Regarding their material resources, in relation to their social

condition, the evidence is pretty ample. They possessed herds of

domesticated animals, oxen, sheep, horses, and swine, and they

cultivated grain to some extent. They manufactured some kind of woollen

cloth, and made pottery. Their food consisted largely of the flesh

of the domestic animals and of the milk thence derived, and to a less

extent of fish, the products of grain, and wild animals. Their dress

consisted partly of animals skins prepared for the purpose, and partly

of the cloth above mentioned. That some at least of the people of the

Bronze Period were occasionally magnificently attired, is amply proved

from the numbers of massive gold ornaments, and armlets and necklaces,

which have been found in every quarter of Scotland, and numerous

ornaments of other materials, pins of various patterns and styles,

♦beads, and buttons. Thus far, the material and social condition of the

people appears to have been well advanced, and it is quite conceivable

that they may have lived in a state of comparative comfort and

enjoyment.

♦ “beds” replaced with “beads”

As to the religion of the early Celtic tribes of prehistoric Scotland,

no evidence of an organised priesthood has as yet been discovered.

Little importance can be attached to Cæsar’s literary account of the

Druids and the druidical worship, at least in their relation to the

tribes of Scotland, for there is no evidence that such a class of

religious teachers ever existed in any part of it. Our ground is thus

at once cleared of a mass of apocryphal notions and doctrines which too

long obtained currency. Such religion as the Celtic tribes actually had,

differed but little from that of the other branches of the Aryan race,

even from that of Rome herself, excepting that in our cold and cloudy

region it was not so elaborate as at the centre of the civilised world.

Their religion was polytheistic, with a strong element of ancestor

worship in it. Just as Cæsar himself was worshipped as a god in Rome,

so in Scotland the Celts often worshipped the souls of their departed

heroes. They sometimes worshipped many gods, which represented in more

or less mythological forms the personified powers of nature; and one of

the oldest and favourite epithets of the Deity in Gaelic is, “the King

of the elements” of nature. They had some five or six great gods, and a

number of minor ones.

The Celts had a vivid belief in the existence of the human soul

after death. Ancestor worship was undoubtedly the mainspring of their

creed. This was the leading characteristic of the religion of the

Northern Aryan people long after it ceased to be entertained in Rome

and Greece.¹ So intense and realistic was the Celts’ belief in the

future existence of the human soul, that it was said money loans were

sometimes granted on the understanding that they were to be repaid

beyond the grave. This may be an exaggeration, still there is no doubt

that the Celt’s realisation of a future life was from a very early

period intensely firm, as it is to this day among the same race.

¹ “Cæsar, as supreme pontiff of Rome, declared, in his place

in the Senate, his utter disbelief in another life, and

the stern Cato but mildly replied that their ancestors, men

perhaps as wise as Cæsar, believed that the guilty after

death were sent to the noisome abodes full of horrors and

terrors. But the classical belief, even at its best――in

the poems of Homer――gives but a poor, shadowy, comfortless

existence to the spirits of the dead.... The ghost of

Achilles says to Ulysses: ‘Rather would I live on earth as a

poor man’s hireling than reign among all the dead.’ The gods

lived on the heights of Olympus, aloft in Heaven, and far

apart from the hated abode of the dead, which lay under the

earth and ocean. Mortals were all consigned to the grisly

realm of Pluto.... Among the Romans ancestor worship had

a stronger force than in Greece. Their feast of the dead

was duly celebrated in the later half of February, when

chaplets were laid on their tombs, and fruit, salt, and corn

soaked in wine, were the least costly offerings presented to

them. The deification of the Emperors was merely a farther

development of this ancestor worship.” _Celtic Mythology_,

by Alexander Macbain, M.A.

There were three Gaelic festivals of a distinctively characteristic

kind:――1, Beltane, held on the first of May; 2, Lammas, on the first

of August; 3, Samhnirm or “summerend,” in modern Scotch, Halloween.

Originally they were all associated with fire and sun worship, sacred

to the gods of fire, of light, and of earth. The great festival of

Beltane on May-day was associated with rites relating to fire-worship,

divination, and incantation.¹ The Lammas-day feast seems to have been

connected with the rites of the sun-god; and the festival of Hallowe’en

was sacred to the gods of fire, of fruits, and of death. Traces of

survivals of this worship in a more or less disguised form may still be

observed in Scotland, though every year they are becoming less frequent.

¹ In relation to the Beltane festival I have an experience of

my own to record. Forty-three years ago, when I was a boy in

the service of a large farmer in the Valley of the Deveron,

in Aberdeenshire, our master ordered my elder brother and

I to make a bonfire on the first of May. I asked my brother

what was the meaning of it. He smiled, and said “it was to

burn the witches.” At the same time we were ordered to cut

branches of rowan tree and to place pieces of it above every

door about the farm――“to keep out the witches.” This was

done every year in the first of May at the farm in question.

It is a good example of the survival of a rite, in the form

of an incantation, transmitted from the prehistoric period,

and the very festival of which I have spoken above.

Having touched on the social condition and the religion of the

prehistoric peoples, in conclusion, I will recapitulate the leading

points of the two preceding sections.

I. Opening with a detailed description of the indispensable weapons and

tools of the Stone Age race, it was shown that these people manifested

remarkable skill, taste, and industry in the manufacture of their

weapons and implements. In some points of the manufacture of flint

tools and weapons they attained to a degree of skill and perfection in

the art which modern science cannot surpass with all its resources and

appliances. This side of their culture presents a striking illustration

of the great result which persistent human efforts can produce, even

with the most imperfect means.

1, Coming to the remarkable series of chambered and horned cairns

of the Stone Age, it was remarked that in the phenomena and remains

disclosed in these cairns, we reached the representative of primeval

man in Scotland. After presenting a concise account of the external and

internal structure of the cairns, and of the deposits contained within

their chambers, I then touched on the resemblances of the chambered

cairns of Caithness and the Long Barrows of England, as indicating

that one homogeneous race inhabited the whole island. Other groups of

chambered cairns were described. Reference was then made to certain

inferences drawn from the state of the human remains found in these

cairns, such as that this race were addicted to cannibalism and other

horrible practices; but it was shown that the evidence on which it had

been attempted to prove the prevalence of these practices was totally

inconclusive. Explanation of a novel character was then advanced, to

account for the condition in which the remains were found in the cairns.

2, The question of whether any trace of the dwellings of the Stone

Age people now existed in Scotland was discussed. It was shown that in

all probability the earth-houses were originated and a number of them

constructed by the Stone Age people. A description of these curious

structures followed; and it was pointed out that they had probably been

associated with overground huts. After noticing the primitive boats, it

was observed that the monuments of the Stone Age had long survived the

wreck of many empires.

II. The Bronze period was next treated. The question of the

introduction of bronze was touched on, and the transitional stage from

the use of stone weapons and implements to the use of those of bronze,

was briefly handled.

3, A reference was made to some of the hoards of bronze weapons,

tools, and articles found in Scotland. A description of the various

bronze weapons, tools, and ornaments, including many gold ornaments,

was presented; and in which it was indicated that many of these were

manufactured in Scotland. The variety and numbers of the gold ornaments

was specially noticed, and their significance as a feature of the

period indicated.

4, A question was then raised touching the traces of the dwellings of

the people in the Bronze period; and the sites of early settlements

were indicated. The structures called crannogs were then treated; their

probable origin and the period of their construction was discussed; a

brief description of the method of their construction, and the articles

discovered in them, was given. The several classes of hill-forts,

designed like the crannogs for protection and security, were next dealt

with; and their characteristics and peculiarities concisely described.

5, The burials of the Bronze period were handled, and the various modes

of disposing of the dead noticed: such as cairn interments; stone cist

interments; urn interments in collective groups; and the underground

phenomena associated with them. Bronze Age burials within circular

areas of standing stones were also treated; and it was observed that

many of the stone circles were now divested of the mystery which had

been so long ascribed to them.

6, Finally, a brief explanation of the social state and the religion

of the prehistoric peoples was given. Reviewing the whole series of

objects and subjects noticed in the preceding pages, we cannot fail to

be struck by the manifestation which they present of the intelligence,

the skill, the industry, and the determined and persistent efforts

of these men of the Stone and Bronze periods. They have exhibited a

degree of united action for common ends and mutual protection, a power

of designing and a concentration of the faculties of mind steadily

directed to the accomplishment of definite results, which is truly

surprising. They had attained to a stage of culture and of civilisation

which places them far in advance of what is often loosely termed

the savage and barbarian stages of human society. And, once for all,

let it be said in accordance with truth and reality, that our brave

and heroic ancestors, who have struggled through so many centuries and

difficulties to preserve intact their liberty and independence, were

not mere barbarians at the date of the Roman Invasion.¹ Placed as they

were in the last recess of liberty, they preserved it to succeeding

generations.

¹ If the term barbarian means a want of humanity, then the

Romans themselves were as much barbarians as the Celtic

tribes of Britain, for witness what Cicero himself said: “It

is the greatest pleasure in life to see a brave enemy led

off to torture and to death.”

SECTION VI.

_The Roman Period._

After the attempt of Julius Cæsar in B.C. 55 to conquer Britain, nearly

a century elapsed before another invasion of the island was essayed.

In the year A.D. 43, the conquest of Britain was begun; but proceeded

at a slow pace. The tribes in the southern division of the island

faced the Roman legions and fought bravely; and for many years little

advance was made. A number of tribes collectively called by the Romans

the Brigantes, occupied the extensive region now known as Yorkshire,

Lancaster, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, and extended

into the border counties of modern Scotland; and the tribes to the

north of this and inwards were called by the Romans the Caledonians.

The Brigantes contested the advance of the Roman legions and fought

bravely. By the year 77 the Roman province had been extended nearly to

the Solway Firth, and the legions were making great efforts to subdue

the inhabitants.

In the year 78 Agricola was appointed to the chief command in Britain.

He was an able and experienced general, and immediately engaged in

the work before him. In the summer of 79, he probably marched north by

the west coast of Cumberland, and advanced through the border counties

of Scotland. In that region his advance was contested at every step

by warlike tribes, habituated to strife and battle; but they were

unable to stem the progress of the disciplined legions. During the

winter Agricola was engaged in taking hostages from the tribes, whose

territories the Roman troops had overrun, and in making arrangements

to secure the subjection of the natives. The following year Agricola

determined to advance farther northward and attack the Caledonians in

their stronghold; but ♦the tribes made a vigorous resistance. He seems

to have penetrated through Stirlingshire and passed the Forth, but

it is doubtful if he advanced much farther; and he carefully secured

some portions of the territories through which his army had passed,

by erecting forts and forming camps as outposts in the most commanding

positions. After Agricola had discovered the natural features of the

country so far, and the spirit of the inhabitants, he fixed on the

ground lying between the Firths of Forth and Clyde for his main line

of defence; and the summer of 81 was spent in erecting a chain of forts

along this line.¹

♦ duplicate word “the” removed

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._ pages 44‒45; _Caledonia_, Volume I., pages

103‒104; _History of Cumberland_, by R. S. Ferguson, M.A.,

pages 21‒22.

Afterwards the Roman General was engaged for several years in subduing

the country between the Firths of Forth and Tay. He seems to have

penetrated into some parts of Fifeshire, while his fleet sailed round

the coasts; but the Romans failed to conquer the district between

Kinross and Muckross. Afterwards he formed his army in three divisions,

not far apart from each other, in order to meet the contingency of a

surprise; and then, with the assistance of the Roman fleet, Agricola

slowly advanced towards the Tay. The Caledonians, having ascertained

the disposition of Agricola’s army, resolved to attack one of his

divisions, the Ninth Legion. At midnight they assailed it, and fought

their way through the gate and into the heart of the Roman camp; but

Agricola himself, with the fleetest of the horse and foot came to the

rescue. When day dawned the Caledonians had to fight the Ninth Legion

on the one hand, and the reinforcement on the other; and the brunt of

the struggle was at the gate of the camp, where the intruders had to

fight their way out. The Legions were victorious, and the Caledonians

retired under cover of the marshes; but they were not disheartened.

Agricola learned, as the season passed, that the tribes were combining

to strike a blow, and were removing their wives and children to places

of safety. Both combatants were preparing for the struggle, which was

to determine whether the Romans were to obtain dominion over the whole

Island.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 45.

In the beginning of summer 86, Agricola sent his fleet round the coasts

to ravage the seaboard, and alarm and intimidate the inhabitants.

He then advanced with his army to Mons Grampius,¹ and there the

Caledonians were posted for battle. The native troops numbered 30,000,

men under the command of a leader called Galgacus; and as it was the

custom for the leaders of armies to address their troops on the eve

of a battle, so Tacitus, the historian, puts a speech into the mouth

of the leader of the Caledonians, which is too important to be passed

over:――“When I reflect on the causes of the war, and the circumstances

of our position, I feel a strong persuasion that our united efforts

this day will prove the beginning of universal liberty to Britain. For

we are all undebased by slavery, and there is no land behind us; nor

does even the sea afford a refuge, whilst the Roman fleet hovers around.

Thus the use of arms, at all times honourable to the brave, now offers

the only safety even to cowards. In all the battles yet fought against

the Romans, our countrymen have reposed their final hopes in us; for we,

the noblest sons in Britain, and therefore placed in its last recesses,

far from the view of servile shores, have preserved even our eyes

unpolluted by the contact of subjection.... The extremity of Britain is

now disclosed, and whatever is unknown becomes an object of magnitude.

But there is no nation behind us, nothing but waves and rocks, and the

still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance we cannot escape by cringing

and submission. Those plunderers of the world, after exhausting the

land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean, stimulated by

avarice if their enemy be rich, by ambition if poor, unsatiated by the

east and by the west, the only people who behold wealth and indigence

with equal avidity. To range, to slaughter, to usurp, they call empire,

and where they make a desert, they call it peace.

¹ There has been much conflict of views as to the locality

where this battle was fought. Chalmers placed it at the

camp at Ardoch; Professor John Stuart, of Aberdeen, placed

the locality of the battle above the town of Stonehaven,

Kincardineshire. He maintained that the Roman army was

posted upon the extended plain, exactly above Stonehaven,

and the Caledonians upon the face of the hills above Urie

House, directly opposite to the Romans. _Archæologica

Scotica_, Volume II., page 300. Dr. Burton abandoned the

attempt to fix the site of the battle as hopeless. Dr. Skene

has placed it:――“On the peninsula, formed by the junction

of the Isla with the Tay, are the remains of a strong and

massive vallum, extending from the one river to the other,

with a small Roman fort at one end, and enclosing a large

triangular space, capable of containing Agricola’s whole

troops, guarded by the rampart in front, and by a river on

each side.... On the heights above the plain are the remains

of a large native encampment, capable of containing upwards

of 30,000 men.” _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I., pages 52,

53. Dr. Skene thinks that this site agrees with Tacitus’

description better than any other locality in Scotland.

“Our children and kindred, by the decree of nature, are rendered the

dearest of all things to us, and these are torn away by levies to serve

in foreign lands. Our wives and sisters, though they should escape the

violation of hostile force, are polluted under the names of friendship

and hospitality. Our estates and possessions are consumed in tributes,

our grain in contributions, and even our bodies are worn down, amidst

stripes and insults, in clearing woods and draining marshes.... Since

then all hopes of mercy are vain; let those at last assume courage to

whom safety, as well as to whom glory, is dear. The Trinobantes, even

under a female leader, had force enough to burn a colony and storm

camps, and if success had not damped their vigour, would have been

able to throw off the yoke; and shall not we, untouched, unsubdued,

and struggling not for the acquisition but for the security of liberty,

show at the first onset what men Caledonia has reserved for her

defence? Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as they

are licentious in peace? Acquiring renown from our dissensions, they

convert the faults of their enemies to the glory of their own army――an

army composed of the most different nations, which, as success alone

has kept together, misfortune will certainly dissipate, unless you

suppose that Gauls and Germans and Britons, who, though they expend

their blood to establish a foreign dominion, have been longer its

foes than its subjects, will be retained by loyalty and affection? No!

terror and dread alone are their weak bonds of attachment, which once

broken, they who cease to fear will begin to hate. Every incitement to

victory is on our side. The Romans have no wives to animate them, no

parents to upbraid their flight; most of them have either no home or a

distant one. Few in number, ignorant of the country, looking around in

silent horror at woods, seas, and a haven itself unknown to them, they

are delivered by the gods, as it were, imprisoned and bound into our

hands. Be not terrified by an idle show, and the glitter of silver and

gold, which can neither protect nor wound. The Britons will recognise

their own cause, the Gauls will recollect their former liberty, the

rest of the Germans will desert them, as the Usipii have lately done.

Nor is there anything formidable behind them――ungarrisoned towns,

colonies of old men, municipal towns――distempered and distracted

between unjust masters and ill-obeying subjects. There is a General,

here an army; there tributes, mines, and all the train of punishments

inflicted upon slaves, which, whether to bear eternally or instantly to

revenge, this field must determine. March then to battle, and think of

your ancestors and of your posterity!”

When Agricola saw the lines of his enemy he was afraid of being

outflanked, and extended his own line to the utmost. His front

consisted of 8000 auxiliaries and 3000 cavalry on the wings; the

Legions or Roman soldiers were held in reserve, and placed behind the

centre. The native army was well posted on the heights, their front

line stretched along the border of the plains, the second line on the

side of the hill, and the reserve behind it and farther up the hill. On

the plain the native charioteers and horsemen were moving and rapidly

manœuvring, as if to provoke attack. The battle began and raged with

great fury. While the fighting was with missiles at a distance the

native troops held their ground, and the charioteers drove back the

Roman cavalry and threw them into confusion; but Agricola sent forward

five cohorts to charge the native footmen with swords. For this weapon

they were not prepared, and their first line fell back; the whole

Roman line then advanced to the charge. Still, Galgacus tried a

flank movement with his reserve, but it failed; the chariots at last

became entangled amongst the broken ground, and a defeat ensued. The

Caledonians retired in order, and repeatedly attempted to check the

pursuit of the Romans, but many of the natives were slain; and 350

of the Romans fell. The Roman General did not pursue the Caledonians

far; and from various circumstances it seems evident that he had not

achieved a decisive victory. After taking hostages from some of the

tribes between the Tay and the Forth to prevent them from joining the

native army, he returned to his winter quarters, south of the Firths of

Forth and Clyde, with his army. Shortly after he was recalled to Rome.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 46, 47, 48; _Caledonia_, Volume I.,

page 113.

It appears from the brief and vague notices of Roman writers, that the

Imperial troops had to maintain an incessant struggle with the northern

tribes in Britain. In short, the whole of the country which Agricola

had overrun, in a few years resumed its independent state, and the

Roman province on the north was limited to the same boundary as when

he first commenced his campaigns. The northern tribes even between

the Tweed and the Firths of Forth and Clyde seem to have been little

effected by Agricola’s conquests. Between the years 120 and 138, the

Romans built a wall from the river Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth,

which is usually called Hadrian’s wall. It is about seventy-three

miles in length, and consisted of a stone wall strengthened by a great

ditch on its northern side, and an earthen rampart to the south of the

stone wall; and military stations, forts, watch-towers, and roads for

the accommodation of the legions, who manned the bulwarks, and the

transmission of military stores. The stone wall and the earthen wall

were generally within sixty or seventy yards of each other, but the

distance between them varied with the nature of the ground. The stone

wall was about eight feet in thickness and about twenty in height;

and it consisted of a facing on each side of dressed stones, the core

was of concrete filled in between the facing stones; the whole forming

a solid mass which depended for its strength on the quality of the

concrete. Connected with this great barrier there were a number of

very large stations, fortified barracks with guard-houses, and upwards

of 300 watch-towers at about a quarter of a mile from each other, with

much stronger forts between every fourth or fifth watch-tower.¹ In

short it appears to have been one of the most complete and massive

lines of defensive works ever constructed by the Romans.

¹ Bruce’s _The Roman Wall_; _History of Cumberland_, by R. S.

Ferguson, M.A., pages 78‒97; 1890.

About twenty years later the Romans constructed another wall, which

commenced at Bridgeness on the Firth of Forth and crossed the country

to near West Kilpatrick on the Clyde, a distance of twenty-seven miles,

and probably on the line of Agricola’s frontier; it ran along the ridge

of the southern rising grounds. This wall consisted of earth and stone

works, forming a rampart of about twenty-four feet in breadth at the

base and some twenty feet in height; and a very wide and deep ditch

ran in front of the wall along its whole course, which faced the region

of the Caledonians. There was a paved way five feet broad close to

the foot of the wall, and a series of watch-towers within call of each

other in which sentinels watched day and night; and eighteen great

forts placed on the most commanding positions at intervals of about

two miles. A paved military road followed the line of the wall on the

southward side.¹ This was the barrier especially intended to keep the

Celtic tribes of Caledonia at bay; and from this time until the Romans

left the island it was the northern boundary of the province.

¹ Roy’s _Military Antiquities; Caledonia_, Volume I., pages

116‒119.

So it was the strip of territory between these two walls that the

Romans occupied in Scotland, and even there they were never long

permitted to hold undisputed possession. In 182 the tribes of the

north broke through the wall, slew the commander and a number of the

soldiers who guarded it, and wasted a portion of the province. About

the beginning of the third century the tribes of the north had overcome

the legions, and were overrunning the province, laying it waste, and

driving off booty. So in the year 208 the Emperor Severus arrived in

Britain, and at once proceeded to take steps to restore order, and

retaliate on the independent tribes. He concentrated all the available

troops in the island; and advanced into Scotland with a great force,

passed the wall which guarded the frontier, and marched forward and

attempted to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia. Severus tried by

throwing bridges over the rivers, cutting down the woods, and making

roads in every direction, to render the country passable for troops.

But this was more difficult than he had imagined. He may have advanced

some distance northward of the Tay, along the east coast, but it is

extremely doubtful if Severus ever reached the river Dee, far less the

Spey or the shores of the Moray Firth. Let the circumstantial evidence

be fairly considered, and it will appear highly improbable that Severus

penetrated to the Spey.

Severus only arrived in Britain in the year 208, and his campaign

beyond the frontier of the province in Caledonia could hardly have

commenced before 209. It is stated, that after he concluded a peace

with the native tribes, he returned southward and superintended the

reconstruction, or at least the repair, of the wall between the Forth

and Clyde. Having thus completed his work and settled everything, he

then returned to York. After he had been some time in York, tidings

that the Caledonians were again in revolt reached him, and we are told

that he was only prevented from recommencing a war of extermination

by his death, which occurred at York in 211.¹ Thus it appears that the

duration of Severus’ campaign north of the Forth must have been very

limited indeed, and at the utmost it could not have lasted much longer

than one year. It is said that he lost 50,000 men during the campaign,

although he fought no battle. If his army numbered 100,000 men, it is

extremely difficult to conceive how such a number of men could have

been supplied with food in the heart of a hostile country, especially

without the co-operation of a fleet. If, within the limited period

of one year, Severus and his army erected bridges over the principal

rivers from the Firth of Forth to the Spey, constructed one great

military road to secure his line of communication between the same

points――through marshes, woods, and rocks――and made other roads in

all directions, besides forming great camps here and there between the

supposed points of the commencement and the termination of the campaign.

In reality it seems most probable that the scene of Severus’ campaign

did not pass beyond the limits of Perthshire; for if he had left this

region unconquered behind him, the advance through the eastern Lowlands

to the Spey would have been a military and political blunder which

no Roman General was likely to commit. The only thing certain about

Severus’ campaign is that it produced no permanent result whatever.

¹ Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I., pages 82‒90.

After the death of Severus, his son Antoninus became Emperor, who

made peace with the native tribes, and left the frontier, of which

he had been in charge. A long period of silence as to the state of

North Britain followed. Toward the end of the third century Caransius,

a native of Belgium, who had risen to high rank in the Roman army,

assumed the purple himself, and ruled Britain independently for

a period of seven years. In the early part of the fourth century

the Emperor Constantine seems to have been at war with the northern

tribes; and by the middle of the same century the relative positions

and the historic conditions had entirely changed, for Rome herself

was fast verging towards dissolution. Toward the end of this century

the northern tribes were sometimes called Picts, and at the same time

the Scots and Saxons were mentioned among the assailants of the Roman

province in Britain; the attacks of these tribes had become incessant,

while the Romanised Britons were beginning to be left to their own

resources. Disorder was rapidly spreading in all quarters of the empire.

At this time the generals in command in Britain frequently assumed the

title of Emperor, and always fought to obtain the purple and universal

sway; owing to this the Roman province in Britain was completely

drained of troops. The tribes outside the walls were constantly

harassing the Romanised population, and in 407 Constantine advised the

Britons to abandon the districts between the walls and to concentrate

their efforts to protect the remainder of the province by manning the

southern wall to the utmost of their power. He then passed over to Gaul,

withdrawing all the available troops in Britain, and henceforth the

imperial sway ceased in Scotland.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 53, 62, 63, 66, 68, 70, 75, 79,

80, 82, 83. In the early years of the fifth century the

local army in Britain set up three Roman Emperors――Marcus,

Gratianus, and Constantine――and the latter, as stated in the

text, crossed the Channel to Gaul with his army, and left

Britain utterly undefended. Long before this time, however,

several of the generals in Britain usurped the authority of

Emperors, as recorded in the passages cited above.

SECTION VII.

_Chief Tribes of the Country from the Fifth Century

to the Foundation of the Monarchy._

In the preceding section we have seen that the Roman occupation of a

portion of the country must have in some degree affected the Celtic

inhabitants within the walls. In fact, the tribes from the southern

borders of modern Scotland to the wall between the Forth and Clyde were

greatly affected by their subjection to the Romans; but whether they

were improved as men is another matter. A little Roman blood may have

been infused into the veins of the natives during the two centuries and

a half of contact with their masters; but it seems that they retained

their own language, and were not in that relation Latinised. In short,

it is certain that they soon ceased to have any Roman institutions, and

that when the legions departed and left them to their own resources,

they were comparatively helpless. They struggled, however, to preserve

themselves from destruction though not with much success, for the

independent tribes tormented and robbed them, in spite of the great

advantage which the walls should have afforded to them for defence

against their outside enemies. But new historic conditions then came

rapidly into operation, though unfortunately we have no detailed

records of them, and must interpret partly by the light of prior and

subsequent results.

In the third section the affinities of the tribes inhabiting Britain

prior to the Roman occupation were clearly indicated. It was then

apparent that the tribes in the south of Scotland and those in the

north of England were of one race――Celtic people speaking Aryan

dialects. But long before the Romans left the island, another race,

the Saxons, had appeared upon the coasts of Britain, and repeatedly

attacked the Roman province.¹ After the final departure of the Imperial

troops, the Saxons and Angles invaded the southern parts of Britain

in force, and commenced a fierce and ruthless war with the Britons to

obtain the possession and dominion of the country. But only confused,

incomplete and traditional accounts of this struggle have been

preserved, which were subsequently coloured according to the view

considered necessary to justify existing conditions from time to time.

In the circumstances it was natural that the Britons in the south of

Scotland should assist their kindred in the north of England. As many

of the Britons in the southern and south-eastern parts of the island

were either massacred or driven northward by the invaders; at last the

cruelly oppressed Britons made a stand for life or death in the north.

The result, however, as far as can be seen, was that the Britons in the

north of England were cut off from their kindred in the south-west of

Scotland by the advance and success of the Angles.

¹ Dr. W. F. Skene has stated that tribes of Frisians, people

akin to the Saxons, had made settlements on the shores

of the Firth of Forth, and extended along the shore of

Forfarshire, and perhaps as far as Stonehaven in the fourth

century, and also in Dumfriesshire. But such evidence as

he adduces, is indeed far from conclusive. See _Celtic

Scotland_, Volume I., pages 145‒146, 191‒192, 231; and also,

_Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,

Volume IV., pages 174‒175, 179, where he discusses the

matter at length.

The Britons who occupied the portion of the country subdued by the

Romans in Scotland, formed the small kingdom of Strathclyde, which

comprised the counties of Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew, Peebles, Dumbarton,

portions of Stirling and Dumfries. Their chief stronghold was the

fortified rock on the right bank of the Clyde, now known as Dumbarton

Castle. Their kingdom was exposed to the attacks of the Angles or

Saxons from the south, and to those of the Scots from the west and

the Picts from the north. The Angles of Northumbria at times reduced

the Britons to the position of a tributary people, and for centuries

portions of Strathclyde were often plundered and wasted by the other

tribes. Still the Britons of Strathclyde struggled hard and long to

preserve their kingdom, it passed through many vicissitudes, and it

finally became absorbed in the rest of Scotland early in the eleventh

century. The body of the people, however, long retained their Celtic

speech, and as late as the twelfth century were sometimes called

Welsh.¹

¹ _Chronicles_; Robertson’s _Scotland under her Early Kings_,

Volume I., pages 16‒19, 54‒55, 70‒72.

The Picts were of the same race of tribes as those whom the Romans

called Caledonians, simply Celtic tribes. They were first called Picts

by a Roman orator, Eumenius, in a panegyric on Constantine in the

year 296, and in the succeeding century the term Picts was frequently

applied to the tribes beyond the wall by Roman writers. The name

Picts, as used by the Romans, is thus an external one, and there is no

evidence whatever that these Celtic tribes themselves then knew that

they were called Picts, so entirely is the name an outside one, in

the sense in which it was applied to them by the Romans. The earliest

native record relating to the Picts is the Pictish Chronicle, which

seems to have been composed about the end of the tenth century. Two

separate editions of it are preserved, one of which is supposed to

have been compiled in Abernethy and the other in Brechin, and it is

plain that the opening sentences about the Picts in this chronicle were

drawn from Roman sources. There is no evidence that these tribes called

themselves Picts, and consequently there never was a Pictish language

in Scotland, for these tribes which were first called Picts by the

Romans simply spoke Celtic dialects; and this is all that we are ever

likely to discover about their language.

For a century after the departure of the Romans there is little

definite information about the northern tribes of Britain. It has been

conjectured that the Pictish monarchy was founded in the fifth century;

but it is extremely doubtful if their political organisation can in

any sense be called a monarchy. So far as can be ascertained, the

Picts seem rather to have been living under a rude and half-developed

confederacy than a settled hereditary monarchy. They had no settled

form of succession to the kingship. In short, it is more than probable

that the king or chief was elective, and dependent on his followers for

his position. The Picts were never united as one organised political

society, they were always divided into tribes, for we read of the

southern Picts, the Picts of Galloway, and the northern Picts. The

truth seems to be that they were merely a number of strong but separate

Celtic tribes.

In the sixth century these Celtic tribes, called Picts, occupied

the whole of Scotland on the north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde,

excepting the district of Argyle, then called Dalriada, which was held

by the Scots. The Pictish and Scottish tribes were separated from each

other by the Drumalban range of mountains, which separates the modern

counties of Argyle and Perth. To the north of the mountain range,

called in early times the “Monuth,” which extends from Ben Nevis

to near the east coast between Stonehaven and Aberdeen, the country

northward of this, from sea to sea, was occupied by the northern

Picts, while the region thence extending southward to the Forth, was

occupied by the southern Picts; but beyond the Forth, in the district

of Galloway, the inhabitants, Celtic tribes, were called Picts. Thus

it appears that the tribes which were called Picts were not living

under a monarchy or one king. There is no evidence whatever to show

that Galloway had not been continuously occupied by Celtic tribes from

prehistoric times down to the Middle Ages. It is said that St. Ninian,

who began his mission in Galloway and founded a church there, converted

the southern Picts to Christianity.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume VI., pages 25, 58, 71, 77, 87, 258;

Volume V., pages 14, 274‒281; Dr. Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_,

Volume I., pages 131, 238. Professor John Rhys, in his

course of Rhind Lectures, has recently treated at length

of the ancient peoples of Scotland, with much learning

and discrimination. So far as he touches on the Picts, his

remarks and suggestions are interesting and instructive,

though mainly based on philological grounds.

The Saxons (or the Angles as they were sometimes named) reached the

southern parts of Scotland in force about the middle of the sixth

century, and before the end of it they had established themselves

in Lothian. They pressed severely on the Britons of Strathclyde, as

already mentioned, and extended their conquests on every side, and at

last ventured into the territories of the Picts. In 685, Egfrid their

King attempted a bold stroke, advanced with his followers and crossed

the Forth at Stirling, and penetrated into the heart of the Pictish

territory; continuing his advance, he crossed the Tay and marched

fearlessly onward. But on the 20th of May, in a narrow pass of the

Sidlaw Hills at Dunnichen, the Picts faced him, and a great battle

ensued, in which Egfrid himself was slain, and few of his army escaped

from the fatal field. The victory was complete; and it had the effect

of severing the district between the Tay and the Forth from the

influence which would have tended to make it a part of England. The

Saxon clergy fled from their chief seat at Abercorn and thence removed

to Yorkshire; from this date the power of the Northumbrian state began

to wane.¹

¹ Bede, B. IV., Chapter 26; _Chronicles_, pages 72, 351.

But the body of the people south of the Forth in Lothian remained

essentially Saxon throughout all the subsequent conflicts and changes,

perhaps even more Saxon than in any part of England, in speech and

custom. It is certain that they absorbed and superseded the Celtic

Britons in this region at a comparatively early period, and ample

evidence of this will appear as the narration proceeds.

The Scots whom we know came from Ireland, appear to have come and gone

at different times. They were mentioned among the assailants of the

Roman province in Britain in 360; and it may be presumed that a pretty

close intercourse between them and the Celtic tribes of the west of

Scotland had prevailed for long before this date. There may have been

several migrations from Ireland to Scotland at different periods,

but their final settlement in Argyleshire occurred about the end

of the fifth century. When the three sons of Erc, Lorn, Fergus, and

Angus, with their followers, obtained possession of Argyle, which they

called Dalriada. They sometimes came into conflict with the Britons

of Strathclyde, and with the Picts. It seems highly probable that the

language of the Scots was more developed than the cognate speech of

the Picts, seeing that Ireland had not prior to this time been invaded

and harassed by external enemies as the Pictish tribes had been. If

this was the case, it would partly account for the disappearance of

the dialects spoken by the Celtic tribes called the Picts.¹ These Irish

settlers were already Christians. The kings of the small state were

all descended from the race of Erc, and there is in the Chronicles and

Irish Annals a long list of them; but such details as exist concerning

their reigns yields comparatively little real historic results.²

¹ Although I believe there is no satisfactory evidence

of writings in native Irish before the introduction

of Christianity, still the Irish branch of the Celtic

language had no doubt reached a considerably higher stage

of development than the Celtic dialects then current among

the Pictish tribes in northern Britain. On a matter of this

nature, however, it must always be remembered that prior to

the introduction of printing, there were only an extremely

small fraction of people who could read or write, or

appreciate the difference between a literary language and

the dialect of their own local district. To imagine anything

else, is simply to throw back the ideas and appliances of

a latter age into periods when the known conditions and

circumstances of society exclude the possibility of their

existence or application. See Dr. Todd’s _St. Patrick_,

pages 346‒351, 391‒399, 506‒513; _Ancient Laws of Ireland_,

Preface to Volhne I., pages 8‒12, _et seq._, and the general

Preface to Volume III., pages 148‒163.

² An elaborate “Genealogical Table of the Dalriadic Kings,

and of the principal Highland families in Scotland descended

from them,” will be found in Dr. Wm. Reeves’ edition of

Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_; and in a note to the table,

he says, “The authorities here followed are:――The Tract

on the Men of Alba, in the Book of Ballymote, and the

Genealogical manuscript of MacFirbis; and the Duan Albanach;

all manuscripts in the library of the Royal Irish Academy.

Some supplemental matter is borrowed from the Pedigrees

printed in the Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis; and the

chronology is chiefly based on the Annals of Tighernach and

Ulster.” According to this Table the Marmaers of Moray, the

clans Maclean, Mackenzie, and Mackinnon, were descended from

the Kings of Dalriada.

Aidan was the first of the Dalriadian rulers who manifested real

ability and character. He was solemnly inaugurated as King of Dalriada

by St. Columba in the Island of Iona. It appeared that the Scots

in Dalriada (Argyle) had as yet been merely considered as a colony

dependent on the King of Ireland; but the newly crowned Aidan and St.

Columba attended a convention held at Drumnceat in 575, and in which

the King of Ireland agreed to recognise the independence of Scotch

Dalriada and its princes; so Aidan was the first independent king of

the Irish-Scottish kingdom in Argyle and the neighbouring Isles. Aidan

became associated with the Britons of Strathclyde, and in 603 the Scots

and Britons united their forces and resolved to try issues with the

advancing Angles, who were led by their king, Aedilfrid. Aidan advanced

and entered the territory of the Angles by the vale of the Liddel; and

at a place called Dawstane the opposing armies encountered each other.

After a severe battle, Aidan was completely defeated, and many of his

followers slain, but he retreated with the remainder of his army. He

died in 606, after a reign of thirty-one years, and was succeeded by

his younger son, Eocha Buide.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, edited 1857, pages 197‒203, 436;

_Chronicles_, page 17. “The house of Lorn furnished a few

provincial kings, produced a powerful race of Thanes (among

whom was the ever-famous Macbeth), and finally became

represented by a group of great Highland chieftains, whose

descendants still abound in those isles, the historical

vestiges of thirteen hundred years’ succession.” _Ibid._,

page 438.

Another new historic condition came into operation which had an

important influence on the subsequent history of the island. This was

the appearance of the bold and vigorous race variously described as

Danes, Norwegians, Norsemen, Scandinavians, and Vikings. These names

all refer to one kindred race, but in the subsequent pages I will in

general follow the common collective name of Norsemen when referring to

them. They were not only exceedingly brave in attack and in battle, but

also very skilful in constructing small vessels, and in steering them

through the raging seas, running them up the inlets and through the

narrow channels, and into the firths and estuaries, and out again, with

a mastery of seamanship unapproached by any other people of that period.

Thus they attained to a power and influence in Europe for several

centuries which their mere numbers otherwise could never have commanded.

At first their inroads and expeditions were usually undertaken for

plunder, but by-and-bye, when they came upon a locality which seemed a

desirable possession, their instinct prompted them to occupy it if they

thought themselves able to hold it. Thus their views of conquest and

of empire developed with their success, and they established themselves

in several parts of Europe as the ruling power for a time, and in some

places permanently. They began to infest the Northern and Western Isles

and the coasts of Scotland toward the close of the eighth century,

and persistently continued not only to subdue and occupy many of the

islands but also to make attacks upon the mainland at many points along

the coasts.

While the Norsemen were feeling their way amongst the Isles, and

eagerly casting their eyes on Scotland as they steered round it in

their vessels at no great distance from the shores, and occasionally

landing whenever they found an opportunity, the chief tribes in the

country――the Picts, the Scots, the Britons, and the Saxons――were

intently engaged in an intermittent warfare with one another, which

seemed to be producing little result. In the seventh and eighth

centuries these tribes often met in conflict, on debatable territory,

between the Tay and the Forth, and between the Forth and the water of

Almond, in the counties of Stirling and Linlithgow; in these districts

many of their battles were fought. In short, it had become apparent

in the seventh century that the banks of the Tay would be the original

centre of the historic kingdom. This was mainly owing to a series of

causes, which may be briefly indicated thus:――1. The unsubdued Celtic

tribes still occupied Perthshire and Fife and Kinross, and the natural

advantages which arose from the possession of this extensive region

were very great, from every point of view. 2. To the northward and

the eastward of the Tay the whole country was in the possession of the

Celtic tribes. 3. While the region to the south of the Forth had been

subdued and occupied by the Romans, and since their departure from the

island the advance and success of the Angles on the south of the Forth,

and their firm settlement in the Lothians, even though Pictish tribes

still held Galloway, the existing conditions and circumstances clearly

pointed out the banks of the Tay as the original centre of the historic

kingdom. Accordingly Scone had become the chief seat or the capital of

the Pictish tribes at the beginning of the eighth century. While Perth,

in its immediate vicinity, became an important town, and Dunkeld,

fourteen miles farther up the Tay, the ancient stronghold of the

Caledonians, and the very gate to the central Highlands, became for

a time the chief religious centre of the kingdom. Farther down below

Scone, on the estuary of the Tay, there had long before this been an

important settlement where the city of Dundee now stands. There can be

no reasonable doubt that the famous Coronation Stone was in Scone, at

the beginning of the eighth century, on which the kings were installed

to the throne.

But the struggle between the different tribes continued till a pretty

complete nationality was evolved. In reality the formation of a nation

is often a much longer process than the creation of an empire, for mere

force can never produce it, or a single great man, as it must have time

to grow and form affinities, assimilate adverse elements and features,

and subdue opposite interests and influences, till at length that

unity on which combined action and organisation for common ends and the

safety of the whole community comes into being, and then national life

begins to operate. It took more than two thousand years to form the

Scottish nation, and we have yet to note the most important stages of

the process.

Angus, son of Fergus, appears to have fought his way and mounted the

Pictish throne about the year 731. He attacked the territory of the

Scots in Argyle and wasted the whole country in the year 736. It is

said that he founded the monastery of St. Andrews. After a reign of

thirty years he died in 761; and he was succeeded by his brother,

Bruide, who reigned two years, and died in 763. A number of Pictish

kings follow, but the events of their reigns are of little historic

value. Constantine, who fought his way and ascended the throne of

the Picts in 790, founded the church of Dunkeld; and after a reign of

thirty years died in 820. His brother Angus, son of Fergus, succeeded

him, and for five years he ruled over the kingdoms both of the Picts

and Scots, and he died in 834. This was followed by a contest for the

throne of the Picts, in which Alpin the Scot, who attacked the Picts,

was slain.¹

¹ _Chronicles_, 138, 201, 209; Dr. Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_,

Volume I., pages 288, 296, 299; _A Sketch of the History of

Fife and Kinross_, by Sheriff Æ. J. G. Mackay, pages 8‒9.

But Kenneth, son of Alpin the Scot, succeeded his father in the small

kingdom of Argyle in the year 839. The same year the Norsemen invaded

the territories of the Picts and inflicted a crushing defeat upon them.

This may have afforded the opportunity to Kenneth M‘Alpin to make a

supreme effort to obtain the Pictish throne. Bred appears as the last

of the line of Pictish kings, and Kenneth M‘Alpin placed himself upon

the Coronation Stone at Scone in 844, thus becoming the real founder

of the historic kingdom of Scotland. This great event, however, must

be interpreted as the result of the long struggle of the chief tribes,

as the accumulating force of circumstances and the necessities of

life, and the new influence of a common religion, naturally tended to

a greater concentration of power under some one of the leading tribes.

Thus the foundation of the monarchy marked two distinct stages: 1, it

concentrated more power in the original centre, whence the historic

kingdom was gradually extended outward; 2, it supplied a continuous

influence which operated effectively, though slowly, in developing

the loose elements of separate tribal communities into a nationality.

Henceforth the internal and external causes and agencies which have

contributed to the formation of the kingdom, the development of the

nation, and the progress of civilisation, may be continuously traced.

The actual kingdom which Kenneth M‘Alpin obtained, only comprised a

limited portion of modern Scotland. It consisted of the district of

Argyle, the counties of Perth, Fife, and parts of Forfar, Dumbarton

and Stirling, with Scone as its chief seat of royalty, and Dunkeld as

its centre of religious influence. The districts beyond this centre on

the north-east, the west, and the south, were only gradually, and with

extreme difficulty subdued, as the nation developed to its ultimate

limits. After the establishment of the monarchy, under M‘Alpin, the

reigning rulers were called Kings of the Picts, then Kings of Alban,

and not till the tenth century was any part of the country called

Scotland, but from the opening of the eleventh century this name

gradually came to be applied to the whole country.

Kenneth M‘Alpin was a brave and able prince; but the circumstances

in which he was placed needed all his energy, as the newly acquired

territories were surrounded by bold and hostile foes; but he heroically

faced all his enemies, and stifled in the bud any questions of his

right to the kingdom, throttled the claims of all competitors, and

asserted his supremacy. After a brilliant reign, according to the

ideas of his time, having governed the Picts and the Scots jointly

for sixteen years, he died in his dun at Forteviot, on the river Earn,

in 860. It appears he had two sons, Constantine and Aed, and three

daughters.¹

¹ _Chronicles_, pages 9, 21, 64, 65, 84, 135, 154, 361, 362.

SECTION VIII.

_Introduction of Christianity._

The advent and spread of Christianity produced a great revolution in

many parts of the globe. The Christian religion was a prime factor in

the development of Scotland, as it became closely associated with the

government, the institutions, the education, the music, the literature,

the amusements, and the life of the people; indeed, its influence

operated from the cradle to the grave.

It has been said that Christianity was early introduced into

Britain. Although with the utmost effort to reach the truth, the

mass of legends are difficult to digest. It is almost impossible to

extract any definite historic information from such statements as

these:――“Meanwhile the most blessed man, St. Ninian, being pained

that the devil, driven forth from the earth within the ocean, should

find rest for himself in a corner of this island in the heart of the

Picts, girding himself as a strong wrestler to cast out his tyranny;

taking moreover, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the

breast-plate of charity, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the

Word. Fortified by such arms, and surrounded by the society of his holy

brethren as by a heavenly host, he invaded the empire of the strong man

armed with the purpose of securing from his power innumerable victims

of his captivity, whereupon, attacking the Southern Picts, whom still

the Gentile error which clung to them induced to reverence and worship

deaf and dumb idols, he taught them the truth of the Gospel and the

purity of the Christian faith, God working with him, and confirming

the Word with signs following.”¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V.; _Life of St. Ninian_, pages 14, 15,

274‒281.

This worthy man was amongst the first teachers of the new faith in

Scotland. He was the son of a British prince, and was educated in the

Christian faith at Rome, and visited St. Martin at Tours, in France.

His life was written by Ailred, a monk of the twelfth century, but it

contains little reliable information; he rather presented a picture

of the Church of his own time than an account of the life and labours

of St. Ninian. Bede lived nearer to the saint’s time, and records that

Ninian converted the Southern Picts, and built a church of stone, which

was unusual among them. This church was in Galloway, at a spot called

Whithern, and it developed into a monastery.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 175, 176.

A few incidents will indicate the character of the matter embodied

in the life of St. Ninian. One day, when the saint and his brethren

assembled to dinner, there were no pot herbs or vegetables on the table.

Ninian asked the reason of this, and was told that all that remained of

the leeks had that day been committed to the ground, and the garden had

not yet produced anything fit for eating. Then the saint ordered the

brother to whom the keeping of the garden was entrusted to go and bring

to him whatever he could find. The man, knowing that Ninian would order

nothing in vain, entered the garden, and behold! leeks and other kinds

of herbs not only grown but also bearing seed. He was much astonished,

and thought that he saw a vision, but on returning to himself, and

recollecting the power of the holy man, he thanked God, and then

culled as much herbs as seemed sufficient, and placed them on the table

before the saint. The brethren looked at one another, and magnified God

working in his saints.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Ninian_, page 16.

St. Ninian restored the sight of a king of Strathclyde on whom God had

inflicted the punishment of blindness for his pride and opposition to

the saint, and when thus subdued and healed the king became friendly,

and a ready supporter of the servants of Christ. Ninian died in 432,

and was interred in his own church at Whithern. His biographer affirmed

that the relics of the saint worked many miracles. “That at his tomb

the sick were cured, the lepers cleansed, the wicked terrified, and the

blind restored to sight; by all which our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth

and reigneth with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world

without end. Amen.”¹ We know, from later sources of evidence, that the

relics of St. Ninian were objects of intense veneration down to the

period of the Reformation.

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Ninian_, pages 11, 12,

23‒26.

But the best evidence of the mission of St. Ninian in Scotland, and

his place in the grateful remembrance of the people, is shown in the

number of churches dedicated to his name. Churches were dedicated to

him in twenty-five counties, stretching from Wigton to Sutherland, but

his churches were most numerous in Ayrshire and Forfarshire; in all,

upwards of sixty churches were dedicated to him.¹

¹ _Ibid._ Introduction, pages 13‒19. The late Bishop of Brechin,

in his valuable _Calendar of the Scottish Saints_, gave a

detailed list of St. Ninian’s churches.

It appears that the southern tribes of the Picts and the Strathclyde

Britons had been only slightly touched by St. Ninian’s mission. This

is not surprising; although it is clear that the early teachers of

Christianity in Britain and in Ireland adopted an easier mode of

proceeding than the modern missionaries in heathen lands. The early

saints allowed many of the old and existing notions of the people

to remain intact, and simply turning, or professing to turn them, to

beneficial ends. This is the natural and reasonable way of accounting

for the many miracles attributed to the saints, which were merely the

counterparts of ideas and notions then floating among the tribes and

in the minds of the inhabitants. To suppose, as has sometimes been

done that these miracles were invented for the purpose of enhancing

the power and importance of the clergy, only evinces an imperfect

perception of the essential characteristics of the condition of the

people and the period, and a defective appreciation of the operations

of the human mind. No doubt the early teachers of Christianity in

Scotland and elsewhere firmly believed in their power of working

miracles, for this belief was in their minds, or something very similar

to it, before they became Christians. Thus it was only a continuation

and a higher development of their former notions and feelings, not

at all a newly invented belief, as something very like it had existed

in the country many centuries before this period. We will meet with

curious and amusing illustrations of it almost to the end of our

history.

About the middle of the sixth century St. Kentigern, better known as

St. Mungo, began his work amongst the Britons of Strathclyde, where

he encountered many and great difficulties. The people were nearly all

heathens, and all the energy of the saint and his working of miracles

produced little impression upon them. When King Morken ascended the

throne, he scorned and despised the life and doctrine of the saint,

openly resisted him, and attributed his miraculous powers to magical

illusion. Then they came face to face, and the saint asked for some

supplies of food to the brethren of the monastery; but the king

spurned his petition and inflicted new injuries on him. He said to the

saint――“Cast thy care upon the Lord and He will sustain thee, as thou

hast often taught others, that they who fear God shall lack nothing,

and that those who seek the Lord shall have everything which is good.

Thus, though thou fearest God and keepest His commandments, thou art in

want of everything, even thy necessary food; while to me, who neither

seek the kingdom of God nor the righteousness thereof, all prosperous

things are added, and plenty of all sorts smileth upon me. Thy faith,

therefore, is vain, and thy teaching false.” The saint pleaded that it

was part of the inscrutable ways of God to afflict just and holy men

in this life, while the wicked were exalted by wealth; and yet the poor

were the real patrons of the rich, seeing that the labour of the poor

sustained the rich as the vines were supported by the elm. The king

rose in a passion, and said――“What more desirest thou? If trusting in

thy God, without human hands, thou canst transfer to thy mansion all

the corn in my barns, I yield with a glad mind and gift, and for the

future will be devoutly obedient to thy requests.”

When evening came the saint prayed earnestly to the Lord. Then, behold!

the rain poured down in torrents, the waters of the Clyde rapidly rose

into a flood and overflowed its banks where the king’s barns were,

and carried them down the stream, and landed the whole at the saint’s

dwelling, beside the Molendinar burn, which then flowed near the place

now called the Salt Market in Glasgow. But the miracle only enraged

the king, who uttered many reproaches against the saint, and when he

approached the king rushed on him and struck him with his heel and

smote him to the ground upon his back. The time had come to manifest

the divine power on behalf of the saint. As Cathen, the king’s adviser,

had instigated the whole matter, so after mounting his horse to ride

off, and laughing at the saint’s discomfiture, his prancing steed

stumbled, and the rider falling backward broke his neck and expired

before the king’s gate. The king also was smitten with a swelling in

his feet, which ended in his death, and the same disease afflicted his

family till it became extinct.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume V. _Life of St. Kentigern_, pages 69‒72,

348.

But the saint was forced to leave Strathclyde, and went to Wales,

where he laboured many years. Afterwards, when King Riderch reigned in

Strathclyde, the saint returned and spent the remaining years of his

life amongst the Britons. This king seems to have favoured the saint,

and promoted his labours among the people. After an active and earnest

life spent in the service of humanity, St. Kentigern died about the

beginning of the seventh century. Besides attaining to the rank of

local saint of Glasgow, under the name of St. Mungo, his memory became

widely and greatly revered in Scotland. He also left the impress of

his energy on the people of Wales and of Cumberland, as in the latter

district eight churches were dedicated to his name. His tomb and relics

at Glasgow were objects of extreme veneration down to the period of the

Reformation.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 73, 88‒95, 118, 119, 348‒370; _History of

Cumberland_, by ♦R. S. Ferguson, M.A., page 114, 1890.

♦ “R. T.” replaced with “R. S.”

Before passing to the northern part of the country, the important

labours of St. Cuthbert must be noticed. He was born on the southern

side of the Lammermoor Hills, and when a boy followed a shepherd’s

life. But Nature had gifted him with fine sensibilities and a glowing

imagination, united in a vigorous physical frame, and the inner

cravings of his mind led him to Melrose and to adopt a religious life.

He became the apostle of the border counties. From his retreat at

Melrose he carried his teaching of the Gospel to the people in the

glens and the hillsides of the Cheviots and the Lammermoors, Ettrick,

Teviotdale, Yarrow, and Annan Water. In his missionary efforts among

the inhabitants of these localities he often spent several weeks at

a time, and then returned to his monastery, like the bird to the ark.

His energy was very great, and he faced toil and hardship bravely and

cheerfully in the service of God and humanity. Afterwards St. Cuthbert

was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne. Thus he became a conspicuous and

worthy saint in the annals of the English Church.¹ He died in 687.

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, pages 242‒243. The materials for the life

and career of St. Cuthbert, and the many interesting incidents

associated with him, are exceedingly voluminous, but the

following are the main sources:――1, An Anonymous Life; 2,

the Prose Life by Bede; 3, the Metrical Life by Bede; 4,

the History of the Translation of his Body; 5, the Libellus

of Reginald; 6, a number of Miscellanies. See T. D. Hardy’s

Catalogue of the Materials relating to the History of Britain,

Volume I., pages 297‒317.

The most renowned of the early saints who introduced Christianity among

the northern tribes of Scotland was St. Columba, as all have recognised

in him the features of a veritable hero. He was very fortunate in

having two of his successors as biographers, who were near enough to

his own time to give their accounts of him a special value. Though

we may regret that Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_ affords so little

information about the state of society in his time, still we should

recollect that it was intended for the instruction of his own age

and contemporaries, not for the enlightenment of a remote posterity.

Thus, in full harmony with the spirit of his time, and the notions and

feelings of his own class, Adamnan makes “the Prophetic Revelations,

the Miraculous Powers, and the Apparitions of Angels,” the main themes

of his life of Columba. Assuredly these were the matters of interest to

the monks, so it is only incidentally that facts relating to the real

world were introduced. Meagre as the work is of facts, it does contain

notices of customs and references to notions then floating in the minds

of the inhabitants which are nowhere else to be found.

St. Columba was born on the 7th of December, 521, at Gartan, in the

county of Donegal, in Ireland. He was closely related to the royal

families of his native country, which gave him a great advantage from

the outset of his career. He was carefully educated in Ireland, and

when a youth became a pupil of the famous bishop, St. Finnian. About

the year 553 he founded the monastery of Durrow, his chief institution

in Ireland. It appears he was connected with some of the political

disputes of his countrymen, and in 561 the battle of Cooldrevny was

fought, and it was suspected that Columba had instigated it. A synod

was assembled to excommunicate Columba, but the assembly was not

unanimous, and protests were entered. What effect, if any, this may

have had on his future course cannot be ascertained, as he left Ireland

without any stigma on his character, repeatedly revisited it, and was

received with the highest respect.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, Appendix Preface, pages 68‒75. Columba――“a

member of the reigning family in Ireland, and closely allied

to that of Dalriada in Scotland; he was eligible to the

sovereignty of his own country. His half-uncle, Muircertach,

was on the throne when he was born, and he lived during the

successive reigns of his cousins, Domhnall and Fergus, and

Eochaidh; of his first cousins, Ainmire and Baedan; and of

Aedh, son of Ainmire. To this circumstance, as much as to

his piety or abilities, was owing the immense influence

which he possessed, and the consequent celebrity of his

conventual establishments; in fact, he enjoyed a kind of

spiritual monarchy collectively with the secular dominion of

his relatives, being sufficiently distant in Iona to avoid

collision, yet near enough to exercise an authority made up

of the patriarchal and monastic.” _Ibid._, page 8, Note _u_.

In 563 Columba, with twelve companions, embarked in a wicker-boat,

covered with hides, and after touching at Islay, landed and settled on

the small isle of Iona. It lay on the confines of the territories of

the Scottish and Pictish tribes, and Connal, the ruler of the former,

gifted it to Columba, and shortly after its possession was confirmed

to him by Brude, the King of the Picts. As Iona lay on the outskirts of

the dominions of the two chief tribes, it afforded a convenient centre

for intercourse, and there St. Columba founded his chief monastery,

and thence sent forth missionaries to convert the rude tribes of the

north of Scotland. The Scots of Argyle were then nominally Christians,

but the Picts were not, and it was amongst the latter that Columba

mostly laboured. He often visited the mainland, and gained a remarkable

influence over its chiefs. He at first encountered many difficulties,

but the native energy and spirit of the missionary overcame all

obstacles. In the year 565 Columba sought out the Pictish king’s

seat, which was on the south-side of the river Ness, on or near the

old Castle Hill of Inverness. Brude, in his pride, had shut the gate

against the holy man, but the saint, by the sign of the cross, and

knocking at it, caused it to fly open. Columba and his companions then

entered, the King advanced and met them, and received the saint with

due respect, and ever after honoured him.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume VI., pages 62, 276; _Mon. Hist. Brit._,

page 176; Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 130‒153.

Columba and his disciples then proceeded with their work, and preached

the Gospel among the Picts, and baptised them; sometimes whole families

were baptised at once and recognised as Christians. It may be observed

that Columba occasionally employed the aid of an interpreter when

engaged in instructing the Picts in the doctrines of Christianity.

This was quite a natural occurrence, for though Columba himself, no

doubt, understood the Pictish dialect, it was, however, a different

and a difficult matter to intelligibly explain the doctrines of

Christianity to the Picts in their own local dialect. Columba founded

many monasteries on the mainland and in the Western Isles in his own

lifetime, and subsequently the monasteries and churches dedicated to

him were very numerous. Every monastery consisted of a body of clergy,

who from these centres went out in circuits amongst the surrounding

tribes to teach and to convert them, and returned to the monastery as

their common home for shelter and support. In this way, as monasteries

were gradually established and spread over the country, the inhabitants

were converted.¹

¹ _Historians_, Volume VI., pages 2, 25, 55, 58, 71, 77;

Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 289‒298; _Book of Deer_, Preface,

pages 1, 2.

A few incidents connected with Columba’s action and labour among

the people may be narrated. When on one of his visits in the land of

the Picts, he heard of a famous well which the heathen people, being

blinded by the devil, worshipped as a god. The well had many evil

qualities, and those who drank of it, or washed in it, were struck by

demoniacal art, smitten with leprosy or some severe infirmity. Thus the

people were seduced, and paid divine honour to the fountain. Columba

having learned the state of the case, went boldly up to the well, and

then the Magi rejoiced, as they thought that he too would suffer from

the touch of the baneful water; but the saint raised his hands and

invoked the name of Christ, then washed his hands and feet, and with

his disciples drank of the water which he had blessed. Henceforth the

demons departed from the well, and it never after injured anyone; but,

on the contrary, it became famous for curing diseases.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 119.

St. Columba by the sign of the cross banished the demons which lurked

in the bottom of the milking pail; and he also confounded the devilish

art of a sorcerer who pretended to take milk from a bull. There is

no evidence in the _Life of St. Columba_ of any organised heathen

priesthood in Scotland, or in the Isles around it. There is, however,

evidence that the kings or great chiefs kept an adviser, one of which

we have already met in the person of Cathen, the adviser of the King

of Strathclyde, who tried issues with St. Mungo; and no doubt these

advisers, who associated with the kings, were a sort of half-magicians

and half-priests. The magi that Columba met with, professed to have

power over winds and waters; but the saint easily outdid them. There

was a certain Broichan who attended King Brude, and this man ventured

to measure his powers with St. Columba; but the saint swiftly and

utterly defeated him.¹

¹ _Ibid._, _Adamnan_, pages 146‒150; _Historians_, Volume VI.,

pages 59‒61.

St. Columba was more engaged in fighting demons than heathen priests.

He went out one day to a sequestered spot in the woods to pray, and

when he began a host of black demons suddenly attacked him with iron

darts:――“But he, single-handed, against innumerable foes of such a

nature, fought with the utmost bravery, having received the armour of

the Apostle Paul. Thus the contest was maintained on both sides for the

greater part of the day, nor could the demons, countless though they

were, vanquish him, nor was he able by himself to drive them from the

island, till the angels of God, as the saint afterwards told certain

persons, and they, few in number, came to his aid, when the demons in

terror gave way.” He was represented as being frequently engaged in

encounters with demons.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 205. The greatest of Columba’s

encounters with demons was related thus:――“Brandubh was

killed on the morrow, and the demons carried off his soul

into the air. And Maedhog (abbot of Ferns) heard the wail

of his soul as it was undergoing pain, while he was with

the reapers. And he went into the air, and began to battle

with the demons. And they passed over Iona; and Columba

heard them while he was writing; and he stuck the style into

his cloak, and went to the battle to the aid of Maedhog,

in defence of Brandubh’s soul. And the battle passed over

Rome, and the style fell out of Columba’s cloak, and dropped

in front of Gregory, who took it up in his hand. Columba

followed the soul of Brandubh to heaven. When he reached

it the congregation of heaven were at Celebration, namely,

Te decet hymnus, and Benedic anima mea, and Laudate pueri

Dominum; and this is the beginning of the Celebration

of heaven. Columba did the same as the people of heaven.

And they brought Brandubh’s soul back to his body again.

Columba tarried with Gregory, and brought away Gregory’s

brooch with him; and it is the hereditary brooch, being an

heirloom in Iona, as the testamentary bell was in Armagh, of

the coarb of Columba to this day. And he left his style with

Gregory.” _Ibid._, _note_.

The form of Christianity introduced was essentially monastic, both

in the north and the south. As Columba’s institution of Iona was the

first in importance, and the chief religious centre in Scotland for a

century and a half, it presents the best example. The island of Iona

lies north-east and south-west, separated from the island of Mull by

a channel about a mile broad; it is about three miles in length, and

about a mile and a half in breadth. Its surface is very uneven, and

mostly consists of small green patches and rocky projections; the

best part of the cultivable land lies along its eastern shore. The

original monastery consisted of a church, with its altar and recesses,

a refectory, the cells and huts of the monks, and Columba’s house or

cell, in which he read and wrote, having several attendants awaiting

his orders; and one or more houses for the reception of strangers and

visitors not belonging to the monastic family. All these erections were

surrounded by a rampart and a ditch called a wall, which was probably

intended as much for the restraint of the monks as for security. So far

as ascertained, it appears that originally the whole of these buildings

were formed of wood and wattles, which perhaps rested upon stone

foundations. Outside the wall there were the cow-house and the stable,

the barn, the kiln and the mill, the smithy and the carpenters’

workshop. Many of the monks themselves engaged in the labours of the

field, among the corn and grass.

Those who entered into the conventual community were considered as

specially devoted to the service of God. The Abbot of Iona was the head

of the community, and his authority extended over all the monasteries

and churches founded by St. Columba. The bishops in Iona and in

Scotland in the lifetime of Columba, and for about a century after,

were subject to the Abbots of Iona. St. Columba named his own successor,

and afterwards a preference was given to the founder’s kin in the

election of the Abbots. Thus the notions and feelings of clanship

entered into the very constitution of the Columban monasteries; and the

kin relation of many of the Abbots of Iona have been traced. In Ireland

the feelings of clanship were even more marked in the succession of the

Abbots or Coarbs than in Scotland. Dioceses and parishes were unknown

in the early Scottish Church. The Celtic form of society was unsuited

to such arrangements, as the state of intermittent warfare in which the

people lived, often resulted in the extension of the territory of one

tribe and the curtailment of another, which rendered even the area of

the jurisdiction of clan monasteries exceedingly fluctuating.¹

¹ _Historians of Scotland_, Volume VI., pages 104, 105,

Introduction; Todd’s _St. Patrick_, pages 154‒161, 172,

504, 505; _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, Volumes I., II., III.;

Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 339‒341; _Book of Deer_, pages 102,

126‒128.

It seems probable that celibacy was enjoined by Columba on the members

of his community in Iona, but marriage was common in his time among

the secular clergy, and celibacy was not established in Christendom for

long after his day. Women held a high position in the early Church of

Ireland and Scotland, as they have always done in the organisation of

Celtic society. Columba himself was much revered by the female sex, and

there were convents for women even in his time, and female saints of

great renown. In the Irish Church some of the coarbs were females, and

St. Bridget attained a wide fame and influence not only in Ireland but

also in England and in Scotland. This female saint was born about the

middle of the fifth century and died about the beginning of the sixth,

and the histories of her life are numerous and full of narratives about

miracles.¹

¹ Todd’s _St. Patrick_, pages 11‒14, 171; _Historians_, Volume

VI., pages 41, 42, 69, 71, 85.

Touching divine service, the members of the monastery of Iona were

summoned to the church by the ringing of a bell, and at night they

carried lanterns. The chief service was the solemn mass, when the

offices were chanted, and in which certain saints were commemorated

by name. On special occasions the abbot summoned the monks by the toll

of the bell to the church in the dead of night, addressed them, asked

their prayers, and then kneeled himself at the altar and prayed. Every

Wednesday and Friday during the year, excepting the time between Easter

and Whitsunday, were kept as fast days, and Lent was strictly observed.

The chief festival was the Paschal solemnities, on which occasion the

Eucharist was celebrated. Baptism was administered to adult converts,

after being duly instructed in the faith, sometimes by the abbot in his

travels through the country, and sometimes to an individual a little

before his death.

Young men were admitted to the diaconate while students, and part

of their duty was to attend the ministers of the altar. Priests’

orders were conferred by the bishop, but the previous imposition of

the abbot’s right hand was required as the warrant for the bishop’s

interference. Persons retiring from the world to live as associates

or probationers in the monastery were admitted. When any one desired

admission to the order, the application was submitted to the abbot,

who could receive into communion at once or extend the probation over

a period of years. The abbot exercised a discretionary power in the

regulation of penance, and generally over the whole organisation of

the community.

The interment of the dead was a religious office, which implied

consideration of the future as well as the present. The faith in the

Resurrection rendered it desirable to be buried among the honoured

members of the society. The body of the deceased was laid out in the

church, wrapped in linen clothes, where it remained for three days

and nights, during which the praises of God were sung. Then the body

was borne to the grave in solemn procession, and interred with due

reverence.

The sign of the cross was much employed. It was customary to cross

the pail before milking the cows, to cross tools and implements before

using them, and so on. The sign of the cross was highly esteemed, and

it was deemed effectual to banish demons, to restrain and prostrate

wild animals, unlock doors, and endow pebbles with healing virtues.

In St. Columba’s time charms were much used, which were produced by

his blessing on a great variety of objects; but it is unnecessary to

particularise further, as such notions and practices were not peculiar

to St. Columba or his country, for they have been found prevailing

among many other peoples widely separated from each other.

The members of the monastery had all things in common. Personal

property was entirely disclaimed, according to Columba’s injunction.

Hospitality was a leading characteristic of the early monasteries. When

a stranger arrived, sometimes he was at once introduced to the abbot,

by whom he was kissed; at other times the interview was deferred. When

an expected guest arrived, the abbot and brethren went to meet and

welcome him, and he was then led to the oratory and thanks returned for

his safety. From this he was led to a lodging, and water prepared to

wash his feet. If a visitor happened to arrive on an ordinary fast-day,

the fast was relaxed in his favour. Almsgiving was held in high esteem,

and Columba often befriended the poor, but beggars who went about with

wallets, were not held in such esteem, and grevious transgressors were

excluded.

The ordinary food of the community of Iona was very simple. It

consisted of bread, sometimes made of barley, milk, eggs, fish,

occasionally mutton and beef, and some vegetables. Their clothing

consisted of a coarse woollen cloth in its natural colour, and they

wore sandals on their feet, which were removed before sitting down to

meat.

Besides the religious services the regular employment of the Columban

community consisted in reading, writing, and manual labour, according

to the example of the saint himself, who allowed no time to pass

unoccupied. The primary subject of study was the Scriptures, which all

the members of the community had to prosecute, and to commit to memory

the Book of Psalms. The Greek and Latin languages, and ecclesiastical

writings were also included in their studies. Writing formed an

important part of the monastic occupations, and Columba himself was

much devoted to it, and many of his books were preserved, especially

a volume containing hymns for the various services of each day in

the week, which is mentioned by Adamnan. The stated manual labour

was agriculture in its various branches, and there is evidence that

the monks of Iona were the best agriculturists of the period in North

Britain. As the monastery of Iona developed, and the number of its

members increased, the work connected with the institution called into

being new offices, agents, and servants, whose various duties were

defined. In Iona we find the abbot, prior, bishop, scribe, anchorite,

butler, baker, smith, attendant, and messengers, and at a later date

the president of the Culdees; while the position of Iona necessitated

a supply of boats and nautical appliances, and men accustomed with the

sea, and several kinds of small vessels were used in connection with

the monastery. Small portable boats were used for cruising, crossing

rivers, and inland lochs; larger wicker-work boats covered with hides,

which were furnished with masts and sails as well as oars, were used

for carrying on communication with the mainland and with Ireland.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 339‒369; _Sculptured Stones of

Scotland_, Volume II., Preface, pages 14‒16, 17, 19‒21.

Columba had a severe sickness in the year 593, and he died on the

morning of the 9th of June, 597, while kneeling at the altar; without

a struggle his spirit gently departed. His remains were wrapped in fine

linen clothes and interred in Iona.¹ Columba was a man of great energy

and ability, and left behind him an imperishable name associated with

the introduction of Christianity in Scotland.

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 227, 235‒240.

He was succeeded by his first cousin, Baithene, son of Brendan. He

was nominated by St. Columba as his successor to the abbacy of Iona,

and, having enjoyed it three years, he died in 600. He was succeeded by

another first-cousin of St. Columba, Laisren, son of Feradhach; he held

the abbacy five years, and died in 605.¹ Iona continued to prosper,

and occasionally sent forth men who spread the light and established

monasteries and churches beyond the bounds of Scotland. The institution

of Iona performed good service in its day, and contributed several

important elements to the civilisation of Scotland, which have operated

in various ways along the roll of ages down to the present time. In

spite of its solitary position, evil days came upon it; for in 801,

the monastery was burned to the ground by the Norsemen. Again in 806

they landed on the island, and slew sixty-eight of the inhabitants; and

they returned in 815 and killed a number of the monks. Such were the

results of the early visits of these heathen Norsemen to our shores. By

this time the influence of Iona had from other causes begun to decline,

and before the end of the ninth century Dunkeld had become the chief

religious centre in Scotland.

¹ _Ibid._, page 372.

It was already stated that Constantine, who ascended the throne

of the Picts at Scone in 790, founded a church at Dunkeld; and it

appears that the remains of St. Columba were enshrined sometime in the

latter half of the eighth century, conveyed to Ireland and preserved

there. Kenneth M‘Alpin in 850 removed the relics of St. Columba to the

Church of Dunkeld, or at least some of them. Thus Kenneth, as it were,

constituted Dunkeld――the mother church over the Columbans in Scotland;

and hence the Abbots of Dunkeld assumed an important position.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 312, 318; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume

II., pages 291‒319.

The influence of these early saints, and especially of St. Columba,

and their immediate successors, upon the subsequent religious feelings

and sentiments of the people was great and abiding, and to us indeed,

unrealisable in its natal vigour and glowing energy. For till the

Reformation their deaths and miracles were continually commemorated as

part of the belief and worship of the people. Their tombs, relics, and

shrines, became objects of extreme veneration. Many of their relics

were believed to possess marvellous powers, such as the Crosiers, and

the Brecbennoch of St. Columba, which were often carried into battles

to secure victory to the people who possessed them. These saints also

took a firm and extensive hold upon the local history and nomenclature

of the country, which is still discernible after thirteen centuries.

The wells and springs among the valleys, the deep and winding glens,

and in the cliffs of rugged mountains, often bear the names of these

early saints; and, moreover, many of the wells had been blessed by

them, and thus rendered famous for curing diseases.¹ The caves and

rocks retain traces of the early teachers of the Gospel of peace, and

the old markets all over the country were named after them; indeed,

there were few places of any note that were not associated with the

name of some early saint. Looking fairly at these results and assigning

to them due importance, we may easily perceive the social influence

which the new religion must have had upon the people; and seeing

that the action of these saints had one common origin, the general

effect was a tendency to draw the separate tribes slowly towards

a union amongst themselves. Thus Christianity became an influence

which contributed much indirectly to the development of the Scotch

nationality, as well as to the civilisation of the people.

¹ There were few if any parishes in Scotland that had not

one or more holy wells which were famed for their healing

virtues, and many of them were resorted to till quite recent

times. See Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_,

page 193, 1881.

SECTION IX.

_Gradual Extension of the Kingdom to the End

of the Eleventh Century._

After the historic kingdom was founded, and while its development was

proceeding from the centre outward, it was persistently attacked by

external enemies. The Danes and Norwegians, under the name of Norsemen,

threatened its total overthrow. The racial movement of the Saxons

had been proceeding onward, since their settlement in the Lothians,

slowly but effectively. The powerful tribes occupying the parts of

the country not yet included in the kingdom were still warring against

it. Thus there were external and internal conflicts going on at the

same time; yet the natural vigour and energy of the people enabled

them to struggle for centuries with these difficulties and adverse

circumstances, and finally to attain success.

Kenneth M‘Alpin was succeeded by his brother Donald, who reigned four

years. Constantine I., a son of Kenneth M‘Alpin, then ascended the

throne, and soon found himself face to face with the Norsemen. In the

middle of the ninth century these ruthless warriors extended their

destructive ravages along the east and west coasts of Scotland; they

entered by the firths and inlets, and penetrated far into the interior

of the country, ransacked it on every side, inflicted much suffering

and privation on the people, and prolonged the reign of confusion.

They slew many of the inhabitants, and carried numbers of them off

as captives, and at length they obtained a footing in Caithness,

Sutherlandshire, and other parts along the coasts, where they

established lasting memorials of their prowess in the memory of

succeeding generations.

In 877 the Norsemen invaded the country in force, and entered Fife,

attacked and defeated the Scots, and pursued them through the county.

The Scots made a stand at Inverdovet, in the parish of Forgan, but they

were completely defeated, and Constantine and many of his followers

slain.¹ He was succeeded by his brother, Aed, who reigned one year.

Eocha, a Briton, was then placed on the throne, but being too young

to reign alone, another king called Giric was associated with him,

and they both disappeared about 889. Donald, a son of Constantine I.

ascended the throne in 889, and during his reign the Norsemen had

obtained possession of Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross. Afterwards

they invaded the southern districts; and the king, when fighting

against them, was slain at Dunnotter, in Kincardineshire, in 900. He

was succeeded by Constantine II., who soon found himself engaged in

the struggle with the fierce and implacable Norsemen. They plundered

Dunkeld and the surrounding country, but in 904 Constantine invoked the

aid of St. Columba, and with the saint’s crozier carried at the head

of his army, he attacked the Norsemen in Strathern, and completely

defeated them and slew their leader.²

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, pages 9, 21.

² _Ibid._, pages 9, 21, 362; Robertson’s _Early Kings_, Volume

I., pages 44, 45, _et seq._

In 906 Constantine II. directed his attention to the affairs of the

Church, and held an assembly on the Mote Hill of Scone. There the king

and Cellach, the bishop of St. Andrews, and the people, all solemnly

vowed to observe the laws and the discipline of the faith, and preserve

the rights of the Church, and the record adds, “from this day the hill

merited its name, the ‘Mount of Belief.’”¹ The stone on which the kings

were installed to the throne had long been in Scone, many important

meetings had been held there, and henceforth this sacred spot became

inseparably associated with the sovereignty and the freedom of the

kingdom.

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, page 9.

Distinct indications now appear of attempts to extend the dominion of

the kingdom to the south-west, as when Constantine II. contrived to

obtain the election of his own brother Donald as king of Strathclyde

in 908, and thenceforth a branch of the Scottish line gave princes to

Strathclyde, and thus facilitated its complete annexation in the near

future.¹

¹ _Ibid._

Constantine II., wearied with the struggle and the difficulties

connected with his position, retired to the monastery of St. Andrews

in 942, and resigned the throne to Malcolm, a son of his predecessor,

Donald. Constantine lived ten years after his retirement, and died

in 952. Malcolm I. was a bold man, and attempted to extend his power

beyond the river Spey, but he failed. He seems to have obtained some

footing in the region to the south of the Forth, sometimes called the

Cumbrian kingdom, which was then in a state approaching disintegration.

Malcolm reigned eleven years, and was slain at Fetteresso, in

Kincardineshire. The struggle between the tribes in the northern and

the southern districts of the county still continued to rage, and on

the death of Malcolm, Indulf, the son of Constantine II., mounted the

throne at Scone in the year 954. He extended the kingdom southward

by taking advantage of the distracted and confused state of Cumbria;

he seized possession of Edinburgh and added it to the kingdom. Indulf

also repelled an attack of the Norsemen in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, and

after a reign of eight years he died in 962. A contest for the throne

then ensued between Duff, the son of Malcolm I., and Colin, the son

of Indulf, and a battle was fought at Drumcrub, in Strathern, in which

Duff defeated Colin; but two years later Colin expelled Duff, who died

shortly after, and Colin was slain by the Britons in 971.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 10, 151, 171, 288, 302, ♦363, 364.

♦ Numeric misprint in original;

“63” replaced with “363” as probable

The same year Kenneth II., a son of Malcolm I., ascended the throne

at Scone; and immediately proceeded to throw up entrenchments at the

fordable points of the Forth, and attempted to extend the limits of

the kingdom southward. He attacked the Britons of Strathclyde and

wasted a portion of their territory; and then turned his attention

to Northumbria, which he invaded twice, and seems to have subdued

and taken possession of some portions of it. Kenneth gave Brechin

to the Lord, and thus endeavoured to strengthen his hold on the

district around it by securing the influence of the Church. A gradual

encroachment upon the local kings and chiefs was effectively proceeding

from Scone, the centre of the monarchy; the kingdom was slowly

extending in every direction, and the people under the influence of

the Church and other attracting affinities were silently becoming a

nation. Kenneth II. did much to consolidate the power of the Scots,

and after reigning twenty-four years he was slain at Fettercairn, in

Kincardineshire in 995.¹

¹ _Ibid._, pages 10, 152, 289, 365; _Chartulary of Brechin_,

Preface, page 4.

Constantine III., a son of Colin, then succeeded to the throne, but

his right was contested by Kenneth M‘Duff. After a severe struggle

Constantine was slain in the second year of his reign. M‘Duff reigned

eight years, and was killed in Strathern. He was succeeded by Malcolm

II., a son of Kenneth II., who ascended the throne in 1005. Malcolm II.

began his reign by an invasion of Northumberland, but was defeated, and

many of his followers slain. He next attempted to extend his influence

over the northern region of the country by the marriage of his daughter

with Sigurd, the ruler of the Orkney Islands, and they had a son,

Thorfinn, who after his father’s death was confirmed by Malcolm in the

possession of Caithness and Sutherland. Having established his grandson

in the northern extremity of the country, Malcolm again turned his

attention towards the south. In the year 1018, twelve years after his

former defeat, he took advantage of the distracted state of Northumbria,

mustered all his followers, and marched southward to the Tweed, where

he found the Northumbrian army. At Carham a great battle was fought,

and Malcolm completely defeated his enemies, many of whom perished

in the rout. The result of this battle was the cession of Lothian and

the whole of the territory north of the Tweed, and thus Malcolm II.

obtained a more important success than any of his predecessors had

ever achieved. During his reign the kingdom of Strathclyde became

incorporated into Scotland without any serious conflict.¹ The country

then began to be called Scotia, and it had reached its permanent

frontier on the south side, as it stood when the great struggle with

England began, toward the end of the thirteenth century. But in the

outlying districts of the north and the west there were still a number

of small local powers not under the authority of the monarchy, and it

was long ere the King of Scots overmastered them.

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 594; _Chronicles of the Picts and

Scots_, 131; Robertson’s _Early Kings_, Volume I., pages

92‒96.

The great Dane, Canute, had subdued England, and was at this time

reigning as king of that country. It is stated in the Saxon Chronicle

that in 1031 Canute marched with an army to the north and met Malcolm

II. upon the borders of their dominions, that Malcolm submitted to

him and became his man, but “retained his allegiance for a very short

time.” Canute and his army returned to the south, and the result of the

meeting disappeared with them. Malcolm reigned twenty-nine years, and

died on the 25th of November, 1034.¹

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_, Volume I.,

page 398.

Upon the death of Malcolm the lineal descendants in the male line

of Kenneth M‘Alpin, the founder of the Scottish dynasty, became

extinct, and he was succeeded by his grandson Duncan, the son of one

of Malcolm’s daughters. But other aspirants to the throne disputed

Duncan’s right, and he soon became involved in a desperate struggle

with the local chiefs beyond the Spey, and Earl Thorfinn, his own

cousin, who was ruler of the Orkney Isles, of Caithness and of

Sutherland. Duncan seems to have been a very able man; but when he

ventured beyond the Spey, Thorfinn and Macbeth joined their forces and

proved too strong for him, and after a severe struggle Duncan was slain

by Macbeth, near Elgin.¹

¹ _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, pages 63, 65, 152, 175,

206; _Historians_, Fordun, pages 179, 180, 419.

Macbeth, the Mormaer of Moray, then marched southward and mounted the

throne in 1040, and for five years reigned undisturbed. According to

some authorities he was descended from Ferchar, the fifteenth King of

Dalriada, and his wife, Gruoch, was a daughter of Bode, son of Kenneth,

and thus related to the royal line; and, no doubt, Macbeth advanced

his claim on these grounds to secure the allegiance of the people. In

1045 Crinan, father of the late King Duncan, and lay Abbot of Dunkeld,

mustered all his followers and the opponents of Macbeth, and attempted

to drive him from the throne; a severe battle ensued, in which Crinan

was slain, and Macbeth gained a complete victory. Macbeth seems to

have sent money to Rome, while he was liberal to the Church at home,

as it is recorded that ‘Macbeth and his wife Gruoch, King and Queen of

Scotland, confirmed to the monks of Lochleven the lands of Kirkness,

with freedom from the king, or the king’s son, or the sheriff.’¹ He

proved himself an able and vigorous ruler, and the kingdom seems to

have enjoyed unusual tranquillity and prosperity under his sway.

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 437; _Register of the Priory of St.

Andrews_, page 114. Dr. Skene thinks that Macbeth visited

Rome, but this is not likely, as he could hardly have

ventured to leave Scotland so long.

But the late King Duncan left two sons――mere children at the time

of his death, their mother being related to Siward, the Earl of

Northumberland. This Earl was of Danish descent, and became connected

with the Earls of Northumberland through marriage. In 1054 he mustered

a large and well-equipped army, and a naval force to co-operate with

it, and invaded Scotland to drive Macbeth from the throne. This army

marched northward in quest of Macbeth, crossed the Forth at Stirling,

and proceeded towards the Tay; the advance was opposed by the people

at several points. Macbeth took up his position around the Hill-Fort

of Dunsinnane, a great battle ensued, in which many were slain on both

sides. But the result was not decisive, as Siward retired southward,

and returned home to Northumberland; and he died in 1055. It seems,

however, that Siward’s expedition had enabled Malcolm, son of Duncan,

to obtain possession of the country between the Forth and the Tweed;

but Macbeth was still king of the country beyond the Forth, and young

Malcolm had to depend on his own resources to recover the kingdom

from the grasp of his opponent. Malcolm was a prince of much energy,

and after feeling his way, and gaining the support of a portion of

the people; in 1057 he resolved to try issues with Macbeth. The war

was carried beyond the river Dee, and on the 15th of August, 1057,

Malcolm overtook Macbeth, and defeated and slew him at Lumphanan, in

Aberdeenshire. But the struggle for the throne was continued by Lulach,

who, on the death of Macbeth, became Mormaer of Moray; he was defeated

and slain at Essy, in Strathbogie, on the 17th of March, 1058.¹

¹ _Mon. Hist. Brit._, page 453; _Chronicles of Picts and

Scots_, pages 65, 78, 175, 206, 210, 309; _Saxon Chronicle_.

Having thus subdued his opponents, Malcolm III., son of Duncan, usually

called Canmore, mounted the throne at Scone in March 1058. As a King

of Scotland he had many advantages. He represented the powerful lay

abbots of Dunkeld in the male line, and thus inherited their influence

associated with the religious foundations dependent upon this monastery;

in the female line he represented the royal family who had ruled over

the kingdom for a hundred and fifty years; and he married the widow

of Thorfinn, the late ruler of Orkney and the Northern district of

Scotland, by whom he had a son Duncan. Malcolm’s dominions included the

whole of modern Scotland on the south side; but to the northward his

actual power terminated at the river Spey, his authority beyond this

point was merely nominal. He was too much engaged in attending to the

other portions of the kingdom, to find time to subject the northern

region.

One effect of the Norman Conquest of England was to drive a number of

the Saxon people northward into Scotland. In the summer of 1068, Edgar,

a representative of the Saxon line of kings, his mother, and his two

sisters, came to Scotland, and were warmly received by Malcolm. One of

these distinguished visitors, Margaret, especially attracted Malcolm’s

attention, and she became his wife; hence he had a strong motive to

interest himself in the Saxon claims. Queen Margaret seems to have

been an excellent wife, and she had a large family by the King. Her

influence over her husband and the people of Scotland was reported to

have been very great; it has been said that she softened and polished

the King’s manners and taught him many important things, and that the

Scots owe to her a deep debt of gratitude. No doubt she was a good wife,

and an accomplished princess, and a very religious woman; still it is

just possible that the compass of Queen Margaret’s influence over the

people of Scotland may have been a little overdrawn. Dunfermline was

her favourite place of residence, and doubtless the inhabitants of that

town, and the people of Fife, were greatly benefitted by the Queen and

her court in their midst.¹

¹ Turgot’s _Life of Queen Margaret_. “Her court was a model of

purity. In it no wicked or scandalous word was spoken, and

more civilised customs were introduced in dress and for the

table, the use of linen more probably than tartan, though

both have claimed her as their earliest patron. Charity

was taught by example. The Queen fed the poor with food

she prepared herself; at her cost were erected the first

Scottish inns, resting-places on the roads and guest-houses

on either side of the Forth for the pilgrims who came to

Dunfermline by the ferry, called after her the Queen’s ferry,

as that near Wemyss was called the Earl’s ferry, after the

Earl of Fife. Her prayers were constant; and the little

cave on the Linn, just below the present Drill Hall of the

Volunteers, enabled her to practise them in secret. Such are

some of the traits in the life by her confessor Turgot. It

is the portrait of a friendly and courtly hand, but it bears

marks of truth. Only one miracle is recorded.” _A Sketch of

the History of Fife and Kinross_, by Sheriff Æ. J. G. Mackay,

page 16, 1890.

Malcolm III. naturally lent his support to the cause of Edgar, and

the disaffected chiefs of Northumbria, who were opposed to William

the Conqueror. In 1070 Malcolm entered Cumberland with a large army,

marched through it, and turning to the east ravaged Teesdale and the

North Riding of Yorkshire; and drove a number of the inhabitants into

Scotland as captives. These proceedings seem to have aroused the wrath

of the Norman Conqueror, and he prepared to meet the Scottish King. In

1072 he mustered an army and a naval force to co-operate with it, and

marched northward. The army crossed the ford and advanced into Scotland,

while his ships lay in shore: but the record adds that “there they

found nothing for their pains.” Malcolm and King William met and agreed

to make peace on the conditions that the Scotch King was to receive

a grant of certain fiefs in England, with the promise of an annual

payment of twenty marks of gold, performing the usual homage in respect

of these lands, and giving Duncan, his son by his first wife as a

hostage, and promised to become William’s man or friend. Then King

William returned home with all his forces.¹ Such are the facts recorded

concerning what passed between the two Kings at this meeting, although

groundless assumptions and futile inferences have often been founded

upon it.

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., page 177; _Simon of Durham,

de Gestis Regum_; _Historians_, Fordun, pages 203‒204.

In 1078 Malcolm appears to have penetrated into the province of Moray

beyond the Spey. There is only an imperfect notice in the _Saxon

Chronicle_ of his proceedings, but so far he seems to have been

successful in asserting his authority for a time. The following year

Malcolm marched with his army into Northumberland, advanced to the

river Tyne and wasted the country, slew some of those who offered

resistance, and returned with a number of prisoners and much spoil. In

the autumn of the following year, King William sent his brother Robert

with an army to punish Malcolm. This army seems to have advanced some

distance into Scotland; but Robert effected nothing of importance, and

soon returned south to the Tyne, where he built a new castle. William

the Conqueror died in 1087, and after this event a number of State

prisoners and others kept under restraint in England, were then set

at liberty. Malcolm’s son Duncan thus obtained his liberty, received

the honour of knighthood, and was dismissed with marks of honour and

presents. Still Duncan appears to have remained in England. Four years

after the death of the Conqueror, Malcolm III. again advanced into

Northumberland with an army, but on learning that a hostile force was

mustering to oppose him, he returned home. The English king sent a

fleet northward, and prepared to follow it with a land force, but the

greater part of the fleet was destroyed by a storm before the land

army reached Scotland. When the opposing armies approached each other,

Malcolm who knew the condition and strength of the enemy, resolved to

risk a battle. So Count Robert the leader of the English army offered

to parley, and a peace was patched up, which King William shortly after

declined to fulfil. So in the autumn of 1093 Malcolm once more mustered

his army, and advanced into Northumberland. When attacking the castle

of Alnwick he was slain along with his eldest son and the greater

part of his army on the 13th of November;¹ and thus ended his reign of

thirty-five years and seven months.

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II. page 198; _Hexham Priory: Its

Chronicles, etc._, Volume I. pages 177‒181, 207, 208, 216;

Appendix pages 14‒16; _Simon of Durham, de Gestis Regum_.

Malcolm Canmore was a man of great natural energy and ability. He

acted his part well in the rude and tumultuous times in which his lot

was cast. The different races and tribes of the country acquiesced

pretty generally in his government, and in his long reign the existing

elements of nationality received a considerable turn in the lines

of development, to which his personal characteristics, bravery and

judgment, contributed their share. Four days after his death, Queen

Margaret, his beloved wife, succumbed to the intense grief caused by

the unexpected blow, and died. Malcolm III. left six sons, Duncan,

the eldest, by his first wife; by Margaret, his second wife, Edmund;

Ethelred, who was Lay Abbot of Dunkeld and Earl of Fife; Edgar,

Alexander, and David. Then there occurred a political phenomena similar

to that which had frequently happened in preceding times, and also in

subsequent times, namely, a contest amongst different claimants of the

throne.

On the death of Malcolm Canmore, his brother, Donald Bane, at once

mounted the throne, and a conflict ensued between him and Malcolm’s

sons. Donald Bane appears to have been well supported by the people

between the Spey and the Forth, and he held his ground for six months.

But when Duncan returned from England, where he had been retained

as a hostage for his father, he brought with him a band of Norman

adventurers and others, who expelled Donald Bane from the throne. The

struggle, however, was continued. After a reign of six months, Duncan

was slain at Mondynes in Kincardineshire. Then Donald Bane again

ascended the throne at Scone, and reigned three and a half years. In

1097, Queen Margaret’s brother Edgar resolved to make an effort to

place his nephew on the throne. He gathered a force in England, and

with the sanction of the English King, advanced into Scotland. After

a severe struggle, Donald Bane was defeated, and Edgar placed on the

throne, and his uncle then returned to England. In 1099 Donald Bane was

captured, and condemned to imprisonment for life at Rescobie, where he

died, and was interred in Dunfermline. Edgar reigned eight years, died

at Edinburgh in January 1107, and was buried at Dunfermline. The most

important event of his reign was his surrender of the whole of the

Western Isles to Magnus, the King of Norway.¹

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., pages 196, 197, 202;

_Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, page 175; Chalmers’

_Caledonia_, Volume I. page 618; Skene’s _Celtic Scotland_,

Volume I., page 442.

The close of the eleventh century marks the beginning of a most

important period in the history of Scotland, as new historic conditions

then arose which operated upon the people and the organisation of

society externally and internally. Seeing that I have found it

necessary to render an interpretation of these new historic conditions,

which differs somewhat from the current views of Scottish historians,

this seems to be the most appropriate place for presenting an account

of the social state of the people, their organisation, art, and culture,

prior to the end of the eleventh century. At the end of that period

the Celtic race still occupied the greater part of Scotland, and their

language was spoken over a much wider area than that of any of the

other races, although there were many Angles or Saxons in the southern

portion of Scotland, where Celt and Saxon had been in contact for five

centuries and had partly commingled, still the Saxons retained their

own speech and, in some measure, their distinctive customs. In this

region Celtic speech ceased and was superseded by Saxon, and latterly

English.

SECTION X.

_State of Society from the Seventh Century

to the end of the Eleventh._

In the preceding parts of the introduction little direct information as

to the condition of the inhabitants could be found, and what was stated

on this point had to be derived from a process of inference. From

about the end of the seventh century onward social facts and incidents

become more or less available, and increase in number and variety as

we proceed towards the period of regular record. In this section I will

present some of the features associated with kinship, early traces of

tribal organisation, and its relation to the land, marriage customs,

and other matters of a social and material character.

It has often been said that a common feeling of brotherhood, even among

a small community, is a comparative late development; be this as it may,

ample evidence has already been adduced in the fourth section to prove

that the early tribes in Scotland had attained a considerable degree

of organisation long before the arrival of the Aryan Celts in the

island. So if we were to look for the earliest form of society in this

country, we would require to go back to the prehistoric ages, which

have been already treated, and without obtaining a more definite result,

except by making a free use of conjecture and supposed analogies from

primitive society in India and the ends of the earth.¹

¹ Maine’s _Village Community_, pages 21‒41. 1890.

The early form of Celtic society was the tribal community, which was

based on actual consanguinity. Even in its most primitive form this is

its natural base; although the tribe was the social unit and descent

traced through females, still the natural associative elements led to

the same result. Thus actual blood-relationship, kin, and kindred, was

the original bond of union between the members of the Celtic tribe in

its early form; whether kinship was traced through males or females did

not affect the original associative bond of the tribe.

It has never been proved that society did not originate from single

families, and indeed the point is not susceptible of proof on either

view. But it is quite conceivable thus:――Following the instincts of

human nature and the thinking faculty of the mind, the simple fact of

blood-relationship or kinship is everywhere the first natural tie of

social union which emerges; so this simple fact of kinship originating

in single families may have become the recognised bond, as it is the

natural associative factor, which in process of time linked the single

families as they successively arose into the greater social unit of

the tribe, and thus issuing in an organised community. In short, it is

not only conceivable but even probable, that single families may have

originally developed into tribal communities, and also into mighty

nations.

I have already referred to the origin of historic conditions in

Britain which affected the organisation of the early inhabitants of

Scotland. One result of the operation of these conditions appears in

the foundation of the historic monarchy at Scone in 844; external and

internal causes were constantly modifying the tribal organisations

throughout the four centuries under review. It seems evident that the

independent tribes during these centuries were much larger and stronger

than the clans in the north and west as we know them in more modern

times. During the period under consideration the tribal organisations

had arrived at the stage in which a number of tribes, not necessarily

of one kin, were living under the rule of a local chief. In the pages

of the chronicles these local rulers were sometimes called kings, but

to the people over whom they ruled they were known as Mormaers and

Toshachs. The prerogatives of the heads and all the officials of the

tribe were strictly limited by custom. After the eleventh century the

title of Mormaer began to fluctuate, and finally became represented

by the Earl. Before the end of this period the central government had

obtained a certain control over the heads of the local tribes in the

districts between the Forth and the Spey.

Originally, under the tribal organisation, there was no private

property in land. The land was the common heritage of every tribal

community, and as such it was occupied and used in England, in Scotland,

in Ireland, and in other quarters of the globe. But internal and

external causes both, in process of time begin to operate and to modify

this relation of the tribal community to the land. The long struggle of

the chief tribes among themselves was touched on in the preceding pages,

and this was one of the causes which affected changes in the original

relation of the tribal community to the land. When one tribe conquered

another, the spoil of the war usually was the common land of the

defeated tribe; and then either the conquerors seized and colonised a

part of this land or, as often happened, they restored the whole land

to the conquered tribe to be held in dependence and under certain

burdens to the tribe which had subjected them. On the other hand,

when the victor tribe colonised and appropriated the common land of

the conquered tribe, the land was not equally divided, seeing that a

preference would be claimed and granted to those members of the tribe

who had contributed most to the victory by which the land had been

gained. Further, in cases where the land was restored to a subjected

tribe, the superiority over it remained with the chief who had

conquered it, and thus the chief of a conquering tribe acquired claims

and rights over such lands as well as over the subject tribes which

occupied them. But chiefs and leaders of tribes had other ways of

acquiring rights in land; thus, when a tribe was in possession of an

extensive tract of common land, colonies of families were sent out

and each received a new patch of it, but whatever portion of this land

remained unappropriated it was still the common land of the head of

the tribe――that is to say, the chief or the king claimed a right of

superiority over it. There is unimpeachable evidence that whatever

rights the Kings of Scotland possessed in land were originally acquired

by the means and proceedings indicated in the above sentences.¹ Again,

the chief of a tribe often found means to aggrandise his own family,

and whenever he became able or an opportunity occurred, he severed his

own plot of land from the land of the tribe by enclosing it. In these

ways the chiefs and officials of tribes and the kings acquired personal

claims upon the lands of the tribal communities, and gradually personal

rights connected with land were acquired; then step by step private

property in land became established.

¹ “In the dreams of lawyers, as there has been an hereditary

king from all eternity, so there has been an hereditary lord

of the manor from a time only so far short of eternity as to

give the king time to make him a grant. In the realities of

history the king and the lord――that is, the lord on a great

scale and the lord on a small one――are each something which

has crept in unawares, something which has grown up at the

expense of rights more ancient than its own. Each alike,

king and lord, grew to its full dimensions by a series

of gradual and stealthy encroachments on the rights of

the people. As the king swallowed up the powers and the

possessions of the nation, so the lord swallowed up the

rights and the possessions of the mark.” Freeman’s _History

of the Norman Conquest of England_, Volume V., page 460.

Socially and politically this period was essentially transitional and

progressive. In the first part of it the leading tribes were struggling

hard to create a central authority, and the foundation of the Monarchy

was the result of this struggle. Though the land still belonged to

the tribal community, the chiefs and the kings had acquired rights and

claims in connection with it. In the seventh century the local chief

of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, granted lands to the monks of the monastery

of Deer. In the eighth century Angus, King of the Picts, granted a

territory to the Church of St. Andrews free from all secular burdens.

This grant was transferred by the ceremonial of the ‘altar sod’ as

the mark of its genuineness. Thus St. Regulus, with the relics of St.

Andrew the Apostle on his head, followed by the king and the chiefs of

his country on foot, marched in solemn procession seven times round the

land so bestowed on the Church. Brude, a King of the Picts, founded the

monastery on the island of Lochleven, and several early grants of land

to this monastery have been recorded. There were other early grants of

lands to monasteries by Macbeth and his Queen, Malcolm Canmore, Duncan,

and Edgar, Kings of Scotland. It thus appears that grants of land and

land rights were common, and sanctioned by the usual customs of the

country many centuries before formal charters were introduced.¹

¹ _Chronicles_, pages 186, 187; _Register of the Priory of St.

Andrews_, pages 113, 114; _Register of Dunfermline_, page 3.

A number of entries of gifts and grants of lands to the monastery of

Deer recorded in Gaelic belong to this period, and may be taken to

stretch from the beginning of the eighth century to the early part of

the twelfth. The names of eighteen granters of lands are recorded in

the Book of Deer, which concludes with a charter in Latin, granted at

Aberdeen by David I., in which the King declares that the clerics of

Deer are free from all service of laymen and undue exaction, as it is

written in their book, on which they had pleaded at Banff and sworn at

Aberdeen. This shows that the Gaelic memoranda of these early grants of

lands had been admitted in the regular courts as evidence of the tenure

of the lands. The first grant was made by Bede, the Pictish Mormaer of

Buchan, who gave to St. Columba and to Drostan “the town of Aberdour

in freedom for ever from mormaer and toshach.” The next grant of land

was by ♦Comgell, son of Aeda, after him Mordach, son of Morcunn, made

a grant to Columba and Drostan. Then Matan gave the mormaer’s share of

the land in Alteri, and Cuil, son of Baten, gave the toshach’s share

of the same piece of land. Malcolm II. gave the King’s share in the

lands of Bidbin, Pett meic Gobroig, and two davachs of Upper Rosabard.

♠Domnall and Cathal gave the land of Etanin to God and to Drostan; and

then Carmech, Domnall, and Cathal immolated all these offerings from

beginning to end to God and to Drostan, “in freedom from mormaer and

toshach to the day of judgment.” Comgell, son of Cainnech, toshach of

Clan Canan, gave certain lands, both mountain and field, to Christ,

Drostan, and Columba, “free from chief for ever.” The names of seven

of the old mormaers of the province of Buchan occur in connection with

grants in the book.¹

♦ “Comgall” replaced with “Comgell”

♠ “Domnal” replaced with “Domnall”

¹ _Book of Deer_, pages 91‒95, and also the late Dr. Stuart’s

very able and valuable preface to the volume.