Columbia (HnitJer^ftp intlifCttpufUmigdrk LIBRARY COL.COLL. LIBRARY. N.YORK. Annals of t{ie CaleDoiuans. I^col.coll; ^UMl^v iV.YORK OF THE CALEDONIANS, PICTS, AND SCOTS ; AND OF STRATHCLYDE, CUMBERLAND, GALLOWAY, AND MURRAY. BY JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ. VOLUME THE FIRST. Antiquam exquirite matrem. EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR W. AND D. LAING ; AND PAYNE AND FOSS, PALL-MALL, LONDON. 1828. r.DiKBURnii : FIlINTEn I5Y BAI.LANTTNK ASn COMPAKV, Piiiri.'S WOKK, CANONGATK. CONTENTS. VOL. I. PAGE. Advertisement, 1 Annals of the Caledonians. Introduction, 7 Annals, -. 25 Annals of the Picts. Introduction, 71 Annals, 135 Appendix. No. I. Names and succession of the Pictish kings, .... . . 254 No. II. Annals of the Cruthens or Irish Picts, 258 /» ('^ v^: n ,^ '"1 v> Another posthumous work of the late Mr Rlt- son is now presented to the world, which the edi- tor trusts will not be found less valuable than the publications preceding it. Lord Hailes professes to commence his interest- ing Annals with the accession of Malcolm III., '* be- cause the History of Scotland, previous to that pe- riod, is involved in obscurity and fable :" the praise of indefatigable industry and research cannot there- fore be justly denied to the compiler of the present volumes, who has extended the supposed limit of authentic history for many centuries, and whose labours, in fact, end where those of his predecessor hegi7i. The editor deems it a conscientious duty to give the authors materials in their original shape, " un- mixed with baser matter ;" which will account for, and, it is hoped, excuse, the trifling repetition and omissions that sometimes occur. Stockton ujpon Tecs^ Nov. 1, 1828. ADVERTISEMENT. What has been, perhaps, too rashly attempted as the subject of these sheets, is a chronological ac- count of the inhabitants of the country known, for the first time, by the name of Caledonia, and, in successive ages, by those of Albany, Pictland, Scot- land, and. North Britain, from the earliest period which history affords, and from the most ancient and authentic documents which time has preserved, and with that attention to truth and accuracy which integrity and utility require. The genuine history of the Caledonian Britons, or most ancient, if not indigenous, inhabitants of this country, is to be found in the writings or re- mains of Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and some few of less note, who were Roman citizens, and wrote in La- tin. Of the first we have, entire and perfect, " The Life of Agricola/' a work of singular intc- VOL. 1. B 2 ADVERTISEMENT. rest and merit; tlie liistory uf Dio is, unfortunate- ly, defective. Some lights, liowever, are thrown on this distant period, by one Richard, surnamed Co- rinensis, or of Cirencester, a monk of Westminster, in the fifteenth century, into whose hands had fallen certain collections of a Roman general ; and whose compilation, including a curious ancient map of Britain, was originally printed by Charles I^Julius^ Bertram, at Copenhagen, in ' 1757.' That of the Picts and Scots, which is known to remain, consists, in the first place, of some meagre notices, in two panegyrics, delivered by one Eume- nius, an orator, before the emperors Coustantius and Constantine, in the years 292 and 301, and the exploits of the elder Theodosius, in S^Ai, as re- lated by Ammiauus Marcellinus ; secondly, of a few passages of the old British and Saxon, or Eng- lish historians, namely, Gildas, Nennius, Bede, Ethelwerd, Ingulph, the Saxon Chronicle, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham, and a few more of later date ; to which may be added the lives of saints Columba and Ken- tigern ; the Cronica de origine antiquoruin Piclo- rum et Scotorum, supposed to have been written in 994*^ and, with another Cronica regum Scottorumj first printed by father Thomas Innes, of the Scots College, Paris, from an ancient manuscripti m hich ADVERTISEMENT. 3 had belonged to William Cecil, lord Burghley, and was then in the king of France's library, by- way of appendix to his " Critical Essay on the ancient Inhabitants of Scotland/' in two volumes, 8vo, at London, in I729. The treatise " De situ Alhanice" published likewise by Innes, who thought there was " ground to believe that the author of this description was Giraldus Cambrensis," whose words are, " Legimus in historiis et in chronicis an- tiquorum Britonum, et ingestis et annalihus antiquis Scottoi'um et Pictorum ;" but these, it is most pro- bable, were nothing more than Geoffrey of Mon- mouth or his followers. It may be likewise proj^er to notice the Cronica de Mailros, printed in Rermn Anglicarum script oriim veterum, tomus I. Oxonice, l684<_, folio, by William Fulman, and a slight Chronicon ccenobit sanctoe-crucis Edinburgensis, in the first volume of Whartons Anglia sacra ; but, before all, the Annales Ultonienses, or Ulster-an- nals, a faithful chronology of great antiquity, a copy whereof was fortunately discovered in the Sloane-library, now in the British Museum, within these few years ; but has not been hitherto entire- ly printed, though, at present, it is believed, with others of equal importance, in a state of prepara- tion. The only books of any antiquity which profess. 4 ADVERTISEMENT. or pretend, to be general histories, or chronicles, of Scotland, are the Scoti-chronicon of John de Fordun, a canon of Aberdeen, who flourished about 1377; and the " Orygynale cronykil of Scotland, [in rime,] be Androw of Wyntown, priowr of sanct Serfis-ynche in Locli-Levyn ;" of which an ele- gant and l)eautiful edition, in two volumes, 8vo, was published at London, by the industrious and accurate nir David Macpherson, in 1 795 : but as both these writers are only remarkable for their ignorance, invention, forgery, and falsehood, nei- ther of them deserves to be consulted, and still less to be quoted or relied on.* That the Scots, how- • Mr Pinkerton asserts ^' the character of Fordun, now so well known as a gross forger and falsificator, sets the due seal to his evidence," iEnqniry into theh'istory of Scotland., II. 105,) but nevertheless repeatedly quotes this " gross forger and falsi- ficator," under the respectable name of William [of] 3Ialme8- bury (See volume II. pp. 203, 220), as he elsewhere cites Wynne (11) under the name of Caradoc (I. 96), and Dio, et Eclog. Theodos (I. 216), while he is pillaging Geoffrey of Monmouth, Dempster, Pits, Bois, Lesley, or Usher. How little the amiable lord Hailes was capable of appreciating the merit of history, is manifest from his relying, with implicit confidence, upon Fordun, for important facts wliich receive no countenance from, or are decisively contradicted by, authentic historians, (so as even to put him upon a footing, in a moht interesting period, with 3Iatthew of Westminster, a contem- porary writer,) and committing gross mistakes throughout hii Annals. ADVERTISEMENT. 5 ever, had ancient chronicles, long before the time of Fordun, appears from the declaration of the Scotish clergy, in 1309-10, touching the right of king Robert de Brus, in which are these words :— " Ut in antiquis Scottoncm gestis magnificis ple- nius continetur." See Robertsons hidex of records, Ap. p. 5. Whether these were the chronica, or alia chronica, cited by hira, cannot be ascertained. It is, however, remarkable, that he never mentions the name of a single Scotish historian. But that every chronicle was deliberately destroyed by Ed- ward, the conqueror, or usurper, is a groundless calumny ; and if these ^'^ antiqua gesta" were ex- tant in 1310, how happens it that we have no fur- ther account of them ? Hector Bois, who lived at a later period, is, if possible, a still more wanton forger, and, in every point of view, unworthy of cre- dit ; a character which may, with equal truth and justice, be extended to George Buchanan, who im- posed the fables of Fordun and Bois upon his coun- trymen as their genuine history, interpolating, at the same time, a sufficient number of his own. Even bishop Lesley, Maule of Melgum, in his des- picable and pretended " History of the Picts," (Edin, 1706, 12mo,) Abercrombie, in the first volume of his " Scots achievements," and doctor G ADVERTISEMENT. George Mackenzie, adopt the falsehoods of Hector Bois to tlieir utmost extent. John Bale, bishop of Ossory, enumerates a M^ork, intitled, " Regnum Scotorum et Pictorum succes- siones, incerto authore/' M'hich lie affirms to have left in Ireland Avhen driven out by the papists ;* and Usher, at the foot of a letter from Seldeu, dated September the 14th, l625, requesting what he had of the history of Scotland and Ireland, notes that he sent him upon this {inter alia,) " Fragment. Scotic. Annal. ad finem Ivonis Carnot." f But neither of these pieces has been further heard of : and so much for the history of Scotland. * C. 10, p. 161. t Seldens Works, II. 1708. INTRODUCTION. The earliest mention of the British islands is un- doubtedly that which occurs in the ancient treatise Of the world, usually ascribed to Aristotle^ and in- serted in his works.* For_, although a certain writer, of sufficient notoriety for the perversion of fact, and violation of truth, has the confidence to assert, that we find Herodotus calling " the ilands of Britain and Ireland Cassiterides, a name," he adds, " im- plying the lies of tin" f nothing can be more false. * C. 3. They are here called Albion, (axSiov, not AXov/wv, or AXfia-'v, as, afterward, by Ptolemy and IMarcianus Heracleota,) and lerne. Buchanan imputes this tract to Theophrastus ; and Muretus, to some anonymous writer of the same age. It is dedicated to king Alexander. (See Ushers Antiquitates, fo. p. 378.) -|- Enquiry^ I. 1. " Kao-o-jTepov," he says, " is derived from ■Anfftra^ meretrixy'* an etymology as ridiculous as his quotation ^ INTRODUCTION. The words of tliis venerable liistorian are expressly, ** I have nothing certain to relate concerning the western bounds of Europe .... I know as little of the islands called Cassiterides, from the tin which is thence iinj)orted among us."* So far from fixing the name of these islands upon those of Britain and Ireland, he candidly acknowledges that he knew not where they were ; nor does any less ancient Greek or Roman writer, since the British islands were well known, ever call them the Cassiterides, of which the number and situation, as described by all, are totally incompatible with any such idea. Tacitus, the earliest MTiter who attempts to de- scribe the natives of Caledonia,t or the north of is unfaithful, and his Greek characters corrupt. Rufus Festus Avienus, having mentioned Iberia, says — — — — " Cass t us inde mous tumet. Et Graja ab ipso lingua Casiterum prius Stannum vocavit." iOra Maritima, v. 259.) • B. III. -f Whencesoever this name may have come, and whatever may be its etymology, certain it is, that Calydon was an ancient and famous city of iEtolia, in Greece ; whence the " Meloeagra Calidona^'' of Lucan (B. VI. v. 36G) ; the " anmis Calydonius''* of Ovid {MeUu B. Xlll. v. 727) ; and the " Silva Cahjdonia;' and " Fretiim Cahjdonlum.,'^ of Cluver. The " Calidonice Sylvce^' of Florus (B. III. c. 10) is supposed to have been in Lincolnshire. " Ad Aufonam," says Richard of Cirencester, INTRODUCTION. 9 Britain, knew nothing of its first inhabitants, Avhe- ther natives of its own, or brought over, as he ob- serves, among barbarians, is seldom found. The habits of their bodies, he proceeds, are various ; and thence these arguments : for the red hair of those inhabiting Caledonia, and their great limbs, assert their origin to be Germanic* The swarthy coun- " incolebant Coitanni, in tractu sylvis obsito, qui, ut alix Briitonum Sylvce, Caledonia fuit appellata," (B. I. c. 6, § 30). He has another " Calidonia Sylva," aliis, " Anterida," (now Andredeswald,) in Kent ; and a third, " ad occidentem Vara- ri5," beyond the IMurray firth, now Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness (IhL § 52). Geoffrey of Monmouth, likewise, in his Life of Merlin the Wild, has a fourth " Nemus Caledon" in the south-west of Scotland, or Strath-Clyde. Though Tacitus does not expressly call the people Caledonii^ both Martial and Lucan have " Caledonios Britannosy'' and Dio and Ptolemy, KaXflJoytot, of which Caledonii, and not Caledones, is the pro- per translation. No writer before Tacitus mentions Caledonia, nor does he himself mention Caledoniiy which, in fact, is first used by Lucan. • This is by no means conclusive, since these identical cir- cumstances are adduced by ancient authors as descriptive of the Celts or Gauls : Diodorus, B. V. c. 2 ; Virgil, jEneidy B. VIII. v. G59 ; Livy, B. XXXVIII. c. 17 ; Silius, B. IV. c. 200, B. XVI. v. 471 ; Ammianus IMarceUinus, B. XV. c. 12, 20 ; Claudian upon Rufinus ; for their red or yellow hair ; and Polybius, B. II. c. 2 ; Csesar, B. II. c. 30 ; Diodorus, B. V. c. 2 ; Ammianus, B. XV. c. 12 ; Pausanias, B. X. c. 10 ; Florus, B. I. c. 13, for their superior size. The conjec- ture of Tacitus, however, was sufficient authority for mr Pin- kerton to pronounce that " The Caledonians of the north" 10 INTRODUCTION. tenance of tlic Silures, (who inliabited wliat is noM' called Soiitli-WaleSj) and their curled hair, for the most part, and their position against Spain, induce a belief, he thinks, that they were ancient Iberians, who had passed over and occupied these seats. They who are next to the Gauls are likewise similar to them, either by the force of original influence remaining, or by those countries running [^opposite,]] the posi- tion of heaven hath given habit to bodies; to one, ne- vertheless, estimating universally, it is credible that the Gauls have occupied the neighbouring soil. You perceive their sacred rites, by the influence of superstitions ; their speech is not much difl'erent ; the same audacity in demanding dangers ; and the same terror in refusing them, when they happen. The Britons, nevertheless, evince more fierceness, as those whom a long peace hath never rendered effeminate : for we learn that the Gauls likewise have flourished in wars : by and by, sloth, wdth idle- ness, hath entered, their valour at once and liberty were also " Germans from Scandinavia." {Enquiry^ I. 10.3.) It is manifest, at the same time, that Agricola could learn no- thing positive on this subject ; nor does Calgacus, the Caledo- nian general, appear to know anything of either Scythia or Scandinavia, and even regarded the people as aborigines^ as he expressly tells his army " they were the last of the Britons, there being no nation beyond them ;" at least, it is what Tacitus makes him say. INTRODUCTION. 11 being lost, which has happened to those of tlie Bri- tons formerly conquered : the rest remain such as the Gauls have been. Their [^military]] strength is in their foot : some nations, also, fight in a cha- riot : the chief person is the driver ; his dependents fight. Formerly they obeyed kings ; now they are drawn by princes in factions and fancies : nor is anything against the most wai-like nations more useful for us, than that they do not consult in com- mon. A convention, with two or three cities, to re- pel the common danger, is rare : so that, while they fight singly, all are defeated.* " Of the Britons," as Dio relates, " the two most ample nations are the Caledonians and Maeatae : for the names of the rest refer, for .the most part, to these. The Meeatae inhabit near the very wall which divides the island in two parts ; the Caledonians are after those.f Each of them inhabit mountains, very rugged, and wanting water, and also desert fields, full of marshes : they have neither castles nor cities, nor dwell in any ; they live on milk, and by hunting, and maintain themselves by the fruits of trees : for fishes, of which there is a very great and numberless quantity, they never taste : they dwell naked in tents, and without shoes : they use * Vita Agricolce, § 11, &c. •f He alludes to the wall of Antoninus. 18 INTRODUCTION. M Ives in common, and whatever is born to them they bring up. In the })opular state they are go- verned, as for the most part : they rob on tlie higliway most willingly : they war in chariots : horses they have, small and fleet ; their infantry, also, are as well most swift at running, as most brave in pitched battle. Their arms are a shield and a short spear, in the upper part whereof is an apple of brass, that, while it is shaken, it may ter- rify the enemies with the sound : they have like- wise daggers. They are able to bear hunger, cold, and all afflictions ; for they merge themselves in marshes, and there remain many days, having only their head out of water : and in woods are nourish- ed by the barks and roots of trees. But a certain kind of food they prepare for all occasions, of which, if they take as much as ' the size' of a single bean, they are in nowise ever wont to hunger or thirst."* It would seem, from Richard of Cirencesters co»z- meritariolum and map, that, about the year 100, Ca- ledonia was reduced to a small relick, between the Roman province of Vespasiana, or the Murray- firth, and the Mare Orcadum, including the pre- sent shires of Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross. In this little angle are the poor remains of the ancient Caledonii, hither driven, it would seem, from time • L. 76, c. 12. INTUODUCTIOX. IS to time, by the Romans ; who, however, were after- ward themselves driven backward by that wretched remnant out of Vespasian a. After this loss, and to repel fui'ther incursion of the reduced, but valiant, horde of Caledonians, miserable relick of former ages, the Romans erected a turf- wall on the north- ern march of the province which they had thus lost ; and, in process of time, being still more unfortu- nate, another at a considerable distance to the south ; both which will be elsewhere more particu- larly mentioned. It is, doubtless, if not absolutely manifest, at least highly probable, that the whole island of Britain was originally peopled by the Celts, or Gauls; whom even Tacitus himself allows to have at first occupied the neighbouring coasts, and whom, he says, the Britons universally resembled in their re- ligion, language, and manners. A hasty and un- founded opinion of Edward Lhuyd, the Welsh lin- guist, that the original inhabitants of Britain were those he chooses to denominate Guydhels, or Guyd^ heliatis, whom he presumes to have been inhabit- ants of Gaul before they came into this island, and, in process of time, to have been driven out by ano- ther people, apparently also from Gaul,* seems to * Welsh preface. He was, unquestionably, a man of un- common industry, but had certainly a most weak and cloudy 14 INTRODUCTION. have suggested to nir Piiikertuii, that *' as tlie south part of }3ritain was first peopled from Gaul, by Gael, who were afterward expelled by Cuviri Z^Cimhri, or Cimmerii, one of his two vast divisions of the Cclts,^ from Germany ; so there is reason to infer, that the north part of Britain was first peo- pled by Ctimri, from present Jutland." A fair, no doubt, and rational conclusion ! " These Cimhii" he saj^s, " the first inhabitants of Scotland that can be traced, were of one great stock with the Cumri, or Welch [Welsh] ; but the Welch" it seems, " are not their descendants, but the remains of the Cimhri of South-Britain, who passed from the opposite coast of Germany, and drove the Gael, or Gauls, the first inhabitants, in- to Ireland.*'* The whole of his system, however, is merely the result of a wild, extravagant imagi- nation, perfectly Celtic, according to his own defi- head ; so that it is frequently difficult to comprehend his mean- ing. Most, indeed, of the Welsh writers, are the most ridi- culous people in the world. Lewis's History of Britain con- tains more lies and nonsense than even Geoffrey of Monmouth, Hector Bois, or Geoffrey Keating ; and his editor, Hugh Tho- mas, makes Britain receive, at different periods, three distinct nations, the Gojnros^ Britains, and Alh'tous, each of wliicli, he says, gave it their proper name, introduction^ p. 4G, 71-) • Enqidnj. I. 15, IG. INTRODUCTION. 15 iiitioii, gruuiuliug its vagaries oii falsehood, and supporting tliem by contemptible cavils, and gross misrepresentation. The only people called Cimhri are well known, frpm Caesar, Tacitus, Plutarch, and other ancient historians, to have been a German nation, on the Euxine sea, never mentioned or heard of, anterior to their invasion of Gaul and Italy, 70 years before the Christian era, in the lat- ter of which countries they were nearly extermina- ted, in a great battle, by the consul Marius; who, so far from settling in Britain, never, so far as we know, had the remotest connection with it, before, at least, the year 449, when the Anglo-Saxons, whose paternal seat was the Cimbric Chersonesus; and who, from that circumstance, it is probable, are by some called Cimbri, arrived there with their confederates. Ptolemy mentions them about the year 141 ;* neither were they the same people, nor had * If any Cimbri ever came into Britain, it must have been in the company, and under the name, of the Old-Saxons, who, according to Stephanus Etheicographus, lived formerly in the Chersonesus Cimlrica. (See likewise Alfreds translation of Orosius, p. 245.) Cijmru, for Camhria^ Cymrij^ for Cam- bri, Cymraeg, for Cavibrica^ \s. lingua]^ and Gymro, for Wallus, occur in Leges WalUccc, p. C, &c. {amio 692.) The words Cymru (Wales), Nghymra^ and Cymro (Welsh), are frequent in these laws ; but a native Welshman iingenuus Wallus) is rcpeatciily called Bonhcddig can hwynaxol. Cym- 1() INTKObUCTIUX. they the least cttimection witli the Cimmerii, who belong to a different situation, and a much remoter periotl ; nor is the name of either Gael or Cumri mentioned by any but comparatively modern wri- ters, the one as that of the present Welsh, the other as that of the native Irish, or highland Scots, not one of which knows how they came by it. Nothing, in fiict, can be more impudent.* iner has apparently some relation to bastardy ; and hence the Welsh may have obtained that appellation by way of oppro- brium. (See Glos. in LI. Wal. Cymmerijad.) The Saxons called them Wilisc, or Wylisc (L/. Ince^ 32, 54) ; Wealas, M'ealh, Walsc (Sax. Chro, 25) : Wealh, stranger, alien, fo- reigner (Lyes Dictionary). If IVallia be a modern name, a poem ascribed to Taliesin {British remains^ p. 12G) is a forgery. * That Cambri or Cumbri (let it be spelled as it may) is an ancient name of the present Welsh, as Cambria or Cum- bria is of their country, will be readily admitted ; but it is, at the same time, manifest, that the latter name was never used as synonymous with Britain or Albion, or, in fact, for anything more than modern Wales^ Cumberland^ or Strath-Clyde. It is, therefore, inferrible that these names had been given to, or assvuned by, this people : since neither Gildas nor Nennius, though both Britons, knew the term Cambri, Citmbri, or Cam- bria ; nor were the refugee Britons of Armorica ever so called. Fabian Ethelwerd, a historian of the ninth century, is the first who calls the Welsh Cumbri. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that Cambria, now called Wales, was so named from Catn- ber, one of the sons of Brutus ; *' and hence," he adds, *' that people [not the Britons in general, but that rtoPLE only] 1 INTRODUCTION. 17 The island, at a certain period according to Richard of Cirencester, was divided by the Ro- mans into six parts, or provinces : Prima, Secun- da, Flavia, Maxima, [Valeutia,] and Vespasiana. " Maxima/' he says, "arises from the furthest bor- ders of Flavia, belongs to the lower part of [^Se- verus's]] wall, which runs across through the whole island, and looks upon those of the north. A space," he adds, " between both this and another, which by the emperor Antoninus Pius, between Forth and Clyde, was extructed, Valentia [[or ValentianaJ occupies the wall. Vespasiana lay still further north, between the wall of Antoninus and the Murray-firth.* How long or effectually either the first or second of these walls answered the purposes for which they had been from time to time constructed, it is im- still call themselves, in their British tongue, Cainhri.^* That this name, however, has any, the least, connection, with the Cimhri of Germany, (though it be admitted that Richard of Cirencester has placed a small body of people so called in pre- sent Devonshire ; and asks, " whether they have given them the modern name of Wallia, or the origin of the Cimbri be more ancient," B. I. c. 6, § 16,) or the Cimmerii of Asia, is just as true as that those two nations were one and the same people, and received these names from their common ancestor, Gomer. * B. I. c. 6, § 2. VOL. I. C 18 INTRODUCTION. possible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy or precision. Hadrians turf-wall between the Tyne and the Esk, proves that, in 121^ the Britons had then recovered all their pristine territory, down to the north side of that erection ; but, about twenty years afterward, the Britons were again driven be- yond the old chain of Agricola, the isthmus, that is, between the opposite firths of Clyde and Forth. In the time of Severus, nevertheless, they had once more recovered it. During the period in which nearly the whole of the ancient Caledonia was divided into Roman pro- vinces, from Severus's turf- wall, northward to that of Antoninus, was the province of Valentiana,* the ■ " These regions (which, as it were, delighted with the embrace of the ocean, avoid the more narrow [straights], as elsewhere, and that on account of these most rapid firths, which are poured out, the Forth, that is, and the Clyde,) I take for that province which, by the victorious Roman batta- lion, recalled under the emperor Theodosius, and in honour of the emperor then sitting at the helm of the empire, is sup- posed to be called Valentiana.^'* (Richard of Cirencester, B. I. c. 6, § 42.) — The recall of this legion is mentioned by Cluudian : '' Venit et extremis leglo praetenta Britannis^ Quae Scoto dat fraena truci, ferroque notatas Perlegit exangues Picto moriente figuras." Dc bello Geticoy v, 416. INTRODUCTION. 1^ British inhabitants whereof, j^from^ their situation between the walls, were called Maeatae ; and beyond this, from the isthmus northward, to what was then called the river Longus, now Loch-Luag, or Loch- Long, on the west, and the Varar ^stuarium, or Murray-firth, on the east, was that of Vespasiana, otherwise Thule.* North of this was Caledonia^ (The legion came, o'er distant Britons plac'd, AVhich bridles the fierce Scot, and bloodless figures, With iron mark'd, views in the dying Pict.) * " The Attacoti inhabited the banks of the Clyde, a nation sometime, heretofore, formidable to all Britain. Here is seen the greatest lake, to which formerly [was] given the name Lyncalidor, at the mouth whereof the city Alcluith [Al-clyd, now Dunbritton or Dumbarton], in short time, having recei- ved by lot a name from the general Theodosius, who had re- covered the province occupied by the barbarians ; with tills nothing could be compared, as that which, after the other cir- cumjacent provinces being broken, sustained the empire of the enemies to the last. This province was called, in honour of the Flavian family, to which the emperor Domitian owed his ori- gin, and under whom it was expugnated, Vespasiana ; and, imless I be deceived, under the last emperors, it was named Thule, of which Claudian, the poet, makes mention in these verses ; " incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thuk.^^ (Thule, by blood of Picts grew hot :) but not so long the Romans held [it], under the eagle, at their will, that both the names and the subjection of the same should become known to their posterity." {Ibid. § 41), 50.) I 20 INTRODUCTION. which the Ilomaus cither could not obtain, or did not desire, or of whicli, at any rate, they were never in possession.* The inhabitants of Caledonia were In the Notitia, mention is made of " Legio Palatina I Britones seniores ; Auxilia Palatina VI Atecotti juniores GaU I'lcani.^^ This book seems to have been the " vetustum quo- dam volumen," which Richard appears to have seen, wherein a great number of such-like entries are made (/6i. § 3). These Attacotti are first mentioned, by Ammianus Marcellinus, along with the Picts, Saxons, and Scots : " Pictos, Saxones, Scottos et Attacottos, Britannos animnis vexavisse continuis." (L. 2G:) Again: " Eo tempore (3G4) Picti iteraque Attacotti, bellicosa hominum natio, et Scotti, per diversa vagantes multa populabantur." (L. 270 * " Although," as Richard of Cirencester observes, " all Britain, beyond the isthmus, may not improperly be called Caledonia, yet have the Caledonians their seat beyond the Varar, whence a line drawn [across] shews, with sufficient accuracy, the boundary of the Roman empire in Britain : the hither part of the island truly, at one time and another, was by them possessed, the rest being occupied by the barba- rous Britons .... Hitherto, and to those going forward, an- cient monuments of histories give a certain light ; passing over, however, the river Varar, the light being extinct, we are era- ployed, as it were, in obscurity ; and, although it be not un- known to us that altars have been erected there for the limits of the Roman empire, and that Ulysses, tossed to and fro, by tempest and waves, here performed his vows ; if so be, the condensed woods, with the perpetual rocks and stones of the mountains, prohibit us from further scrutiny." (B. I. c. fi, §51.) Solinus, it is true, speaking of the Caledonic angle, says : INTRODUCTION. 21 the Alba?ii, Caledonii, Ccuitcej Carnahiij Cariiona- ccB, Catini, CeroneS) Creones, Epidii, Logi, and Mertce : tbeir rivers, Abona (the firth of Dornoch, or Taine, (//«) Helmsdale), Itys (Loch Etyf ), Lon- gus (Loch-Aber), Loxa (the firth of Cromartie), Naboeus. (the Navern), Straba (Strathy, or Hop- water) : their hay was Volsas (Loch-Broom, or ra- ther the bay before it) : their mountain, Oxellum : their promontories, Epidium (the head of the mull of Kentyre, near Danavarty), Orc«5 (Dunnet-head), Pe«oa;M//?eva (Dee), Drya, Ituna (Ythy), Tavus (Tay), " In quo recessu Ulyxem Caledonice adpulsum manifestat ara Graecis Uteris scripta votum." [In which recess, an altar, inscribed with Greek letters, manifests that Ulysses, driven to Caledonia, vowed.] (C. 22.) Nothing, however, is mention- ed in the Odyssey^ which is devoted to the ten years voyage of Ulysses, nor by any other ancient authority ; nor were Greek letters, in fact, known in the time of Ulysses, who, in all pro- I)ability, never existed. J^2 INTRODUCTION. Jena (Creecli), Nidus (Nid, or Nitli), Tina (North Esk), Tiiessis (Spey), Varar (Fara) : their lake was Lincalidor locus (Loch-Lomond) : their bay, Lelanonius sinus (Loch-Fyne) : their firth, Varar cestuarium (tlie Murray-firth, or firth of Beaulieu) : their promontory, Taxalorum, or Taizalum (Kin- aird-head) : their mountain, Grampius mons (Mor- mound, Buchan). In Valentiana, the people were, Danmii, Gadeni, Novantoe, Oltadini, Selgovce: their cities, or towns, Bretnenuro, Colanu, Coria, Cor- bantum, Curia, Leucopibia (Whithern), Olbcella^ PorbanturHf Rerigonum, Trimontium, Vanduaria : their rivers, Alauna (the Alne), Clota (the Clyde), Deva (the Dee), Tned (the Tweed), Vidagora : their bays, or firths, Abravanus sinus (Glenluce- bay), Clotta cestuarium (the firth of Clyde), Jiuna cestuarium, Navantum chersonesus (Rins of Gallo- way), Rerigonius sinus (Loch-Ryan) : their moun- tain, Uxilla mons (the Ochel-hills). ANNALS OF THE CALEDONIANS. ANNALES CALEDONIORUM. L. Ad occidentem Vararis habitabant Caledonii, proprie sic dicti^ quorum regionis partem tegebat immensa ilia Caledonia sylva. Littus incolebant minores quidam populi^ ex quorum [numero] ultra Vararem et ad Loxam lluvium habitabant Cant[3e], in quorum finibus promuntorium Penox- ullum. Huic ordine proximus est fluvius Abona, ejusdemque accolae Logi : hinc Ila fluvius^ et ad ilium siti Carnabiij Brittonum extremi, qui ab Os- torio proprsetore subjugati^ jugum Romanum in- digne ferentes^ adscitis in societatem Cautis^ ut referunt traditiones, trajectoque mari, ibi sedem eligunt : in varia heic promuntoria sese extendit Brittania, quorum primum antiquis dictum Vir- vedrum, tum Verubrium, aut extremitas Caledo- niae.* * Ricardi Corinensis, De Situ Britannice, Lib. I. c. 6, § 52, 53, 54. 26 ANNALS OF ANNALS OF THE CALEDONIANS. L. To the west of the Varar inhabited the Ca- ledonians, properly so called, of whose country that immense Caledonian wood covered part. Certain less [considerable] people inhabited the shore, from whose number, beyond the Varar, at the river Loxa, inhabited the Cantae, in whose borders is the pro- montory Penoxullum. To this, next in order, is the river Abona, and the inhabitants near it, the Logi : hence the river Ila, and thereat [were] seated the Carnabii, the furthest of the Britons, who having been subjugated by the propraetor Ostorius, bearing indignantly the Roman yoke, the Cantae having admitted [them] into their society, as traditions relate, and the sea being passed over, there chose themselves a seat: Britain here ex- tends itself into various promontories, of which the first [was] by the ancients called Virvedrum, then Verubrium, or the extremity of Caledonia. LXXX. Tertius expeditionum annus [Julii Agricolae] novas gentes aperuit, vastatis usque ad Taum (aestuario nomen est) nationibus ; qua for- THE CALEDONIANS. 27 midine territi hostes, quamquani conflictatum sae- vis tempestatibus exercitum, lacessere non ausi : ponendisque insuper castellis spatium fuit. Adno- tabant periti, non alium ducem opportunitates lo- corum sapientius legisse nullum ab Agricola po- situm castellum aut vi hostium expugnatum, aut pactione ac fuga desertum. Crebrae eruptiones : nam adversus moras obsidionis, annuls copiis firma- bantur. Ita intrepida ibi liiems, et sibi quisque prae- sidio, irritis hostibus, eoque desperantibus quia so- Hti pleruraque damna aestatis hibernis eventibus pensare, tum sestate atquo hyeme juxta pelleban- tur.* LXXX. The third year of the expeditions of Julius Agricola discovered new people, the nations being laid waste to the Tay (it is the name of the firth) jf by which dread the enemies being dismay- * Taciti Vita J. Agricolce^ c. 22. •\ This word, as being, apparently, from the Latin frctum^ is, by Englisli writers generally, or, it may be, constantly, spelled /rif/j, as most agreeable to its etymology. The Scots, however, for a number of centuries, and even to this day, both speak and write JirtJi, as do likewise all the navigators of their coasts and seas : — the firth of Fortli, thejirth of Clyde, the Murray firthf the Pentland firih. Even the northern Eng- lish, who certainly understand the propriety of their native 28 ANNALS OF ed, dared not to molest tlie army, although pes- tered with boisterous tempests ; and, moreover, there was time for erecting forts. Skilful men obserFed, that no other commander had ever cho- sen the conveniences of his stations more sagely ; no fort founded by Agricola was either won by the force of enemies, or abandoned by treaty or flight. QThe garrisons made]] frequent eruptions ; for, against the delays of a siege, they were strength- ened by annual supplies, so, the winter being there without fear, and every one in a garrison to him- self, the enemies being nothing worth, and there- fore despairing, because, being wont for the most part to compensate the losses of the summer by tlie events of the winter, they were equally repelled in summer and winter. LXXXI. Quarta sestas obtineudis quae percur- rerat insumpta : ac, si virtus exercituum et Romani nominis gloria pateretur, inventus in ipsa Britan- nia terminus. Nam Glota et Bodotria diversi ma- tongue much better than a London cockney, constantly speak of the Solwsiy Jirth. And so, upon due deliberation, it has been determined to be printed in the course of this compila- tioD. THE CALEDONIANS. 29 ris a3stu per inimensum revecti, angusto terrarum spatio dirimuutur : quod turn prsesidiis firmabatur : atque omiiis propior sinus tenebatur, summotis ve- lut ill aliam insulam hostibus.* LXXXI. The fourth summer being employed in settling those parts which he had overrun : and if the bravery of the armies, and the glory of the Roman name would have suffered it^ a boundary had been found in Britain itself. For the Clyde and the Forth, being carried back by the tide of a different sea, through an immense tract, are divided by a narrow space of land, which was now secured by garrisons, and the enemy being, as it were, dri- ven back into another island. LXXXII. Quinto expeditionum anno nave pri- ma transgressus, ignotas ad id tempus geiites cre- bris simul ac prosperis praeliis domuit : eamque par- tem Britannise quae Hiberniam aspicit, copiis in- struxit, in spem magis quam ob formidinem.f * Tacitus Vita J. /Igricola:^ c. 23. ' t Ibid. c. 24. 80 ANNALS OF LXXXII. In the fifth year of the expeditions, having passed over in tlie first sliip, he subdued na- tionsj to that time unknown, in frequent at once and successful engagements ; and furnished with forces that part of Britain M'hich looks upon Hiber- nia, rather in hope than fear. LXXXIII. Ceterum aestatequa sextum officii annum inchoabat, amplas civitates trans Bodotriani sitas, quia motus universarum ultra gentium, et in- festa hostili exercitu itinera tiraebantur, prius classe exploravit. Britannos, ut ex captivis audiebatur, visa classis obstupefaciebat, tanquam aperto maris sui secreto ultimum victis f)erfugium clauderetur. Ad manus et arma conversi Caledoniam incolentes populi^paratumagnoj majorefama^uti mosest de ig- notis, oppugnasse ultro, castella adorti, metum ut provocantesaddiderant: regrediendumque citraBo- dotriam, et excedeudum potius, quam pellerentur, specie prudentium ignavi admonebant, cum interim cognoscitj hostes pluribus agminibus irrupturos : ac ne superante numero, et peritia locorum circum- iretur, diviso et ipse in ires partes exercitu inces- sit.* Quod ubi coguitum hosti, mutato rcpentc consilio. • Ibid. c. 25. THE CALEDONIANS. 31 universi iionam legioneni, ut maxime invalidam, nocte aggressi inter somnum ac trepidationem, caesis vigilibuSj irrupere. Jamque in ipsis castris pugnabant, cum Agricola, iter hostium ab explo- ratoribus edoctus, et vestigiis insecutus, velocissi- mos equitum peditumque assultare tergis pugnan- tium jubet, mox ab universis adjici clamorem : et propinqua luce fulsere signa : ita ancipiti malo ter- riti Britanni : et Ronianis redit animus, ac securi pro salute, de gloria certabant : ultro quin etiam irrupere : et fuit atrox in ipsis portarum angustiis preelium, donee pulsi hostes, utroque exercitu cer- tante, his ut tulisse opem, illis ne eguisse auxilio viderentur : quod nisi paludes et silvae fugientes texissent, debellatum ilia victoria foret. Cujus constantia ac fama ferox exercitu s : ni- hil virtuti suae invium : penetrandam Caledoniam, inveniendumque tandem Britanniae terminum con- tinuo praeliorum cursu fremebant : atque illi modo cauti ac sapientes prompti post eventum ac mag- niloqui erant. At Britanni non virtute sed occa- sione et arte ducis rati, nihil ex arrogantia remit- ters quo minus juventutem armarent, coujuges ac liberos in loca tuta transferrent, coetibus ac sacri- ficiis conspirationem civitatum sancirent : atque ita irritatis utrimque animis discessum.* * Ibid. cc. 20, 27. 32 ANNALS OF LXXXIII. As to tlic rest; in the summer in M'hicli lie began tlie sixtli year of his function, he first of all explored the great cities, placed beyond the Fortli, because the movements of all the na- tions further off, and adverse excursions with a hos- tile army, were feared The fleet, as was heard from the captives, being seen, astonished the Bri- tons, as if, the secret recess of their sea being open- ed, the last refuge to the vanquished should be shut up. The various people inhabiting Caledonia, be- ing turned to their hands and arms, with great pre- paration, and greater fame, as the manner is con- cerning things unknown, to have fought at their will, having assailed the forts, that, challenging, they had given fear ; and the cowardly, in the dis- guise of the prudent, admonished that it was proper to return beyond the Forth, and to depart quietly, rather than that they should be driven out, when, in the meantime, he knew that the enemy was about to rush upon them with a great many forces ; and lest, by the number surpassing, and the knowledge of places, he should be surrounded, he himself also marched with his army divided into three parts. Which, when known to the enemy, their course being suddenly changed, all of them having attack- ed the ninth legion, as the most weak, by night, be- tween sleep and fear, the sentinels being slain, they THE CALEDONIANS. 33 rushed in, and already fought in the very camp ; when Agricola, having learned the march of the enemies from his scouts, and pursued their foot- steps, orders the swiftest of his horse and foot to charge the backs of the combatants ; instantly from every one began to be added a shout, and the en- signs glittered in the approaching light : so that the Britons being terrified by the two-faced evil, courage returns to the Romans, and secure of safety, they contended for glory : moreover, they willingly rushed forward, and there was a cruel battle in the very entries of the gates, until the enemy being beaten off, and each army exerting itself, these, that they might appear to bring help ; those, not to desire assistance : but unless the marshes and forests had protected the fugitives, that victory would have ended the war. With the firmness and fame whereof, the army being proud, nothing, they exclaimed, was insur- mountable to their valour : now was the time to pe- netrate into Caledonia, and find, at length, the li- mit of Britain, by a continued series of battles : and those who just now were wary and wise, were after the event forward and high-flown But the Britons, thinking the victory not gained by valour, but by accident, and the skill of the commander, remitted nothing of their annoyance, that, not the VOL. I. D 34 ANNALS OF less, they arm their youth, transfer their wires and children into safe places, sanction the conspiracy of their cities by engagements and sacrifices : and so, their minds being irritated, each side departed. LXXXIV. Initio aestatis Agricola, domestico vnlnere ictus, anno ante natum filium amisit ; quern casum neque, ut plerique fortium virorum, ambi- tiose, neque per lamenta rursus ac moerorem muli- ebriter tulit, et in luctu bellum inter remedia erat. Igitur praemissa classe, quae pluribus locis praedata, magnum et incertum terrorem faceret, expedito exercitu, cui ex Britannis fortissimos et longa pace exploratos addiderat, ad montem Grampium* per- • This mons Grampius^ though mentioned no mere by Ta- citus, nor by any other ancient historian, except Richard of Cirencester may be allowed that appellation, is generally sup- posed to be the range of mountains now called the Grampian hills ; by Hector Bois, Grantzbain ; by old Scottish writers, Drum-Alban ; The mounth, or Cairn of mounth : but, in fact, the mount Grampius noticed by Tacitus, and twice, at least, mentioned by Richard, is described by the latter in these words : "Hie quoque arduum atque horrendum jugum Grampium of- fendimus, quod provinciam istam [Vespasianam scilicet] bi- fariam secabat : atque haec eadem erat regio quae, a commisso inter Agricolam et Galgacum proelio, Romanis utilissimo, fa- mam in annalibus habet insigneui : hie vires eorum veteresque THE CALEDONIANS. 35 venit, quern jam liostes inscderaut. Nam Britan- ni nihil fracti pugnae prioris eventu, et ultionem aut servitium expectantes, tandemque docti com- mune periculum concordia propulsandum^ legatio- nibus et foederibus omnium civitatum vires excive- rant. Jamque super triginta millia armatorum as- piciebanturj et adhuc affluebat omnis juventus, et quibus cruda ac viridis senectus^ clari bello, ac sua quisque decora gestantes : cum inter plures duces castramentationes hodieque magnitudo ostenditmcenium : nam in loco ubi ingens supradictum prcelium habitum erat, quidam ordinis nostri [m07iachiy scilicet] banc viam emensi, affirmant se immania vidisse castra, aliaque argumenta Taciti relationem confirmantia." (L. I. c. 6, § 43.) In his itinerary he says ..." incipit Vespasiana. Alauna VI. J}. XII. Lindo Villi. Victoria Villi. a^Hiernam Villi. Orrea XIIII. ad Tavura XVIIII. ad iEsicam XXIII. ad Tinara VIII. Devana XXIII. ad Itunam XXIIII. ad mon- TEsr Grampium m. p." (L. I. c. 7, p. 38.) In his map, (the most ancient existing of any part of Bri- tain,) he makes the "Grampius ]nONS,"or Grampian mount, consistently with his verbal descriptions, to run from the Taix- aloruvi promontorium^ (now Kynairds-head,) in the province of that people, (now Buchan, in the shire of Aberdeen,) in a south-westerly direction, to what he calls Lincalidor lacus, now Loch-Lomond. David Macpherson, however, thinks Richard mistaken in extending the mons Grampius into a range of mountains, of which there is at present no vestige or appear™ ance, contending that it is a solitary hill in Buchan, " called Mormound." 36 ANNALS OF virtutc et genere prsestans, uomine Ciilgacus,* apiul contractam niultitiulinem prajlium posccnteni, in hunc modum locutus fertur . . . .t • Galloglachy in Irish, signifies a heavy-armed man. Possibly the Britons might have the same, or some similar word, and thence Cnlgacus, as in Brotiers edition, as others read Gal- gacus. According to the ancient treatise De situ Albanicr^ *' omnes Hybemenses et Scotti generaliter Gaithdi dicuntur a quodam eorura primaevo duce Gaithelglas vocato." (Innes, p. 771') In the old and fabulous Welsh Triads^ he is called Gaii- lauc ap Liennauc ; though Taliesin calls him Cwallaxcc. (See Lewis, p. 100, 101.) The Scots, however, pretend that his true name was Galdus ; and, according to a learned gentleman, Mackenzie of Delvin, Galgacus is composed of these two High- land appellations. Gold and Cachach ; the first being his pro- per name, the other, which signifies prceliosus, an adjection to it from the many battles he fought. See Gordons Itinera- Hum Septentrionale, p. 40. " The moor," says this writer, *' on which this camp stands is called to this day Galdachan^ or Ga?^ac^aw-Ross-moor." -|- Tacitus has here inserted his pretended speech of Calga- cus at length, as if, in the polite apology of the speaker of the house of commons, he had obtained a copy to prevent mis- takes. If, however, he actually delivered any such harangue, it must have been couched in the British tongue ; to which, though his army, it is probable, understood no other, the Ro- man soldiers, no doubt, were perfect strangers. It were to be wished that we had the genuine narrative with which the good man Agricola, like king Grandgousier, was, in all probability, wont to entertain his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, after his return from Britain ; where Tacitus certainly never came ; but the latter, having a good hand at his pen, has work- THE CALEDONIANS. 37 Agricola [|oratione sua fiiiita] instinctos ruentes- que [[militesll ita disposuit, ut peditum auxilia, quae octo millia erant, mediam aciem firmarent ; equitum tria millia cornibus affunderentur ; le- giones pro vallo stetere, ingens victoriae decus citra Romanum sanguinem bellanti, et auxilium si pel- lerentur. Britannorum acies, in speciem simul ac terrorem, editioribus locis constiterant : ita ut pri- mum agnien aequo, ceteri per acclive jugum con- nexi relut insurgerent ; media campi covinarius et eques strepitu ac discursu complebat. Turn Agri- cola, superante liostium multitudine, veritus ne si- mul in frontem, simul et latera suorum pugnaretur, diductis ordinibus, quamquam porrectior acies fu- tura erat, et arcessandas plerique legiones admone- ed up, in the manner of Livy, a species of historical romance i for, most assuredly, Calgacus never uttered that speech, or anything like it. The Britons, however, as we are told, re- ceived this harangue with alacrity, and testified their applause in the barbarian manner with songs, and yells, and dissonant shouts : and now the several divisions were in motion, and the glittering of arms was beheld, while the most daring and impetuous were hurrying to the front, and the two armies were forming in line of battle ; when Agricola, to be even with him, took that critical opportunity to make a rival speech, which the ingenious historian gives word for word, as it was, doubt- less, dictated by his father-in-law. Both, however, are master, pieces of eloquence. 38 ANNALS OF bant, promptior in speni, ct firmiis advcrsis, diniisso equo, pedes ante vcxilla constitit. Ac primo congressu eminus certabatur : simul constantia, simul arte Britanni, ingentibus gladiis et brevibus cetris,* missilia nostrorum vitare, vel excutere, atqiie ipsi magnani vim telorum super- fiindere : donee Agricola trcs Batavorum cohortes ac Tungronini duas coliortatus est, ut rem ad mucrones ac manus adducerent : quod et ipsis ve- tustate militiae exercitatum, ct hostibus inhabilc parva scuta et enormes gladios gerentibus : nam Britannorum gladii sine mucrone complexum ar- morum, et in aperto pugnam non tolerabant. Igi- tur ut Batavi miscere ictus, ferire umbonibus, ora foedare ; et tractis qui in aequo obstiterant, erigere in colles aciem coepere ; ceterai cohortes, aemula- tione et impetu comraistee, proximos quosque cae- dere : ac plerisque semineces aut integri festina- tione victoriae relinquebantur. Interim equitum turmae fiigere, covinarii peditum se praelio miscuere ; et quamquam recentem terrorem intulerant, densis tamen hostium agminibus et inaequalibus locis haere- bant : minimeque equestris ea pugnae facies erat, cum in gradu stantes simul equorum corporibus V • The Gauls wore arms of the same kind. See Livy, B. XXII. c. 46; B. XXXVIII. c 17 and 31 ; and Polybius. B. II. c. 2. THE CALEDONIANS. 39 impel lerentur : ac saepe vagi currus, exterriti sine rectoribus equi, ut quemque forraido tulerat, trans- versos aut obvios incursabant. Et Britanni, qui adhue pugna) expertes, summa collium insederant, et paucitatem nostrorum vacui spernebant, degredi paullatim et circumire terga vincentium coeperant : ni id ipsum veritus Agricola quatuor equitum alas ad subita belli retentaSj venientibus opposuisset ; quantoque ferocius accurrerant, tanto acrius pulsos in fugam disjecisset. Ita consilium Britannorum in ipsos versum: transvectseque praecepto ducis a fronte pugnantium alee, aversam hostium aciem invasere. Turn vero patentibus locis grande et atrox specta- eulum : sequi^ vulnerare, capere, atque eosdem, ob- latis aliis, trucidare. Jam hostium, prout cuique in- genium erat, cater vae armatorum paucioribus terga preestare, quidam inermes ultro ruere, ac se morti offerre. Passim arma et corpora^ et laceri artus, et cruenta humus : et aliquando etiam victis ira vir- tusque. Postquam silvis appropinquarunt, collecti, primos sequentium incautos et locorum ignaros cir- cumveniebant. Quod ni frequens ubique Agricola, validas et expeditas cohortes, indaginis modo, et si- cubi arctiora erant, partem equitum, dimissis equis, simul rariores silvas equitem persultare jussisset, acceptum aliquod vulnus per nimiam fiduciam foret. Ceterum ubi composites firmis ordinibus sequi rur- 40 ANNALS OF SU8 viderc, in fugani versi, non agminibus ut prius, nee alius alium respectantes, rari, et vitabundi in- Ficem, longinqua atque avia petiere : finis sequendi BOX et satietas fuit : caesa hostium ad decern millia : nostrorum trecenti quadraginta cecidere. Et nox quidem gaudio praedaque laeta victoribus : Britanni palantes, mixtoque virorum mulierumque ploratu, trahere vulneratos, vocare integros, deserere domos, ac per iram ultro incendere : eligere latabras, et statim relinquere : miscere invicem consilia aliqua, dein sperare : aliquando frangi aspectu pignorum suorum, saepius concitari: satisque constabat saevisse quosdam in conjuges ac liberos, tanquam misere- rentur. Proximus dies faciem victor iae latius ape- niit : vastum ubique silentium, secreti colics, fu- mantia procul tecta, nemo exploratoribus obvius : * * Rolt, the historian, author of The Conduct of the Powers ofEtiropc^ observes, that (in 1746) '' the Duke of Cumberland issued a proclamation for disarming such of the clans as re- fused to surrender themselves ; a camp was established at Fort Augustus, whence several detachments were sent to ruin and depopulate the rebellious country ; where the devastation was so great, that, for the space of fifty miles, neither house, man, nor beast, was to be seen ; which was the entire subjugation of this fierce and intractable people, whom neither the Romans nor Saxons could reduce, and who had often bid defiance to their native kings." (IV. 212.) Upon this atrocious massacre, the following admirable and pathetic elegy was composed by i THE CALEDONIANS. 41 qui bus in omnem partem dimissis, ubi incerta fugae vestigia, neque usquam conglobari hostes comper- tum, et exacta jam sestate spargi bellum nequibat, that excellent poet, dr Tobias Smollett [and which he aptly entitles The Tears of Scotland^ : — " Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn Thy banish'd peace, thy laurel torn ! Thy sons, for valour long renown'd, Lye slaughter'd on their native ground ; Thy hospitable roofs no more Invite the stranger to the door, In smoaky ruins sunk they lye, The monuments of cruelty. The wretched owner sees afar His all become the prey of war. Bethinks him of his babes and wife, Then smites his breast, and curses life ! Thy swains are famish'd on the rocks, AVhere late they fed their wanton flocks ; Thy ravish'd virgins shriek in vain ; Thine infants perish on the plain ! What boots it, that, in every clime, Through the wide-spreading waste of time, Thy martial glory, crown'd with praise. Still shone with unduninish'd blaze ?— Thy tow'ring spirit now is broke. Thy neck is bended to the yoke ! What foreign arms could never quell. By civil rage and rancour fell. 42 ANNALS OF in fines Horestiorum exercitum deducit. Ibi, ac- ceptis obsidibus, praefecto classis circum^ehi Bri- tanniam praicepit : datae ad id vires, et praecesserat The rural pipe and merry lay No more shall chear the happy day ; No social scenes of gay delight Beguile the]dreary winter's night ; No strains but those of sorrow flow, And nought be heard but sounds of woe ; MTiilst the pale phantoms of the slain Glide nightly o'er the silent plain. O baleful cause ! O fatal morn ! Accurs'd to ages yet unborn : The sons against their fathers stood, The parent shed his childrens blood ; Vet, when the rage of battle ceas'd. The victor's soul was not appeased ; The naked and forlorn must feel Devouring flames and conquering steel ! The pious mother, doom'd to death, Forsaken wanders o'er the heath ; The bleak wind whistles round her head. Her helpless orphans cry for bread ; Bereft of shelter, food, and friend. She \dews the shades of night descend ; And, stretch'd beneath inclement skies. Weeps o'er her tender babes, and dies ! While the warm blood bedews my veins. And, unimpaired, remembrance reigns, THE CALEDONIANS. 43 terror : ipse peditem atque equites lento itinere, quo novarum gentium animi ipsa transitus mora terrerentur, in hibernis locavit.* LXXXIV. In the beginning of the summer, Agricola, being stricken mth a domestic wound, lost his son^ bom the year before ; which chance he bore, neither ostentatiously, as the most part of brave men, nor yet by lamentations and grief, like a woman ; in his sorrow, war was among the reme- dies. Therefore, the fleet being sent before, which, having plundered a great many places, would make a great and uncertain terror, the army being fitted out, to which he had added out of the Britons the bravest, and who had been tried by a long peace, he arrived at the Grampian mountain, which the enemy had already settled upon. For the Britons, nothing disconcerted by the event of the former battle, and expecting either revenge or slavery, and Resentment of ray country's fate Within my filial breast shall beat ; And, spite of her insulting foe, My sympathizing verse shall flow : Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn Thy banish'd peace, thy laurel torn !" ■j- Taciti Julii Agricolae Vita, c. 28, &c. 44 ANNALS OF at length taught that tlie common danger was to be repelled by concord, hud called forth the strength of all their states, by embassies and confederacies : and now above thirty thousand of armed men were beheld, and yet flocked all the youth, with whom also fresh and green age, famous in war, and every one boasting their own honours ; when, among a great many commanders, one excelling in valour and birth, by name Calgacus, before the mustered multitude, demanding the battle, is reported to have spoken after this manner Agricola, having finished his oration, so disposed the eager and impetuous soldiers, that the auxiliary infantry, which were eight thousand, strengthened the centre ; three thousand horse were spread in the wings ; the legion stood before the trench ; a prodigious honour to the victory, fighting without Roman blood, and succour, if they should be re- pulsed. The battalions of the Britons, for show, at once, and terror, had settled in the high places ; so that the first line being upon the plain, the rest, as if linked together, rose up a steep hill ; the cha- rioteer and the horseman, with noise and careering, filled the midst of the field. Then Agricola, the multitude of the enemy surpassing, fearful lest it should engage, at one and the same time, his front and his flanks, his ranks being extended, although THE CALEDONIANS. 45 the battalion was about to be too extensive, and se- veral [[officers^ admonished that the legions should be sent for, being very ready at hope, and firm in adversity, his horse being dismissed, he stood on foot before the ensigns. In the first encounter, indeed, they fought at a distance ; the Britons, at one and the same time, with firmness and skill, with huge swords and short targets, [[attempted to]] avoid, or shake oflT, the missile weapons of our soldiers, and they them- selves to shower a great abundance of darts ; till Agricola exhorted three regiments of Batavians, and two of Tungrians, that they would bring the action to swords and hands ; which being not only practised by themselves in the old time of warfare, but unmanageable by enemies bearing small shields and enormous swords ; for the pointless swords of the Britons did not endure the embrace of arms, and a battle in the open field. Therefore, as the Batavians began to mix their blows, to strike with the bosses of their shields, to clear the ground, and those who had stood on the plain being borne down, they began to advance their battalion up the hills ; the other cohorts mingled with emulation and vio- lence, to kill every one near them ; and many were left half dead or unhurt, in the pursuit of victory. In the meantime the troops of horsemen fled ; the if> ANNALS OF charioteers mingled tlicnisclvcs iu the engagement of the infantry ; and, although they had brought fresh terror, nevertheless they stuck in the close ranks of the enemy and unequal places ; and by no means was this the appearance of an equestrian combat, while those standing in their ranks were borne down, all at once, by the bodies of the horses ; and, often, chariots running at random, horses fright- ed, without their riders, as fear had borne every one away, overran those who met them, or crossed their way. The Britons who, liitherto, were not concerned in the battle, had sitten upon the tops of the hills, and idly contemned the fewness of our soldiers, had begun by little and little to descend, and surround the backs of the conquerors, unless Agricola, fearing that very thing, had not opposed to the comers four wings of horsemen, retained for the sudden exploits of war ; and by how much they had run the more fiercely, by so much the more strenuously did he put them to flight. Thus the counsel of the Britons was turned against them- selves ; and the wings brought over, by order of the general, assailed, from the front, the rear of the enemys fighting. Then, truly, in the extensive plains, a grand and atrocious spectacle : to pursue, to wound, to take prisoners, and, others being of- fered, those to slaughter ; now of the enemys, as THE CALEDONIANS. 47 every ones mind was, battalions of armed men, to show their backs to very few, and some, unarmed, wilfully to rush forward, and offer themselves to death. Everywhere arms and bodies, and mangled limbs, and ground red with blood : sometime, even to the vanquished, rage and valour. After that they had approached the woods, being collected, they circumvented the first of those following, in- cautious, and unacquainted with the country : for- asmuch as, unless Agricola, everywhere alert, had appointed stout and fleet troops, in the manner of a toil, and wherever they were very rank, part of the horsemen, their horses being left behind, at the same time the more open woods, to scour, there would have been some loss received through too much confidence. But when, composed in firm or- der, they again saw them pursue, betaking them- selves to flight, not with numbers as before, nor one regarding another, seldom seen together, and shun- ning each other, sought distant and devious places ; the end of the pursuit was night and satiety of slaughter. There were slain of the enemy ten thousand ; of ours, three hundred and forty fell. The night, truly, was cheerful with joy and plun- der : the Britons wandering, and with the promis- cuous lamentation of both men and women, drew oflf the wounded, recalled the sound, deserted, and. is ANNALS OF tlirough rage, wilfully burnetl, their houses ; they chose hiding-places, and straightway left them; they mingled certain counsels amongst each other, then hoped ; sometimes they were distressed by the sight of their pledges, but more frequently agitated ; and it sufficiently a])peared that some were cruel toward their wives and children, as if they pitied them. The next day more amply exposed the face of victory ; everywhere a vast silence, desolate hills, houses smoking afar off, no man met by the scouts : who being sent into every part, when there were no certain vestiges of flight, neither anywhere enemies to embody themselves, to be found together, and the summer being already finished, he was unable to carry on the war, he led his army into the con- fines of the Horestii. There, hostages being recei- ved, he ordered the commander of the fleet to carry him about Britain ; force having been given to it, and terror had preceded : he himself, the infantry and horse, by a slow journey, whereby the minds of the new nations might be afirighted by the very delay of the march, placed in winter-quarters. LXXXV. Majorem Agricolac gloriam invidens, Domitianus domuni oiim revocavit, legatumfjue THE CALEDONIANS. 49 suum Lucullum in Brittanias inisit^ quod lanceas novae forniae appellari luculleas passus esset.* Successor ejus Trebellius erat, sub quo duae pro- vinciae, Vespasiana, scilicet, et Maaeta QMaeatae, alias Valentia]], fractae sunt. Roniani se ipsos, autem, luxuriae dederunt.t LXXXV. Domitian, envying the [superior] glory of Agricola, recalled him home, and sent liUcullus his legate into Britain, because he had suffered lances of a new form to be called luculleas. His successor was Trebellius, under whom two provinces, Vespasiana, namely, and Maeatae [[other- wise Valentia^, were lost ; for the Romans gave themselves up to luxury. CXXI. Britanniam petiit [Hadrianus impe- rator], in qua multa correxit, murumque per oc- toginta millia passuum primus duxit, qui barbaros Romanosque divideret.J • Ricardus Corinensis, L. II. c. 2, § 15. •j- Idem, iU. § 16. X Spartiani Adrianus Coesar, 51. This wall is likewise mentioned by Richard of Cirencester, who, though a modern VOL. I. E 50 ANNALS OF Julius Severus [primus optimorum ducuni Ha- drian!] ex Britannia^ cui prseerat, contra Judajos missus est.* Antoninus Pius imperator per legatos suos plu- rima bella gessit. Nam et Britannos per Lollium writer, certainly made use of ancient materials : " A. M. MMMMCXX. \A. C. 122.] Ipse in Britanniam transit Hadrianus imperator, immensoque muro unam insulae partem ab altera sejungit." (Lib. 2, c. 1, § 22.) And elsewhere calls it, " opus sane mirandum, et maxime memorabile." (L. 2, c. 2, § 17.) This wall, as it appears, was built of iurf. — That Hadrian was in Caledonia, or the North of Britain, in or about the year 120, is evident from some verses which pass between him and one Florus, a poet, who speaks thus : " Ego nolo Caesar esse, Ambulare per Britannos, Scythicas pati pruinas." (I never will be Caesar, To amble through the Britons, To suffer Scythian frosts.) The emperor answers thus : ■•' Ego nolo Florus esse, Ambulare per tabernas, Latitare per popinas, Culices pati rotundos." (I never will be Florus, To amble through the taverns, To lurk in victualling-houses, To suffer biting gnats.) * Dio, L. 69, c. 13. THE CALEDONIANS. 51 Urbicum legatum vicit, alio muro cespetitio, sub- motisbarbaris, ducto.* * Ca^itolim Ajitoninus Pius, 132. Richard of Cirencester, describing the Roman divisions of Britain, under the title Vakntiana, alludes to the other turf wall : " qui ab imperatore Antoniiw PiOy^^ he says, " inter Bdoram et Clyddam, extruc- tus est." (L. 1, c 6, § 2.) Again : " Hie Britannia, rursus quasi amplexu oceani delectata ; angustior evadit, quam alibi, idque ob duo ista rapidissima, quas infunduntur, asstuaria Bo- dotriam scilicet et Clottam ; contractus hie isthmus ab Agri- cola legato primura praesidio raunitus erat : alium murum, in historiis nobilissimum, erexit imperator Antoninusy ad xxxv. circiter milliaria protensum ; ut hoc medio barbarorum sisteiet incursiones, qui et ab jEtio duce demum reparatus esty un- decimgue Jirmaius turrihiis.^'' (L. 1, c. 6, § 42.) The de- scription, by Nennius, of this wall, will be noticed in another place. It is likewise described by Bede in the following words : Insulani murum quem jussi fuerant [a Romanis], non tarn lapidibus quam cespitibus construentes, utpote nullum tanti operis artificem habentes, ad nihil utilem statuunt. Fecerunt autem eum inter duo freta vel sinus maris, per millia passuum plurima ; ut ubi aquarum munitio deerat, ibi praesidio valli fines suos ab hostium inruptione defenderent : cujus operis ibi- dem facti, id est, valli latissimi et altissimi usque hodie certis- sima vestigia cernere licet. Incipit autem dubrum ferme milium spatio a monasterio ^hcrcurnig ad occidentem, in loco qui ser- raone Pictorum Peanfahel, lingua autem Anglorem Penneltun appellatur ; et tendens contra occidentem terminatur juxta ur- hem Alcluith,'' (Lib. 1, c. 12.) This venerable ecclesiastic, nevertheless, has, in this narrative, widely hallucinated, by at- tributing the erection of this wall for the purpose of protecting the southward Britons from the incursions of the Scots and 52 ANNALS OF CXXI. The emperor Hadrian went into Britain, in which he corrected many things, and was the first who drew a wall for eighty miles, which should divide the barbarians and the Romans. Julius Severus, the first of the best generals of Hadrian, out of Britain, over which he presided, was sent against the Jews. The emperor Antoninus Pius waged a great many wars by his lieutenants. For he conquered the Britons by Lollius Urbicus, his lieutenant ; an- other turf-wall (the barbarians being driven back) being drawn [across]. CLXI. Pio mortuo, varias de Brittonibus vic- torias reportavit Aurelius Antoninus.* PictSy neither of which nations had made its appearance in the north of Britain at this period, nor did so, in fact, till a subse- quent century. In truth, through excessive ignorance, he dates its erection in 414, instead of 138. The barbarians, against whom the Romans advised this fortification, were the old Cale- donians, or northern Britons, who, freeing themselves from a foreign yoke, had driven their enemies beyond the firths. — Many Roman inscriptions, devoted to Antoninus, have been dug up in the vestiges of this ancient wall, not a particle wliereof is believed to be now perceptible. • Ricardus Corinensis, L. II. c. 2, § 19. THE CALEDONIANS. 5S CLXI. Pius being dead, Aurelius Antoninus gained various victories [over the Britons.] CLXIV. Adversus Britannos Calphurnius Agri- cola missus est.* CLXIV. Calphurnius Agricola was sent against the Britons. CLXXXII. Fuere Commodo bella qusedam cum barbaris. . . . Sed bellum Britannicum omnium longe maxime fuit. Quippe quum ejus insulae nationes cum transgressae murura essent, qui inter ipsos et Romanorum castra intercedebat, vastassentque mul- ta, Romano duce, et militibus, quos secum habebat, caesis, Commodus, timore perterritus, contra eos Ulpium Marcellum misit qui maximis atque gravissimis damnis in Britannia barbaros affecit : quo facto, quanquam parum abfuit, quin virtutis * Capitolinus, in Commodo. 54 ANNALS OF sua causa a Conimodo iiecaretur^ tamen dimissus est.* CLXXXII. Commodus had some wars with the barbarians. . . . But the British war was by far the greatest of all. Forasmuch as when the nations of this island had passed over the wall, which went between themselves and the Roman camp, and wasted many parts, the Roman commander, and the soldiers which he had with him, being slain, Commodus, affrighted, sent against them Ulpius Marcellus, who affected the barbarians in Britain with the greatest and most grievous losses. ■ Dio, L. 72. c. 8. The wall alluded to was most probably that of Antoninus. The text of Dio is well known to be in Greek, but that language being far less cultivated than the Roman, (a preference, at the same time, much to be lamented,) it appeared most proper to adopt the Latin version, which ac- companies the original ; being not only the work of a good scholar, but, likewise, faithful and literal, so far at least as the idioms of the two languages will allow. " The northern limits of this land, this wall, of stupendous fabric, covered, built by the Romans through the isthmus to the length of 80 miles, the height whereof was 12, the thickness truly equalled 9 feet, and adorned with towers." — Richard of Cirencester, B. 1, c 6, §35. THE CALEDONIANS. 55 CXCVII. In Britanniaj, cum Caledoiiii se, vio- Jatis promissis, ad defendeudos Mseatas pararent^ et Severus id temporis finitimo bello intentus esset, coactus fuit [Verrius] Lupus a Maeatis magna pe- cunia pacem redimere, paucis quibusdam captivis receptis.* CXCVII. In Britain J when the Caledonians, their promises being violated, prepared themselves to defend the Mseata3, and Severus at this time was intent upon the border war, Verrius Lupus was forced to purchase a peace from the Mseatae, with much money, some few captives being received. CCVII. Hujus insulse non multo minus quam dimidia pars nostra est : quam Severus [impera- tor], quum vellet omnem in suam potestatem redi- gere, ingressus est in Caledoniam ; eamque dura pertransiret, habuit plurimum negotii, quod silvas caederet, edita dirueret, paludes repleret agere, et flumina pontibus juugeret. Nullum enina praeli- um gessit, neque copias hostium acie ad versa in- * Dio, L. 75, c. 5. 56 ANNALS OF structas vidit ; a quibus objiciebaiitur nostris cun- sulto oves bovestjue, ut quum ea milites nostri ra- perent, longius fraude seducti, conficerentur nio- lestiis. Nam et aquae inopia valde laborabant iios- tri,etdispersiinsidiasincidebant:quumque jam iter facerc amplius non possent, ab ipsismet commilito- iiibus occidebantur, quo minus ab hostibus caperen- tur. Itaque mortni sunt e nostris ad quinquaginta millia.* Neque tamen destitit Severus, quousque ad extremam partem insulw venit . . . Tandem per omnem fere terram liostilem vectus revertit ad so- cios, Britannis ad fcedus faciendum coactis^ ea con- ditioner ut non parva regionis parte cederent.-j* [Quadam]] occasione, quum Severus et Antoni- nus equitarent ad Caledonios, ut arma ab lis cape- rent, et de foederibus colloquerentur, Antoninus ipsum palam sua manu occidere est conatus.f CCVII. Of this island not much more than a half part was in possession of the Romans : all which when Severus the emperor wished to reduce into • This seems to be a mistake for five thousand ; which might have been easily made in the manuscript copies, where Greek letters would be used in the place of Arabic numbers. t Dio, L. 76, c. 13. t Ibi. c. 14. THE CALEDONIANS. 57 his own power, he entered into Caledonia; and, while he passed through it, had very much to do, because he was to fell forests, demolish high places, fill marshes with heaps of earth, and join rivers by bridges. For he fought no battle, nor saw faces of the enemy arrayed in adverse battalia ; by whom were cast, on purpose before the Romans, sheep and oxen, that when the soldiers would seize them, seduced by fraud afar off, they were vexed with troubles. For the Roman soldiers not only suffer- ed very much by the want of water, but, being dis- persed, fell into snares : and when they could now no longer continue their march, they were slain by their very fellow-soldiers, that they should not be taken by the enemy. So that of the Roman sol- diers were dead fifty thousand. Neither did Seve- rus yet desist, until he came to the extreme part of the island ... At length, having gone through al- most the whole country of the enemy, he returned to his associates, the Britons being forced to make a league on this condition, that they should yield up no small part of the region. On a certain occasion, as Severus and Antoninus rode to the Caledonians, that they might take their arms from them, and parley concerning the treaties, Antoninus openly endeavoured to kill him with his own hand. 58 ANNALS OF CCVIII. Britanniani (quod maximum ejus im- perii (lecus est) muro per transversam insulam duc- to, utriraque i^d finem oceaui munivit QSeverus im- perator] : undc etiam Britannici nomen accepit.* • Spartiani Scvcrus impcrator^ 354. Eutropius, who wrote about 350, says of Severus, " Novissimum bellura in Britan- nia habuit : utque receptas provincias omni securitate muniret, valluvi per XXXII. millia passtmm d, mart ad mare deduxiV (L. 8, c. 10.) Orosius makes this mention of him : " Seve- rus, victor in Britannia, . . . ubi magnis gravibusque praeliis sjepe gestis, receptam partem insulae a ceteris indomitis gen- tibus vallo disiinguendum putavit. Itaquc viagnam fossanif Jirmissimumqtie vallum^ crcbris insiiper iurribus cominunitum^ per centum triginta et duo millia passuum d mare ad mare duxitJ** (L. 7, c. 17.) Eusebius, and Cassiodorus, as well as tlie epitome falsely ascribed to Aurelius Victor, adopt the words of Eutropius, except that the two former read (as some copies of this historian appear to have done) CXXXII, instead of XXXII : both readings being, in all human probability, a mistake for LXXXII. The length of this famous wall was, in fact, 73959 Roman paces, equal to G8 miles and 169 paces English, or 73 miles and 959 paces Roman measure. (See Gordons Itinerarium Septentrionale^ 83.) The wall of Ha- drian, which ran in the same direction, and upon which part of it was built, is said by Spartian to be " per octoginta millia passuum," nearly the exact measure. Bede is a mere transcri- ber of Orosius, excepting that, after " indomitis gentibus," he inserts " non murOy ut quidam aestimant, sed vallOt distin- guendam putavit ,•" adding, " Murus etenim de lupidihus, vallum, vero, quo ad rcpellandam vim hostium castra muniun- tur fit dc cespilibus, quibus circumcisis, e terra vclut murus ex- THE CALEDONIANS. 59 Post nmruni aut vallum missum in Britannia, quum ad proximam mansionem [Severus] redi- struitur altus super terram, ita ut in ante sit fossa, de qua le- vari sunt cesjjitcs, supra quam sudes de lignis fortissiniis prae- figuntur" (L. 1, c. 5) : a distinction, it is believed, totally un- warranted by, and unknown to, any more ancient historians ; who, in speaking of this structure, use the words vallum and murus indiscriminately; as, for instance, Spartian, already cited : " Post murura aut vallum missum in Britannia ;" and Capitolinus ; " alio muro cespititio ;" though, doubtless, all the ramparts hitherto erected by, or under the direction of, the Romans in the north of Britain (including this of Se- verus) were conformable to the venerable monks explanation. The Saxon chronicle, under the year 189, says that Seve- rus " Tha ge-wrohte he weall mid turfum, &. bred weall thaer on-ufon, fram sae to ScB, Britwalum to gebeorge." — Thus Richard of Cirencester : '•'A.M. iMMMMCCVII {A.C. 209]. Destructum a Romanis conditum, murum restituit, transiens in Brittaniam, Severus im^erator" (L. 2, c. 1, § 27) ; and again, " Post hoc primus erat Virius Lupus, qui legati nomine gaudebat : non huic multa praeclara gesta adscribuntur, quippe cujus gloriam intercepit invictissimus Severus, qui fu- gatis celeriter hostibus, murum Hadrianum, nunc ruinosum, ad summam ejus perfectionem reparavit ; et si vixerat, propo- suerat exstirpare barbaros, quibus erat infestus, cum eorum no- mine, ex hac insula." (L. 2, c. 2, § 23.) The same compiler fixes the " Vallum Severinum'** opposite its proper station. " This wall, or mound," according to Nennius, *' was carried by Severus from sea to sea, through the latitude of Britain, that is, for 132 miles, and is called in the British tongue Gault for 132 miles, that is, to Pengaaul, which town in Scottish is called Cenaily but in English Peneltun, unto the mouth of the 60 ANNALS OF ret,* non solum victor, sed etiam in aeternum pace fundata, volvens animo quid omuis sibi occurreret, river Cluth, [i. c. Clyde] and Cairpentaloch [recte Kirkintul- ioch]^ where the wall is ended by rustic labour. Severus^^^ he adds, " constructed this wall, but it profited nothing : Caru- tius [Carauhius] afterward re-edified it, and fortified it with seven castles (c. 1 9) :" thus palpably and absurdly confounding, as the learned Buchanan has done, in a more enlightened age, the wall ofScverus, in Northumberland and Cumberland, with that of Jniotiinus, in the shires of Stirling and Dumbarton. That the work of Nennius, though left, no doubt, sufficiently inaccurate by himself, has suffered gross and manifest interpola- tion, is a notorious fact : the title of C. 24 is " De secundo etiam Severo^ qui solita structura murum alterum . . . fieri a Tbiviu- the usque Rouvenes \lege'Rou\xiQ%%\pra:cepit ,•" which, it must be admitted, gives a perfectly accurate idea of Severus's wall ; but the chapter itself is defective, and was apparently omitted by his stupid interpolator, one Samuel^ erroneously called Beu- lanus, or whoever else, to make room for his own absurdities. Gibson, in a note to his edition of Camdens Britanniu (p. 838), gives the following inscription : " Sept. Severe imp. qui mu- rum hunc condidit ;" and Gordon mentions another, discover- ed, it seems, at Hexham, by Roger Gale, esq., and doctor Stukeley, dedicated to the same emperor (/ when a different council was held at Pincanheale, properly Finchal, in that province. It is, nevertheless, perfectly true that no such practice is by any ancient writer, Greek or Roman, ever imputed to the Gauls. Vegetius {Dc re militari^ 1. 5, c. 7) says, *♦ Spy-boats are associated with the greater gallies, which may have nearly twenty rowers in all parts : these the Britons call Pictee. Lest, however, the spy-boats should be betrayed by their whiteness, their sails and ropes are painted with blue (colore veneto)^ (which is like the waves of the sea) : the wax also, with which they use to besmear their ships, is coloured. The mariners, likewise, or soldiers, put on a blue coat (vene- tam vcstem), that, not by night only, but also by day, those who are on the look-out may the more easily lie hid." Some MSS., it seems, have picatos ; instead of which it has been proposed to read jpiraticas, as swift ships are called by Sallust (L. 2), and Nonius Marcellus : but that, it should be obser- ved, was the Roman name, not the British. Stewerhius thinks it should he pincas^ pinks. * The last of these writers (Paulus Diaconus) has, in two or more places, Pictonum^ and sometimes Piciorum, but al- ways Picto, and never Pictoiies. Pictonum, also, is an error for Pictorum in some editions of Claudian. These mistakes, however, seem to prove that the name, Pictones, piust have been familiar to the copyists ; and an instance of it, where it could not proceed (like Pictonnvi) from the mistake of a letter, has been already noticed. 4 INTRODUCTION. 07 chronicle adds, Pyhtas, and Pihtum; Witichind, Pehiii ; Ethelwerd, in one place, Peoldas ; the Welsh, Phichtjaid;* the Irish annals, in Latin, Picii, and once Pictones ; in Irish, Cndthne ; and in the English version of the Irish part, Pights and Cruthe7is;\ Robert of Gloucester, Picardes, Picars, or Pygars ; Robert of Brunne, Peihtes ; Thomas, bishop of Orkney, Pett^ ; and Wj^ntown, Peychtis ; the pronunciation, it seems, of the common people of Scotland to this day.§ No synonymous term is to be found in any Greek writer ; nor would any per- * Id est^ Phictianos. (Llwyd, p. 48.) •j- General Vallancey pretends that a " colony recorded in the Irish history are said to be the Cruiti, or Cridini^ or Peacti" " As a Chllathamhnas Eiremoin tangadur Cruitnith no Pcacti^ sluagh do thriall on Tracia go Eirinn," without naming the book or author, [i. e. in the reign of Eremon, the Cruiti^ or Cruitni^ or Peacti, migrated from Thrace to Ireland.] Herodotus, he says, places the Pactyoe and Crithoti in Thracia Chernosesus. " These Peacti or Pactyoe^* he adds, " are not the Picti, or wood-painted Britons, (the Welsh,) described by Cffisar. They are distinguished by the Scots by the name of Peacti, a word that sounds exactly as Pactyce." {.Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis, IV. xvii. xix.) So, according to this, the Plots of Ireland are the Pactyce of Thrace. § Not, as Sir James Ware conjectures, from the ancient Irish word cruith, implying forms and figures, nor, still less, as Ossian JMacpherson pretends, from Cruithneacht, wheat, but from their first monarch and father, •" Crnidne [Cruithne] filius Cingc.''^ VOL. I. H 1)8 INTRODUCTION. son (one would have imagined) ])retend to discover eithertlienanjc or the people in the Pici, Peithini,S<.c, of ancient history. That they are ever to be found in Norway, Avherc, it is pretended, they were called Vikir, and their country V'lk ; and that the name was " really pronounced Vtts and Vetland" are as- sertions without a shadow of proof, and, in reality, equally false and foolish.* • Mr Pinkerton asserts that the Saxon chronicle and king Alfred call the Picts " Pihtar^ Pyhtar, Pchtar^ Pcohtar " (Enquiry^ I. 180) ; and says, " In Norway, the real an- cient name seems to have been Pihtar^ as we find it in the Saxon chronicle ; but afterward Vihiar, as in the Sagas " (173) ; apparently an additional falsehood ; as is, likewise, his supposition that Vikar is synonymous with Pikar, and that Jutland was anciently called Vitlandy or Pitland'''' (I. 182) ; as well as his assertion that " the old Plks of Nor- way are called Vikir, and their country Vik ,•" and " that the British Piks, calling themselves Pehts^ the name was softened to Pcts^ but really pronounced Vets and Vetland " (I. 370) : that " the proper name of tlie people, or that which they gave themselves, was Pihtar, or PiAV (I. 125. 280) : and that '• the Saxon translation by Alfred is Mid thy Peoh- tar,^^ &c. (261), as he has it elsewhere {Dissertation, p. 176, &c.) He afterward, it is true, contradicts himself (II. 36) ; but finally returns to his original text. " The Pehtar^ or Pcchtar^ of the Saxon chronicle," II. 118 ; the Piks he (Al- fred) frequently mentions by the names of Pehtar^ Pihtar, Pyhlar, Peoldar,'' 16C; " The Piks, as is clear from the writings of king Alfred, the Saxon chronicle, Witichind, &.c called themselves Pihtar, Pehtar, Peohtar"'' (232. 244, 245) : and says, " It may well be inferred that in times preceding INTRODUCTION. 99 § 3. The Picts, before their arrival and settlement in the north of Britain, seem to have established themselves in the Orcades, or Orkney Islands. We have this fact on the authority of Nennius. '^ After an interval," he says, " of many years, (from the time, that is, of Heli the high priest, when Brito (a nonentity) reigned in Britain, and Posthumus, his brother, (the like,) over the Latins,) not less than 900, [about 256 before Christ,] the Picts came and occupied the islands which are called Orcades ; and afterward, from the neighbouring isles, wasted many and not small regions, and occupied them in the left (z. e. north) part of Britain, and remain to this day. There the third part of Britain they held, and hold till now."* An additional proof of their any sagas, or other memorials of Norwegian history, the wliole Norwegians were called Pihtar, as being PetikinV^ (II. 174). Neither Pihtar, however, nor Pyhtar, Pe/tiar, PeoJitar, or Pechfar, is anywhere used, either by Alfred, Witichind, the Saxon chronicle, or any other author ; and this repeated blun- der has, in all probability, originated in this great Saxon scho- lars proficiency in the language, which did not enable him to distinguish an s from an r. * " Post intervaUum annorum multorum non minus DCCCC. Picti venerunt et occupaverunt insulas, quas Orcades vocantur ; et postea ex insulis affinitimis vastaverunt non modicas et multas regiones, occupaveruntque eas in sinistrali plaga Bri- tanniae, et manent usque in hodiernum diem. Ibi tertiam pur, tern Britanniae tenuerunt, et tenent usque nunc." C. 5. 100 INTRODUCTION. being settled in these islands, is afforded by an epistle, or certificate, in legal form, of Thomas de Tulloch, bishop of Orkney and Zetland, to Eric, king of Denmark and Norway, in 1403 ; wherein he informs him, that in the time of Harold Har- fager, first king of Norway, An. 9OO, the land or country of the islands of Orkney was inhabited and cultivated by two nations ; that is to say, the Pets and the Papes f Peti et Papse) ; which two nations had been radically and entirely destroyed by the Norwegians of the race or tribe of the most stre- nuous prince Ronald, as well as by the name of '^ Picts, or Pights houses," which appears to be still given to certain ancient buildings in those parts.* How long they kept possession of the Orkneys, does not appear ; but that either there were Picts in those islands, or the inhabitants, whoever they * Wallace's Account of the Islands of Orkjiey^ London, 1700, p. 121, 106; and Brands New Description of Orkney^ &c Edin. 1703, p. 14. Mr James Mackenzie, a shrewd and sensible man, " distinguished between the Pehtoe, ancient in- habitants of Orkney and its isles, and the Picts, a people of the south part of Scotland and England." — (Goughs British Topography^ II. 725.) It is, nevertheless, probable, that he had not a sufficient warrant for such a distinction ; at any rate, there were no Picts settled in England. The Papce are sup- posed to have been monks or priests. INTRODUCTION. 101 might be,* were in some degree subject to the sove- reigns of the British Picts, even so late as the mid- dle of the sixth century, is manifest from a passage in the life of Saint Columba, by Adomnan his suc- cessor, who relates, that certain of the saints people having gone to seek a wilderness in the ocean, he entreated king Brudei, at whose court he was, to recommend to the petty king of the Orcades, then present, and whose hostages were in his hands, that, in case they should come to those islands, no- thing adverse were done against them within his boundaries ; by reason of which commendation of the holy man, Cormac, the chief of this expedition, was delivered in the Orcades from immediate death.f In the year 682, we find these islands to have been ravaged by Brude IV. The Picts, in their first settlement in modern Scotland, were di- vided from the Britons by the firths of Forth and Clyde ; and, consequently, must have been in pos- session of all the provinces to the north of those firths.:|: They were afterward divided from the * Claudian places the Saxons there about SCO : " 3Iaduerunt Saxone fuse Orcades.''^ f L. 2, c. 43. :J: Bede, L. 1, c. 1. Gildas, who calls them a transmarine nation, vehemently savage, says, they made their inroads from the north, " ah Jquilone.^^ 102 INTllODUCTION. Scots, who settled, according to Bede, iu part of the Pictish territory, by a branch of the Grampian hills, extending from those of Athol, through Badcnoch, to the coast of Knoydart, or Aresaick, in the north-west ;* and from the English, by the iirth of Forth. f The kingdom of these Scots, ac- cording to Innes,J included, in those times, (the age of saint Columba,) all the western islands, to- gether with the countries " of Lorn, Argyle, Knap- dayl, Cowell, Kentyre, Lochabyr, and a part of Braid-Albayn, Sec." And the Pictish kingdom, ac- cording to the same author, " included all the rest of the north of Scotland, from the friths to the Ork- neys."|| In, and long before, the time of venerable * Ibi. and Innes, p. 85. t Bede, L. 4, c 26. ij: It is supposed by some that the Scots spoken of by Bede were a different colony from that which afterward established itself in the same parts about the year 500. This question will be noticed elsewhere. II P. 87. That the Picts had been in possession of the He- hudes, or MhudcCi before the arrival of the Scots, is, doubt- less, highly probable ; but it was clearly Conal Comgal, son to the king of Dalriada, and not Brude, king of the Picts, (as Bede relates,) who gave Hi to saint Columba. See An. Ul. ad an. ; and Usher, p. 367. Walafrid Strabo, in calling Hy " i«- sula Pictorum^'' may have been misled by Bede. The Picts, however, seem to have retained Skijy and perhaps others of the north-west islands, to the time of that saint (See Adorn. L. 1, c 33). Mr Pinkcrton, it is true, pretends, tluit " from the INTRODUCTION. 103 Bede, so early, in short, as the year 400, the Picts formed two nations, the northern and the southern, which were divided from each other by a branch of the Grampian hills.* The northern Picts, there- fore, inhabited the shires of Aberdeen, Banff, Mur- ray, Inverness, Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness. We know, from Adonmans life of saint Columba, direct authority of Nennius and Samuel, the settlement of the Piks in the Ilebud IsleSy may be dated, with as great certainty as any event in the earliest Greek or Roman history, at 300 years before Christ," {Enquiry^ I. 207) ; and that " till the fifth century, the Pikish monarchy was confined to the Hebudes^ where Solinus found it in the third." (2G2.) Now the fact is, that neither Nennius nor Samuel (who, indeed, cannot be dis- tinguished) makes the slightest mention of the Hebud isles, any more than Solinus does of the PiJcs ; and what degree of credit the two former authors are entitled to, we may collect from other passages of this veracious and consistent inquiry. In vol. I. p. 193, he describes them as a couple of fools, and says, their work, " compared to a Gothic saga," is " as the dream of a madman compared to the dream of a sound mind ;" and in vol. II. p. 290, that it " is full of monstrous fables ;" and (p. 288) that it " is deservedly considered as the weakest that ever bore the name of history ;" its fables being '•'• so childish and grotesque, as to disgrace the human mind. No man, therefore, of the smallest reflection, would found an his- toric fact on the sole testimony of such a work ;" and yet he here founds on their " sole testimony" a pretended fact of his own invention, and which, by their silence, or a different nar- rative, they positively contradict. * The " insuUs affinitimis [Orcadihusy may as well be taken for the Shetland isles, as for the Hehtides. 104 INTUODUCTION. that when this holy man had been for some days in the territory of the Picts (Piclorum proviticia), he had occasion to cross the river Ness. This river, therefore, (whidi flows from tlie lake of the same name, by Inverness,) must have been then in tlie dominion of the northern Picts, whom the author calls " gentiles barbari" (barbarous pagans) ; those of the south having been converted long before. In this part also, at the northmost end, (that is, of Lochness,) was the domiis regia, or munitio regalis, of Brude.* Nennius, in 858, speaking of the Ork- ney-islands, says, they are beyond the Picts ; and the contemporaneous biographer of St Findan re- lates, that this saint, being carried away captive by the Normans or Danes, about the end of the eighth century, in their voyage from Ireland to Denmark, they came to certain islands, called the Orkneys, in the neighbourhood of the Pictish natioi^: " ad quasdam venere insulas, juxta Pictorum gentem quas Orcades vocant."f Their occupation of the northernmost parts of Scotland is further manifest- ed by the name of the Petland, Pightla?id, or Pict' land, now Pentland, Jirth, X a narrow sea between * L. 2, c. 28. t Innes, p. 85. J It is called Mare Petlandicum by the bishop of Orkney ; '' Pcnthclande Jirth^^^ in D'Arfevilles "• Navigation da roij d' Escosse^'' Paris, 1583, fol. ; and Pightlnnd firth by both Wallace and Brand. INTRODUCTION. 105 Caithness and the Orkneys, and of the Pentland skerries* certain rocks in the same sea. The poet Claudian says, " — — incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule ;''"' meaning, as Richard of Cirencester suspects, the Roman province of Vespasiana, between the wall of Antoninus, and the Varar, or Murray- firth. f The southern Picts, in the time of Ninian, or toward the close of the fourth century, seem to have pos- sessed those regions situate between the Forth and the Grampian hills ;X and that one of these na- tions, most probably the latter, afterward occupied Lothian and Galloway, is manifest, from authentic history, and notorious facts. MuckroSf afterward Kylrimont, now Saint Andrews, in Fife, was '* in terra Pictorum ;" § and it appears from venerable Bede, that Trumuini, bishop of the Picts, resided with his monks in the monastery of ^bbercurnig, • In D'Arfevillesmap, 1583, " Pithlandskare;' and " Pith- land syr.^'' •f Ij. 1, c. G, § 50. The Thule of the ancients is now gene- rally thought to be the isles of Shetland. Procopius, however, evidently designs by this name Scandinavia^ the Scythice in- snla of the great Belgic chronicle. Others, again, suppose it to be Iceland. Richard, the olily writer who mentions the province of Vespasiana, is equally singular in this conjecture. J Usher, p. 350. § Historia B. Reguli, Ex regis S. Andrece, Pinkerton, I. 456; Poly ch to. L. 1, p. 186. I0(i INTRODUCTION. placed, he says, in tlie region of the English, but in the vicinity of tlie firth wliich separates the htnds of the English and the Picts :* it is Abercorn, in West-Lothian, upon the lirth of Forth. The Eng- les, as appears from the same writer,f as well as from Eddius and Randal Higden, (if worth citing,) frequently possessed themselves of the Pictish ter- ritory, both in Lothian and Galloway, without ex- terminating, or ])erhaps molesting, the old inhabi- tants. In (JSO, Dunbar {Dijunhacr), if not the whole of Lothian, was clearly within the dominions of Egfrid, king of Northumberland.:!: We are told by Bede that saint Cuthbert sailed from his mo- nastery at Mailros, " ad terram Pictorum, qua Niduari vocatur."§ The place meant is, doubtless, Nidry, or La?ig-Nidri/, both in Lothian, and not, * L. 4, c 2G. He expressly says, that in G81, Theotlorus or- dained Trumwin bishop " ad provinciam Pictorum^ qiwc tunc tcmporis Anglorum end impcrio suhjecta.''* (L. 4, c. 12.) -}• He says that AVilfrid, archbishop of York, administered the bishopric not only of all the Northumbrians, but also of the Picts, as far as king Oswy had been able to extend his domi- nions (L. 4, c. 3) ; and that Oswy (who was king of the Mer- cians) subjected the nation of the Picts, for the greatest part, to the dominion of the Engles, though they afterward recover- ed the land so conquered. (L. 3, c. 24 ; L. 4, c. 26.) t Eddius, Vita S. Wilfridl, c. 37- § Vita S. Cudbercti, c. U. INTRODUCTION. 107 as Smith (followed by Piiikerton) conjectures, ;i people inhabiting the banks of the river Nid, run- ning into Solway-firth ; whither this holy man could never have gone, from Mailros, in a boat. Even Edinhurgh, according to the Polychronicou,, was a city " in Piciorum terra" in the territory of the Picts ; and was so called from Edan, king of the Picts, who reigned there in the time of Egfrid, king of the Northumbrians.* In Lothian also, at * L. 1, p. 199. No such Pictish king is mentioned by any other authority, nor is he one himself. The Cronica Picio- rum (as it seems) calls this city Eden, and says, " lit hujus \^Indulli\ tempore oppidum Eden, vacuatum est ac relictuf?i est Scottis nsqne in Iwdiernum diem.'*'' There is, however, a vil- lage in Lothian, upon the Forth, now called Careden^ which the old capitulist of Gildas, about the twelfth century, who twice mentions it by the name of Kair Ederij calls " civitas antiquissima" and may possibly, though of no consequence at present, be the Eden of the Pictish chronicle. Alexander I. and David I. caU it, in their charters, Edeneshurg, and Ed- •wyneslurg^ castrum puellarum, i. e. Maiden castle, (impro- perly so translated by some ignorant person, being, in fact, from the old British words, 97iai dnn^ a great hill) ; Simeon of Durham, and the chronicle of Lanercost, EdxvinesburcJi, and Edwyneslurgh^ " a conditore suu monarcho Edwyno,^^ according to the latter, meaning, it is probable, Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, whose dominions extended to the Forth, and who was slain at Heathfield, in 633. IMr Piiikerton pre- tends that the Castrum Puellarum^ mentioned by John of Wallingford as at the northern extremity of Northumbrian (a 108 INTRODUCTION. a short distance from Edinburgh, you have the Pentland (i. c. Pehllandj or Pictland) hills, and the village of Petitland in tlicir neighbourhood. The firtli of Forth, likewise, was anciently called " mare name which the Scotish writers uniformly apply to Edinburgh,) " is a mere translation of the name of Dumfries. Dun-Fret ; Dun^ Castellum, urbs ; Frw, Frc^ virgo nobilis, Icelandic. This," he adds, " was the name given by the I'iks, while the Cumri of Cumbria called the same place Aberiiith, as it stands at the mouth of the Nith." (II. 208.) There is not, however, nor ever was, a place called. Abe rnith in that district, nor does any ancient writer say so ; the only Abernith^ or Abcr- ncthy^ in Scotland, being in Strathern, upon the eastern coast. Edinburgh or (Edcnhirgh^ by the way, is also a town in Hun- gary. (See Townsons Travels^ p. 37.> Its etymology, he says, when written with the diphthong, is from the German language, and signifies, " the solitary waste, or desert town, which name was given it many centuries ago, after it had been destroyed by the army of some foreign prince." Randal Hig- den, in another place, positively asserts that the kingom of the Bernicians extended from the river Tyne to the Scotish sea ; and that sometime the Picts there inhabited, as appears, he says, from Bede, B. III. c 2 (L. 1, p. 20.3) ; and supposes the place of residence which Carausius gave to the Picts, in re- ward for their treachery in the death of Bassianus, (a story he found in Geoffrey of Monmouth,) and where, mixed with Bri- tons, they remained for the subsequent age, was part of south- ern Albany ; to wit, from the wall of Roman workmanship, stretched across as far as the Scotish sea, in which is contained Galxvodia ct Lodoncia^ i.e. Galloway and Lothian. (Puhjchro. L. 1, p. 200.) INTKODUCTION. 109 Piclicum ;" * not so much, perliaps, as dividing the territory of the Picts from, the kingdom of Northumberland, but as dividing one part of the Pictish territory from another ; since we are ex- pressly told that the southern part of Albany, or Scotland, which is from the riv^er Tweed, as far as the Scotish sea (J. e. the firth of Forth), was for- merly inhabited by Picts, but nevertheless for some time belonged to the kingdom of the Northumbrian Bernicians, from the first times of the English kings, till the king of Scots, Kenneth MacAlpiu, destroyed the Picts, and annexed that part to the kingdom of Scotland.f William of Malmesbury accounts for the failure of the bishopric of Ca7i- dida casa, or Whit-hern, in Galloway, by obser- ving, that it was " in extrema Anglorum ora, et Scotorum vel Pictorum depopulation i opportu- na."|. This place, we learn from Bede, belonged, in his time, to the province of the Bernicians ;§ • Llwyd, p. 62. -|- Polychronicon^ L. 1, p. 194. He repeats it as above, li. 1, p. 209. See also J. de Wallingford, p. 544 ; and Usher, p. 212, 213. + L. 3. § L. 3, c. 4. It further appears, from this ancient writer, that Incuningum^ now Cuningham^ was ' ' in regiorie Nordan- huvibrorum''' (L. 5, c. 13) ; and, from the short continuation at the end of his great work, that in 7^0 Eadbert added to his kingdom " campum Cyil [now Kyle\ cum aliis regionibus.'* 110 INTRODUCTION. .ind Higdcn expressly describes it as ifi terra Pic- tornin, and says, tliat both Galloway and Lothian (^Galwodia ct Lodofria) were anciently given up to the Picts ; but tliat the former was terra Picforum, or the country of the Picts, even so late as the mid- dle of the twelftli century, we have the still more respectable authority of John and Richard, priors of Hexham.* The division of the northern and southern Picts involves, nevertheless, a considera- ble degree of obscurity and confusion. f In the first • Even mr Pinkerton allows, that " the Piks of Galloway were themselves sometimes tributary to the Northumbrian monarchs, whose dominions extended all along their southern frontier. William of Malmesbury," he says, " and Roger of Chester, testify, that, upon the decay of the Northumbrian kingdom, about the year 820, Whitherne and these southern parts were taken from the Angli by the Piks." (Enquiry, I. 336.) He likewise admits, that " the Piks seem to have re- tained present ^ir«/iire" (I. 72), then a part of Galloway ; and asserts, tliat " in Scotish Lothian, from Tweed to Forth was the prime residence of the southern Piks ; whence that country is termed Pictorum provincia by Bede." (II. 230.) He uses the phrase Scotish Lothian, to distinguish it from an English Lothian of his own creation, pretending, without the merest shadow of truth or authority, that " there is ground to infer that the whole country, from the Tine and Newcastle, up to the Forth, was anciently called Loihcncy (II. 210.) -f- Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of the Picts, about the year 307, as divided into two nations, the Bicalcdoncs and Vcciiirioncs ; whicli, for no very clear or satisfactory reason, arc supposed to mean the northern anil southern Picts. (See B. 27, c. 7.) INTRODUCTION. Ill place^ it is by no means certain that these two na- tions were governed by their respective kings. The ancient listj extant in the Cronica Pictonnn, pub- lished by Innes, evidently refers to the succession of the northern Picts, who, with their king Brude, were converted to Christianity, by saint Columbcil, in 565. By that chronicle, however, we find that Ahernethy, in Strathern, a considerable distance on this side of the Mouiilh, or Grampian hills, the grand territorial division of this people, was the capital or residence of these very kings of the northern Picts, by one of whom it was given to saint Bridget.* Constantin, the son of Fergus, founded Dunkeld ;\ Hungus, the son of Fergus, Kilrymont, (afterwards St Andrews ;):{: Brude, the church of Loch-Levcn ; § and Drust, the son of Ferat, was killed at Forteviot, or Scone j\\ another royal Pictish seat. IT All these persons were kings * See Innes, p. 778, 770, and 800, and p. 77- " Aberne- thy is south of the Grampian hills ; and of course among those Piks who were converted by St Ninian " [i. c. the southern Picts]. (Pinkertons Enquiry^ I. 257.) t Innes, p. 800, 801. + lOu § Sib. History of Fife. || Innes, p. 800, 801. 5[ Idem, p. 77* " Kenneth," according to Pinkerton, " died in his palace of Forthidr-iabacht, {Ch. Pict.) Fortheviot, {Ch. Eleg.) now Forteviot, near the river Ern, south of Perth, the chief residence of the Pikish kings, after their recovery of Lo- 112 INTRODUCTION. of the iiortlierii Picts, and all these places are on this side of the Grampian hills, or, in other words, in the territory allotted to the southern Picts. The Ulster annals (^A. 833) call Aojigus Mac Fergus (whom the Cronica Piclonnn calls Unmtst Jilius jyrirnisi), (A. 8 J 9) Constantin Mac Fergus (^Con- stanlin Jilius JVrguist), (A. 762) Bruide, {Bredei filius Uiurgust), and {A. 692) Bruide Mac Bile ( Bridei filius Bill), kings of Fortren ; a name which seems to comprehend the whole of Fife, and part of Strathern, including Abernelhy and Forteviot.* The only Pictish monarch mentioned in those an- nals, who does not appear in that chronicle, is (^A. 781) Duvtalargy " rex Pictorum citra Monah," i. e. king of the southern Picts, or those on this side of the Mounth. For this obscurity and confu- sion, it seems absolutely impossible to account.f thian in G84. Before that time, as appears from Adomnan, they resided near Inverness." {Enquiry^ II. 177') It is well known, however, that, between the times of Brude and Ken- neth, they had tlieir royal seat at Ahernethy. * These annals, at the year 735, have *' Bellum Twini Ouirbre inter Dalriada et Fortrin ;" that is, between the Scots and the Picts. See more on this subject in the Aimalcs Pic- tunnn, imder that year. •\ It is probable that the Picts had occasionally made unsuc- cessful inroads into Cumberland, if they never settled tliere ; as, according to Camden, at iMoresby, near AVhiteliaven, in 4 INTRODUCTION. 113 § 4. The government of this people was certainly monarchical ; generally, in a single person ; but, occasionally, in two together, as will appear by the ancient list of their kings, compiled, apparently, in the tenth century, and preserved in a manuscript of that county, are several caverns called Plcts-lioles ; peradven- ture from having been either the burial or the lurking-places of this people. There were also Picts settled in Ireland, who had probably never been in Britain. The Irish writers call them Cruithne. The Ulster Annals, in Latin a^d English, always term the British Picts, Picti, Pictones, or Pights^ to distinguish them from the Irish, Cruithne^ Crutheni, Cruthinei, or Cruthens. In the Irish original, the name of Cruithne is common to both. (See, as to these Irish Picts, V^oxs Antiquitates^ p. 302 ; Pa- tricii Ojpuscula, by Ware, p. 27, 113; O'Flahertys Ogygia^ p. 188 ; and the printed extracts from the Ulster annals. The Welsh appear to have given them the name of Y Gtvydhil Phichtiaid. (Sir John Prises's Description of Wales^ prefixed to *' The Historie of Cambria,''^ 1584.) They are here stated to have over.run the sea-shore of Caerdigan about the year 540 ; and, in the life of saint Teliau, a certain prince of that nefa- rious people had, killing the miserable inhabitants, and burn- ing houses, and the temples of the church, proceeded from where they landed to the city of Menevia (now Saint Davids), and there settled and erected his palace. In order to pervert the saints, David and Eliad, from their holy purposes, he sent to them certain women, who, pretending to be mad, actually became so ; whereupon he and his whole house received the faith, and were by them baptized in the name of Christ. (Vita S. Teliavi, Anglia sacra^ II. 662.) VOL. I. I 114 INTRODUCTION. the twelfth or thirteenth. If \re may rely upon the tradition delivered by venerable Bede, the Picts, on their original settlement in the north of Britain, received wives from the Scots of Ireland, on condi- tion " that where the matter Qi« e. the descent of the crown^l should come in doubt, they should choose for themselves a king rather of the feminine side, than of the masculine : which," he adds, " un- til this day appears to be preserved among the Picts."* That there is some countenance for this tradition will appear from the succession of the Pictish monarchs, in which we frequently find brother succeeding to brother, but never son, im- mediately, to father ; nor even, except in a couple of comparatively modem instances, when the old con- stitution would seem to have received a shock, after an intermediate reign. § 5. It is certain that the most ancient name of Britain was AlbioHj not, as is generally, but absurd- ly, supposed, from its fckite cliffsj the name not being imposed by the Romans, in whose language alone aJbiu signifies rrhiie ; but rather from its high rocky coast, or interior mountains.^ Adom- •L.1, c2. i* See BachanaiL, Rerum Scoticarum Histcria, L. I. Hit£. titum^ pw 202. Ncpcuie had two Mns, AMona and Bergion^ "^Amm Hcralei tao^ agaoMt in Ganl ; and, his darts being IXTfiODUCTION. 115 nan, in the life of saint Columba, calls tbe range of hills, in present Scotland, which divided from each other, by different branches, as well the Scots and the Picts, as the Picts themselves. Dorsum Bri- tatDiicE, a translation, it would seem, of the indige- nous appellation Bruin- Alban, or Drum-Alban , * whence it may be inferred that either the whole island, or, at least, the northern part of it, bore the name of Alban, or Albany, an appellation of identi- cal import with the ancient Albion in the sixth century. Certain it is that the ancient Caledonia, or modem Scotland, had obtained the name of Al- bania, or Albany, before the year 1070 ;t a name it preserved till after the twelfth ; when it was super- seded by that of Scotia, or, as it were, Xerr, or exhausted, he vas as^^'^t*^ with a shower of stooes. (Pom. Mela. L. 2, c 5.) • " Ad montOD BnnaHa&au.''* See the old treatise Ik situ Albania, in Innes's Appendix, Num. I., where it is a second time caUed Bruualbam^ and the author, in a third instance, as- sumes it for the name of Dalriada ; *• Brunalban sive Bruu- herc."' Druim, however, and not Brun or Bruiru. is Irish for back. See O'Briens Dictionary. -f See Usher. Vcierum epitiolarum H'lhcrnicarum syUogc^ in the preface- It is even called Albania by Roger Hoveden, under the year 1166 ; as well as by Gervase of Tilbury, about the same age : '• Ab aquilone est Albania quae nunc Sojtim didtur." iOii INTRODUCTION. Little Ireland.''^ The parts inhabited by tlie Picts, which Adomnan and Bede call the provincial or terra, Pictorum, were also denominated Pictinia, t or Pictavia,'^. as those possessed by the Scots were called Dalnada : the name of Scotia, or Scotland, being never given to the north of Britain till about the beginning of the eleventh century, to which period it was peculiarly appropriated to Ireland, the mother-country of the Scots : || a fact of the utmost notoriety and authenticity, and only to be controverted by ignorance or folly. Alba?iia, at the same time, though synonymous with Scotia, after, that is, the eleventh century, seems to have' been, occasionally at least, distinguished from Ar- • See Pinkertons Enquiry^ II. 235, and the authorities there quoted. It is remarkable that neither Gildas, nor Bede, nor Nennius, appears to have known any thing of the name of Albion^ or Albania ; though the last mentions the " Albanorum reges" of Italy, " qui [a Silvio, jEneee filio] Silvii sunt appel- lati." Scotland, however, is always called Albania^ by Geof- frey of Monmouth, from Albanact, a younger son of Brutus ; a fable which is adopted by the old treatise De situ Albanioe. Othere, in the account of his voyage to king Alfred, calls the country of the British Scots Iraland. ■\ See Usher, Antiquitates, p. 360 ; Innes, p. 772. 4: In the Cronica Pictorum. Saxo-Grammaticus calls it Petia i '' Scotice ac Petite ,•" i. e. Ireland and Pictland. (L. 9, p. 171.) He is speaking of Regner Lodbrog, about 830. II See Usher, p. 379, &c. INTRODUCTION. IH gyle, the original seat of the British Scots : since the author of the old treatise De situ Albanice, speaks of the " Montes qui dividunt Scotiam ac Arregaithel ;" and, in the Scotichronicon* we have " Ergadiam adjacentem ipsi Albanice :" but whe- ther the name of Albanack, or Albanich, were pecu- liar to the Scots or the Picts, or common to both, is a question very difficult to decide. At the battle of Cowton-nioor, in 1138, the Scotish army, in which there was a considerable body of Galwegian Picts, exclaimed all together their national slug- horn, or war-cry {insigne patrium), Albani! Al- bani ! the clamour, according to the old historian, ascending to the heavens. f From the retort, how- * L. 11, c. 49. •j- H. Huntingdon, L. 8, p. 388. " Gentes Scitiae," says the old Pictish chronicle, " albo crine nascuntur ab assiduis nivi- bus ; et ipsius capilli color genti nomen dedit, et inde dicuntur Albani : de quibus originem duxerunt Scotti et Picti.''^ Mr Pinkerton, hov/ever, in spite of all evidence and authority, maintains that " there is no ground whatever to infer that the name of Albani was ever, in ancient times, assumed by the Dalreudini^ or present Celtic highlanders." (Enquiry^ II. 233.) Richard of Cirencester, it is remarkable, among the Caledonian nations of Roman Britain, enumerates the " Dam^ nit Albani : gentes," he adds, " parura notae, et intra lacuum raontium que claustra plane recondita." This people he places below the Vacomagi and the Tay : between the Lelamonivs sinus, that is (as appears by his map), or Loch/ine, and the Longus Jluvins^ox Lochaber : now Lorn. These Albaui, no 118 INTRODUCTION. ever, made by tlie English, after the battle, of Yrif Yrif Standard!* it would seem that the lat- ter name {I?-ish), applied by strangers, was a term of reproach, as Albani, assumed by themselves, was of Iionour. The word Albanach, also in O'Briens Irish Dictionary, is rendered "Scottish, also a Scot" as Alba?i, Albain, is " the name of Scotland." The Scotish highlanders, moreover, to this day, distin- guish both themselves, and their native dialect, from the original Irish {Erinach), by the names of Gael and Gaidhlig Albannaich.\ What particular name was given by the Picts, either to the whole doubt, like all others, took their name from their situation. The Albani of Latium, who became citizens of Rome, were so called from the Albanus mons near that city. Others, by way of distinction, were called Alhenscs ; and there were both Al- hienses and Albiaci in Gaul. Strabo, who mentions the two latter, has given a description of the Albani of Moimt Cauca- sus, and of their country Albania. (L. 11, p. 499, &c.) Sui- das, likewise, gives Albani as the name of a nation of the Gauls, (p. 100,) and there is another Albania, Upper and Lower, the latter being the ancient Epirus, and the former part of Mace- donia. See also the Hnetiana, already referred to. Torfaeus, according to Pinkerton, mentions Mor Alban, in Scandinavia. " In Germany," he adds, " any high hills are called Alhen ,•" and cites Eccards Origines Gertnanicce to the same effect. {Ejiquiry, II. 233.) • Lambards Dictionai-y, p. 16. •f" They are, likewise, so distinguished by the Irish. See the title of the Irish Bible, where Goidheilg is used for Irish, and Gabidhrail Albanach, for Erse. INTRODUCTION. 119 island of Britain, or to that part of it which tliey themselves inhabited, is quite uncertain. It must have been the Saxons, and not the Picts, who called the latter Peohtland or Pehtland, i. e. Pictland.* § 6. Of the primitive religion of the Picts, few particulars are preserved. We only know, from the information of Adomnan, that they worshipped, ve- rrerated, or paid divine honours to a certain foun- tain, which those who drank of, or intentionally washed their hands or feet in, were, by gods per- mission, so stricken by the art of demons, that they returned either leprous, or blind of an eye, or maimed, or infested with some other infirmities ;f and that they had not only magi, or priests, who could raise contrary winds, and dark mists,;}: and thought their own gods more powerful than that of the Christian missionaries, § but also wizards, or sorcerers, who could milk a bull.|| Of their mar- riage ceremonies we are uninformed ; but that they buried, and did not burn their dead, appears from the same respectable authority. IT " " When the Saxons seized Lothian, they called it Pikland, the Piks retaining their possessions under the Saxons." (E«- qniryi, I. 144.) t L. 2, c. 10. + L. 2, c. 35. § L. 2, c. 33. II L. 2, c. 16. % L. 2, c. 28. 120 INTRODUCTION. In their domestic economy they retained Scotish slaves,* and used drink ing-glasses ;t and in war they made use of darts, or javelins, and lances ; J and their kings, or commanders, occasionally rode in chariots. 1 1 As to their dress, they rather, ac- cording to Gildas, covered " their villainous coun- tenances with hair, than the shameful parts of their bodies, and those next to the shameful parts with clothes."^ This, however, must be participated with the Irish allies, who are always " shag-haired vil- lains." § 7. The language of the Picts is expressly dis- tinguished by Bede, as one of the five spoken in Britain at the time he was writing. '' Haec in prae- senti," says he, " juxta numerum librorum quibus lex divina scriptaest, quinque gentium Unguis, unam eamdemque summae veritatis et verse sublimitatis scientiam scrutator et confitetur, Anglorumt vide- licet, Brittonunij Scottorum, Pictorum, et Latino- rum"^ It was, therefore, different from that of the Anglo-Saxons or English, the Britons or Welsh, and the Scots or Irish. At the same time, that it was a Celtic idiom, and had some degree of affinity, of course, with the Welsh or British, and perhaps, • Adorn. L. 2, c. 34. -j- Idem, ihi. X H. Hunting. Gildas relates that they drew the helpless Britons from the wall by hooked darts (" ttncinata fela**). II Adorn. L. 1, c. 7. § C. ITi. ^ L. 1, c. II. INTRODUCTION. 121 also, though more remotely, with the Irish or Scot- ish, is manifest from another passage of the above venerable historian. The Roman wall, he says, (meaning that of Antoninus,) began at almost two miles distance from the monastery of jEbe7'curnig, now Abercorn, on the west, at a place which, in the Pictish language {sermone Pictonim), was called Peanfahel, but, in the English or Saxon language, Penellmu* Now this identical place Nennius, a Briton, calls Pengaaul, (the wall, which he erro- neously confounds with that of Severus, being, he says, in the British tongue called Gual,) which town was called in Scotish Cenail, but in English Peneltun.f It is, therefore, evident that the word • L. 1 , c. 12. •f C. 19. It may be inferred, from what is here said, that the Picts pronounced the gu or tv of the Britons as/, i. e.fahel for gaaul, or wall : a pronunciation which, it is observable, charac- terises to this day the native inhabitants of Angus, Buchan, Murray, and other shires on the eastern coast, beyond the firth of Forth, all which, it is well known, were anciently inhabited by Picts. " One monument I met with, within four miles of Edin- burgh [near Queensferry], different from all I had seen else- where, and never observed by their antiquaries. I take it to be the tomb of some Pictish king, though situate by a river side, remote enough from any church. It is an area of about seven yards diameter, raised a little above the rest of the ground, and encompassed with large stones, all which stones are laid lengthwise, excepting one larger than ordinary, which 1122 INTRODUCTION. Peafi in Pictish, as Pen in British, and Cea?i in Scotish or Irisli, signified headj SLudJahel in the first of those languages, as gaaul in the second, (botli, indeed, borrowing corruptly from the Latin vallum,) a wall: meaning, like Cefiail, the head of the wall :* and, consequently, that there was is pitched on end, and contains this inscription, in the barba- rous characters of the fourth and fifth centuries, In oc tumulo jacit Vetta /. Victi. This the common people call the Cat- steiie^ whence I suspect the person's name was Getus, of which name I find three Pictish kings." [The stone was still stand- ing in September 1801.] Lhwyds Letter to Rowland^ {Mona antiqua, p. 313.) The conversion of P into V was undoubtedly common : but there never was a Pictish king named Getus ; though Gede or Ghede has crept into the old lists of St Andrews, Fordun, and Wyntown. There is one, however, called Vist, but both these were in fabulous times ; and, after all, there is no necessity to suppose this Vetta a king, at least a principal king, though he may possibly have been a Pict of some rank or consequence. An inscription, mentioned by Camden, to be found at Rome among the antiquities of Saint Peters church, reads, '• Aste- rius comes Pictorum, et Syra, cum suis, votis solvere." P. 85 ; Usher, 376. So that, it would appear, there were titles of no- bility among the Picts : if, that is, we are not imposed upon. • It is the village of Kinnel^ or Kinneil^ in West Lothian. Baxter says, that in Welsh, Pen-ij-tvall is the head of the wall ; but this, as Mr Pinkerton remarks, is not Peanvahel It is, however, very like it. " The Pikish word," he pretends, " is broad Gothic, paena^ ' to extend,' Ihre ; and vahel^ a broad sound of veal, the Gothic for ' wall.' " (I. 358.) •' To such heights will ignorance arise !" (U 200.) INTRODUCTION. 123 some analogy between the Britisli language and that of the Picts, each being a branch from the Cel- tic stem, unless, indeed, it may be contended that the Picts, like the Saxons, had merely adopted the British name of the place in question, without trou- bling themselves to express its meaning in their proper tongue. The fact in question may be fur- ther elucidated and confirmed by another circum- stance. All names of places, according to the reve- rend Thomas Fleming, beginning with Bal, Col or Cul, Dalj Drum, Dun, Inch or Innes, Auchter, Kil, Kin, Glen, Mo7i, and Strath, are of Gaelic [z. e, Irish] origin. Those beginning with ^6er and PzV, are supposed to be Pictish names, and do not occur beyond the territory which the Picts are thought to have inhabited.* Upon this principle is sup- ported the position that the Pictish language must * Statistical Account of Scotland (parish of Kircaldy), XVIII. 1. See also Innes's Critical essay, p. 76, where the word Strati or Strath, is taken into the account of the Picts. It does not, however, occur in Lhuyds Comparative vocabu- lary, nor in its present sense in the Irish dictionary, unless it be the same with Sraith, a bottom or valley. Stradbally, also, is the name of several places in Ireland. Mr Warton, from some " judicious antiquaries," whom he does not name, says, " The names of places and persons, over all that part of Scotland which the Picts inhabited, are of Scandinavian ex- traction." {History of English jwetry, I. Dissertation 1.) A gross falsehood, if there be truth in history. 124 INTRODUCTION. have been a dialect of, or borne some resemblance to, the Welsh or British, in M'hich the prefix Ahcr, in the name of a place, is common. It must at the same time be remembered, that the north of Bri- tain was inhabited by the Caledonians, or native Britons, before the Picts arrived there ; if, indeed, this will account for there being Pits and Abers nowhere else.* That the Pictish language, how- ever, was not intelligible to the Scots, nor the Scot- tish to the Picts, we know from the circumstance of saint Columba, when in the country of the Picts, being under the necessity of employing an inter- preter.t That they spoke Gothic is, if not a pal- pable falsehood, asserted without the slightest sha- dow of authority, and merely for the support of a groundless and self-contradictory system.^ Little further light can be thrown upon this subject by the proper names of the Picts, most of which are unknown to occur in the language of any other people : as, for instance, Alpin* Aleth* Artbra- najijW Bill* Bred,* Broicha?i,\\ Brude*\\ Ccesta- ti7i* Cealtraim* Cetielath,^ Conal* Derili* Da- drest,* Domelech,* Drest or Drust,^ Duiialarg,§ • Cro. Pictoriim. t Adorn, li. 1, c. 33. L. 2, c 33. X Mt Pinkerton supposes " Pikish" a branch of " the an- cient Scandinavian dialect of the Gothic" (I. .352) ; and speaks of" the Loivhiiid Scotish, or 7nodern Pikish.'" (I. 35«.) II Adoni. § An. Ul. INTRODUCTION. 125 Drosta7i,§ E?nchat,\\ Enfret* Erp* Enti/idick,* FoisigirnjW Galam* Galanan Etilich,* Gartnach* Garnard* Gyrom* Himgits* Iogenan,\\ KeU' neth,^ Litgiicen Calath,f Meilchon* Muircholaich* Munait, Neckfany^f TalorCy^ Talorgan, Tarain^ or Taran* Udrest* Uthoil,* Vige?i,f Virolic,f Wid* Wirdech* Wirgiist,* Wrad or Wroid.*X ■j- Nectan^ a holy man, appears from Camden to be men- tioned by William of Malmesbury. Natan leod was a king of Southern Britons about 508. See Chro. Sax. X The following names occur in an extract from the register of Saint Andrews {Enquiry^ I. 458) : Howonam^ Nechtan^ Phiugtdneghert, the three sons of king Hungus ; Finchein^ his queen ; and Mouren^ his daughter. Those of the Irish Picts, as preserved in the Annals of Ulster, are AiUila, Sedan, Becce, Ccet?iasao, Caniscuarhirii Cin, Duncan^ Dungarte, Fia- chracJi, Flahrua, Finrin, Lorenin, Maoilcduju, Maolcaich, or Alaoleasich, and SkanlaicJi, or Scannal, to which Adomnan enables us to add Echniuslaid. The charter of Hungus, printed by Sir Robert Sibbald, in The History of Fife, though of very suspicious authority, affords the following names: Anegus, Bargah^ Bargoth, Bolge, Ghana, Chalturan, Chinganena, Demene, Dosnach, Drusti, Dudahrath, Forchcle, Garjiach, Gigherty, Glunmerach, Lucheren, Nachtalech, Nacian, Phe- radath, Pheraih, Phiachan, Phinleich, Shinah, Taran, Tha- larg, Withrossi, Ythernluthih ; all of whom are said to have been of the blood royal. However this may be, Phinleich was certainly an Irish name, being that of Macbeths father, as well as saint Brendanes. Phcradath and Pherath, Bargah and Bar- goth, seem the same names. l'^6 INTRODUCTION. The only Pictisli word, beside yjea;* and J}ihel, al- ready spoken of, not being the proper name of man or place, still preserved, is Geone, the name, it would seem, of a particular military cohort among the Picts.* Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, who wrote the first seven books of his history l)efore 1 1 S^, having, after Bede, enumerated the five lan- guages formerly used in Britain, adds, " although the Picts seemed then destroyed, and their language so utterly perished, that what mention was found of them in the writings of the ancients then seemed a fable." He considers the extinction of the language of the Picts as even more wonderful than that of their kings, princes, and people : " Et, si de aliis mirum non esset, de lingua tamen, quam unam in- ter cseteras deus ab exordio linguarum instituit, mirandum videtur." It is, therefore, clear that no vestiges of the Pictisli language remained in the age of this writer, nor, excepting the few proper names already noticed, are any such to be now found. § 8. That the Picts had some knowledge of let- ters, after, at least, their conversion to Christianity, may be inferred from the message of their king Nechtan to Ceolfrid, abbot of Wearmouth, whose • " Artbrananus, decrepitus senes, primarius Geone cohor- tis." (Adorn. L. 1, c. 33.) INTRODUCTION. 127 prolix Latin letter the king had translated into his own language, having, in fact, been led to this application by the frequent perusal and meditation of ecclesiastical writings, and being already in no small degree master of the subject. The old trea- tise, also, De situ Albanioe (an extract, it is proba- ble, from the Topograpkia Britannice of Girald Barry), says, " Legimus in historiis et in chronicis antiquorum Britonum, et in gestis et annalibus antiquis Scottorum et Pictorum ;" which may be thought to prove, as father Innes remarks, that there were annals of the Picts, which were deemed ancient even in the twelfth century, though not, perhaps, composed either by Picts themselves, or in the vernacular idiom of that people : but, from the subject referred to, that the country then cor- ruptly called Scotland, was anciently called Albany, from Albaiiact, the younger son of Brutus, the first king of the Britons, it is evident that these historice et chronica antiquorum Britannorum, were nothing more than the romance of Geoffrey of Monmouth, little older than Giralds own time, and from which the gesta et annales antiqui of the Scots and Picts must necessarily have been extracted or compiled. The original register of Saint Andrews, which quoted Pictish books, " Sicut in veteribus Picto- 128 INTRODUCTION. rum libris scripta rcpcrimus,"* would, probiibly, if recoverable, throw some further light upon the sub- ject, as might, likewise, the " Chronica ccclesice de Abirnefhi/y" quoted in the Scotichrofiicotiyf if still cxtant.J § 9. That the Picts were, for the most part, actually destroyed and exterminated by Kenneth MacAlpin, is, if not absolutely certain, at least high- ly probable ; or, rather, in fact, not at all probable, but certainly or substantially true ; if, that is, we may rely on positive authorities, and circumstan- tial evidence. We indeed find Picts in the Scot- ish army at the battle of Brunanburgh in 938, and the inhabitants of Galloway so called, about the middle of the twelfth century ; but these could only be a very small portion of such a populous and • Sibbalds History of Fife, p. 68. t L. 4, c. 12. X In the library of the duke of Norfolk (now belonging to the Royal Society), according to the Oxford catalogue, torn. 2, part 1, num. 3222, is a MS. entitled " Historia de terra Pic- tica, in lingua Pictica exarata ;" but it turns out to be " only a Latin treatise (written in Irish characters) of logic, ethics, and physics, in the old Aristotelian way ;" though the false title appears to have induced the noble purchaser to give five pounds for what was not, in reality, worth five far- things. (See Nicolsons Scottish historical library, edition of 1736, p. 22.) INTRODUCTION. 129 powerful nation ; and what;, then, had become of the rest ? Never, after the accession of Kenneth, do we meet, in history or charter, with a single Pictish name. The Nectans, Brudes, Bills, &c. (names, no doubt, common to the people as well as to the sovereign) seem to have entirely disappeared, as if the whole race were at once extinct.* The most favourable construction that can be put upon the conduct of Kenneth, is, that, instead of actual- ly destroying the Picts, to secure peaceable posses- sion of his new throne, or to revenge his fathers death, he merely compelled them to change their names, language, and peculiar manners, so that they could be no longer distinguished from his Scotish subjects. All history, however, such as it is, agrees in the deletion and extermination of the Picts. The Cronica Pictorum, which appears to have been writ- ten in the tenth century, though exceedingly con- cise, and apparently imperfect, having said that * Mr Pinkerton asserts that " Old Pikish names are found in Scotland at a late aera:" adding that " Fordun mentions a Cruthe or Crtdhen, de Angus ;" and that " Gartnach ccnnes, or earl Garnat, is witness to a charter of Alex. I." (Enquiry^ I. 286.) These two instances, however, admitting them to be Pictish, only serve, by way of exception, to prove the general principle. The name of Naughton^ as doctor Leyden ob, served, was the same with that of Necian^ the Pictish king, VOL, I, K 1^50 INTRODUCTION. Pictavia was so named from tlie Picts, adds, " quos, lit diximus, Kinadius delevit :" but the passage re- ferred to does not, at present, occur. '' Deus en- im," it goes on, " pro mento suae malitiae alienos ac otiosos hffi reditare dignatus est facere : quia illi non solum deum, missam, ac preceptum spreverunt, sed et in jure sequitatis aliis aequi pariter nolue- runt."* The old list of Scotish and Pictish kings, extracted from the register of St Andrews,f says, that Kenneth "l6 annis super Scotos regnavit, des- tructis Pictis ;" he reigned sixteen years over the Scots, after the Picts were [[by him^ destroyed. " Hie mira calliditate," it adds, " duxit Scotos de Argadia in terram Pictorum." Girald Barry, bishop of saint Davids, an author of the twelfth century, has a singular anecdote, not improbably of his own invention, of all the " magnates Pictorum," or chiefs of the Picts, being slain, by stratagem, at a feast to which they had been invited by the Scots.J The strongest, however, and most decisive testimo- ny, in favour of this general extermination, is that * Seelnnes's Critical Essay ^ Appendix, Num. II. p. 782. Instead of cequi pariter noluerunt^ he proposes cpquiparari voltierunt. t Ihi. Num. V. X De instructione principis, Julius B. XIII. fo. 97) b. Po- tychromcon^ L. 1, p. 210. INTRODUCTION. 131 of Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote the first seven books of his history about the year 11 37, before the Scotish invasion, and the battles of Clithero and Cowton-moor, had given his countrymen reason to know that the Picts still existed in Galloway. Ha- ving mentioned, after Bede, that five languages were used in Britain, of the Britons, that is, Eng- lish, Scots, Picts, and Latins, he adds, " quamvis Picti jam videantur deleti, et lingua eorum ita om- nino destructa, ut jam fabula videatur, quod in ve- terum scriptis eorum mentio invenitur, cui autem," he continues, " non comparet amorem coelestium et horrorem terrestrium, si cogitet non solum reges eorum, et principes, et populum deperiisse ; verum- etiam stirpem omnem, et linguam, et mentionem simul defecisse .''" * * L. 1, p. 299. Mr Pinkerton says, of this respectable ec- clesiastic, that " he was the first English writer who adopted the fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth [whose history, however, he never saw till after the publication of the first part of his own, in which it is never once mentioned, nor anything ta- ken from it] ; and his judgment is equally apparent in being the first writer, whom 1 can discover to have mentioned the destruction of the Piks by some pretended Scots [that, again, is not true, as the Cronica Pictorum preceded him by a cou- ple of centuries] : for the fact is, there was no people in Bri- tain, known by the name of Scots, from about 740, when the kingdom of the old Scots in Britain fell, till about 1020 ; when the name of Scots was improperly given to the Piks." 132 INTRODUCTION. That Alpin, the father of Kenneth, and, conse- quently, Kenneth himself, had some title, or preten- sion, to the Pictish crown, seems highly probable. There is, in fact, strong reason to suspect that the mother of Alpin was a Pictish princess, and, it may be, the only daughter of Alpin the son of Wroid, king of the Picts, who died in 779^ and after whom her son had received his name, as Kenneth seems to have done that of his immediate predecessor. In support of this idea, it is observable that no Alpin occurs among the Scotish or Irish kings, previous to the accession of Alpin MacEochy in 837,* but that, in the Pictish list, we have certainly one, if not two, of that name. (^Enquiry, II. 153.) The falsehood of this assertion is demon- strable from Alcuin, Ingulph, Ethel werd, the Saxon chronicle, &c. &C. • Jocelin, Viia Patricii^ mentions an " Aljpinus filius jEoU, de stirpe Donaldi Duihdainagh,^^ as king of Atheliat7i, or Dublin, whose son Eochadh, or Eocchiad, and daughter Duhlinia, were raised from the dead by saint Patrick. (Usher, 448.) But no such name occurs in Ware, O'Flaherty, or even Keating. ANNALS OF THE PICTS. ANNALES PICTORUM. CCLXX. Cum [Brittones] plurimam iusulae [Brittanise] partem, incipientes ab austro, posse- dissent, contigit gentem Pictorumde Scythia,utper- hibent, longis navibus non multis oceanum ingres- sam, circumagente flatu vent ovum, extra fines omnes BrittaniseHiberniam pervenisse,ejusque septentrio- nales oras intrasse, atque inventa ibi gente Scotto- rum,* sibi quoque in partibus illius sedes petisse, nee impetrare potuisse. . . . Respondebant Scotti, quia non ambos eos caperet insula : Sed possumus, • The Scotti are mentioned by no writer before Ammianus iMarcellinus, in the fourth century ; and do not appear to have been settled in Ireland at a much earlier period. (See Innes*s Critical Essay, 513, ^c. 535, ^c.) Either, therefore, Bede, who professedly writes from hearsay, has confounded the Scotti of his own time with the Hiberni, or more ancient inhabitants, or this expedition of the Picts could not have taken place till a much later period. The chronology of this venerable histo- rian is, in fact, peculiarly obscure and confused, as he evident- ly means to place both Picts and Scots in Britain before the arrival of the Romans. 136 ANNALS OF inquiunt, salubre vobis dare consilium quid agere valeatis. Novimus insulam aliam esse non procul a nostra, contra ortum soils, quam saepe lucidioribus diebus de longe aspicere solemus. Hanc adire si v'ultis, babitabilem vobis facere valetis : vel si qui resisterit, nobis auxiliariis utimini. Itaque, peten- tes Brittaniam, Picti babitare per septentrionales insulae partes coeperunt, nam austrina Brittones occupaverant. Cumque uxores Picti non habentcs, peterent a Scottis, ea solum conditione dare consen- serunt, ut ubi res perveniret in dubium, magis de feminea regum prosapia, quam de masculina regeni sibi eligerent : quod usque hodie [anno, scilicet, 731] apud Pictos constat esse servatum.* • Beda, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Atiglorum, L. l,c. 1. He seems to have had no clear idea of the age, and still less of the precise year, when this expedition took place : neither does the Saxon chronicle attempt to supply the deficiency. Richard of Cirencester seems to fix this event to the year 170, [A.M. that is, 4170,] about which time, he says, king Reuda is believed to have arrived, out of the isles, in Britain, with his Picts (B. II. c. 1, § 26) : but as he apparently here confounds the Reuda of Bede, who was the leader, he says, of the old Scots, in a similar, though subsequent expedition, with the Rodric of Geoffrey of Monmouth, this otherwise valuable compiler is, in the present instance, of no authority. Nennius is perfectly extravagant and romantic in his information or conjecture: and, the fact is, no other writer has been more successful. THE PICTS. 137 ANNALS OF THE PICTS. CCLXX. When the Britons, beginning from the south, had possessed the greatest part of the island of Britain, it happened that the nation of the Picts from Scythia, as they report, having entered the ocean, in a few long ships, the wind driving them about, beyond all the confines of Britain, arrived in Ireland, and entered the northern coasts thereof; and, finding there the nation of the Scots, request- ed a settlement in those parts also for themselves, but could not obtain it. . . . The Scots answered, that the island would not hold them both : But we are able, they said, to give you profitable counsel how you ought to act. We know that there is an- other island, not far from ours, opposite the rising sun, which we often, on very clear days, are wont to see at a distance. If you will go thither, you may make yourselves a habitation : or, if any one The date now first adopted seems, for the present, plausible, if not probable ; as the Picts are never once mentioned till between twenty and thirty years after, nor is there tlie least authority, reason, or necessity, for assuming them to have been established in the north of Britain at an earlier period : fancy, indeed, may do wonders, but certainty is impossible. 138 ANNALS OF should resist, use us as auxiliaries. Tlie Picts, therefore, making fur Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts of the island, for the Britons had oc<:upied the southern : and whereas the Picts, not having wives, requested them of the Scots, they consented to give them, on this condition only, that, where the matter should come in doubt, they should choose themselves a king rather of the femi- nine race of kings than of the masculine : which appears to be observed among the Picts unto this day. CCCVI. Post victoriam Pictorum, Constantius pater Eboraci mortuus est, et Constantinus, om- nium militum consensu, Caesar creatus.* CCCVI. After the conquest of the Picts, Con- stantius the father died at York, and Constantine, by the consent of all the soldiers, was created Caesar. • Excerpiaauctoris ignoti, adcal. Am. Mar. Gronovii^ 169.3. This is the first mention made of the Picts by any Roman his- torian. THE PICTS. 1^9 CCCLVIII. Procedente autem tempore, Brit- tania, post Brittones et Pictos, tertiam Scottorum nationem in Pictorum parte recepit, qui duce Reuda de Hibernia progressi, vel amicitia vel ferro, sibi- met inter eos sedes quas hactenus habent vindica- runt : a quo videlicet duce usque hodie Dalreudini rocantur, nam, lingua eorum, daul partem signi- ficat.* CCCLVIII. In process of time, Britain, after the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation of the Scots, in the part of the Picts ; who, under their commander Reuda, having passed over into Ireland, either by friendship or by the sword, ob- tained for themselves those seats which they hither- * Beda, L. 1, c. 1. The word dalhdA the same meaning in his own language ; another of its Irish senses is a tribe or clan^ which is more suitable to the occasion. (See O'Flahertys Ogygia, 322.) The aera of this expedition, of which, it is pro- bable, Bede had no certain information, and no accurate idea, has been fixed by modern Irish writers, and is, consequently, of too dubious and suspected credit, that one should hesitate to reduce it even a century lower. (See Pinkertons Enquiry, II. 61, ^c, and the authorities (such as they are) there quoted.) This little colony is supposed to have been shortly afterward driven back to Ireland by the Picts (which Bede, however, was not aware of) : but it would be no very violent scepticism to doubt the fact of either of these expeditions, which certainly smack somewhat too much of Irish tradition. 140 ANNALS OF to possess; from which commander they arc to this clay called Dalrcudins, for, in their language, daf signifies a part. CCCLX. Consulatu Constantii decies, terquc Julian ij in Britanniis cum Scotorum Pictorumque gentium ferarum excursus, rupta quiete condicta, loca limitibus vicina vastarent, et implicaret formido provincias, prajteritarum cladium congerie fessas, hiemem agens apud Parisios Cajsar . . . verebatur ire subsidio transraarinis, ue rectore vacuas relin- queret Gallias. Ire igitur ad haec ratione vel vi componenda Lupicinium placuit. . . . Moto, ergo, velitari auxilio, ^rulis scilicet et Batavis, nume- risque Ma^siacorum duobus, adulta hieme dux ante dictus Bononiam venit : quaisitisque navigiis, et orani imposito milite, observato flatu secundo ven- torum, ad Rutupias sitas ex adverso defertur, petit- que Lundinium : ut exinde suscepto pro rei quali- tate consilio, festinaret ocius ad procinctum.* CCCLX. In the tenth consulate of Constantius, and the third of Julian, when, in Britain, thc*in- * Ammianus Marccllinus, L. 20, c. 1. THE PICTS. 141 cursions of the Scots and Picts, savage nations, the peace agreed on being broken, wasted the grounds near the boundaries, and terror involved the pro- vinces, wearied with the accumulation of former slaughters; Caesar, passing the winter at Paris, feared to go to the assistance of those beyond sea, lest he should leave Gaul without a ruler. There- fore, to compose these troubles by reason or force, it pleased him to send Lupicinius. . . . Putting in motion, therefore, the light-armed auxiliaries, to wit, the Heruli and Batavians, and two companies of the Maesiaci, the aforesaid commander came to Bononia * pn mid-winter] : and having got ships, and put every soldier on board, taking advantage of a favourable gale, he is conveyed to Rutupiae,-}' si- tuate over against it, and marches to London : that therefrom, having taken counsel according to the nature of the business, he might the sooner hasten to battle. CCCLXIV. Picti, Saxonesque, et Scotti, et Atacotti, Britannos aerumnis vexavere continuis.J • Now Boulogne. f Now Richborough. ij: Amm. Mar. L. 26, c. 4. It would seem, from tliis passage, that the Saxon pirates had occasionally infested the nor^ UJsi ANNALS OF CCCLXIV. The Picts, and the Saxons, the Scots also, and the Attacots, harassed the Britons with continual afflictions. them coasts of Britain, near a century before their arrival in 449. The Romans, at this period, as appears from the Notitia iriu perii, had an officer with the title of " Cornes litoris Scucouici per Britann'mm ,*" and Claudian, in his praises of Stilicho, introduces Britannia saying — " lUius efFectum curis, ne bella timerem Scoiica, ne Piciuni tremerem, ne liitore toto Prospicerem dubiis venturum Saxona ventis." (By him protected, Scotish wars I'd fear not, Nor tremble at the Pict ; nor, from the shore, Behold, with dubious winds, the Saxons come.) The historian mentions them elsewhere as infesting Gaul. Richard of Cirencester places the Atacotti in the west part of the province Vespasiana, upon the north of Clyde, and calls them " gens toti aliquando olim Brittaniae formidanda." They are likewise mentioned by St Jerome, in company with the Scots : " Scottorum et Atticorum \alias Atticotorum] ritu, ac de republica Platonis, promiscuas uxores, communes libe- ros habeant." (Epistola^ 83; Usher, 307-) He professes to have seen, in Gaul, one or other of these nations eating hu- man flesh. The name, Attacotfi, according to Mr Pinkerton, " means simply Hither Scots, or Scots remaining in Britain" (Enquiry^ II. 70): a very ridiculous conjecture, no doubt; for though Aita Scntii might have had such a meaning, Atta" cotti cannot : and, in fact, their origin, as well as the etymo- logy of their name, is totally unknown. THE PICTS. 148 CCCLXVIII. Profectus [Valentinianus]abAm- bianis^ Treverosque festinans nuntio percellitur gra- vi, qui Britannias indicabat barbarica conspiratione ad ultimam vexatas inopiam : Nectaridumque comi- tem maritimi tractus occisum , et Fullofaudem ducem hostium insidiis circumventum. Quibus magno cum horrore compertis, Severum etiam turn domestico- rum misitj si fors casum dedisset optatum, correc- turum sequius gesta : quo paulo revocato, Jovinus eadem loca profectus^, Provertuidem celeri gradu prsemisit, adminicula petiturus exercitus validi . . . Postremo ob multa et metuenda;, quae super eadem insula rumores assidui perferebant, electus Theo- dosius illuc properare disponitur . . . adscitaque ani- raosa legionum et cohortium nube, ire tendebat praeeunte fiducia speciosa. Eo tempore Picti, in duas gentes divisi, Dicaledonas et Vecturioiies,* iti demque Attacotti bellicosahominum natio^et Scotti, per di versa vagantes, multa populabantur : . . . . Ad hsec prohibenda si copiam dedisset fortuna prospe- rior, orbis extrema dux efficacissimus petens^ cum * Usher and Innes suppose these Dicaledones (as some edi- tions read) and Vecturiones to be the southern and northern Picts. (See Atiiiquitaies, p. 306, Critical Essay^ p. 82.) It is doubtful, however, whether the Picts were thus divided at so early a period ; and, most likely, there is some inextricable corruption in the text, as no such names are elsewhere to be found. 144 ANNALS OF venisset ad Bononiae litus, quod a spatio controverso terraruiii angiistiis rcciproci distinguitur maris, . . . exinde transmcato leiitius freto defertur Rutupias, stationem ex adverse tranquillam. Unde cum con- secuti Batavi venissent et Eruli, Joviique et Vic- tores, fidentes viribus numeri ; egressus tendensque ad liUndiiiium, . . . divisis plurifariam globis, ador- tus est vagantes hostium vastatorias mauus, graves onere sarcinarum : et propere fusisque vinctos ho-- mines agebant et pecora, praedam excussit, quam tributarii perdidere miserrimi. His denique resti- tuta omni, praeter partam exiguam impensam mi- litibus fessis, mersam difficultatibus suis antehac civitatem, sed subito quam salus sperari potuit re- creatam, in ovantis speciem laetissimus introit. Ubi ad audenda majora prosper© successu elatus, tuta- que scrutando consilia, futuri morabatur ambiguus, difFusam variarum gentium plebem et ferocientem immaniter, non nisi per dolos occultiores et impro- visos excursus superari posse, captivorum confes- sionibus et transfugarem indiciis doctus.* * Am. Mar. L. 27, c. H. In the following book he says that Theodosius repaired the cities and praesidiary camps, and defended the boundaries with watches and out-guards, and that, iiaving recovered the province, which had been in the power of the enemy, he so restored it to its pristine state, that, according to his own account, if both had a lawful governor, and was THE PICTS. 145 CCCLXVIII. Valentinian, having departed from the Ambians, and hastening to the Treveri, (or Triers,) was afflicted with heavy tidings, which in- dicated that Britain, by a conspiracy of the barba- rians, was reduced to the last distress : and that thenceforward called Valentia, by the will of the prince, as it were, by way of triumph. This was in 3G9, when he left the island. The poet Claiidian alludes to the exploits of this great commander, saying of him, " lUe leves Mauros, nee falso nomine Picfos, Edomuit, Sco(umqu.e vago mucrone secutus, Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas." (He the light Moors, and, true-named, Picts subdued. And, with a roving point, following the Scot, Broke, with bold oars, the Hyperborean waves.) Dc III. con. Honorii (A.C 396). Again; " maduerunt Saxone fuso Orcades, incaluit Pictorum sanguine Tliule^ Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis I'erne.'''' (The Orkney isles were wet with Saxons slain, Thule, far off, grew hot with blood of Pict, And frozen Ireland wept her heaps of Scots.) From this passage, Richard of Cirencester infers that the Ro- man province of Vespasiana, beyond Antoninus's wall, had, under the last emperors, obtained the name of Thulc:—a. name, at any rate, of which the poet makes frequent use : " Hypcrboreo damnatum sidere Thijlen.^'' (Thule condemn'd to Hyperborean star.) In Rujinum. VOL. I. L 14C ANNALS OF NectaridiiSj count of the sea coast, was killed, and Fullofaudes, the general, encompassed by the snares of the enemy : which being understood with great horror, he sent Severus, at that time count of the do- mestics, if fortune had given the wished-for chance, to correct these things done amiss : who being in a little time recalled, Jovinus being gone into the same parts, sent before Provertuides with a quick pace, to crave the aid of a powerful army. ... At last, on account of the many and fearful things, which continual rumours brought concerning the same is- land, Theodosius, being elected, is appointed to has- ten thither . . . and having taken a hardy multi- tude of legions and cohorts, he set forward, a showy courage leading the way. At that time the Picts, divided into two nations, the Dica.ledonaj and Vec- '* Terruit oceanum, et nostro axe remotam Insolito bello tremefecit murmure Thulen.^* (Affrights the ocean, and from us remote, Makes Thule tremble with unwonted war.) De hello Geiico. " Horrescit . . . ratibus . . . impervia Thule." (Thule, impassable to ships, grows rough.) In III. con. Ilono. The frequent mention of the Scots and Picts by this poet, proves how formidable those nations were in his time to the Romans. See another extract, to this purpose, in a preceding note. THE PICTS. 147 tiiriones, and likewise the Attacots,, a warlike na- tion of men, and the Scots, wandering through va- rious parts, ravaged many. ... To put a stop to these outrages, if more prosperous fortune gave as- sistance, this most active general, seeking the ex- tremities of the globe, when he had come to the coast of Bononia, which is severed from the land over against it by the straights of an ebbing and flowing sea . . . thence, having leisurely crossed the channel, he is brought to Rutupiae, a tranquil sta- tion on the opposite shore. Whence, when the Bata- vians, and the Heruli, and Jovii and Victores, num- bers confident in strength, and who followed close after him, had arrived, he went forth, and march- ing to London, . . . divided into several troops, he at- tacked the wandering wasting bands of the enemy, heavy with the load of their baggage ; and those who drove men bound and cattle being speedily routed, he took the booty which the miserable tri- butaries lost. To these finally everything being restored, except a small part bestowed on the wea- ried soldiers, he, most joyful, after the manner of one triumphing, entered the city, heretofore over- whelmed with its difliculties, but which, suddenly refreshed, might hope for safety : where, encouraged by prosperous success to attempt greater things, and seeking safe counsels, he remained dubious of 148 ANNALS OF the future, being instructed by the confessions of the prisoners, and the communications of deserters, tlfftt this diffused rabl)le, of various nations, and raging cruelly, could only be vanquished by secret stratagems, and sudden incursions. CCCLXXXIV. Incursantes Pictos et Scotos Maximus [tyrannus in Britannia a militibus im- perator constitutus] strenue superavit.* CCCLXXXIV. Maximus, the tyrant, being constituted emperor in Britain by the soldiers, bravely vanquished tlie Picts and Scots, making incursions. * Prosperi chronicon (liabbe, Nova lib. MSS. I'lhro. torn I. p. 5C) ; and Sigebert. " JMaximus," according to father Tnnes, " before he left the island, repulsed with great vigour, and overcame the Scots and Picts, according to Gregory of Tours ;" and refers, in a note, to " Greg. Turoii's liisV but without citing book, chapter, or page. In fact, however, Gregory of Tours nowhere mentions the Picts of Brit am ; though, cer- tainly, he has a great deal concerning the Piclavi of Gaul. THE PICTS. 149 CCCXCVIII. Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monstro, Ferro picta genas cujus vestigia verrit, Coerulus, oceanique sestum mentitur amictus. Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit, Munivit Stilicho, totam cum Scotus lernen ■Movit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys. Illius eiFectiim curis, ne tela timerem Scotica, ne Pictum tremerem.* CCCXCVIII. Thence Britain, guarded from the Scotish bug. With iron-punctured face, an azure vest Brushes her feet, and represents the sea : ^' Me, also, wasted by a bordering tribe, Mc aided Stilicho, when all lerne The Scot in motion put, and Tethys foam'd With the vexatious oar : and, by his cares, I fear not Scotish darts, nor dread the Picts." CCCCVI. Drust filius Erp, centum annis reg- navit \_aliter, rexit, i^ecte vixit], et centum bella peregit. Nono decimo [/. vigesimo nono] anno • Claudiani, 1. 2, in pmnum consulatum Stilichonis, v. 247, &c. 150 ANNALS OF regiii ejus, Patricius cpiscopus sanctus ad Hyber- niain j)ervciiit iiisulain.* CCCCVI. Drust, the son of Erp, lived a hun- dred years, and fouglit a hundred battles. In the 19th [r. 29th] year of his reign, Patrick the holy bishop came into the island Hibernia. CCCCIX. Britannia, omni armato milite, mi- • Cronica de origine antiquorum Pictorum (Innes's Criti- cal essay, Ap. Num. II. Pinkertons Enquiry^ Vol. I. Ap, Num. X.) St Patrick is said to have arrived in Ireland A. C. 432, so that xix should, in all probability, be xxix, which will leave a difference only of two or three years, supposing Drust to have actually commenced his reign in 406. I\Ir Pinkerton makes it commence in 414, and, instead of 45 years, gives him 38. This Drust, who seems famous, by his long life, and numerous victories, was, probably, the first sovereign who es- tablished the Pictish settlement in the main of Scotland, by driving out the old Dalriadic Scots to the west, and the Cale- donians, or aboriginal Britons, to the south ; being themselves, before that time, confined to the Orkneys, or remote provinces of the north. Part of these Britons making a successful stand in the south-west corner of Scotland, may have there founded the kingdom of Strath-Clyde. But this hypothesis, it must be confessed, is strongly militated against by tlie mission of Ni- uian ; of which, however, we have no decisive aera. THE PICTS. 151 Jitaribusque copiis, rectoribus linquitur immanibus, ingenti juventute spoliata (quae comltata vestigiis [[Maximi] tyranni domum nusquam ultra rediit), et omnis belli usus ignara penitus ; duabus primum gentibus transmarinis vehementer saevis, Scotorum a circione, Pictorum ab aquilone calcabilis raultos stupet gemetque per annos.* * Gildas, c. 11. He introduces this first devastation, as he calls it, after the death of Maximus, who, having been declared emperor by the Roman army in Britain, had passed over into Gaul, and was taken, and put to death at Aquilea, in 388. Bede, who nearly transcribes this passage of Gildas, adds, that " these nations are called transmarine, not because they were seated out of Britain, but because they were remote from the part of the Britons ; two arms of the sea being interjacent, one of which from the eastern sea, the other from the western, broke in, far and wide, upon the lands of Britain, although they did not reach each other. The eastern, he cootinues, has in the midst of it the city Giudi. The western, above it, that is, on its right, the city Alcluith, which, in their language, signifies the rock Cluith ; for it is hard by a river of that name." (L. 1, c. 12.) Giudi is thought to have been (a wooden city) situate in the island of Inchkeith in the firth of Forth (Usher, p. 35C) : Alcluith is Dunhritton ; and these arms of the sea are, of course, the firths of Forth and Clyde.f The explanation f Alcluith is, literally, Ad Cluyilam, at, or upon, the Clyde : Pefra-Cloithe, indeed, another British name of this city (Adom- nan, c. 15), implies a rock on that river : and Mr Pinkerton even asserts, that " Al in Welsh means a rock." {Enquinj, I. 90.) 152 ANNALS OF CCCCIX. Britain, along with every armed sol- dier, and the military forces, is forsaken by her cruel rulers, despoiled of her lusty youth (which, having accompanied the footsteps of the tyrant Maximus, given by Bede of the epithet transynarine may, no doubt, be well founded ; but Claudian, in fact, describes the Scots as coming from Ireland to Britain ; and introduces Britannia speaking thus : — " Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit, ]Munivit St'dicho ; totam quum Scotiis le/yien Movit, et iufesto spumavit remige Tethys." De lau. Stilicho. L. 2. (Me, too, in danger from two neighbouring powers, Defended Stilicho ; when all leme The Scot in motion put ; and Tethys foam'd With the oppressive oar.) At any rate, it would not be a singular instance of Bedes mis- understanding the words of Gildas. The author, likewise, of a gloss, annexed to a copy of Gildas at Cambridge, refers this passage, not to the Scots, whom Reuda had brought into Bri- tain, but to others, who, in the hope of robbery and plunder, came yearly out of Ireland : '* Quia Scotti tunc temporis in IUhcrnia habitabant, et Picti in Scotia^ id est ah aguilone.^* (Ushers Antiquitaies, p. 310.) " Habitante plebe Britannica," says Ethelwerd, "■ incuriof-e causa firmitatis intra fossam quae i Severo ciesare condita erat, insurrexerunt gentes duaj, Picti, scilicet, ab aquilonali plaga, et Scoti ab occidentali, contra eos cum excrcitu, vastantes eorurn possessiones ; ct sic, per multa annorum spatia, innumerabili eos miseria afflixerunt." THE PICTS. 153 never more returned home), and utterly ignorant of every practice of war, trampled on, for the first time^ by two exceedingly fierce transmarine nations, of the Scots from the west, of the Picts from the north, is stupified, and groans for years. CCCCXIV. Gens igitur Britonum, Scotorum Pictorumque impetum non ferens, ob quorum in- festationem ac dirissimam depressionem, legatos Romam cum epistolis mittit, militarem manum ad se vindicandum lachrymosis postulationibusposcens, et subjectionem sui Romano imperio continue tota animi virtute (si hostis longius arceretur) vovens.* Cui mox destinatur legio prseteriti mali immemor,t suflicienter armis instructa. Quae ratibus trans oceanum in patriam advecta, et cominus cum gra- vibus hostibus congressa, magnam que ex eis mul- titudinem sternens ; et omnes e finibus depulit, et * This was the first legation. •f " Occisionis videlicet irnperatoris Gratiani [A. C 387]; ut glossata hie exponit." (Usher, \^. 313.) This legion was sent by Honorius, after the decease of Constantine, and the capture of 31uximus. (Pauli diaconi Z>e gcslis Roviunorum^ L. 14.) 154 ANNALS OF subjectos cives tarn atroci eople. . . . Now he came while Brude the son of Melchon, a most powerful king, was reigning over the Picts, in the ninth year of his reign, and converted that nation, by word and the fountain which the magi^ whom he often sent away con- fused and conquered, seeing, they greatly rejoiced, thinking, that is, that lie would suffer the like from the touch of that water. But he having, in the first place, elevated his holy hand, with invocation of the name of Christ, washed his hands and feet : then, afterward, with his companions, drunk of that same water blessed by himself: and from that day the demons departed from the same fountain : and not only was it permit- ted to hurt no one, but also, after the saints benediction, and lavation therein, many infirmities in the people were healed by the same fountain. (L. 2, c. 10.) In a subsequent chapter, he inflicts with disease, and finally by miracle restores to health, Broichan, a mage or priest, who had refused him the liberty of a Scotish female slave. Upon another occasion, the king, elated with royal pride, will not open to him the gates of his palace ; which, upon the touch of the holy hand, fly open of themselves. (L. 2, c. 30.) St Columba was of the royal family of Tieland. There was another saint of that name, dc Thyr- daglasoT Tirdcglascnsh, who died 13th Decern. 552 (al. C52). See I\IS. Sloan. 4788, fo. 00. THE PICTS. 195 example, to the faitli of Christ : whence also the island which is called Hy, he received frona them for the possession of a monastery to be erected . . . which his successors hold unto this day, and where he himself was buried, when he was of the age of seventy-seven years, about thirty-two years from that in which he came into Britain to preach. DLXXX. Dei miles QBeatus sci. Kentegernus]], igne sancti spiritus succensus . . . post quam vici- niora sibi, diocesim videlicet suam \jn regione Cambrensi]] correxerat ; ad ulteriora progrediens, Pictorum patriam, quae modo Galwethia dicitur, et circumjacentia ejus, ab idolatriae spurcitia, et he- reticse doctrinae contagione, purgavit.* . Cenelath rex Pictorum m oritur. f • Jocelinus, Vita Kentegerni, c. 34. "... continue infestatio Pictorum atque Scotorum, ab agnitione nominis Christi alien- oruraafinibusaquilonalibus Britanuiae, fidem et fideles funditus fugavit . . . Picti rero prius per sanctum Ninianum ex magna parte, postea per sanctos Kentegernum et Columbam fidem susceperunt ; dein in apostasiam lapsi, iterum per praedica- tionem sancti Kentegerni non solum Picti, sed et Scoti, et po- puli innumeri in diversis finibus BrittanicE constituti, ad fidem , . . conversi vel in fide confirmati sunt." (C. 27.) f An. Ul. This Cenelath cannot well be, as mr Piukerton 196 ANNALS 6f DLXXX. The soldier of god (viz. the blessed Kentegern), inflamod with the fire of the holy spi- rit . . . after that he had corrected those things which were more near to him, viz. his own diocese, proceeding to those further off, purged the country of the Picts, which is now called Galloway, and its circumjacencies, from the filth of idolatry, and the contagion of heretical doctrine. Cenelath king of the Picts dies. DLXXXIV. Mors Buide [1. Bruide] Mac Maelcon regis Pictorum.* DLXXXIV. The death of Brude the sou of Melchon king of the Picts. DLXXXVL Gairtnaich filius Domelch unde- cim omnis regnavit.f makes him, the Aleph or CevnaJepJi, who reigned one year alone in 554, and another with Brud(?. Cennaleph may be the Bame with Ccnclalh (both meant for Kcunelh) : in fact, how- ever, there never was such a king as Alcph, nor was Cennaleph himself a king, though he was the father of one. • An. Ul. + Cro. Pic. THE PICTS. 197 DLXXXVI. Gartnach the son of Domelch reigued eleven years. DXCVII. Ongon Ceolwulf ricsian on West- Seaxum. & symble lie feaht. & won oththe with Angel-cyn. oththe with Wealas. oththe with Pesh- tas. oththe with Scottas.* . Nectu repos Verb viginti annis regnavit.t DXCVII. Ceolwulf began to reign over the West-Saxons, and continually he fought and con- quered either the Angles, or the Welsh, or the Picts, or the Scots. . Nectan the nephew (or grandson) of Erp reigned twenty years. * Chro. Sax. See also Ethelwerd, p. 836 ; and Florence [of] Worcester, at 598. -j- Cro. Pic. " Nethan fil. Ub. Hie a?dificavit Ahernethyn.''* Nomina regum, ^c. This is, certainly, better authority than that of Fordun, who attributes the foundation of Abcrnethy to " Garnard filius Dompnath." Bowmaker, the interpolater, and continuator of Fordun, says, " Tunc fuit locus ille sedes principalis, regalis, et pontificalis, per aliquot terapora, totius regni Pictorum." {Scotichro. L. 4, c. 12.) 198 ANNALS OF DCXVII. Cineoch filius Lutriu novemdeciai annis regnavit.* DCXVII. Kenneth the son of Lutrin reigned nineteen years. DCXXXI. Mors Cinedhou filii Luctreni regis Pictorum.t DCXXXI. The death of Kenneth the son of Lutrin king of the Picts. DCXXXIII. Tempore toto quo regnavit ^du- ini, filii regis ^dilfridi, qui ante ilium regnaverat, cum magna nobilium juventute, apud Scottos sire Pictos exulabant.:}: DCXXXIII. During all the time in which Ed- win reigned, the sons of king Edilfrid, who had • Cro. Pic. f An. Ul. At 628 they have, by mistake, ** Echdao iuidfiCj regis Pictorumy^ instead of regis Scotorum. X Beda, L. 3, c. 1. " Interea et devotioni regiae terenvs THE PICTS. 199 reigned before him, with much young nobility, lived in exile among the Scots or Picts. DC XXXV. Bellum Segaise, in quo cecidit Lactna MacEneasa, et Garthnaith MacOith.* Rex Osuald . . . denique omnes nationes et pro vincias Brittaniae, quae in quatuor linguas, id est^Brittonum, Pictorum, Scottorum, et Anglorum, divisae sunt, in ditione accepit.t DCXXXV. The battle of Segaise, in which fell Lactna, the son of iEneas, and Garthnach, the son of Oith. — . King Oswald finally received in his rule divinitatis favor arridebat : adeo ut non solum Brittania gen- tes, Angli, Scotti^ Pictiy sed et insulae Orchadum et IMevani- arum, et arma ejus raetuerunt, et potestatem adorarent'* W. Malmes. L. 1, p. 18. • An. Ul. See afterward, at 640. •\ Beda, L. 3, c 6. He might hare conquered some of each nation ; but, certainly, did not conquer them all. The hiato- rians meaning, however, may be, merely, that he had subjects of so many different nations. 200 ANNALS OF all the nations and provinces of Britain, which are divided into four languages, that is, of the Britons, Picts, Scots, and English. DC XXXVI. Garnard filius Wid quatuor an« nis regnavit.* DCXXXVI. Garnard the son of Wid reigned four years. DCXL. Mors Gartna, Mac Foith.f . Brudei filius Wid quinque annis regnavit. J DCXL. The death of Garnard the son of Foith. . Brude the son of Wid reigned five years. DCXLIL Osuiu [jex Nordanhymbrorum;] * Cro. Pic. t An. Ul. ad an. C34. X Cro. Pic. 640. Mors Buidi iilii. Foith. An. Ul. See before, at 635. THE PICTS. 201 Pictorum atque Scottorura gentes, quae septentrio- nales Brittaniae fines tenent, maxima ex parte per- domuit ac tributarios fecit.* DCXLII. Oswy, king of the Northumbrians subdued, for the most part, the nations of the Picts and Scots, which possess the northern parts of Bri- tain, and made them tributary. DCXLV. Talorc frater eorum [[Garnard, scu et Brudeill duodecim annis regnavit.t DCXLV. Talorc brother of Gartnaich and Brude reigned twelve years. * Beda, L. 2, c 5. He elsewhere says that Wilfrid, arch- bishop of York, administered the bishopric, not only of all the Northumbrians, but also of the Picts, so far as king Oswy had been able to extend his dominions. (L. 4, c 3.) f Cro. Pic, The original reads Talore, certainly by mis- take : Talorc, Tallorcen, Talorg, Talorgan, Talorgen, Do- lairg, and Dolargain, appear to be one and the same name ; unless the termination en may make a slight difference. ^02 ANNALS OF DCLIIl. Mors Dolairg Mac Foith regis Pic- torura.* DCLIIl. The death of Talorc, son of Foith (or Wid), king of the Picts. DCLV. Rex [[Osuiu]] Merciorum genti, necnon et cseteris australium provinciarum populis, prae- fuit ; qui etiam gentem Pictorum, maxima ex parte^ regno Anglorum subjecit.f DCLV. King Oswy presided over the nation of the Mercians, and the other people of the southern provinces; he also subjected the nation of the Picts, for the greatest part, to the dominion of the Eng- lish. DCLVII. Tallorcen filius Enfret quatuor an- nis regnavit.J " An. Ul. Foith seems to be the same with Oith and Wid. t Beda, L. 3, c. 24. X Cro. Pic. Enfret and Anfrith are the same. THE PICTS. 20S DCLVII. Talorcen, son of Aufrith, reigned four years. DCLXI. Mors Dolargain, Mac Anfrith, regis Pictorum.* . Gartnait filius Donnel sex annis res:navit et dimidium p. dimidio]].t DGLXI. The death of Talorcen, son of An- frith, king of the Picts. — . Gairtnaich, son of Domelch, reigned six years and a half. DCLXIII. Bellum Ludhofeirn, i. in Fortrein.t DCLXIII. The battle of Ludhofeirn, in Fort- ren. • An, Ul. The date there is 6oG. -|- Cro. Pic. Gartnait^ Gartnaidh, Gartrmich, Gartnach^ GartJinaith, Gartna, and Gurnard^ are so many variations of one and the same name ; it is difHcult to ascertain the genuine orthography. - — ^ ± An. Ul. 204- ANNALS OF DCLXIV. Oceani insulae per totuni, videlicet, Scotia et Britannia, binis vicibus vastatae sunt dira pestilentia : exceptis duobus populis, hoc est, Pic- toruni plebe, et Scottorum Brittania} ; (|Uos utros- que Dorsi montes Britannici disterminant.* DCLXIV. The islands of the ocean throughout, that is, Scotland and Britain, are twice wasted by a dreadful pestilence : except two people, that is, the people of the Picts and of the Scots of Britain ; which the mountains of Drum-Albain divide from each other. DCLXVIL Mors Gartnaidh filii Donaldi.t -. Drest frater ejus £scL GartnaitJ septem aunis regnavit.J * Adomnanus, L. 2, c. 47. f An. Uh ad an. CC2. The annalist frequently gives Irish names to the Picts ; which creates great confusion, as the true names in those instances are totally lost. He, most likely, wrote from hearsay, and could not have made use of Pictish writings if he had had any such. ± Cro. Pic. THE PICTS. 205 DCLXVII. The death of Gairtnaich, son of Domelch. . Drust the brother of Gairtnaich reigned seven years. DCLXX. In primis annis Ecgfridi, regis Dei- rorum et Berniciorum, tenero adhuc regno, populi bestiales Pictorum feroci animo subjectionem Saxo- num despiciebant, et jugum servitutis a se abjicere minabantur, congregantes undique de utribus et pelliculis aquilonis innumeras gentes, quasi formi- carum greges in sestate de tumulis ferventes, agge- rem contra domum cadentem muniebant. Quo au- dit©, rex Ecgfridus, humilis in populis suis, mag- nanimus in hostes, statim equitatu exercito prepa- rato, tarda molimina nesciens sicut Judas Macca- beus, in deum confidens, parva manu populi dei contra enormem et supra invisibilem liostem cum Bernhaeth subaudaci regulo invasit, stragemque immensam populi submit, duo flumina cadaveribus mortuorum replens, ita (quod niirum est) ut supra siccis pedibus ambulantes, fugientium turbam occi- dentes persequebantur, et in servitutem redacti po- puli, usque ad diem occisionis regis, subjecti jugo captivitatis jacebant.* « Eddius, Vita S. Wilfridi, c. 19. " Nee minus rex Egfri- 206 ANNALS OF DCLXX. In the first years of Egfrid, king of the Deirians and Bernicians, his reign being yet tender, the bestial people of the Picts, with a fero- cious mind despised the subjection of the Saxons, and threatened to cast off them the yoke of slavery, assembling on all sides, from the bags and bladders of the north, innumerable nations, like crowds of ants in summer swarming from their hills, they erected a mound against a falling house : which being heard, king Egfrid, humble toward his people, magnanimous toward his enemies, an army of horse being forthwith prepared, ignorant of tardy enter- prises, confiding in god like Judas Machabeus, with a small band of the people of god, marched against an enormous, and, moreover, invisible, army, along with Bernhaeth, the brave kinglet, and overthrew an immense number of people, filling two rivers with the bodies of the dead, so that (which is won- derful to be spoken), walking over them with dry feet, they pursued, killing, the fugitives, and the dus suo deerat officio, regnum dilatando in Pictos, tuendo in Mercios. Picti, defuncto rege Oswio, parvi facientes teneram infantiam reguli, proruunt ultro et conspirant in Northanim- bros: quibus cum sub regulo Bernego regius juvenis occur- rens, ita paucis suis militibus in numerabilem Pictorum dele- vit exercitum, ut campi cadaveribus constrati planitiem amit- terent, flumina cursu intercepto subsisterent." W. Malmes. De gettis pontificum^ It. 3. THE PICTS. 207 people, reduced to slavery, remained subject to the yoke of captivity unto the day of the kings death. DCLXXII. Expulsio Drosto de regno.* DCLXXII. QThe expulsion of Drust from the realm. ]3 DCLXXIV. Mors Drosto filii Domnail.t Brudei filius Bili viginti uno annis regna- vit.;}: DCLXXIV. The death of Drust son of Do- melch. • An. Ul. Drosf, Brest, and Drust, seem to be one and the same name. ■\ An. UL ad an. 677- X Cro. Pic. Hujus tempore floruit S. Adamnanus. {No- mina regum.) 208 ANNALS OF . Brudc son of Bill reigned twenty-one years. DCLXXXI. Ordinatus est antistem Eboraci ab archiepiscopo Trumvini ad provinciam Picto- rum, quae tunc temporis Anglorum erat imperio subjecta.* • Beda, L. 4, c. 12. This Trum win, as witness to a forged charter of Egfrid king of Northumberland, in 085, is design- ed " Pictorum cpiscopus.''^ (See Bcdce opera^ a Smith, p. 782.) Mr David Macpherson says " Trumwin was appointed bishop of Quhithern,^^ a mistake he was probably led into by the Pohjchronicon^ or a spurious list at the end of Fhrcnlius W'lgorncnsis. He resided, however, in the monastery of Aber- corn, in Lothian, and was never in any situation at Whit-hern, nor had the least connection with it. Even mr Pinkerton al- lows that " The Piks, over whom Trumwin was bishop, were the Piks of Lothian ; as the bishop of Whitherne presided over the south parts of Galloway, which were subject to the AiiglV {Enquiry^ I, .335.) The Eollandists expressly con- tradict the fable of Trumwins bishopric being at Whithern ; and say that the English were not in possession of it in 731 (when Bede wrote his history) ; and that Trumwin died about 700 ; for that, in the shorter life of St. Cuthbert written in the lifetime of king Alfred [of Northumberland], before 705, he calls him " Bcatce memoricc^^'' which is never said but of the dead. (AA.SS. F. If, 416.) Bishops, in those times, are not to be confounded with the affluent, luxurious, and haughty prelates of the present day. 7 THE PICTS. 209 DCLXXXI. Trumwin was ordained by the archbishop of York bishop to the province of the They rather, in fact, resembled the modern raethodist-preach- ers, going about from place to place, to inculcate the rudiments of the Christian religion : a primitive practice, which was not entirely disused even so late as the thirteenth century, when Urward, or Edward, bishop of Brechin, about the year 1269, went on foot throughout the whole kingdom, preaching the gospel wherever he came. (Spotiswood, p. 108.) They had, at least in Scotland, neither archdeacons, spiritual officers, pa- rochial clergy, nor any kind of revenue, but what they raised by the labour of their hands, or the charity of their flocks. St. Ninian, about 395, erected a single church, the only one, not in his diocese alone, but in all Scotland ; and in which he had no successor till 731, when Pecthelm became the primary bishop upon a new foundation. St. Columba, the apostle of the northern Picts, had no church at all on the continent of Scotland ; his monastery in Hy being an institution altogether foreign to his bishopric. This, too, was the case of Trumwin, though he actually resided, with his monks, at Abercorn, in the heart of his mission. Neither of them is known to have had a succes- sor. We find, indeed, a Tuathal Mac Arfgnsa, who died in 864 or 5, abbot of Dunkeld, and archbishop of Fortren, or the northern Picts ; and Cellach^ bishop of St. Andrews, is mentioned in 909 {An. Ul.) In the church of Abernethy, ac- cording to Fordun, there were three elections made, when, says he, there was but one bishop in Scotland. (L. 4, c 11.) Forgery, it is true, has not been deficient in the multiplication of imaginary Scotish bishops : even the worthy bishop Keith has directly quoted the authority of Bede for a letter from pope Honorius, in 649, in which he addresses, by name, no less than Jive : not aware, it would seem, that the Scots to whom it was written were the inhabitants of Ireland. If St. Kentigern, VOL. I. P 210 ANNALS OF Picts, wliicli at that time was subject to the go- vernment of the English. DCLXXXII. Orcades delete sunt a Bruide.* too, were actually bishop of Glasgow in 5G0, (and his very ex- istence may be rationally doubted,) he had no successor be- fore 1115; about which period Alexander I. and his successors, in their zeal for religion, or rage for imitation, established bishoprics throughout the kingdom. Exclusive, therefore, of a very few monasteries, there were not, perhaps, above three churches in Scotland, at the commencement of the 9th or 10th century ; nor was the division of parishes known till after the 11th or 12th : in a word there was no secular clergy. IMost of the Scotish saints, chiefly bishops, in the breviary of Aber- deen, or Keiths catalogue, and still more in Dempsters iVf<'HO- logium, are absolutely false, feigned, and forged, or stolen from other countries. • An. Ul. Eutropius, who is followed by Orosius, Jornan- des, Cassiodorus, and Bede, and may himself have followed Eusebius, in whose annals by St. Jerome, he says " Claudium Orcadas insulas Romano adjecisse imperio," has these words, " Quasdam insulas etiam ultra Brilanniam in oceano positag Romano imperio addidit; quae appellantur Orcades*'' (L. 7); but, in this instance, he was probably mistaken, since we have the express testimony of Tacitus that these islands were un- known till their discovery and conquest by Julius Agricola, in the reign of Domitian, about the year of Christ 80 : which conquest is thus alluded to by Juvenal : " Arma quideni ultra Litora Juvernai pro movimus, et 7}iodo capias Orcadaty ac minima contentos nocte Britannos.^* Satyra 2. THE PICTS. 211 DCLXXXII. The Orkneys are wasted by Brude. DCLXXXV. QEgfridH, rex Northumbrise , cum temere exercitum ad vastandum Pictorum provinciam duxisset, multum probibentibus ami- cis et maxime beatee memorise Cudbercto qui nu- per fuit ordinatus episcopus, introductus est, simu- lantibus fugam hostibus, in angustias inaccesso- rum raontium, et cum maxima parte copiarum quas (Our arras, indeed, beyond Hibernias shores We have advanced, the lately- captured Orkneys, And Britons happy with the shortest night.) These islands are first mentioned by Pomponius Mela : but Diodorus, a more ancient historian, about sixty years, that is, before the vulgar sera, gives Orcas, the southern promontory, as one of the points of his imaginary triangle. They, certain. ly, appear to have been the ancient, and possibly, the primi- tive seat of the Picts, at least in the neighbourhood of Britain. (See under the year 450.) Of their particular history, in the seventh and eighth centuries, we are totally ignorant : only we are informed, by Adomnan, in his life of Columba, that this saint, being at the court of king Brude [in 565], requested that monarch to recommend to the petty king of the Orkneys, then present, and whose hostages were in the kings hands, that such of his people as had lately sailed in quest of a wilderness in the ocean, and who, by the spirit of prophecy, he knew would land in those islands, should receive no harm. (L. 2, c. 43.) 212 ANNALS OF secum adduxerat, exstinctus, anno aetatis sua; qua- dragesimo, regni autem quinto decimo^ die tertio decimo kalendarium Januarii. Ex quo tempore spes ca^pit et virtus rcgiii Anglorum fluere ac retro sublapsa refcj'ri* Nam et Picti terram ])ossessio- nis sua;,f quam tenuerunt Angli^ et Scotti, qui erant in Brittania^ Brittonum quoque^ pars non- nulla, libertatem receperunt, quam et hactenus ha- bent per annos circa quadraginta sex ; ubi inter plurimos gentis Anglorum vel interemptos gladio, vel servitio addictos, vel de terra Pictorum fuga lapsos, etiam reverentissimus vir dei Trumwini, qui in eos episcopatum acceperat, recessit cum suis qui erant in monasterio -^bbercurnig, posito qui- dem in regione Anglorum^ sed in vicinia freti quod Anglorum terras Pictorum disterminat.:|: . [Alfridus frater illegitimus Egfridi] per decern et novem annos summa pace et gaudie pro- vincise [Northumbria3]] pra^fuit : uon tamen iisdem terminis quibus pater et frater regnum tenuit, quod Picti, recenti victoria insolenter abusi, Anglosque * From Virgil (Georgica, L. 1, v. 209). •f- Lothian. X Beda, L. 4, c. 26. Echfrid .... fecit bellum contra fratullum •uum, qui eratrex Pictorum, nomine Birdei [1. Bri- dcil, et ibi corruitcum omni robore exercitus sui, et Picti cum rege suo victores extiterunt : et nunquam addideruut Saxones THE PICTS. 213 longa pace iguaviores aggressi, fines eorum ab aqui- lone decurtarerant.* DCLXXXV. Egfrid, king of Northumberland, who had rashly led an army to waste the province of the Picts, his friends earnestly dissuading him, ambronem-|- ut a Pietis vectigal exigererent a tempore istius belli, vocatur Guerchlum Garan. (Nennius, c 64.) This slaughter, according to Simeon of Durham, happened at NecJi^ tanesmere^ " quod est," he adds, " stagnum Nechtani." 685. " Bellum Duin Neshtain [1. Nechtain] vicesimo die mensis Mail, sabathi die, factum est ; in quo Etfrith Mac Offa rex Saxonum, 15 anno regni sui consummato, magna cum caterva militum suorum, interfectus est." An. Ul. Neithanesthyrn, according to Ruddiman, now contractedly Nenthorn^ in the Mers, which occurs in a charter of Malcolm IV. ; and Neu tliancsthyrn is Neithans tarn, or Nectans-meer^ wliich had, probably, received that name from some ancient Pictish king who had been there drowned. * W. Malmes, L. 1, p. 21. What was now re-possessed by the Picts was, apparently, the province of Lothian, or the district between the Forth and the Tweed : they never had any possessions further south, nor the kings of Northumberland further north. It will appear hereafter to have been restored by a Saxon to a Scotish monarch, in right of the kingdom of the Picts. + By ambronem the autlior appears to mean a slieriff, or ra- pacious tax-gatherer, or devom'er ; though he, elsewhere (p. 143), explains ambroiies to be old Saxons. Ambrones lupit with Gildas, are ravenous wolves. 214 ANNALS OF and chiefly Cuthbert, of blessed memory, who had lately been ordained a bishop, was introduced [into the country], the enemy pretending flight into the straights of inaccessible mountains, and, with the greatest part of the forces which he had brought M'ith liim, cut ofl', in the fortieth year of his age, and the fifteentli of his reign, on the thirteenth of the calends of January : from which time the hope and valour of the English realm began to decline, and ever backward jioiv. For both the Picts re- covered the land of their possession, which the Eng- lish, and Scots who were in Britain, held, but som^ part, also, of the Britons their liberty, which like- wise they still retain, for about forty-six years; when, among a great many of the English nation, either killed by the sword, or devoted to slavery, or perishing in their flight from the land of the Picts, even that most reverend man of god Trum- win, who had received a bishopric among them, de- parted with his people who were in the monastery of Abercorn, situated, indeed, in the region of the English, but in the vicinity of the firth which divides the lands of the English and of the Picts. . Alfrid, the illegitimate brother of Egfrid, presided for nineteen years over the province of Northumberland in the greatest peace and joy : not, however, with the same bounds with which his fa- THE PICTS. 215 ther and brother held the Lingdom ; the Picts, ha- ving insolently abused their recent victory, and attacked the English, become more cowardly by a long peace, had curtailed their borders from the north. DCXCIII. Bruide Mac Bile, rex Fortren mo- ritur.* • ^n. Ul. " Forthrev^'''' according to mr D. Macpherson, ♦' as distinguished from Fife, contained the upper part of Fife- shire, with Kinross-shire, and the parishes of Clackmannan and IMukard;" he considers Fortren^ in these annals, as an error for Forthrev. The ancient tract, published by Innes, intitled De situ Allanice^ and supposed to be an extract from the topography of Girald Barry, the Welsh bishop, does, in fact, say, " quarta pars partium est Fife cum Fothreve :" and Fortrein^ according to the Cronica Pictortwi, a much older authority, was one of the seven sons of Cruidne Mac Cinge, the father of the British Picts : which sons, at the same time, were not, as Innes seems to conjecture, the septemfr aires of the above tract, by whom Albany was anciently divided into seven parts ; since it expressly names Enegus as the first-be- gotten of those brethren, whose name does not occur in the Pictish Chronicle. Fife and Fotherif are^ likewise, met with in a charter of David I., printed by sir James Dalrjmple {Col. 385). It is, at any rate, most probable that Forthrev is an error for Fortren^ the latter being, apparently, several centu- ries older ; and the variation, in fact, being no more than a single letter. It is, after all, by no means unlikely, that by For- tren^ or, more ])rojpcr\y , Furthrin, is to be understood the whole of modern Fife, and part of Stratheru, includmg Fortcviot and 51(i ANNALS OF . Mors Ailpliin Mac Neclitan.* DCXCIII. Briiide son of Bili, kiag of Fortren, dies. The death of Alpin son of Nechtan. DCXCV. Taran filius Entifidich quatuor annis regnavit.f Ahernethy^ the seats, it is well known, of the ancient Pictish kings. The etymology of its name, in this sense, being to be found in Forth^ the river, firth, or aestuary so called, and the Irish riww, or Welsh (and, possibly, Pictish) rhin, a penin- sula, promontory, foreland, or ness ; as, for instance, Theryn- nis of Galloxvay : which is certainly descriptive of the situation of Fife : to which may be added, that sir James Dalrymple had seen a charter granted by Alexander II. to the abbey of Kinlos, in Murray, in 1221, in which was a boundary, " us- que ad Rum Pictorum.''^ {Cul. p. 100.) " The Rbincs, also, were a country north of Tay ; being mentioned in The lattell of Balrinnes : " To waste the Rinnes he thought best." Mr Pinkerton asserts that " Pikland he [Tighernac] often calls Fortren^ from the kings residence at Fortcviot^ or some chief to-iVii''' {Enquiry, I. 302) : though he had never then seen Tighernacs chronology, and confounds it with the Ulster annals, which do not, in fact, explicitly say what they mean. In one of the maps he makes Fortren the Regia munitio, or royal castle of Bruidei, at or near Inverness. • Cro. Pic. -f Beda, L. 5, c 24. See further mention of this battle in THE PICTS. 217 DCXCV. Taran, son of Entifidic reigned four years. DCXCIX. Berctred dux regius Nordanhym- brorum a Pictis interfectus. . Bredei MacDerilei undecim annis regna- vit.* DCXCIX. Bertred, commander for the king, of the Northumbrians, slain by the Picts. Brudei, son of Derili, reigned eleven years. DCC. Brude MacDerile mortuus [est.]t DCC. Brudei, son of Derili, died. the Saxon chronicle A. C99 ; An. Ul. A. C97 ; H. of Hunt- ingdon, p. 337. • Cro. Pic. ^ An. Ul. If this Brudei actually ascended the throne in 699, and reigned eleven years, this date should be 710. 218 ANNALS OF DCCVIII. OtFerus consul Northaiihumbroruni, contra Pictos diraicaus, eorumque maximam niulti- tudiuem sternens, Egfridi ultor fuit. DCCVIII. Offer, earl of the Northumbrians, fighting against the Picts, and prostrating a very great multitude of them, was the avenger of Egfrid. DCCX. Beorhtfryth ealdor-man feaht with Peoh- tas betwix Haefe & Caere. * DCCX. Beorhtfrith, the lieutenant, fought with the Picts between Hafe and Care. • Chro. Sax. " Porro post annum Nunna et Ine reges hel- ium gesserunt contra Vttthgircte regem, dux quoque Bcorkt- frid^ adversus Peo/ifas.''^ Ethelwerdus, p. 837- " Tuncetiam Berfrid consul restitit superbia? Pictorum, diniicans inter Heve et Cere ; ubi multitudine magna Pictorum strata ultor extitit regis Egfridi, etconsulisBerti." H.Hun, p. 337. " Berhfridus, regis Osredi praefectus, cum Pictis pugnavit, et victor extitit." Flo. Wigor. ad an. The place of action is not now known, but was probably in Northumberland ; and Cccre may possibly be Carrum. THE PICTS. 219 DCCXI. Strages Pictorum in campo Maniian, apud Saxones, ubi Finguine filius Delaroith in mala morte facuit [1. finivitj.* . Nechton filius Derilei quindecim anuis reernavit.t -& . Naiton rex Pictorum^ qui septentrionales Brittaniae plagas inhabitant^ admonitus ecclesiasti- carum frequent! meditatione scripturarum, abre- nunciaviterrori, quo eatenus in observatione Paschee cum sua gente tenebatur, et se suosque omnes ad ca- tholicum dominicae resurrectionis tempus celebran- dura perduxit. Quod ut facilius majori auctoritate perficeret, quaesivit auxilium de gente Anglorum, quos jamdudum ad exemplum sanctae Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae suam religionem instituisse cog- novit. Siquidem misit legatarios ad virum venera- bilem Ceolfridum, abbatem monasterii beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, quod est ad ostium Vi- uri amnis et juxtaamnem Tinam, in loco qui vocatur In-Gyruum . . . postulans ut exhortatorias sibi lit- teras mitteret, quibus potentius confutare posset eos qui Pascha non suo tempore observare prsesu- merent ; simul et de tonsurae modo vel ratione qua clericos insigniri deceret : excepto quod etiam ipse * An. Ul. Possibly the same engagement, t Cro» Pic, 220 ANNALS OF in his non parra ex parte esset imbutus. Sed et architectos sibi mitti petiit, qui juxta morem Roma- norum ecclesiam de lapide in gente ipsius facerent, promittens banc in honorem beati apostolorum prin- cipis dedicandam, se quoque ipsum cum suis omni- bus, morem sanctae Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae semper imitaturum, in quantum dumtaxat tarn longe a Romanorum loquela et natione consegre- gati hunc ediscere potuissent. Cujus religiosis votis ac precibus favens reverentissimus abba Ceolfrid, misit architectos quos petebatur, misit illi et litteras scriptas.* DCCXI. Slaughter of the Picts, in the field Mannan, among the Saxons, where Finguini, son of Delaroith, ended in an evil death. . Nechtan, son of Derili, reigned fifteen years. • Beda, L. 5, c. 21. He inserts the letter of Ceolfrid, which is of considerable length, and totally uninteresting. It was addressed " Domino excellentissimo et gloriosissimo regi NaU tano,'' &c. The king had it interpreted into his own language, was much rejoiced with the abbots exhortations, and acted ac- cordingly. Innes supposed this correspondence to have taken place in 715, dr. Smith, in 710 ; and, perhaps, it might be in some intermediate year. THE PICTS. 221 Nechtaiij king of the Picts, who inhabit the north parts of Britain, being admonished by the fre- quent meditation of ecclesiastical writings, renoun- ced the error, in which he, with his nation, had till then been held, in the observation of Easter ; and brought over himself and all his people to celebrate the lords resurrection at the catholic time : which that he might effect the more easily, and with the greater authority, he sought the aid of the English nation, whom he knew to have long ago settled their religion after the example of the holy Roman and apostolic church. So he sent ambassadors to the venerable man Ceolft-id, abbot of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, which is at the mouth of the river Wear, and near the river Tyne, in a place which is called Jarrow . . . intreating that he would send to him exhortatory letters, by which he might be able more powerfully to confute those who should presume to observe Easter not at his time ; and, at the same time, of the manner or rea- son of the tonsure by which it became clerks to be distinguished ; not but that he himself was in these things in no small degree conversant. He also re- quested architects to be sent to him, who, according to the manner of the Romans, should make a church of stone in his nation ; promising to dedicate it in honour of the blessed prince of the apostles ; and that he himself likewise, with all his people, would 222 ANNALS OF always imitate tlie manner of the holy Roman and apostolic cliurch, as much, at least, as, sequestered at such a distance, they were able to learn. The most reverend father, Ceolfrid, favouring his reli- gious wishes and j^rayers, sent the architects which he requested, and sent him also written letters. DCCXIII. Cinio Mac Derili, et filius Math- gennan jugulati sunt. Tolarg, filius Drostani, ligatur apud fratrem suum Nechtain regem.* DCCXIII. Cinio, the son of Derili, and his son Mathgennan, have their throats cut. Tolarg, the son of Drostan, is bound at his brothers, king Nechtan. DCCXVII. Duncha Mac Cinfaola, abbas lae, obiit. Expulsio familiae lae manstorsum [1. trans dorsum] Britanniae, a Nectano rege.-|- • An. Ul. f An. Ul. THE PICTS. S23 DCCXVII. Duucan Mac Cinfaola, abbot of Hy, died. The banishment of the monks of Hy beyond Drum-Albain by king Nechtan. DCCXXI. Fergust bishop of Scotland, a Pict, and Sedulius bishop of Britain, of the nation of the Scots, were present at a council in Rome.* DCCXXV. Congal MacMaille anfa Brecc For- tren, et Oan princeps Ega, moriuntur. D C CXX V. Congal MacMaille anfa Brecc For- tren, and Owen prince of Eg, died. DCCXXVI. Netan MacDerile constringitur a Drost rege. Tolargan Maphan moritur.t . Drest et Elpin conregnaverunt quinque annis.J • Usher, p. 408. f An. Ul. + Cro. Pic, 7 224 ANNALS OF DCCXXVI. Nechtan the son of Derili is im- prisoned by king Drust. Tolargan Maphan dies. . Drust and Alpin reigned together five years. DCCXXVII. Bellum Monacrib inter Pictores [1. Pictones] invicem, ubi Eneas victor fuit, et multi ex parte Elpini regis perempti sunt. Bellum lacrimatile inter eosdem gestum est, juxta castel- lum Crei, ubi Elpinus effugit.* DCCXXVII. The battle of Monacrib between the Picts with each other, where Angus was victor, and many on the part of king Alpin were killed. A grievous battle amongst the same was struck near the castle of Crei, where Alpin fled. DCCXXIX. Bellum Monacurna, juxta stag- • An Ul. Mr D. Macpherson suggests that Monacrib may be a corruption of Moncrif, in Gowry. THE PICTS. ^25 num Loga, inter Iiostem Nechtain, et exercitum Angusa : et exactatores Neclitain ceciderunt, viz. Riceat MacMoneit^ et filius ejus. Fingaine Mac- Drostain, Ferach MacFingaine, et quidam Mudti £1. Minerti], cum familia Aongusa, triumphave- runt. Bellum Droma Derg Blathug, in regionibus, Pictorum, inter Aongura et Drost regem Pictorum, et occidit Drost.* DCCXXIX. The battle of Monacurn, near the lake Loga, between the host of Nechtan, and the army of Angus : and the officers of Nechtan fell, viz. Riceat MacMoneit and his son. Fingain Mac- Fingair, and one Mudti, with the family of Angus, triumphed. The battle of Droma Derg Blathug, • All. Ul. Monacurna, according to mr David Macpherson, may be " Cam Gaur, at the foot of which is L. Loch.'''' Droma Derg Blathug he supposes to be " Ben Derg^ a remarkable hill of the great ridge (drum) called the Mounth, near which is a place called Clachag on the Tilt." The dates of these annals, at least in the earlier part, are generally a year or more too late. These should, probably, be 72G, ^•28, 729 ; and so of the rest. See Ogygia, p. [43]. The meaning of exactam tores Nechtain ceciderunt is obscure ; it may be, that these oppressors killed Nechtan. VOL. I. Q oc 2() ANNALS OF in tlic regions of tlie Picts, between Angus and Drust king of the Picts; and Drust is killed. DCCXXX. Onnist filius Urguist triginta [an- nis^ regnavit.* DCCXXX. Unnust son of Urgust reigned thirty years. DCCXXXI. Bellumintei CruithneetDalriada, ubi Cruithne devicti. Bellum inter filium Aongusa et filium Congusa; sed Bruide vicit Talorum fu- giente.t . Pictorum natio tempore hoc et foedus pacis cum gente habet Anglorura, et catholicae pacis ac veritatis cum universali ecclesia particeps existere gaudeat.J * DCCXXXI. A battle between the Picts and * Cro. Pic. V. An. 7G1. t Aiu Ul. 1 Beda. 1. 5. c 23. THE PICTS. 227 the Scots, where the Picts were defeated. A battle between the son of Hiiugus and the son of Congus ; but Bruidei conquered Talorcan flying. The nation of the Picts, at this time, both has a league of peace with the English nation, and may rejoice in being partaker of catholic peace and verity with the universal church. DCCXXXIII. Duncan Mac Selvaich dehono- ravit Forai [1. Toraic]], cum Brudonem ex ea traxit ; et eadem vice insulam QCulren] Rigi inva- sit.* DCCXXXIII. Duncan son" of Selvaich disho- noured Toraic, when Brudei he drew thereout ; and, at the same time, invaded the island of Cul- ren-Rigi. DCCXXXIV. Talorg Mac Congusa a fratre suo victus est, et traditur in manus Pictorum ; et * Am. UL and Pinkertons Advertlseimnt, 1794. 328 ANNALS OF ab illis magna [\. aqua] demersus est. Talorgan, filius Drostani, comprehensus alligatur juxta arcem Olia.* DCCXXXIV. Talorg MacCongus is conquered by his brother, and delivered into tlie hands of the Picts ; and by them drowned in a great water. Ta- lorgan, son of Drostan, being taken, is bound near the fortress Olia. DCCXXXV. Aongusa Mac Fergusa, rex Pic- torum, vastavit regiones Dalriada ; et obtinuit Dunat, et combussit Creid [1. Creic] ; et duos filios Selvaich catenis alligavit, viz. Dongal et Feraach : Et paulo post Brudens Mac Angusa Mac Fergusa obiit.t .— . Bellum Tuini Ouirbre at Calaros inter Dalriada et Fortrin, et Talorgan Mac Fergusa Mac Airccellai fugientem cum exercitu persequitur. In qua congressione multi nobiles conceciderunt.J • An. Ul. •\ lU. Creie, according to mr Macpherson, " seems in Lorn," and Dunat " on the coast of Lorn or Argyle." X Tbi. After Calaros the MS. reads " Upper line." For THE PICTS. 2S9 DCCXXXV. Hungus, son of Wergust, king of the Picts, wasted the regions of Dalriada ; and won Dunat, and burned Creic; and bound with chains the two sons of Selvaich, viz. Dongal and Ferrach : and soon after Brudei, son of Hungus, son of Wergust, died. . The battle of Tuini-Ouirbre at Culros, between Dalriada and Fortrin {i. e. the Scots and Picts) ; and Talorgan^ son of Wergust, son of Air- cellaij flying, is pursued with the army : in which engagement many nobles fell. DCCXXXVI. Died Edwyn [r. Elpin], king of the Picts.* Twini Ouirhre, according to mr Pinkerton, we are to " read (the strange corruption of) Cnuice Coirpre I calatros ne atq lijidu.^'' See Annals of the Scots^ ad an. • Caradoc, Historic of Cambria^ p. 15. No such monarch, however, as either Edwyn or Elpin, appears, from any other authority, to have died in this year. In the Ulster Annals^ at 775)5 is " Eilpin^ king of the Saxons^ died ;" where Saxons is a manifest mistake for Picts. So that here Edwyn may be right, and Picts a mistake for Saxons, 230 ANNALS OF DCCXXXIX. Talorgiiu Mac Drostau, rex Ahafoitle, demersus est ab Aongus.* DCCXXXIX. Talorgan, son of Drostan, king of Abafoitle, is drowned by Hungus. DCCXL. iEdilbaldus, rex Merciorum, per impiam fraudem vastabat partem Nordanbymbro- rum ; eratque rex eorum Eadberctus occuj)atus, cum suo exercitu contra Pictos.t DCCXL. Etbelbald, king of the Mercians, through impious fraud, wasted part of the Nor- thumbrians ; and their king Edbert was occupied with his army against the Picts. • An, UL Original Atfoitk : Q. Athol, written Adtheodk^ in the ancient tract De situ Albania, and Athochlach, in the Cronica Pictorum. "t" Beda, L. 5, c. ult. THE PICTS. 2S1 DCCXLI. Percussio Dariada ab Eneas Mac Fergusa.* DCCXLI. The invasion of Argyle by Hungus son of Wergust. DCCXLIV. Factum est praelium inter Pictos et Brittones.f DCCXLIV, A battle is fought between the Picts and the Britons. DCCL. Bellum Cato inter Pictores {J. Pictones^ et Brittones ; in quo cecidit Talorgan Mac Fergu- sa, frater Aongusa.J • An. Ul. + S. DuneL co. 104. These Britons were, doubtless, the Strath-Clyde Welsh. Mageoghanan, in his MS. history of Ireland, says, at 746, " The battle of Oicke, between the Picts and Brittons, was fought, where Talorgan M'Fergus, brother of king Enos, was slaine." Ij: An. Ul. " Not long after [750] there was a great battle fought betwixt the Brytaines and the Pictes at a place called 232 ANNALS OF — , — . Cudretns, rex orientaliuii) Siixonuin, sur- rcxit contra ^dibaldum regem et Oengusum. Ead- berctus campum Cyil cum aliis regionibus suo regno addidit.* DCCL. The battle of Cato, between the Picts and the Britons ; in which fell Talorgan the son of VVergust, the brother of Huugus. . Cudred, king of the west Saxons, rose against king^thelbald, and Hungus. Edbert added to bis dominion the plain Kyle, with other regions. DCCLVI. Eadberht rex QNorthumbriae] et Unust rex Pictorum duxerunt exercitum ad urbem Alcwith. Ibique Brittones inde conditionem ac- ceperuntf prima die mensis Augusti. Decima autem die ejusdem mensis interiit exercitus pene Magedarve, where Dalargan king of the Pictes was slain." Caradoc, p. 16. • Beda, Epitome sive auctarium, adjiuem historio'. This Cj/iHs, by Camden and others, supposed to be Kyle near Gal- loway. Cudred is repeatedly called king of the West Saxons in the Saxon Chronicle. + In dcditioncm recepernntt (Kilm.) lusher. THE PICTS. 233 omnis quern duxit de Ouonia ad Niwanbirig, id est, ad novam civitatem.* DCCLVI. Edbert king of Northumberland, and Hungus, king of the Picts, led an army to the city of Alcluyd : and there they received the Britons upon condition the first day of the month of Au- gust ; but, on the tenth day of the same month, almost all the army which he led from Ouoma to Newburgh, that is, the new city, perished. DCCLXI. Oengus Pictorum rex obiit, qui reg- ni sui principium usque ad finem facinore cruento tyrannus perduxit carnifex.t . Bredei filius Wirguist duo annis regnavit.J DCCLXI. Died Hungus king of the Picts, who • S. Dunel. co. 105. Niwanlirig is Neivhurgh ; a place of that name is in the old kingdom of Northumberland, near York. Edbert took the tonsure in 757' iChro, Sax.) •\- Beda, L. 5, c. 24. Simeon places the death of this mo- narch, whom he calls Unnst, in 759 : the Ulster annalist, who calls him " Aongusa Mac Fergusa,'^^ in 760. ^ Cro, Pic. AKNALS OF [Limself from]] the beginmng to the end «f Us rdtgn with bloody trickfidBeM, a tynat aid . Brodd the mb «f Wirgrist reigned two rears. DCCLXIII. Bndde rex F. Pie. t ^K. CL Hfl^ «r Aad, «m kuf oT the Scots : OnMh, loBgof tbc Picts. pen XTTV. iUczBl idn^ timt to Btonhrnr^ iflm w jiJ . to t&r ^os: ^k tiie DCCLXXT. Bex Pktoram Cpwdi «x > E2|iur fifins Wnmi tzilMs amb et «2ium rL&uibj t IdoDb oa. 107. -^ 77^ Mors Onaai xex [1 sqgi»| flft^ !■■■ *" ill rr - TTi ' iMt Ow tii ii t^>in g. . 7% 23G ANNALS OF DCCLXXV. Kenneth king of the Picts is snatched out of the whirlpool of this filthy life. . Alpin son of Wroid reigned three years and a half. DCCLXXVI. Bellum Druing, iterum in eodem anno, inter Dalnarai ; in quo cecidit Cineoh Clairge Mac Cahasai, et Dungal O Fergusa Fortraim. To- inaltach Mac Jurcchtai et Eacha Mac Fiachna vic- tores eraut.* DCCLXXVI. The battle of Druing, a second time in the same year, between Dalnarai ; in which fell Kenneth son of Cahasai, and Dungal son of Wirgust of Fortrain. Tomaltach son of Jurechtai and Eacha son of Fiachna were victors. • An. Ul. This article seems very confused : perhaps the annalist intended to describe a battle between Dalriada and Fortrain (j. e. Scots and Picts) : perhaps, also, it happened in Ireland. THE PICTS. 237 DCCLXXIX. Eilpin king of Saxons [r, Picts] died.* . Drest filius Talorgen quatuor vel quinque annis regnavit.f . Drust son of Talorgan reigned four or five years. DCCLXXXII. Duvtalarg, rex Pictorum citra Monah, mortuus [est]. J • An. Ul. t C'ro. Pic. X An. UU The annalist means the Southern Picts, of the succession of whose kings we know little or nothing. Father Innes considers this Dustalo7-g^ as written in the Scotish lists, a visible error for Drest and Talorgan, who, he says, reigned together. The Pictish chronicle, however, does not support this assertion ; so that Diistalorg might be a different man. After this Dustalorg the register of St Andrews adds " Eoga^ nan filius Hungus tribus annis ;" and sir James Balfour, from the same authority, speaks of " the little, but ancient priory of Portmock, founded by Eogachmen, king of the Picts, . . . anno 1 regni sui." (Sibbalds History of Fife, p. 110.) These 238 ANNALS OF DCCLXXXII. Duvtalarg, king of the Picts on this side of the Moun'th, died. DCCLXXXIII. Talorgen filius Onnist duo an- nis et dimidium [}, dimidio] regnavit.* DCCLXXXIII. Talorgan son of Oeugus reign- ed two years and a half. DCCLXXXVI. Conaul filius Tarla quinqueau- nis regnavit. t DCCLXXXVI. Conal son of Tarla reigned five years. DCCLXXXIX. Battle betweene the Pightes, facts, however, require more ancient and authentic testimony than that register, if, indeed, we could get a sight of it. • Cro. Pic. t f'>'- THE PICTS. 239 where Conall Mac Teige [f. Tarla or Terle] was van- quished, yett went away ; and Constantin was con- queror.* DCCXCI. CoQn^stantin filius Wrguist triginta quinque [1. trigjnta^ annis regnavit.'l' • An, Ul The MS. has 788, and adds, under 789, " The battle of Conall and Constantin is written here, in other books." Mr Pinkerton, who professes to have collated his extracts " three times with the IMS." has, in both instances, Donall and Domall. His copy, therefore, is not free from errors any more than John stones. •f- Cro. Pic. " Constantin filius Fergiisa 42 annis. Hie ffidificavit Dunc'kelden.'*'* Nomina regum. Alexander I\lill, canon of Dunkeld, and, afterward, abbot of Cambuskenneth, and first president of the court of session, in his account of the bishops of Dunkeld, extant in a MS. of the advocates-library, relates that this Constantine (whom he calls Constantine III.) king of the Picts, did, at the instance of Adomnan, abbot of Hy, institute at that place a monastery of Culdees, in honour of St Columba, the patron-saint of that nation, about the year 729 [792.] See Keiths Catalogue^ p. 46. For this rambling assertion, however, he could have no possible authority, as Adomnan died in 703, {An. Ul.) above fourscore years, that is, before Constantine ascended the throne. An anonymous life, also, of St Cuthbert, cited by Usher (p. 368), " ex historiis Hiberniensium," asserts Columba to have been the first bishop of Dunkeld, and to have there educated St Cuthbert when a child : which is no less false and ridiculous, St Columba being dead several centuries before St Cuthbert was born. True it is^ 240 ANNALS OF DCCXCI. Coiistantine, son of Wirgust, reign- ed thirty years. DCCXCVI. EtlieIredrex[Northanhymbrorum] occisus est apud Cobre [1. Corebrygge*J, decimo quarto kalendas Maii. Osbald vero patricius a qui- busdam ipsius gentis principibus in regnum est constitutus, et post viginti septem dies omni regiae familiae, ac princij)um, est societate destitutus, fu- gatusque, et de regno expulsus, atque ad insu- 1am Lindisfarnensem cum paucis secessit, et inde ad regem Pictorum cum quibusdam a fratribus na^ vigio pervenit.f DCCXCVI. Ethelred, king of the Northum^ nevertheless, that the Scots (the successors of the Picts) held the memory of this holy man in great veneration to a late pe- riod ; which is evinced by the foundation of an abbey, in the island iEmonia, now Inch-Colm, in the Forth, by Alexander I. about the year 1122, dedicated to StColumba; and not, as mr David Macpherson has erroneously conceived, to another saint of the same, or a similar name. See Keiths Catalogue^ p. 236. • See the Cotton MS. Caligula A. VIII. fo. 30, b. •f- S. Dunel. co. 113. " Postoccisum /Ethelredum Nordan- 8 THE PICTS. 241 brians, was slain at Corbridge, the fourteenth of the calends of May. Osbald, verily, a nobleman, was, by certain princes of the same nation, appoint- ed to the kingdom ; and, after twenty-seven days, was deprived of all society of the royal family and princes, and banished, and expelled out of the king- dom, and, with a few attendants, retired to the island of Lindisfarne, and thence, with certain of his brothers, came to the king of the Picts in a ship. DCCCXX. Constantin Mac Fergus king of Fortren mortuus [^est~\* humbrorum regem et Scoti tractum ilium, qui Galwallije, seu Gallovidiae, ab eis nomen accepit, et Picti Laudoniam occu- passe." O'FIaherty, p. 483. According, also, to Innes, " About the end of this age, and the beginning of the next, the Picts possessed themselves of Galloway" (p. 97). Neither of these writers, however, cites the least authority, nor does it appear why they should particularly fix upon this aera ; unless the fabulous Polychronicon (quoted by the latter, p. 161) should be thought sufficient for that purpose. The passage from IMalmesbury, cited under 790, seems to prove no such thing. * Cro. Pic. VOL. I. R 242 ANNALS OF DCCCXXI. Unuist filius Wrguist duodecini annis regnavit.* DCCCXXI. Ocngus, son of Wrgust, reigned twelve years. DCCCXXXIV. Aongus Mac Fergus Qrectius • Cro. Pic. " Hungus filius Fergusa 10 an. Hie fedifi- cavit Kilrijmont.'''* Nomina rcgum. Of this foundation the following particulars of a supposititious charter are communi- cated by sir Robert Sibbald, from " the extracts out of the old register of St Andrews" (.History ofFife^ p. C8), and inserted in the appendix to volume I. of Pinkertons Enqtiiry^ p. 4C0 : but, being a palpable and ridiculous forgery, of a late date, (this " old register" being manifestly a compilation of the fif- teenth century, or, perad venture, of a still more recent period,) shall not be permitted to pollute the pages of this authentic chronology. John de Fordun, a credulous and mendacious fabricator, undeserving the honourable name of historian, pretends that in the time in which Hungus reigned, and, in Westsex, £thel« wulf, the head of whose eldest son Athelstan, fixed upon a stake, the victory of the battle being obtained, the king carried with him into his kingdom (p. 300). He, afterward, relates the engagement with more circumstance ; but is unsupported by any Englisli historiographer : and, indeed, that the whole story is perfectly fabulous. See Ushers AniiquHates, p. 373. THE PICTS. 243 Oengus filius WrgcstH king of Fortren mortuus CestJ* . Drest filius Constantin, et Talorgen filius Wthoil, tribus annis conregnaverunt.t — . Drust, son of Constantine, and Talorgan son of Wthoil, reigned together three years. DCCCXXXVI. Uren filius Unuist tribus an- nis regnavit.j; DCCCXXXVI. Uven son of Oengus reigned three years. DCCCXXXVII. Alpin filius Heoghed An- • An. Ul. t C^o. Pic. X Cro. Pic. This " Uven filius Unuist" is the " Owen Mac Angus" of the Ulster annals. See below, anno 839. 244? ANNALS OF nuine [rex Scottorum], tribus annis [regnavit]. Hie occisus est in Gallewethia, postquam earn penitus destruxit et devastavit : et hinc translatum est regnum Scotorum in regnum Pictorum.* DCCCXXXVII. Alpin son of Eeochy the poi- sonous [king of the Scots], reigned three years. He was slain in Galloway, after he [had] entirely destroyed and wasted it : and hence the kingdom of the Scots was translated into the kingdom of the Picts. DCCCXXXIX. Battle of the gentiles upon Fortren-men ; wherein fell Owen Mac Angus, and Bran Mac Angus, Hugh Mac Boan, et alii pene in- numerabiles. • Nomina regum, " Deinde reges de semine Fergus reg- naverunt in Brunalhan^ sive Brunhere, usque ad Alpinum fi- lium EochaV^ {De situ Alhanioe.) He is, elsewhere, called " Alpin filius Eochal venenosL" {Cro. regum.) See, also, Chro. de Mailros, annis 804, 834, 841, 843. That " the name of the father of Alpin is lost beyond all recovery," is an- other of " the pitiful shifts and perversions used in this busi- ness." See Pinkertons Enquiry^ II. 132. THE PICTS. 245 •• Wrad filius Bargoit tribus annis regnavit.* -. Wrad, son of Bargoit, reigned three years. DCCCXLI. Bred uno anno regnavit.f DCCCXLI. Bred reigned one year. — . Kinath Mac Alpin sexdecim annis super Scotos regnavit, destructis Pictis. Hie mira callidi- tate duxit Scotos de Argadia in terram Pictorum. J • Cro. Pic. •\ Ibi. This Wrad, or Wroid, and Bred, in the Nomina regum are called " Ferat filius Batot 3 an." and " Brude filius Ferat 1 raense :" to whom are there added, " Kinat filius Ferat 1 mense ;" " Brude filius Fotel 2 annis ;" and " Drust filius Ferat 3 annis. Hie occisus est apud Forteviot ; secundum alios, apud Sconam.^* This Wrad, or Ferat, and his sons, seem to have made several attempts against Kenneth Mac Alpin, for the recovery or possession of the Pictish crown ; some of which were, temporarily, successful : but all, no doubt, ended in their destruction. $ Nomina regum. " Kined filius hujus Alpini primus Scottorum annis sexdecim in Pictinia feliciter regnavit." Dc 24G ANNALS OF . Kcnnetli son of Alpin reigned six years over tlie Scots, the Picts being destroyed. He, by wonderful cunning, led the Scots out of Argjle into the land of the Picts. DCCCLVIII. Cinaoh Mac Ailpin, kinge of Pihtes, and Adulf, king of Saxons, morttd sunt.* situ Alhaniae.-—^^ Kinadius filius Alpin primus Scottorum rexit feliciter istam annis sexdecim Pictaviam. Pictavia, autem, a Pictis est nominata, quos, ut diximus, Kinadius delevit Deus, enim, pro merito sua malitia; alienos ac otiosos hsereditate dig- natus est facere : quia illi non solum deum, missum ac prae- ceptum spreverunt, sed et in jure aequitatis aliis aequi pariter noluerunt." • All. Ul. " Mortuus est tumore ani [Anglice, a fistula], idus Februarii feria tercia [i. e. Tuesday the 13th of February], in Forthuiriabaichf* [hodie Fortcviotl. " Primus in Albania fertur regnasse Kinedus, Filius Alpini prajlia multa gerens. Expulsis Pictis regnaverat octo bis annis ; Apud Forieivct mortuus ille fuit." Chro. clegiacum. Caradoc places the death of " Cemoyth king of the Picts" in the preceding year. THE PICTS. 247 DCCCLXII. Daniel Mac Ailpin, king of Fights, died.* DCCCLXV. Tualial Mae Artgusa, archbishop of Fortren, [e. e. of the Northern or Fifeshire Picts], and abbot of Duncallen (now Dunkeld), dorjnivit.f ■ » Aulaw and his nobili|:ie went to Fortren [_i. e. Pictland], together with the foreigners of Ireland and Scotland ; and spoiled all the Cruthei. s [Picts], and brought their hostages with them.f DCCCLXX. Aulaw and Ivar came again to • An. Ul. This was Donald, the younger brother of Ken- neth. t IhL X Ihi. Crnthens, the distinguishing appeUative, in these annals, of the Irish Picts, seems, in this instance, to have, in- advertently, escaped the translator instead of Fights (or Picts of Albany) : Cruthne, in the original Irish, being, in fact, common to both ; but the distinction, at the same time, every where observed, in the Latin part of these annals, between CrutJieni and Plcti, or Pictones ; as it is, likewise, in every other instance but the present, in the translation. S48 ANNALS OF Dublin out of Scotland ; and brought with them great booties from Englishmen, Britons, and Fights, in their two hundred ships, with many of their peo- ple captives.* DCCCLXXV. The cominge of the Fights upon the Black-Galls, where great slaughter of the Fights was had. Ostin Mac Aulaw, king of Nor- mans, was falsely killed j}er Albanos,\ . QFaganorum]3 exercitus Hreopedene de- serens, in duas se dividit turmas ; cujus altera pars cum Healfdene in regionem Northanhymbrorum perrexit, et ibi hyemavit juxta flumen quod dicitur Tine; et totam Northanhymbrorum regionem suo subdidit dominio ; nee non et Fictos et Strat-Clut- tenses depopulati sunt.J • lU. ■f lU. They add, by interlineation, ** per dolum occisus est." TheBIacke-Galls (literally, The Hack foreigners) were the Nor- mans, or Northmen, Danes or Norwegians : as Fin-Gall^ or The "white stranger s^ were the English-Irish. See these annals at the year 1034. . ."J: Asserius, p. 27. See, likewise, Ethclwerdus, p. 844 ; THE PICTS. 249 . The army of the Pagans [quitting] Rep- ton, divided itself into two troops ; of which one part marched with Halfden, into the region of the Northumbrians, and there took his winter-quarters near the river which is called Tyne ; and subjected the whole region of the Northumbrians to his domi- nion : they, likewise, depopulated both the Picts and the Strath-Clydians. DCCCLXXVI. Constantin Mac Cinaoh, rex Pictorum Qmortuus est]].* DCCCLXXVI. Constantino, son of Kenneth, king of the Picts, died. H. Huntingdoniensis, p. 349 ; and Ushers Antiquitates, p. 375. *' At this time," says Caradoc, (in the year, that is, 871,) '* the Danes destroied the towne of Alclyde . . . and one king or leader of them tooke the counttie of Northumberland, and he and his people did much trouble the Pictes." • An, Ul, 250 ANNALS 01- DCCCLXXVIII. Hiigli Mac Cinaoh, rex Pic- toruni, a sociis suis occisus est.* DCCCLXXVIII. Hugh, son of Kenneth, king of tlie Picts, killed by his companions. DCCCCIV. Ivar Ohivar killed by the men of Fortren, with a great slaughter about him.f DCCCCXXXVII. Facta est Cab iEthelstano rege AnglorumH pugna immanis barbaros contra in loco Brunandune, unde et vulgo usque ad praesens • lU. " Ed Mac Kinet uno anno [regnavit]. Interfectus in bello in Strathalin, a Girg [f. Grig] filio Dungal." No- mina rcgiini. -f- Ibi. " The Saxon chronicle," according to mr Pinkerton, " says that, in 924, Edward the elder went to Bedccanxvillan in PiKLAXD, where he built a strong town on the borders" {Enquiry^ II. 217) : a striking proof of gross ignorance, or wil- ful falsification. The " Badecanw)'llan on Peace-lond" of the Saxon chronicle, is a place now called Uakcwcll, in the Peak (not PiK) OF Derby shiue ; a famous place, and built by Edward the elder, as Camden says from Marianus. See the original passage, and Gibsons No?ninn?n locornm cxplicaiio. THE PICTS. 251 bcllum pracnominatur magnum : turn siiperantiir barbaraj passim turbaj nee ultra dominari, post quos ultra pellit oceani oris, nee non colla subdunt Scoti pariterque Picti, uno solidantur Britannidis arva.* • Ethelwerdus, L. 4, c. 5. " Complevit dies suos inclytus rex Edwardus, Ethelstanus que filius ejus successerat. Contra quem cum Analaphus filius Sitrici, quondam regis Northan- humbriorum, insurgeret, et bellum ferocissimum multorum viribus moliretur, conspirantibusque cum dicto Analapho Con- stantino rege Scotorum, et Eugenio rege Cumbrorum, ac alio- rum regum comitumque barbaric infinita, omnes cum subjectis nationibus at Brunford in Northanhumbria contra Athelsta- num regem convenissent, arctissimo fcedere conjurati, et dictus rex Anglorum cum sue exercitu occurrisset : licet praefatus barbarus infinitam multitudinem Danorum, Noreganoriim, Scotorum, ac Pictorum contraxisset, vel vincendi diffidentia, vel gentis suae versutia maluit noctumis tenebris insidias ten- dere, quara aperto praslio dimicare. Irruit ergo subito super Anglos nocturne tempore ; . . . cum clamor morientium lon- gius personaret, ut rex ipse, qui plus uno milliari a loco dis- tabat, suusque totus exercitus qui circa ilium in tenteriis sub die dormiebat, evagilans atque inteUigens citius armarentur aurora jam illuscescente, adlocumque caedis appropinquans pa- ratus et promptus fieret ad invadendura contra barbaros, qui tota nocte laboraverant, et jam lassos et laxatos ab ordine ofFendentem contigit regem Ethelstanum, qui Westsaxones omnes ducebat, contra aciem Analaphi occurrisse, ac cancel- larium suum Turketulum, qui Londonienses, et omnes Mer- cios trahebat, contra aciem Constantini obviasse : . . . Cumque diutissime ac dirissime dimicaretur et neutra pars cederet, can- cellarius Turketulus, assumptis secuni paucis Londoniensibus, quos fortissimos noverat, et centurione Wicciorura Singino 252 ANNALS OF DCCCCXXXVII. A cruel battle is fought by Athelstan, king of the English, against the barba- rians in the place [[called^ Brunandune [[otherwise, Brunanbyrig, or Brunburgh^, whence, also, vul- garly, it is, at present, surnamed the great battle : then are the barbarous multitudes everywhere van- quished, nor further to domineer, whom, afterward, he drives beyond the coasts of the sea ; the Scots, also, as well as the Picts, lay down their necks, and the fields of Britain are consolidated. nomine . . . pervius ipse involat in adversos ; penetransque cuneos hostiles prosternit a dextris et a sinistris. Jam Orcaden- sium, ac Pictorum globos pertransierat, . . . jam cuneos Cum- brorum ac Scotorum cum suis sequacibus perforabat." Ingul- phus, p. 877. The Scotish, or Pictish, king, Constantine, was slain in this battle ; and, upon his death, Anlaf and his army took to flight. See more of it in the Annals of Cumberland* THE PICTS. 253 *^* After this period no mention is ever made of the Picts by any historian, except what will be foundj some centuries later, in the " Annals of Gal- loway." In some laws, indeed, of William the con- queror, printed by Lambarde and Selden, this peo- ple is spoken of as still existing, and even among the subjects of the royal legislator : " Statuimus imprimis super omnia . . . pacem, et securitatem, et concordiam, judicium, et justitiam inter Anglos et Normannos Francos et Britones Wallise et Cornu- biae, Pictos et Scotos Albaniae, similiter inter Francos, &c." But the spuriousness and forgery of these pretended laws, which are, by no means, the only ones of that description of which both English and Scots make their boast, entitles them to nothing but ridicule and contempt. APPENDIX. NAMES AND SUCCESSION OF THE PICTISH KINGS From the commencement of the fifth century. Began to reign. 406. Drust I. the son of Erp or Wirp.* 451. Talorc I. the son of Aniel. 455. Nechtan I. surnamed Morbet, the son of Erp. 480. Drust II. surnamed Gurthinmoch. • The Crojiica de originc Pictoru772., and other authorities, give the names of 36 kings, predecessors of this Drust, but as their reigns cannot, without the utmost violence of conjecture, be reduced to chronology, if, in fact, all, or any of them, ever existed, it will be sufficient to mention them in this note : Cruidne, or Cruithne, the son of Cinge, or Kinne, father of the Picts dwelling in this island ; Circui, Fidaich, Fortreim, Flo- claid. Got, Cecircum, Fibaid (his seven sons :) Gedeolgudach, Denbacan, Olfinecta, Guididgaedbrecach, Gestgurtich, Wur- gest, Brudebout (who had thirty sons of the name of Brude,which reigned 150 years in Ireland and Albany) ; Gilgid, Tharan, Morleo, Deocilunan, Cimoiod the son of Arcois ; Deord, Blici- bliterith, Dectoteric brother of Diu ; Usconbuts ; Carvorst ; Devartavois ; Uist ; Ru ; Garmaithboc, Vere, Brcth son of Buthut, Vipoignameht, Canutulachma, Wradech vechta, Gar- naichdi uber, Talore son of Achivis. APPENDIX. 255 Began to reign. 510. Galananetelich, 522. Dadrust. 52S. Drust III. the son of Girom. 524. The same^ with Drust IV. the sou of Udrust 529. Drust III. (alone.) 534;, Gartnach I. the son of Girom. 54 L Gailtram, the son of Girom. 542. Talorc II. the son of Muircholaich. 553, Drust V. the son of Munait. 554. Galem I. the son of Cenaleph. 555* The same, with Brudei. 556* Brudei I. the son of Melchon. 586. Gartnacli II. the son of Domelch. 597* Nechtan II. the nephew (or grandson) of Erp. 617* Kenneth I. the son of Lutrin. Q36, Gartnaich III. the son of Wid. 640. Brudei II. tlie son of Wid. 645. Talorc III. their brother. 657* Talorgan, the son of Anfrith. 661. Gartnachj [IV.] the son of Donnel. 667. Drust VI. his brother. 674. Brudei III. the son of Bili. 695. Taran, the son of Entifidich. 699. Brudei IV. the son of Derili. 256 APPENDIX. Began to reign. 710. Neclitan III. the son of Derili. 725. Drust VII. and Alpin reigned together. 730. Hungus I. the son of Wirgust. 761. Brudei V. the son of Wirgust. 763. Kenneth, the son of Wirdech. 775. Alpin, the son of Wroid. 779* Drust VIII. the son of Talorgan. 783. Talorgan, the son of Hungus. 786. Conal, the son of Tarla. 791* Constantine, the son of Wrgust. 821. Hungus, the son of Wrgust. 833. Drust, [IX.] the son of Constantine, and Talorgan, the son of Uthoil, reigned together. 836» Ewen, the son of Hungus. 839* Wrad, the son of Bargoit. Kenneth Mac-Alpin, king of Scots. 842. Bred, or Bruidei. 843. Kenneth Mac-Alpin, king of Albany. *^* The under-mentioned kings are unnoticed in the Cronica Pictorum, or old Scotish lists : Cenelath [Kenneth],diedin579. An.UL Bruidei ; slain by the sons of Aodhain 628. Ibi. 8 APPEl^JDIX. ^7 Elpin ; died 736. Caradoc. Talorgan Mac Drostan, king of Aha- foitle ; died 738. An. Ul Duvtalargj rex Pictorum citra Monahy died 781. Ibi. Lists of the kings both of the Scots and of the Picts, more ancient at leasts than those of Fordun and Wyntownj are inserted in the Scala Chronica, written about IS65* V. Leland, Col. I. 5SS. VOL. r. 958 APPENDIX. APPENDIX. No. II. ANNALS OF THE CRUTHENS OR IRISH PICTS.* From the Annales Ultonienses, or Annates of Ulster. Sloan MSS. DLXIII. The battle of Moindore-Lothair upon * These Picts, or Cruithens, appear to have been settled in part of the province of Ulster ; and, according to O'Conor's map, in Donegal. He places another colony of them in Con- naught and Galway. (See his Dissertations, a very fanciful, at the same time, and ridioilous book, p. 179, and Pinker- tons Enquiry I. 337-) They are frequently mentioned in Adomnans Life of St Columba, and in the ancient legends of St Patrick, where they are, uniformly, distinguished from the Picts of Albany, or North Britain, by the peculiar appellation of Cruthinii, Crutheni, or Cruithnei. See O'Flaherty's Ogy- gta, p. 188. The aera of their original settlement, or whence they came, is equally uncertain, as in the case of their Alba- nian fellow-countrymen. According to the Cronica Pictorum, thirty kings of the name of Brudei, descendants of Brudebout, APPENDIX. ^59 the Cruhens, * by the Nells of the north. Bacdan Mac-Cin, with two [other chiefs] of the Cruhens, fought it against the rest of the Cruhens. The cattle and booty of the Eolargs were given to them of Tirconnell and Tirowen, conductors, for their leading, as wages. DLXXIV. Bellum Tola et Tortola, in regioni- bus Cruithne. DCXXIX. Bellum Fedha Evin, in quo Maiol- caich Mac-Skanlain, rex Cruithne, victor fuit : ceciderunt Dalriada : Coin Ceni rex Dalriada ceci- ditf reigned over Ireland and Albany for the space of 150 years. All the Picts obtained the name of Cruithne from that of their first king, whom that old Chronicle calls, " Pater Pictorum habitantium in hac insula," and makes to reign 100 years. • The t is obliterated by the copyist, improperly, it would seem. This was the battle of Mona Dar, or Ordemone ; of which St Columbkil, being at the court of Connal MacCom- gil, king of the British Scots, gave that monarch an exact narrative the very day and hour it was fought : prophesying, moreover, how Echniuslaid, king of the Cruithens, being conquered, sitting in his chariot, had escaped. See Annales Scottorum, ad an. -}• " Malcaecus filius Scandalii Cruthiniorum sen Pictorum, de stirpe Hiri Dynasta adversus Connadium Kerr Dalrieda regem in praelio ad Feaoin victor. In quo occubuerunt Dicollus rex generis Pictorum ; Rigallanus ex Conango, Falbeus ex Achaio 8 ^60 APPENDIX. DCXLV. Loceni Mac-Finin, king of Crinthur, [f. Cruithne,] obiit. DCXLVI. The wounding of Scannal Mac-Becca Mac-Fiachracb, regis Cruithne. DCLXVI. Mors Maolcasich Mac-Skannail liking]] of the Cruithis. Maolduin Eoch Jarlaith, rex Cruithne, moritur. DCLXVIII. Bellum Fersti, betweene Ulster and the Cruithens, ubi cecidit Cathasach Mac- Lurgeni. DCLXXIII. Mors Scannlain Mac-Fingni regis OMeith, (again in 674 (1675;].) DCLXXXI. Combustio regni in Dun,* viz. Dungall Mac-Scannail, rex Cruithne, &c. DCLXXXII. Bellum Rathmore apud Magh- Iine,-|- contra Britones; ubi cecidit Caesathasao Mac-Maoiledum, rex Cruithne ; and Ultan the Sonne of Dicolla ; et jugulatus Muirin Ammaon. duo Aidani regis, et Ostricus filius Albruit Saxenicus princeps cuip magna aliorum strage." Tigernac. {Ogygia, p. 477') The father of this king was, probably, that Scandlanus filius Colmanni, who, being kept in chains by Hugh, king of Ire- land, was visited by St Columb. See Adorn. 1. 1. c. 11. * Q. Doon in the county of Limerick ? The names of many places in Ireland begin "with Dun. ■f There are two places of this name, one in the county of Carlow, the other in I\Ieath. APPENDIX. 261 DCXCII. Dalrada populati Qr. depopulati]] sunt by the Cruithenes and Ulster. DCCVIII. Canis Cuarain, r^x Cruitline, jugu- latio. DCCX. Jugulatus Fiachia Mac-Dungarte a Cruithne. DCCXXXI. Bellum inter Cruithne et Dal- riada, at Marbuilg, ubi Cruithne devicti. DCCXLI. Bellum Droma Cathvaoil, inter Cruithne et Dalriada by Jurechtach. DCCXLIX. Jugulatio Cathasai Mac-Aillila, ut Ruhbehechj * king of the Cruithines. DCCLVI. Combustio Cille-more, by the tribe of Crimthan ^f. Cruithen.]] DCCLXXIV. Flahruo Mac-Fiachrach, rex Cruine \y. Cruithne^], mort[[uus est.]] DCCCVIII. The killing of Hugh Mac-Conor, and Qf. in]] the land of Cova, t by the Cruihins. J *#* The Irish Picts which the Brytains called Y Gvrydhyl Phictiaid, did overrunne the ile of • Forte Rusky bridge, in the County of Roscommon. •f Cove is a village in the county of Cork. :{:»It is not certain that Cruihins is always mistakenly writ- ten for Cruithens, as there was a clan of O Criohains, which, likewise, had a king. J^^(i2 APPENDIX. Mon,* and were driven thence by Casvvalhon Lhawhir, that is, Caswalhon with the long hand, who slew Serigi their king with his owne hands, a Lhan y Gwydhy], which is, the Irish-church at Holihead.f Saint Patrick, who died in 492, aged 120, in his epistle to Coroticus, a Welsh king, repeatedly men- tions these Picts. (See Wai*es S, Patricii opuscuUif p. 27, 28. • Anglesey. -f- Sir John Prise's " Description of Wales," prefixed to The Historic of Cambria, c. [158], p. 14. END OP THE FIRST VOLUME. KDIMIUUGH : riilNTliD UY BALLANTYNi; AXD CO. iLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 0114477424 341.01