King or common-wealth, and another portion of it was given to the perfon injured, or to his near- eft friends." IN Scotland the fame cuftom prevailed, till within three or four hundred years ago, and in fome divifions of it much later. In our laws of Regiam Majeftatem, we find it enacted, That one who, riding through a town, rides over and kills any among tie ancient Scots. 1*71 any of the inhabitants, is to pay a proper ranfom, no leis than if he had wilfully deflroyed him *. The name given to the ranfom in the law is Cro and Galmes. The Cro of every man is afcertain- ed, in the lame inftitut6, according to his quali- ty or birt!\ The Cro of an Earl is one hundred and forty cows, liie Cro of an Earl's for, or Thane is an hundred cows, The Cro of a ple- beian, or vilLiin^ is fixteen. The Cro, Galmes and Enacb of all other ranks and orders of men are particularly defined in thole lav/s SPELMAN has judicioufly remarked, that thefe three barbarous words are of Iiifh' extraction. But he did not recoiled that the Galic of Scotland was mil, h the fame with the language of Ireland, and that the words were originally Britifh. They certai.i>y had once a place in the law of Scotland, though their true meaning has not been yet fettled. The weahh of the ancient Scots, efpecially to- wards the North, confifted folely in cattle. In the language fpoken there, Cro fignifics Cows, and Croo a fheepfold or Cow-pen. Agreeable to this explication of thefe two terms, a murderer is ordered by our old laws to pay the Cro of the perfon whom he had killed, that is, to pay the ftated equivalent for his life, in cattle taken out of the flayer's pen or fold. . GA L M ES is a Galic word, and means a Pledge, or Compenfation for any thing that is carried away or deftroyed t. In the fame language, Enacb {lands fometimes for the Englifh word Bounty, and fometimes for an Eilimate or Ranfom. * Rcgiam Majeft. lib. 4. cap. 24. t Gi^l, in the Galic, is a Pledge, and Mcas an Eftimafe CRO, 172 Degrees and Titles of Honour CROy Galmes and Enach are perhaps fynoni- mous terms, according to the common language of the Scottifh law, which is full of fuch tauto- logical expreflions. If there is any real difference between thefe words in the cafe before us, they fignify three -diftinct fines ; one payable to the King, or Superior of the perfon flain ; another to his children ; and a third to his Cinea y or the tribe to which he belonged. Agreeable to this diflinc- tion of fines, the old Saxons of England obliged murderers to pay three different ranfoms, the Fredum to the King, the Wergtlt to his family, and the Linebote to his kinfmen *. KELCHTN is another term in the old Scot- tifh law, to exprefs a mulct due by one guilty of manflaughter. In our Regiam Majeflatem t, the Kelchyn of an Earl is fixty-fix cows and two thirds; the Kelchyn of an Earl's fon, or of a Thane, is forty-four cows, twenty-one pence, and two thirds of an obulus or bodle ; the Kelchyn of a Thane's fon is by a fourth part lefs than that of his father ; and the law adds, that a fwain, or perfon of low degree, is to have no fhare of the Kelchyn. THE learned Sir John Skene obferves, that in the ancient language of Scotland, Gaikben figni- fies a pecuniary mulct, to which one is made liable, for a fault or crime. Spelman differs from him only fo far as to think the word an Irifh one* Skene's conjecture is partly juft, and partly other- wife. The Kelchyn was a mulct, but not always pecuniary one, not payable for every fault or crime. We fee the Kelchyn of an Earl is fixty- * See Spelman, under thefe words. ^ Reg. Majeft. lib. 4. cap. 38. fix among the ancient Scots. 173 fix cows, and two thirds of a cow. This fine belonged to the kinfmen of the p^rfon killed *, but to thofe only of principal note among them. IN the old Scottifh law, with regard to the fine paid by the murderer of an Earl, this Croo is de- clared to be one hundred and forty cows, and every cow priced at three Oras. In a law of Ca- nute the Great, quoted by Spelman t, fifteen Oi se, or Horas, are made equal to a pound : and fup- pofmg the Englifli pound of thofe days to have been twelve times as much as the Scottilh one, and the Orse of both nations the fame, the pecuniary value of one cow would have been about five millings fterling. But mould one fuppofe that the Ora of North Britain was to that of the Southern divifion, what the pounds, (hillings and pence of the former are to thofe of the latter, the price of a cow in Scotland was, at the tinse of compiling the Regiam Majeftatem, proportionably low. IT is certain that money was extremely fcarce in Scotland during the reign of King David the Firft. But as we cannot well imagine that a full grown cow was fold for the frnall trifle of five- pence in that period, and as it is not in any de- gree probable that the price of it could have rifen to five millings flerling, we have here one proof, together with many more, from which it may be evinced, that the laws of Regiam Majeitatem were framed in the time of David the Second, and not in th days of the firfl Scottilh King of that name. * Kelchyn fignifies, paid to one's kinfmen, and is c'erived from Gial and Cinnea. f In voc. Ora. I* 174 Degrees and Titles of Hmour, &c. IN that part of Regiam Majeftatem which af- certahs the different Merchetae Mulierum, the Vacca, or large C ;w, is valued at fix folidi, or millings. The real amount of that iblidus cannot well be determined. If an Englifh one, the price of a cow is confiderably greater than the eftimate already given : if a Scottilli, it finks down to a fmall matter. A s I have entered upon the explication of law terms, it is proper to give fome foiution of one of them, which, as it is now understood, leaves a reproach upon our anceftors. The meaning of Mercheta Mulierum is, according to fome, fr -uncl- ed upon a cuftom which did great difhonour to the ancient civil government of Scotland. SOME of our befl hiftorians give the following account of the introduction of the Merchetx Mu- lierum among the ancient Scots. Evenus the Third, a King of Scotland, cotemporary with Auguftus, made a law, by which he and his fucceilbrs in the throne were authorized to lie with every bride, if a woman of quality, before her hulband could approach her : and in confequence of this law, the great men of the nation had a power of the lame kind over the brides of their vaifals and fervants. We are told further by the fame grave and learn- ed hiftorians, that this law was ftridlly obfervcd throughout the kingdom ; nor was it difcontinued 'or repealed, till after a revolution of more than ten whole centuries. It was near the end of the eleventh age, that the importunities of St. Mar- garet prevailed with her hufband, Malcolm Cane- more, to aboliih this unjuftifiable cuftom. From that time forward, inflead of the fca^dalous liber- ty given to every Superior by virtue of Evenus's- law Of the Merchette Mutierum. 175 law, the vaflal or fervant was impowered to re- deem the firft night of his bride by paying a tax in money *. This tax was called Merchetae Mu- lierum. I KNOW not whether any one has been hitherto fceptical enough to call the truth of this tale m queftion, though it wears the face of abfurdity and fable. Twenty moral demonstrations confpire in rendering it abfolutely incredible. EVENUS, the fuppofed author of the law, is no more than an imaginary being. Boece and Buchanan, with all their hiftorical knowledge and induftry, knewjuft as little concerning the Princes of Caledonia, coeval with Auguftus, and of the laws eftablifhed by them, as the other learned men of Europe knew with regard to the Emperors of Mexico before the time of Fernando Cortez. IT is impofTible to prove that any confiderabJe divifion of Caledonia was governed by a fingle Mo- narch in the Auguftan age. But were it true that the cafe was otherwife, and alfo certain that Eve- nus reigned in the Weftern parts of North Bri- tain in that very epoch, it is not credible that the Scots of that age would have granted Co very ex- travagant a prerogative to their King, or fo very uncommon a privilege to their nobility. In thofe early times men were too fierce and intractable to crouch under a burden fo infupportable. To a people of fpirit, a total extinction of freedom and property, in every other inflance, would have been a much eafier yoke than the flavery, oppref- * Bocce fays a rcetk of filver, Buchanan half a merk. fioa 176 Of the Mercbetae Muliemm. fion and difgrace attending fo very mocking a proftitution of their wives, daughters and kinf- women. But had even the lower people of Scot- land been the mofl abject of all flaves, and un- common patterns of paffive obedience, it cannot be fuppoied that all the nobility, from age to age, would have practiced the doctrine of non-refiftance, in fuch an amazing degree of perfection, as to per- mit their Sovereign to violate their honour in ib heinous a manner. We know that many Princes, b:-fides Tarquin, were dethroned, bani fried, and cut to pieces, for attempting the chaflity of wo- men. And we may fafely affirm, that the mofl defpotic King or Sultan in the Eafl would fall a facrifice, mould he endeavour to eflablifh the law of Evenus in that country, which has al- ways been the fcene of the feverefl exertion of ar- bitrary power. SOME may fay, that the manners and opinions of men are greatly changed. But human nature was always, and will ever continue the fame, in the matter now under confideration. In vain will it be faid, that the Scots, through a long habit, became reconciled to this ignominious cuflom. The Scots certainly were not more pailive than the other brave nations of the world : and the hiflory of mankind does not exhibit a fingle in- flance of fuch brutal infenfibility in any nation. THE fatyrical Gildas, who had entertained the mofl violent prejudices againfl the Scots, would not have omitted fuch an opportunity of declaim- ing againfl them, with his ufual acrimony. Bede himfelf, though a writer of much greater huma- nity and moderation, would not have overlook- ed fo remarkable a part of their character, efpeci- ally Of the Merc beta Mutierunt. 177 ally as he impeaches them, more than once, of other immoralities. It would have been more to his honour to have animadverted feverely on fo flagitious a practice, than to arraign them fo fre- quently of heterodoxy, for a pretended error in the trivial affair of Eafter. IF we conlider the jealoufy natural to wonien, it is highly improbable that the queen of Malcolm Canemore was the firfl royal confort in Scotland that would have folicited her hufband for a re- peal of this infamous law. In the courfe of more than a thoufand years, which intervened between the pretended Evenus and Malcolm, there were no doubt many Queens whofe influence witli their hulbands might have abrogated this laf- civious inltitution. The ilory ahogether wears fuch a face of improbability, that it is aftonifhing how it ever became the fubjedt of tradition irfelf, and much more that it has received the fan cation of hiftorians. IT is however certain that the Merchetse Mulie^ rum were once paid in Scotland, and authorized by law. But this impofition was not peculiar to that kingdom. The Merchetas Mulierum were, properly fpeaking, pecuniary fines, paid by the vaflal and fervant to his lord and .mafter, upon the marriage of his daughter, or paid by a widow upon a reiteration of nuptials : and this cuflorri obtained in every part of Britain, though with feme variation. I CANNOT determine whether the brides of England or Wales were liable to this tax before the conqueft j but in the reign of William the Norman they certainly were. u A woman faith Domefchy book in what ever way fhe tame by M a hus- 1 7 8 Of the Msrcbette Mulierwn. a hufband, gave twenty (hillings to the King, if a widow ^ but if a rnaid, ten only*." That the grievance arifing from this hard law was univerfal, or at lead very general, may be juflly concluded from different articles of the charter granted by Henry the firft, and from the famous Magna Char- ta of King John. IN the fourth article of Henry's charter are the following words : " If any one of the Barons, or of the other vaflals that hold immediately of me, mall incline to give his daughter, fifler, niece or kinfwoman in marriage, let him fpeak to me on that fubjedt : but neither (hall I take or receive any thing from him for a marriage licence, nor lhall I hinder him from difpofmg of the woman as he pleafes, unlefs he bellow her on my ene- my t." FROM the immunity given in thefe words, and from the preamble of the charter, one may na- turally infer, that the law of the Merchetae had formerly prevailed in every part of England, ex- cepting the fingle county of Kent. After King John had given the great charter of liberties to the Barons, and after that ineftimable right had been confirmed by his fon, grandfon, and great grand Ton, we find, that not only villians, or the lowefl clafs of people in England, were obliged to pay this fine, but thofe too who held their lands in free foccage J . The fine was called Merchetum or Maritagium there, as it went under the name of Mercheta in Scotland. * Spelman in voc. Marirag. f Matth. Paris, p. 55. \ Speiman in voc. Soke mancrio. IT Of the Mercbet that is to fay, an infpira- tion to war. The poet addrefied a part of tSiis perfuafive to every diftincl tribe, fhewing them the rewards of a glorious death, and reminding them of the great actions performed by their anceftors. He began with a warm exhortation to the whole army, and ended with the fame words. The ex- hortation turned principally on the love of fame, liberty, and their Prince. " The Germans, fays Tacitus, have poems which are rehearfed in the field, and kindle the foul into a flame. The fpi- rit with which thefe fongs are fung predicts the fortune of the approaching fight ; nor is their man- ner of fmging on thefe occafions fo much a con- cert of voices as of courage. In the compofiti- on they ftudy a roughnefs of found and a certain broken murmur. They lift their fhields to their mouths that the voice, being rendered full and deep, may fwell by repercuflion *. THE fate of battles depended not a little on the encomiums and invedtives of the Bards. To be declared incapable of ferving the fovereign in any military ftation is now deemed an indelible reproach. To incur the fatire of the Bard, by a cowardly behaviour, was reckoned in former times the lad degree of infamy and misfortune. WE are told by a Norwegian hiftorian t, that in time of fea engagements, if near the coaft, the Scalds of Norway were fometimes landed in a fecure and convenient place, and ordered to mark * Tacit, de mor. Germ. cap. 3. \ Torfeus, in Hift. Rerum. Orc^d. vid. pr-efat. every Of the Sards. 203 every event diftin&iy, fo as to be afterwards able to relate them in verfe. The fame author informs us, that Olaus, the Saint, had in a day of action appointed ftrong guards for his three principal poets, after giving them inftru&ions of the fame kind. WHEN a great and decifive battle was fought, the Bards were employed in doing honour to the memory of thofe gallant men who had facrificed their lives in defence of their country, and in ex- tolling the heroes who had furvivcd the flaughter of the day *. A JUDICIOUS Roman poet obferves that many brave men who lived before Agamemnon were buried in oblivion, unlamented and unknown, becaufe they had the misfortune of wanting a poet to celebrate their memory f. This obferva- tion is in fome meafure juft. But it may be doubt- * In the year 1314, Edward the Second, of England, in- yaded Scotland at the head of a very great army, having, ac- cording to all human appearance, reafon to expect an abfolute conquell of that kingdom Full of this imagination, he order- ed the prior of Scarborough, a celebrated Latin rhimer, ac- cording to the tafte of thofe times, to follow his troops all the way to Bannockburn. He intended to employ this eminent poet in immortalizing his vi<5tory ; but fortune declared for the enemy, and the prior was found among that immenfe number of prifoners which the Scots had made : the ranfom demand- ed for his life was, a poem on the great fubject he had be- fore him. He gave a fpecimen of his {kill, but it was invita Minerva, though he fucceeded wonderfully well in the judg- ment of times not remarkable for delicacy of tafte. Another learned monk was appointed by the Scots to eternize their vic- tory in verfe ; and though Apollo was as niggardly in his aid to him as he had been to the Englifh Carmelite, we have reafon to believe that his compofition was much admired* \ Horat. Carmin. lib. 4. od. 9. 204 Of the Sards. ed whether heroifm is more ancient than poetry, and whether any illuflrious perfonage of the re- inoteft ages of the world wanted his Bard, It is -certain that the works of many eminent poets have iperiihed altogether, and with them the renown .and even the names of thofe mighty chiefs whom they endeavoured to eternize. At the fame time it is evident, that of all the monuments which ambition is a'le to raife, or the gratitude of ;Hiankind willing to bellow, that reared by the .mufe of a genuine poet is the mofl ex- preflive, the moil durable, and confequently the mofl to be defired. The works of Phidias and Praxiteles, once thought everlafling, are now no more. The fainteft traces of the magnificent Babylon cannot now be inveftigated. The fa- mous Egyptian pyramids, though ilill extant, have not been able to preferve the name of the vain monarchs by whom they were conflru&ed. But the flrudtures which Homer has built, and the mo- numents which Virgil has raifed to the memory of illuftrious men, to Gallus, to Mecaenas, and Au- guftus, will perifh only together with the world, THOUGH the beft of Roman poets had a con- tempt for Ermius, yet the elder Scipio, with all fais learning and tafte, had a greater refpedt for him than Auguflus had for Virgil himfelf. The old Calabrian Bard was conflantly near that thun- derbolt of war, and we are told by Cicero, that a marble flatue was erected for him in the burial place of the Scipio's *. It therefore is no matter of wonder that Celtic Kings and Celtic Lords fhould have patronized the poets of their own times ; a * Oratio pro Archia Poeta. race Of the Bards. 2*05 race of men whofe compofitions, however rough or unpolifhed, kindled the foul of the warrior to attempt great actions, and promifed the hero a perpetuity of fame. THE more ancient Bards were greatly fuperior to thofe of later ages, yet mere amiquity was not the real can fe of that fuperior ity. In times more remote, true merit was the Bard's only title to fa- vour. In after days the office became hereditary, and an indefeafible right was the circumftance which rendered his perfon and character facred. It was only after the feudal law took place, that the proper reward of genius and great actions became the birthright of unworthy perfons. No people, however barbarous, could have ima- gined that the lineal heir of an eminent poet mould inherit the natural enthufiafm or acquired talents of his predeceffbr. But the general cuftom of en tailing almoft every office in certain families, and perhaps an extraordinary regard paid to the me- mory of fome excellent poet, fecured the pofleflion of the grant of land to the poflerity of thofe bards whofe merit had acquired them that lucrative di- &mdion from their fuperiors. DISSER- 206 Of the Wtjiern Iflands. DISSERTATION XV. Of the Weftern Iflands of Scotland. Ac- counts given of them by the Writers of Rome. Of their ancient Names, Ebudes, Hebrides, and Inchegaul. Subject to, and poflefled very early by the Scots of Jar-ghael. THE difquifitions of antiquaries are incapa- ble of thofe ornaments which, in the opinion of the world, conftitute fine writing. To trace the origin of a nation through that darknefs which involves the firft ages of fociety, is a laborious tafk, and the reputation attending the fuccefs of a very inferior degree. The antiquary is no more than a kind of pioneer, who goes before, to clear the ground, for the conftrutf ion of the beautiful fabric of the hiftorian. In this diflertation I enter into the difledlion of words, the inveftigation of etymons, and into an inquiry into the ancient flate of iflands now very unimportant in the Bri- tim empire. Should this trivial fubject difcourage any reader, let him turn to another fedtion. THF. Of the Weftern Ifands. 207 THE geography, as well as internal hiflory of the Northern Europe, was little known to the writers of Greece and Rome. The uncultivated and barbarous flate of the Celtic nations difcou- raged travellers from going among them. The Romans met often, on their frontiers, hoftile na- tions, to whofe very name, as well as country, they were abfolute flrangers. Involved in a cloud of barbarifm at home, the inhabitants of the North were only feen when they carried war and deibla- tion into the provinces of the empire ; and con- fequently the accounts given of them by the hi- florians of Rome are vague and uncertain. THIS ignorance of the true ftate of the Nor- thern divifion of Europe afforded an ample field for fiction, and encouraged pretended travellers who had a talent for fable, to impofe upon the world the mod abfurd tales, with regard to the fituation, hiflory and inhabitants of the barbarous regions beyond the pale of Roman empire. Strabo complains frequently that Pythias the Mafl:lian, and other travellers, cou!d not be credited, in the account they gave of their voyages, which looked more like a poetical fiction, than a faithful nar- ration of fads. Pythias, though a man in the moft indigent circumflances, had the vanity to fay, that he had travelled over all the Northern divifion of Europe, to the very extremities of the world : " A ftory, not to be credited," faith Strabo*, u though Mercury himfelf had told it." He pretended to have vifited Britain in the courfe of his peregrinations, and with great gravity gives a very circumftantial defcription of that ifland. * Lib. ii. p. 163. He 208 Of the Wejlern I/lands. He alfo fays, that he made a voyage to Thule, the remoteit ifland belonging to Britain, at the di- ftance of fix days failing from itj in the fkirts of the frozen ocean. He is candid enough to own that he was obliged to others for the hiftory which he gives of that place ; but he does not heiitate to arfirm that he himfelf had feen it. It was a place, according to him, which was neither earth, fea nor air, but fomething like a compofition of all of them, fomething refembling, to uie his own ex- preflion, the lun.gs of thejea, fomething, in fhort, totally inacceflible to the human fpecies. Such is the ridiculous account which the Mafiilian traveller gives of Thule, and from which the -idle tales of fucceeding authors concerning that ifland feem to have been taken. SOLINUS defcribes Thule as an extenfive tracl; of land, inhabited by a race of men, who, in the beginning of the vernal feafon, fed, like their cat- tle, upon grafs or ftraw, lived upon milk in fum- mer, and laid up the fruits of their trees in flore for their winter provifton *. But his authority will not be greatly refpefted by thofe who know what he has laid of men and women, whofe feet were contrived like thofe of horfes, and whofe ears were long enough to cover their whole bodies. STRABO owns that thofe who had feen the Bri- tifh lerna had nothing to fay concerning Thule, though they gave fome account of other fmall iflands on the coafls of the Northern Britain. We learn from Tacitus, that Domitian's fleet, after the reduction of the Orkney ifles, defcried Thule ; a place which till then, faith he, lay concealed un- * Solin. Polyhif. csp. 35. der 'Of the Wejtern I/lands. 2Cp der fnbw and an everlafting winter *. The truth of this fadt refts upon the veracity of the perfon from whom Tacitus received his information. PTOLEMY is fo particular in his account of Thule, as to inform us, that it lies in fixty-three degrees N. Lat. and that the longed day there con- fifls of twenty-four hours f. Th^re is no place near the Britifli ifles to which this, or any other defcription given of it, can agree better than to Shetland. But after all that has been faid upon the fubjed, with a confiderable expence of erudi- tion, by Sir Robert Sibbald and others, there is reafon to conclude, with Strabo, the moft judi- cious of all ancient geographers, and one of the beft hiftorians and critics of remote times, that the hiftory of Thule is dark, dubious and unau- thentic J, and that every thing told by Pythias concerning it is a ficlion. THE iiles of North Britain have been divided by fome ancient geographers into two clafles, and by others into three. The firft of thefe clafles confifts of the Ebudes and Orcadcs. The fecond comprehends the ilemodes, QEmodes, or AEmodes, together with the two juft mentioned. An exadt defcription of places then fo little known, cannot be expected from thefe writers ; but their volun- tary errors admit of no excufe. PLUTARCH relates, upon the authority of one Demetrius, who feems to have been employed by the Emperor Adrian to make geographical obfer- * Difpe&a eft et Thule, qnam ha6lenus nix et hyems abdc- bat- Vira Agric. c. 10. f Lib. viii. c. 2. j Strabo, lib. iv. p. 3.08. O vations 2 1 o- Of the Weftern I/lands. vations and difcoveries, that fome of the Britifh iiles were confecrated to Demi-gods . That Sa- turn^ bound with chains ofjleep, is confined in one of them, under the cufcody of "Briarens, and that feveral inferior divinities are h:s conftant atten- dants. SOLINUS writes with great gravity and feem- i/;g precifion concerning the inhabitants of the Ebudes, their manner of living, and their form of government. tc They know not," fays he *, " what corn is : they live on fifh and milk only. " The iiles of the Hebudes are feparated from one " another by narrow founds, and by reafon of " their contiguity are governed by one King. " This Monarch has no property. He is fup- * 4 ported at the expence of the public. He is " bound by eftablifhed laws to ruk according to " the principles of equity. Left he mould be " tempted by avarice to commit any acts of op- *' preflion, poverty confines him within the rules " of juftice. He has no perfonal intereft to pro- " mote. He Has no wife, that can with any pro- " priety be called his own : any woman for whom " he conceives a paflion muft be at his fervice. " Hence it is, that he has neither hopes nor de- " fires with regard to children, to whom he can- ** not claim a peculiar right." MANY ancient writers of hiflory and geogra- phy have taken a boundlefs liberty of inventing marvellous ftories, in their defcriptionsof the man- ners and cuftoms of difta.it nations ; and Solinus feems, in his defcription of Thule and the other Britilh ifles, to have indulged his fancy in that * :>,lm. Polyhiftor. cap. 35. refpeft [Of the W&Jhrn IJlands. 2 1 1 refpel with much freedom. Some eminent cri- tics have obferved, that this author copies, in a fervile manner, after Pliny the elder ; but he has rejected his authority with regard to the number of the Ebudes and of the Orkney ifies. Accord- ing to Pliny*, the Orcades amount to orty, and the Hebrides to thirty ; but Soiinus reduced the number of the Hebrides to five, and of the Or- cades to three wretched ifles, overgrown with rufhes, or made up of horrible rocks or naked lands, and totally deftitute of inhabitants. I p Soiinus flourifoed, as is commonly fup- pofed, after Tacitus had published the life of Agricola, or the hiftory of his own times, it is furprizing that he could have been a ftranger to the works of that excellent writer, and totally un- acquainted with the flory of the voyage performed by Domitian's fleet round Britain, and the con- queft made of the Orcades during that voyage. Soiinus is one of thofe ancient geographers who divided the ifles of North Britain into two claffes only the Hebudae and the Orcades. Ptolemy follows very nearly the fame divifion. But Pom- ponius Mela, after informing us that there are thirty Orcades, placed at fmall diftances from one another, obferves that there are feven OEmodae lying over againft Germany t, which are probably the ifles of Shetland. SALMASIUS and other critics believe that th:C iikev,:ife, figniSes a. Sow,. The old Scots called the whale, cornmoply- Muc.iVjhara, i. e. the fovv of the ocean- for a. full and diftindt accoimt of the Orkney ifles the reader mayconfult the works of Torfjeus, a Norvegian hiftorian, and Mr. Wallace, a learned Mimfkr of Kirkwal). ' think. Of th We/tern Ijlands. z\r think, more reafon to believe, that the Ricina of the Egyptian geographer, and the Riduna of An- tonine's itinerary, is rather the Arrin of Scotland : fo they who fpeak the Galic call an extenfive ifland near the mouth of the Clyde, which is the property of the family of Hamilton. CAMBDEN thinks that the ancient Epidium is the fame with Ila ; Maho^ Mull ; the Weftern Ebuda, Lewis; and the Eaftern Ebuda, Sky. But if Ricina is the fame with Arran, it is far from being improbable that Epidium is the ifland of Bute, which lies near it ; Ey Bboid, that is, the ifle of Bute, in the Galic language, being much more nearly related to Epidium in its found than Ila. I have no objection to Cambden's opinion with re- gard to Maleos and the larger Ebudr, which is indeed the moft probable hypo- thefis, it may very reafonably be prefumed, that foon after the eftablifhment of that monarchy, the Ebudes were annexed to the continental territories of the Scots. A clufler of iflands, thinly inhabi- ted, diftitute of ftror.g-holds, altogether unprovid- ed for defence, and incapable of affifting one ano- ther, mufl have fallen an eafy prey to any power- ful invader. The Ebudes, however inconfiderable they may be thought now a-days, would be a very confiderab'.e addition to the petty monarchy of the Scots of Albany, and could not fail to be an ob- ject worthy their acquiring. AT whatever period the ifles may have been an- nexed to the Scottilh kingdom, the inhabitants perhaps would be inclined to embrace a proper opportunity to fhake off their voke, and to difturb the government of their new Lords. The hiftory of thefe iflanders in latter ages, and the vindictive fpirit of every conquered people, render this opi- nion probable. But there cannot be any foundati- on for the circumftantial account which Boece and Buchanan have been pleafed to give us of grand rebellions 222 Of tie Weftern I/lands. rebellions in the Ebudes, during the reigns of Caradacus* Corbredus, Ethodius, and other ideai Scottish Kings. It is certain, notwithstanding all the pains taken by Abercromby to prove the con- trary^ that CaraQacus never reigned in North Britain, and that Corbredus, Ethodius , and other royal peribnsof the fame imaginary exiftence, have fought their battles againft the chiefs of the Ebu- dues only in the fabulous annals of our hiftof- ians. The accounts they give of a Donald of the ifles, fo old as the times of the Romans, bear about them the apparent mark of a modern invention. D O N A L D was a name very common a- mong the Inlanders ; and two of that name, who were both of the great family whofe power was once more than equal to that of the King, over all the Ebudes, were extremely famous. Thefe were Donald earl of Rofs, who fought a battle, fatal to Scotland, againft an army raifed by Robert duke of Albany, during the captivity of James the firft in England; and Donald Balach, who obtained a fignal victory over the earls of Mar and Caithnefs, wounded the firft of thefe noblemen, killed the other, and made a great flaughter of the King's army under their command. The public calami- ties produced by thefe battles, and the devaftati- ons committed by the two Donalds, feem to have led our hiftorians, who were very ill informed concerning the affairs of the Ebudes, into a no- tion that all the lords of the ifles went, from the earlieft ages, under the fame deteftable name. WHEN the Kings of Scotland pofleffed no other territories than thofe upon the Weftern coaft of Albany, Of the Weftcrn IJlands. 223 Albany, we may take it for granted that they frequently vifited their dominions in the Ebudes. Being involved in perpetual wars, either with the Britons, Saxons, or Pifts, it was neceflary for them to fecure the leading men of the ifles to their interefl. Without a fuppofition of this kind, it is difficult to comprehend how the Scots could have fubdued the Pitts, or defend themfelves againft the Saxons. When Aedan King of Scots, in- vaded Northumberland, at the head of a numerous and gallant army, he received no afliftance from the Pifts, and had no Irifh auxiliaries to fupport him in that expedition. We muft therefore con- clude that the Iflanders, among whom Adamnan informs us Aedan had been inaugurated, made a confiderable part of that numerous army which lie led into England. ALL the Scots hiftorians affirm, that the Weftera liles made a part of the Scottifti dominions* frorti the earlieft accounts of time, to the death of Mal- colm Canemore in the year 1093. On the demife of that prince, fay thefe hiftorians, his brother Donald Bane formed a defign of mounting thtf throne ; and to fupport, by foreign aid, his title, which was far from being juft, as the old law of Taniflry had been abolifhed, he implored for this purpofe the affiftance of Magnus the Barefooted, King of Norway, and obtained it, upon ceding all the Northern and Weftern Ifles of Scotland to that Monarch. Magnus took immediate pofTeflion of thofe illes, and the fucceflbrs of Donald Bane in the throne of Scotland did not for a long time re- cover th.m. Orkney and Shetland remained in the poffeflion of the Norvegians to the year 1468, when James the third of Scotland married the daughter 224 Of the Weftern I/lands. daughter of Chriftian the firft of Denmark, and got pofleflion of thofe iflands^ until the portion of the Qgeen fhould be paid. Even the Ebudes like- wife were fubjecl: to the Norvegians, till Alexan- der the third, King of Scotland, after having given a fignal defeat to the Norvegian army at Air, in the year 1263, re-annexed them to his domi- nions. IN this manner, and in thefe different periods^ if the unanimous confent of Scottifh writers could be depended on, did the crown of Norway acquire and lofe the weftern ifles. But the Norvegian hif- torians give a very different account of the matter in almoft every material circumftance. Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, were according to them, fubdued by their nation in a more early pe- riod than that affigned ; and the Scots owed the reftitution of thofe iflands more to the negotiations of a treaty, and a fum of money, than to the force of their arms. A difcuflion of this point will na- turally comprehend the hiftory of that Norvegian dynafty which went under the name of the king- dom of Man ; which I mall briefly give, in the fucceeding differtation. D I S S E R- Hiftory of the Norwegian, &c. 225' DISSERTATION. XVI. The Hiftory of the Norwegian Principality of the ifles, commonly called the Kingdom of Man. IN the clofe of the preceding diflertation, I prci- mifed to give a brief hiflory of the Hebri- dian principality of the Norwegians, commonly known by the name of the kingdom of Man. In the account I am to give, I mail follow more the digreilive manner of the antiquary, than the re- gular narration of the hiftorian. If I mall be able to throw a new and ftronger light upon the fiib- jecl, I mall attain my purpofe, and leave the palm of fine writing to men of greater abilities. ABOUT the year 875, according to the annals of Norway, written by hiftorians appointed by au- thority *j Harold Harfager, or the Fairbatred, one of the greateft heroes of Scandinavia, obtain- ed a decifive viftory over many independent Prin- ces who difputed his title to the throne, and was declared King of Norway. Some of thefe Princes, Torfsus in Orcadibus, p. 10 & 1 1. P who 226 Hiftory of the Norwegian who had been defpoiled of their dominions, took refuge in the Scottifh iiles, and uniting their forces there, made feveral defcents upon the dominions of Harfager. Harold, exafperated by thefe fre- quent incurfions, refolved to carry his arms to the retreats of the invaders. His progrefs through the ifles was irrefiftible ; and while he purfued his enemies from place to place, he made a total con- quefl of Man, the Ebudes, Shetland and Orkney. From that time forward, all the lilands became fubjedt to the crown of Norway, and continued fo, with little interruption, for many ages. The writer from whom I have taken this account, in- forms us further, that Harold often invaded the Continent of Scotland, and fought feveral battles there with great Succefs : and to corroborate the teftimony of the old Iflandic hiftorian from whom he had this relation, he appeals to the rhimes of two ancient poets of Scandinavia, who celebrated that monarch's actions in Scotland in heroic fongs, IT is certain that a powerful army of Scandi- navian pirates infefled the Eaftern coafl of Scot- land about the time now afligned, and committed the mod cruel devaluations, under the conduft of two famous brothers, Hinguar and Hubba. Con- ftantine the Second, King of Scots, marched a- gainfl them in perfon, and twice gave them battle. In the firft action he obtained the victory, but in the fecond he was defeated, taken prifoner, and beheaded. This event happened, according to the Scottifh hiftorians *, in the 879 ; and as Ha- rold Harfager reigned at that time, the authority f the bards, to whom Torfseus appeals, feems to *Fordun, Boece, and Buchan. in vita Conftant. II. deferve Principality of the Ijtes. deferve credit. It is true, the enemies by whom Conftantine was killed are by our hiftorians called Danes : but that is an objection of no force : the pirates who infefted the different kingdoms of Eu- rope in the ninth century are, by different writers, ftiied Norvegians, Danes, Getes, Goths, Jutes, Dacians, Swedes, Vandals, Livonians, and Frief- landers ; their armies being compofed of all thofe nations. As the countries from which thefe in- undations of plunderers came, lay either to the Eaft or North of the European kingdoms which they infefted and harrafied, they went under the more general denominations of Eafterlings, Oflmans, or Normans. IT appears evidently from the annals quoted by Sir James Ware *, that in the year 735, the Nor- mans laid wafte a great part of Ireland, and the ifland of Richrine^ which is reckoned by fome one of the Ebudes. Three years after this devafia- tion they infefted Ulfter and the Hebrides ; and it is not probable that Orkney, which lay in their way, could have refifted their fury- In the year 807, continues Ware, the Danes and Norwegians, landing in the province of Connaught, deftroyed Rofcommon with fire and fword. At* the fame time Cetiacb) abbot of I-collumcille, fled into Ire- land for fafety, after the enemy had murdered a confiderable number of his people. He did not return to Scotland for feven years : and from that circumftance we may take it for granted that thefe favages made themfelves mafters of lona, at leaft^ and probably of all the other Weftern ifles. Antiquit. of Ireland, page 57. P z ABOUT 2a8 Hi/lory of tbe Norwegian ABOUT the year 8 1 8, Turgefais^ by fome call- ed a Dane, and by others a Norwegian, invaded Irelaad. This famous adventurer, after a long feries ot piratical defcents and flying battles, u- furped at lafl the fbvereignty of the whole ifland, ruled the miferable inhabitants with a rod of iron, made dreadful maflacres of all the ecclefiaflics he could feize, and committed their books to the flames. THE Irifti were revenged of this cruel tyrant, but had not flrength enough to make off the yoke of ilavery under which they groaned. New fup- plies of hollile Troops came yearly from Scan- dinavia, which, with the adherents of Turgefius, maintained the war with fuccefs againfl the di- vided natives. About the year 850, they polfefTed themfelves of Dublin, and the parts of Leinfler adjacent to that capital *, from whence the Irifli were never able to drive them. THE greatefl Monarch that ever held the fcep- ter in Ireland, prevailed, in the year 1014, with the greatefl part of the provincial Kings to join their forces to his own, and to attempt a total expulfion of the common enemy. Sitricus, who was at that time King of the Dublinian Eafterlings and Nor- mans, u(ed every poOible precaution to make head againfl this powerful confederacy. He entered into a league with the King of Leinfter, procured a body of auxiliaries from him, and received a great accefllon of ftrengh from the Danes of Man and Inchegaul. After vaft preparations had beea made on both fides, the contending nations met at lafl near Dublin, and fought the obflinate and * Ware's Antiq. of I.el. p. 5$. bloody Principality of the Ifles. 229 bloody battle of Cluain-tarf. In that fatal conflict the Irifh loft the illuftrious Brian Bore, their fo- vereign, together with his fon and grandfon, be- iides fome provincial Kings, a vaft number of the nobility, and many thoufands of the common people *. SITRICUS retired, and maintained his poft in Dublin, with the mattered remains of his army. The preparations made by that prince before the batt'e, and the fupplies he received from Man and Inchegaul, afford a clear demonftration that the Scandinavians were pofiefled of thefe ifies before the sera afligned by the Scottifh hiftorians ; and the Irifh annals, from which Ware has taken the account he gives us of thefe things, are more to be depended upon, with regard to the time at leaft m which the Ebudes became ftibjeft to the crown of Norway, than the accounts followed by Buchanan, Boece and Fordun. WE know that the Normans made confiderable acquifitions in France, and the Danes in England, about the fame time that Turgelius became fo for- midable in Ireland. We learn from Fordun, that the Danes infefted the Eaftern coaft of Scotland before the end of the ninth century. It is not pro- bable, therefore, that the Hebrides, which lay in their way, could have been entirely overlooked by thefe free-booters, in the courfe of their ravages. Thefe ifles, difcontiguous, and thinly inhabited, incapable of aflifting each other with powerful fuc- cours, and lying at a great diftance from the feat of the Scottifh kingdom, could make little re- * Ware's Ant. &c. p. 63. Keating's Gen. Hid. of Irel. Part f page 64. P 3 finance 230 Hijiory of the Norwegian fiflance to a torrent which at that time carried al- moft all Europe before it. The Monarchs of Scot- land could not have relieved their Hebridian fub- je&s, nor repofTefs themfelves of their conquered i Hands : they had fufficient employment eliewhere ; the Eaftern provinces of their kingdom mufl be defended from the frequent invafions of ;\e fame barbarous enemy, or from the infurredions of the latel -. conquered Pids. THE mofl authentic hiftory of the revolutions which happened in the Weflern ifles, is contained in the Chronicle af Man, as far as it goes. This fmall piece has been preferved by Cambden, in his Britannia. It was written by the monks of Ruflin, an abbey in Man, and is probably older, by a whole century, than Fordun's Scotichronicon. Thofe who examine the tranfadions of thofe times with attention, will difcover fome chronological errors in the Chronicle of Man ; but thefe errors are owing to the negligence of tranfcribers, as they are manifeftly jnconfiftent with the truth of tads related, and with the aeras afiigned in other parts of the Chronicle. THIS ancient record begins thus : " In the year 1065, died Edward, King of England, of blefled memory. He was fucceeded in the throne by Harold, the fon of Godwin ; to whom Ha- rold Harfager, King of Norway, gave battle at Stamford-bridge, The victory fell to the Engljfh, and the Norwegians flecl. Among the fugitives was Godred, firnamed Cbrovan, the fon of Harold the Black from Iceland. This Godred coming to the court of Godred, the fon of Syrric, who reign- ed in Man at that time, was entertained by him in ^n honourable way. The fame year William the Baftard Principality of the IJles. 231 Baftard conquered England ; and Godred, the fon of Syrric, dying, was fucceeded by his fon Fingal." THE King of England who died in the year with which the Chronicle begins, was Edward the Confeffbr, a prince highly extolled by monks, who derived extraordinary advantages from his pious liberality. It is well known that Edward affifled Malcolm Canemore in recovering the throne of his anceftors, which had been ufurped by Macbeth, and that Malcolm, for years, carried on a war a- gainft the Norman conqueror and William Rufus ? his immediate fucceflbr. Malcolm died in the year 1093, about thirty years before Godred, the fon of Syrric, left the kingdom of the ifles to his fon Fingal, and confequently thirty years be- fore Donald Bane made the pretended donation of the Ebudes to Magnus of Norway. This dona- tion never exifted ; for it manifeftly appears from the Chronicle of Man *, and other concurring re- cords, that the Norwegians had occupied the Weft- ern ifles long before Donald Bane mounted the throne of Scotland, and before Godred Cbrovan took poffefllon of the dynafty of the ifles. GODRED was a powerful prince. He fub- dued a great part of Leinfler, annexed Dublin to his empire, and reduced the Scots, according to the Chronicle, to fuch a (late of dependency, that * The authors of this chronicle, and after them other writers, were miftaken in calling the Norwegian King flain in the battle of Stainford-bridge, Harold Harfager. We learn from Torfseus and others, that the true name of that prince was Harold the im- Srious. Harfager lived in a much earlier period. The fame ironicle writers, or their copyift, muft have committed a blun- der likewife in making the year 1066 die year of Godred Chro- van's acceflion to the throne of Man. P4 'he $32. Hiftory of the Norwegian he would not permit them to drive more than three nails into any boat or veflel they built. Ware quotes a letter of Lanfranc, archbiihop of Canter- bury, wherein that prelate called Godred King of Ireland *. He died, after a reign of fixreen years, at Tie, or Ifla, and was fucceeded by his fon Lag- man. XORFJEUS, following the annalifts of his coun-- try, labours hard to prove that Magnus the Bare- footed dethroned Godred^ bound his fon Lagman with iron fetters, made an abfolute conqueft of the Weftern iiles, and beftowed them on his fon, Sigurd^ with the title of King f. But the Chron- icle of Man places the expedition of Magnus into the Weftern parts of Scotland, and into England and Wales, in the year 1098, twenty years after the death of Godred, and eleven after the death of his fon and fucceflbr, Lagman. Simon Dunel- tnenfts agrees with the chronicle in the aera here afligned ; and if any regard is to be paid tq the Scotttfh hiftorians, the acquifition made of the Weftern Ifles by King Magnus, muft have happened foon after the death of Malcolm Cane- more. TORF^EUS, after a long difcuffion of the chro- nological difficulties arifing out of thefe contra- dictory accounts, rejects the authority of the chronicle, confutes Buchanan, finds fault with fome of the writers of his own country, and prefers at laft the teftimony of Ordericus Vitalis to all others. But if we follow that author's fyftem, the firft expedition of Magnus into the Weftern feas of * Antiq. of Ire), p. 65. Orcades, p, 71, 7*; Britairj Principality of the Ifles. 233 Britain took place in the fifth year of William Rufus, that is, in the year 1092. According to this calculation, the Norwegian monarch muft have lei zed on the Ebudes before the death of Mal- cvlm Canemore, and confequently Donald Bane could not have been guilty of the infamous cef- fion which has hitherto done fo much injury to his memory. MACNUS the Barefooted, might have iufficient provocation to invade the Ebudes in a hoflile manner, though lubject to the crown of Norway before his time. Many of the piratical Eafterlings and Normans, who infefted the Britifh ifles, after the time of Harold Harfager, were originally in- dependent of the Norwegian crown, or rendered themfelves fc. Turgefius, and hisfucceilbrs in Ire- land, were fovereign Princes. The Earls of Ork- ney, though much nearer the feat of that empire to which they were vaflals, made reiterated at- tempts to make off all marks of fubjeclion : and that the Kings of Man endeavoured frequent- ly to render themfelves independent, will appear in the fcquel. WE learn from the chronicle *, that one Inge- munde was fent by Magnus to take pofTeffion ot the Hebudes, in quality of King. But the chiefs of the ifles, finding that this man abandoned him- felf wholly to the moft fcandalous excefles, to lufr, avarice, and cruelty, confpireci againft him, and, without regarding either his perfonal. dignity or the authority of his conflituents, fet fire to the houfe where he was lodged, and deftroyed him, together with his whole retinue. It was probably ? Chronicon. Mannte, ad an. 1097. with 2 3 4- Hi/lory of the Norwegian with a defign of revenging this inful t, that Mag- nus undertook the expedition already related. But whatever may be in this conjecture, it is plain, from the commiflion with which Ingemunde was inverted, that the Kings of Man had afierted their independence, or had refufed to pay the ancient tribute. AFTER the death of Lagman, the fon of God- red, who had taken tfte crols and died in the holy land, Murchard O rien 9 King of Ireland, fent, at the defire of the nobility of Man, one of his friends who was a perion of royal extraction, to act as Regent in that ifland, during the minority of Olave, the brother of their late fovereign t. Here we have another clear proof that the Princes and great men of the Weftern Ifles had withdrawn their allegiance from their old matters, the Kings of Norway. MAGNUS the Barefooted, only recovered the territories which one of his remote forefathers had acquired, and which one of his more immediate anceflors had loft. He fubdued all the Scottifh ifles from Shetland to Man, and according to fome hiftorians, added the fruitful peninfula of Kintire to thefe conquefts : he carried his victorious arms into South Britain, and made himfelf mafler of Anglefey, in fpite of the united efforts of the two brave Earls who led a numerous army againft him. He was unquestionably one of the mofl powerful Princes of his time, and prefcribed what laws he pleafed to all thofe whofe fituation made them ob- noxious to his intemperate rage, or to the luft of his boundlefs ambition. The Welfli felt the Chron. of Man. dreadful Principality of the IJles. 235 dreadful effects of his barbarous power, and there- fore courted his friendfhip with a multitude of pre- fents. He obliged the Scots of Galloway to fur- nifh him with timber, at their own expence, for the ufe of his bulwarks. He fent his fhoes to Murcard, King of Ireland, and commanded him in the moft peremptory manner, under the pain of his difpleafure, to carry them on his moulders, in the pretence of his ambaffadors, on the anniverfary of Chrift's nativity. The Irilh nobility received this infolent menage with becoming fentiments of difdain and indignation : but Murcard was too wife to provoke the refentment of a conqueror whofe power was equal to his pride, and told his friends that he would eat the fhoes of the Norwe- gian monarch, rather than fee any one province in Ireland deftroyed. Accordingly he paid homage in the dillionourable way prefer i bed by the haughty Magp.us, entertained his ambaiTadors with a royal magnificence, and difmifled them with the higheft exprefiions of refpect for their matter. IT does not appear from any authentic record, that Magnus came near the Eafterri coaft of Britain in either of its divifions. His troops cou^d not therefore have been of great life to Donald Rane, had any one of his nephews difputed the crown of Scotland with him : and indeed it appears to me more probable that Donald, upon the demife of his brother, poiTelTed himfelf of the throne by virtue of the old Taniflry right, or that, according to fome Englifli hiftorians, he was elected king, than that he owed his crown to the aid of a foreign ally, DONALD'S 536 Hiftory of the Norwegian DONALD'S immediate predeceflbr in the throne, though a great Prince, had difobliged the nation by many unpopular actions. He had introduced the Englifh language, drefs, manners, and icligi- on, in a country at that time full of the moft violent prejudices againft every thing which came from a quarter fo hoftile. His obftinate attachment to the intereft of his brother in law, Edgar Atheling, involved the nation in a feries of wars more ex- nenfive and calamitous than profitable or glorious. The large eftates which he had fettled on fome noble exiles who followed the fortune of that weak Prince, muft have greatly exafperated the Scottifh nobility, and alienated their affections from his family. He had been overmatched by the conqueror of England, and grofly infulted by his fucceflbr, William Rufus. His heir apparent, Prince Ed- ward, had perifhed unfortunately with Malcolm at Alnwick. The reft of his children by Queen Mar- garet were under age, and that Princefs, already worn out by the aufterities of a fuperftitious life, overwhelmed with grief, furvived her hufband and fon but a few days. ALL thefe circumftances confpiring together muft have made it eafy for Donald Bane to poflefs himfelf of the throne vacant by the death of his brother, without purchafmg the aid of a Scandina- vian potentate, fo much at the expence of his country and his own reputation. His pretenfions to the crown were oppofed only by a law neither ancient nor ever much regarded ; and the diftrac- tions at court in confequence of fo many unhappy events, afforded him the moft favourable oppor- tunity of aflerting his claim. The conclufion I would Principality of the Ijles. 337 would draw from what has been faid on this fub- ject, appears to me to be perfectly juft : that our hiftorians were ill informed with regard to the manner how, and the time when the Weflern Ifles fell under the dominion of Norway. AFTER Magnus the Barefooted had, through his temerity, loft his life in Ireland, Olave^ the fon of Godred, recovered his paternal dominions, and reigned over the ifles forty years. Olave was a Prince of a peaceable difpofition, diflinguifhed greatly by the religious virtues of the times, and extremely liberal to ecclefiaflics. He was educated in the court of Henry I. and was on good terms with the monarchs of England throughout his life. He lived in amity with Ireland; and it does not appear that thofe Kings of Scotland, who were his cotemporaries, difputed his title either to Man or the Ifles. SELDEN complained that Olaus and Aidave^ Amlaff and Anlapbus, are names which breed great confufion in the Englifh hiftory ; but thefe names feemingly different appear to me to be the fame. The fennachies of the ilTes call the Olave, of whom we are now fpeakin~, Aula or Ambla, in Latin, Amlavus, Anlapbus, or Olaus ; and they diflinguim him from other Princes of the fame name by the title of Ambla Dearg mac Ri Lochlin t that is to fay, Red Olave, the King of Locblin's Son. Godred, the father of Olave, was from Scandinavia, which is called Lochlin by the inha- bitants of the Highlands and Ifles. IT is the opinion of fome that Locblin and Den- mark are words of the fame import : but ii: appears to me rather that Lochlin and Scandinavia are fy- nonimous terms. Harold Harfager, and Magnus, the 238 Hijlory of the Norwegian *he Barefooted, were Norwegian Princes, and the Jflanders giv& no other appellation to thofe great conquerors, nor to other Normans, who held their anceftors under fubjection for many ages, than that of Lochlinich. IN the Galic language, Loch fignifies a great collection of water> whether fait or frefti, and Ian full. Lun is the name of a certain bird remarkably voracious. The Baltic might have been very properly called Locblan, if it neither ebbs nor flows ; and many different countries, particularly Scotland and Ireland, experienced that from this fea fwarmed an immenfe number of pirates, who by an eafy and juft metaphor might have been compared to birds of prey and of pafTage. But whatever the etymon of the word Lochlin may be, it is certain that all the adventurers who came from the Baltic, or from the Northern feas, and the countries bordering upon them, whether Norwe- gians, Swedes, Finlanders, Ruilians, Livonians, Poles, Pomeranians, Danes, Frieflanders, or Ice- landers, were by the Irifli and Hebridian Scots called Locblinicb. IT has been thought a matter of wonder that Scandinavia, fo barren in every other refpecl:, fhoiiid have been fo Very fertile of men, as to pour forth whole inundations of rovers alfnoft every year from the latter end of the feventh century, at leafr., till the thirteenth. SOME ingenious writers have endeavoured to account for this extraordinary phenomenon by re- Iblving it into the effects of polygamy. A plurality of women were, by the laws or cuftoms of Scan- dinavia, confined to the bed of one man, if we believe theie writers ; and hence it was that the inhabitants Principality of the Ifles. 239 inhabitants multiplied almoft beyond belief. A country in this fituation, which did not abound with the necefTaries of life, could not but fend nu- merous colonies abroad in queft of either plunder or fettlements : and fuch colonies, coniifting of adventurers hardy, enterprifing, lawlefs, poor, and determined to make their fortune or perifh in the attempt, mufl have carried defolation far and wide. BUT it is by no means certain that polygamy was eftablifhed either by law or cuftom among the ancient Scandinavians. The Germania Magna of the old geographers comprehended at leail the Southern coaft of the Baltic, together with its ifles. Mela and Tacitus feem to extend it much far- ther * ; and Cluverius is pofitive that Norway, Sweden, and every region lying to the North of the Baltic, made a part of that immente tract of land. The Suiones of Tacitus are undoubtedly either the Norwegians or the Swedes, or perhaps both: and the JEft.\i of the fame author are by Archbimop Ufher f, and other eminent critics, called the progenitors of thofe pirates, afterwards itiled Eafterlings and Oftmans. TACITUS, who feems to have made the man- ners and cuftoms of the Germans his particular ftudy, informs us, that every one of that nation, excepting only a fmall number of the chiefs or leading men, contented himfelf with one wife, and that of all the barbarians in the world, they were the flrideft obfervers of the matrimonial * Mela, lib. iil. cap. 3. Tacit, de mor. Germ. cap. 45. * See Ware's Antiquities of Ireland, chap. 24. i 940 Riftory of the Norwegian laws t We have therefore reafon to believe, thai the Suiones, ALjlii, Cimbri^ Teutones, and other nations, of whom the Normans and Eafterlings of after-ages mufl have been defcended, had not a plurality of wives in his time ; and it does not appear from good authority that polygamy be- came fafhionable among the pofterity of thefe nations, in the period intervening between the time of Tacitus and the introduction of chriftianity. BUT even allowing, without any neceifity, that polygamy was common in Scandinavia, flill it i-s doubtful, from the hiftory of nations who give into that cuftom, whether a plurality of wives incrcafe population or not. As the males of Scandinavia were always engaged in war at fea, there is indeed reafon to believe that the accidents from enemies, and thofe anting from a rude navigation, carried off a greater proportion of them than of the males of any other nation ; and therefore it may be fup- pofed that a greater number of women fell to the furvivors. But, when we confider that the women of the North always attended the ; r hufbands and friends in their expeditions, we mrd allow that they were fubjedl to the fame accidents with the males. In this way therefore it is impoflible to account how the Northern Europe could cover the Southern divifions of it with fuch dc'uges of bar- barous ad venturers. THE old Norwegians and Swedes, before their cunverfion to Chriilianity, were addicted to piracy, and elleemed it a. glorious occupation. The wild \ Severa illic* matrimonia, nee ullam morum partera magts laudaveris : nam prnpe ioli barbarorum fir.gu'is t.xoribus coatenci iuru, exceptii adtnacium paiicii. T^cit. de mor. Gerra. tribes Principality of the Ifles. 241 tribes who lived near the gulphs of Bothnia, Fin- land, and Livonia, followed the fame practice. The maritime nations inhabiting the Southern coaft of the Baltic were led by the example and fuccefs of thofe rovers to try their fortune in the more wealthy divifions of the South of Europe. If to thefe numerous nations of p:underers we add thofe of Denmark, Hoiftein, Saxony, and Frief 1 tand, all the way to the mouth of the Rhine, we do not make the country of thofe Northern rovers, who have done fo much mifchief in former ages, more extenfive thari hiflory affirms. It is alfb ex- treamly probable that thofe who dwelt in the more inland diftricls of the kingdoms of the North joined the freebooting inhabitants of the fea coafts in their expeditions. In a divifion of Europe fo extenfive, it could have been no difficult matter to mufter up fwarms of adventurers, fome thirfl- ing after glory, others rendered defperate by po- verty, and all of them animated by the fuccefs of their neighbours or predecefTors in emigrations of the fame kind. IT may alfo be fufpecled that the piratical Eafterlings ai;d Normans, who committed fuch devaluations in the lower Germany, France, Bri- tain, Ireland, and other places, were not fo very numerous as they have been reprefented. Infcead of making war in a regular manner, they gene- rally invaded one particular divifion of a country near the coaft, in flying parties, gathered ail the fpoils they could carry away, and deftroyed every thing elfe. They were compofed of feveral bo- dies independent of one another, and no fooner was one band gone than another came. By this means the countries expofed to their ravages had fearce 242 Hiftory of the Norwegian fcarce any refpite from their incurfions : this cip cumftance muft have greatly fwelled the idea of their numbers in the minds of thofe who were fo cruelly haraffed by them ; and as they made a conqueft of (bme countries, the writers in the in- tereft of the old natives, to fave their credit in fome meafure, would perhaps have afcribed thofe conquefts to the numbers of the enemy, rather than to their fuperior bravery. To leave this digreflion, for the hiflory of the dynafly of Man. Olave, King of the ifles, after a long and peaceable reign, was treacheroufly flain by his own nephews : he was fucceeded by his fon, Godred ^ whom he had by the daughter of Fergus , Earl of Galloway, the moft powerful fubjecl: in Scotland at that time. GOD RED had failed to Norway before his father's death, and did homage to King Hinge. In his abfence the three fons of his uncle Harold feized on his dominions, and divided them among themfelves. But the ufurping aflaflins foon met with the fate their crimes deferved. Godred re- turning from Norway, afTerted his title to the kingdom of Man, caufed one of the fons of Ha- rold to be executed, and agreeably to the inhu- man cuftom of thofe barbarous times, put out the eyes of the other two *. SOON after Godred had recovered the inheri- tance of his anceftors, the Eaflerlings of Dublin invited him over into Ireland, and made him their King. Elated beyond meafure by this great ac- ceflion of power, he began to rule tyrannically in his own dominions, and regardlefs of juftice and * Chrcn. Man. ad ann. 1143* the Principality of the Ifles. 243 the laws, deprived the nobles of their eflates. The moil powerful among them, 'Thorfin, the fon of O/^r, to gratify his revenge, entered into a league with Somerkd, the famous thane of Argyle, and after wrefting many of the ifles out of Godred's hands, Dy the afliftance of that powerful chief, erefted them into a feparate kingdom for Dngal y the fon of his new patron. The Chronicle of Man calls Somerled Prince of Heregaidel, and informs us further, that he had married a natural daughter of King Olave, and confequently Godred's fitter. By that lady he had four fons : Dugal, of whom came the MacDougals of Lorn ; Reginald, the progenitor of all the Mac Donalds of Scotland and Ireland ; Angus, an am- bitious lord, whofe great power and numerous offspring became extindt in a fhort time ; and O/ave, of whofe actions or ilfue neither hiftory nor tradition have recorded any thing memorable. THE King of Man, upon receiving intelligence that Thorfin and Somerled had feized on a part of his dominions, equipped a confiderable fleet, and putting to fea went in quefl of his enemies *. Somerled met him with a fleet confifting of eighty fail : after an obftinate fight, attended with great {laughter on both fides, they patched up a peace, having agreed to divide the kingdom of the ifles among them. From that day, faith the chronicle, may be dated the downfal and ruin of the king- dom of Man. EITHER Somerled's ambition was very high, or Godred's perfidy provoked him fbon to recom- mence hoftiiities ; for he invaded Man with a new Ad. ann. 1156. a fleet 244 Hijlory of the Norwegian fleet about two years after the partition treaty had been concluded. Godred, unable to maintain his ground, abandoned the iiland, fled to Norway, and laid his grievances before the lovereign of whom he held his dominions by a feudal right. He remained in Norway for fix years before his reprefentations had any effect At length he ob- tained a confiderable fupply of forces, and return- ing to Man, defeated his brother Reginald, who had taken poffelfion of the ifland in his abfence, and re-eft-ablifhed himfeif in his kingdom t. SOMERLED was killed before this revolution happened. Intoxicated by repeated victories, and his vaft acquifitions, he had formed a defign, if we believe the Chronicle of Man, to conquer all Scotland. Having, in confequence of that extra- vagant projed, equipped a fleet of one hundred and fixty fail, he landed a numerous army near Renfrew in Clydefdale. Here, faith the chroni- cle, he was, through the jufl vengeance of God, vanquiflied by a fmall number, and he himfeif, together with his fon and a vaft multitude of his people, flain *. THE Highland fennachies give a very different account of Somerled's death and character. Ac- cording to them, this powerful thane had received many infufTerable provocations from the minifters of King Malcolm IV. a Prince weak, unexperien- ced, and entirely under the direction of his fer- vants. The vaft extent of Somerled's eftate on the continent, to fay nothing of the acquifition he had made in the ifles, filled thefe minifters with t Chron. Man. ad ann. 1164. * Chron. Mau. ubi fup. a poli- Principality of the Ijles. 245 a political jealoufy, and tempted their avarice at the fame time. Refolved to humble fo formida- ble a fubjeft, and to divide his lands among them- felves, they compelled him, by a long feries of attrocious injuries, to take aims in his own de- fence. The King's counfeilors attainted him and Gikbrift, Earl of Angus, the ablcft general cf that age in Scot'and, v/cs lent with a great military force to render that tirjuft lentence effectual ; but Somerled fought the Ear!, though with an infe- rior army, and the victory remained dubious. This happened during the minority of Malcolm. AFTER that Prince had taken the reins of go- vernment into his own hands, his minifters, en- raged by a difappointed ambition, made it their chief bufmefs to convince him that it was necef- fary to annihilate the ovei grown power of Somer- led, or at leaft to reduce him to a ftate of medio- crity. The force of an argument fo fpecious, concurring with the facility of his own temper, prevailed eaftly with the King to favour their de- iign. But to have fomething of a plaufible pre- tence for commencing hoflilities, it was agreed in council, that a perfon invefted with a public cha- racter fhould be fent immediately to propofe to the Thane, that in order to procure a remiffion of his crimes from the King, he mould renounce his right to the lands held of him on the continent, and fatisfy himfelf with his poiTefiions in the ifles. SOMERLED wastooconfcions of his own ftrength, and too tender of his undoubted right, to ac- quiefce in a propofal no lefs irjiuicus to his cha- racter than prejudicial to his intereft. Incapable of difguifmg his fentiments, and fired with a juft indignation, he drew his fword, and told the met- fenger 24.6 Hi/lory of the Norwegian fenger that u He would fooner terminate the dif-. " pute with that weapon, than tamely furrender " any part of his property." After returning fuch an anfwer to a mellage itnt by his fovereign, he had reafon to believe that a violent florm would immediately gather, and burft upon him : he therefore armed his numerous vaiials in Argyle- (hire and the ifles, procured a considerable body of auxiliaries from Ireland, and determined to carry the war into the country of his unprovoked enemies. He ianded with an army of fifteen thouiand men in the Bay of St. Laurence, now Greenock, and marched directly to Paiiley, where the King's troops were encamped. Bui before he cou