ART. III.-History of Scotland. By Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq., F.R.S.E. and F.A.S. Volumes 1 and 2. 8vo. Edinburgh.

IN

1829.

N our last Number, we made some remarks on the history of the northern part of this island during those ages in which the light dawns slowly as the sunrise on a morning of mist. The present author has adopted for the subject of his work a period somewhat later than that at which we left off, and thus escapes the dim and doubtful discussion over which our heads have ached, and our readers' eyes have perhaps slumbered. Feeling our own optics a little too much dazzled by passing at once from the darkness of Kenneth Mac Alpine's period into the comparative full light of Alexander the Third's reign, we shall introduce our readers more gently to the latter era; nor can we do so without expressing our hope that Mr. Tytler may find time, before completing his projected labours, to furnish us with some preliminary matter in the shape of introduction, or otherwise, so as to inform his readers of what royal race Alexander sprung, and over what people he reigned.

On this point it is singular to discover that the Scots, whose fabulous history represented them, down to the end of the eighteenth century, as a nation of the purest blood and most ancient descent in Europe, can, notwithstanding that vaunt, be easily traced as a mixed race, formed out of the collision and subsequent union of several different populations, which remained slightly connected or occasionally dissevered, till the difference in their manners was worn away by time, and they coalesced at length into one people and kingdom.

We have formerly shown that, in the year 496, a body of Irish, then called Scots, had colonised Argyllshire, and made fierce wars on the decaying province of Rome, by the assistance, doubtless, of those called Meatæ, or Middle Britons, who, subjected by the Romans during their power, rose against them when it began to decline. These Scots, moreover, made war upon the Caledo nians, more latterly called Northern Picts or Deucaledonians, who had for ages been in possession of the greater part of Angusshire, Perthshire, Fife, and the north-east of Scotland up to the Moray firth. Beyond that estuary it would appear the Scandinavians had colonies upon the fertile shores of Moray, and among the mountains of Sutherland, of which the name speaks for itself that it was given by the Norwegians; and probably they had also settlements in Caithness and the Orcades. When, therefore, Kenneth finally defeated, dispersed, and destroyed the Picts, he obtained possession of the middle provinces of Scotland from

sea

sea to sea, having joined his original dominions on St. George's Channel to the eastern shores washed by the German Ocean. Bebind him, to the north-east, lay the warlike and poor Scandinavians; but in front of his kingdom, and between that and the present English frontier, lay three states, enjoying a boisterous and unsettled independence, and each peopled by a mixed race.

The first of these was Galloway, then extended considerably beyond the limits of the shires of Wigton and Kirkcudbright, to which the name is now limited. This remote and desolate region ere long acknowledged a vassalage to the crown; but being inhabited by a very brave and barbarous people, continued, substantially, a separate state till about 1234. Secondly, bounded on the east, and partly on the north, by Galloway, lay Strathclwyd, inhabited by British tribes, of the nation generally called Meatæ. These also were compelled to acknowledge the superiority of the throne. They may be generally described as occupying the territory from the castle of Dunbarton to near the village of Melrose; but their limits, like those of all savage nations, were variable and uncertain, as they failed or succeeded in wars with their neighbours. The last mention of the inhabitants of Strathclwyd, as a people having a separate kinglet or prince, occurs in 1018. Thirdly, still to the eastward of the Strathclwyd Britons lay the provinces now called Berwickshire and the three Lothians. This fertile country was the object of cupidity, in a much greater degre than the barren mountains of the more western frontier; and, after the decay of the Roman power, it lay peculiarly exposed to the inroads of the Picts, who appear to have settled there a large division of their nation, called Vecturiones, who mingled, doubtless, among such remains of Britons as might still dwell to the south of the Firth of Forth. But when the sword of the Saxons drove back the Pictish incursions, the victors appear to have won from the Picts all the flat country comprehending Berwickshire and East Lothian, and the greater part of West Lothian, which they joined to the Saxon kingdom of Deiria, or Northumberland. The Northumbrian Saxons being in their turn hard pressed by the Danes, their kingdom was so much weakened, that the Scots were tempted to cross the Firth of Forth, then called the Scottish Sea, for the purpose of occupying Lothian; and about SSO they made themselves masters of the keys of that province, Dunbar and Edwinsbury (Edinburgh). At a later period (961), Edgar, king of England, in a council held at York, divided the territory hitherto designated as Northumberland, into two parts: the more southern half corresponds with the modern county of Northumberland, the northern moiety comprehended Lothian and the district now called Berwickshire, Finding this latter division

of

of the country so obnoxious to the attacks of the Scots, Edgar made an agreement with Kenneth the Second, and conferred upon him that portion, to be held of the English crown. Thus came Lothian to the government of the Northern Princes, but by grant from the king of England, and therefore under condition of paying homage-a circumstance which has thrown additional confusion into a confused part of British history. Finally, upon like terms, a considerable part of Westmoreland and Cumberland was some time after conceded to the Scot.

From the time of Kenneth Mac Alpine to that of Macbeththat is, from 841 to 1040, a space of about two centuries, we have a line of fifteen kings of Scots, of whom it is easy to perceive that, in spite of the absurd prejudices concerning the inferiority of the Gaelic race, they sustained successfully the sceptre of Kenneth, and, by repeated battles both with the English and the Danes, not only repelled the attacks of their neighbours, but consolidated the strength of their kingdom, gradually modelling an association of barbarous and in part wandering tribes into the consistence of a regular state. It is true that, through the mist of years, these sceptred shades are seen but indistinctly and dimly; yet, as we catch a glimpse, we see them occupied always in battle, and often in conquest.

The more civilised descendants of the murdered Duncan come on the stage with an interest peculiar to themselves, as well as that which arises from the name of their ancestor, at the tale of whose murder our imagination has been so early awakened. If it be true, as we are told by Fordun, that Malcolm, called Canmore (i. e. Greathead), actually repaired, during the usurpation of Macbeth, to the court of England, already refined by the multitude of Normans whom Edward the Confessor assembled around him, we may conclude him to have been the first of his race who obtained some share of a better education than the wilderness called Scotland could at that time afford. His history shows symptoms of a vigorous and regular government. He had strength and generosity sufficient to receive and protect the heir of his benefactor Edward, when the battle of Hastings had thrust him from his throne. He wedded Margaret, sister to the disinherited Atheling, who, by the influence which she obtained over her husband, tamed the impetuosity of a fiery spirit, and inclined to acts of religion and charity blood which, like that of Malcolm's ancestors, was naturally of a choleric temperament. There can be no doubt that, during the reign of this king, considerable improvement was made by the Scottish nation. The king's bounty and the queen's benevolence drew to the court of Malcolm Canmore tides of various emigrants, both Normans and Saxons and

these

these brought with them their respective arts and languages. The English tongue already prevailed in Lothian, where the Northumbrian Saxons and the Danes had been long seated, and where they had communicated to the descendants of the Vecturiones, or Southern Picts, a language which, from their previous intercourse with Scandinavians, that people might be in some degree prepared to receive. When, therefore, the Scottish Princes made the important acquisition of Lothian and Berwick, they found the AngloSaxon, or English, completely established there; as being the language of a people who had more ideas to express, it must have been more copious than the Gaelic, and we can, consequently, see no reason to wonder that it should have become, by degrees, the dialect of their court.

In the introduction of the Saxon language into his kingdom, Malcolm himself was a considerable agent. As frequently happens, he caught the flame of religion from the pure torch of conjugal affection. His love of his consort led him to engage in the devotional services which afterwards procured for her the title of a saint. Totally illiterate, the king was unable to peruse his wife's missals and prayer-books; but he had them gorgeously bound, and frequently, by kissing them, expressed his veneration for what he could not understand. When the queen undertook to correct some alleged abuses of the church, Malcolm stood interpreter betwixt the fair and royal reformer and such of the Scottish clergy as did not understand English, which Malcolm loved because it was the native tongue of Margaret. Such pictures occurring in history delight by their beauty and their simplicity. A king of fierce barbarians, himself the bravest of mankind, takes on him the yoke of devotion at the voice of a mild and beautiful woman, and serves, at least, as a channel for conveying to his savage subjects the instructions which he himself probably comprehended but imperfectly. It reminds us of the classic gems in which Love is represented as bridling the lion. The more violent mood of Malcolm aided the effects of his conjugal affection, and assisted, in a very different manner, the - propagation of the Anglo-Saxon language in the north. The spouse of Margaret, mild as a lamb when by her side, was in war an untamed and devastating tiger. Simeon of Durham records, that in 1070 the king of Scots laid waste Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham with such fury, that, besides a great number killed, he swept off such a host of captives, that for many years they were to be found as bondmen and bondwomen not only in every village, but in the poorest hovels in Scotland. There is also to be added the extreme severity of William the Conqueror, who, to be avenged of the frequent revolts occurring

in the north of England, plundered the province as that of an enemy, forcing many thousands to fly into Scotland, where they were protected by Queen Margaret.

Malcolm, then, enlarged his dominions by conquest, illuminated them by increase of knowledge, and left Scotland an united and consolidated people, in comparison to what he found it. With subjects composed of so many different tribes and nations, and even languages-himself totally uneducated, this prince, the ounder of the monarchy as it finally existed, deserves no small praise for the defence which he made against the English and Normans, and for the improvements which he was able, in the midst of civil dissensions and foreign war, to introduce among his uncultivated subjects. After his death, at the battle of Alnwick (A.D. 1093), it seemed that his labours were about to be destroyed. His brother Donald (the Donalbain of Shakspeare) assumed the crown, according to a custom prevailing in that period, which preferred the brother of the deceased monarch to his eldest son, and endeavoured to conciliate the prejudices of such of the Scots as were attached to the rude manners of their forefathers, by expelling all foreigners from the kingdom. Some unimportant revolutions took place; and more than one kingly phantom had been seen on the throne, before it was at length more permanently occupied by Alexander, son of Canmore. He was a high-spirited man, who resisted with gallantry, eonstancy, and success, the various attempts of the English prelates of Canterbury and York to extend their spiritual dominion over Scotland, and invade, in so doing, the liberties of the Scottish church.

His brother David succeeded him in 1123, and more than rivalled the manly character of Canmore. He, too, was sagacious, wise, and valiant; an affectionate husband, and a careful parent; usually victorious in war and prudent in peace; with the advantage of a much better education than had fallen to his father's lot. David was early involved in war; for, being the uncle of the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I., the king of Scots held himself obliged to maintain the succession of that princess against the usurpation of Stephen. Considering how much England was disunited during this reign, it did not, at one period, seem improbable that the territories of the Scottish monarch might have been pushed up to the Humber. But the successes which David obtained only encouraged the insubordinate spirit of the Galwegians, and other rude tribes, which composed his army; and, owing to their disorganization, not less than to the fidelity and valour of the barons of the north of England, he sustained, A.D. 1138, a severe defeat at Cuton Moor, near Northallerton, where, if he had obtained victory, the destinies of the two divisions of the island might,

perhaps,