History of the Scottish Nation

Chapter I. Union Of The Picts And Scots

— REIGN OF KENNETH MACALPIN. Importance of the Union, 1 — Its Way prepared by great Battles, 1 — The historic Career of the Picts closed, 2 — Legends of their Massacre fake, 3 — Causes of permanence of Union, 5 — Two Peoples, but one Faith, 6 — After War comes Legislation, 6 — The "Code Macalpin," 7 — Early Laws relating to Land, 8 — Specimens of the Code Macalpin, 9 — The Code the Compilation of several Ages, 12 — Chair of Columba and Stone of Destiny placed at the Centre of the Kingdom, 13 — Death of Kenneth Macalpin, 15 — His Burial, 16.

Chapter II. Donald

— CONSTANTIN — FIRST BATTLE WITH THE DANES. With Kenneth Macalpin the Light departs, 17 — Clearness of the Columban Age compared with following Centuries, 18 — Scotland retrograding, 19 — The Scots must be placed on the Anvil, 20 — King Donald, 21 — Two Portraits of him, 22 — King Constantin, 23 — Quells a Disturbance in Lochaber, 24— The Danes land on the Coast of Fife, 24 — Battle and Defeat of the Danes on the Leven, 25 — Danish Fleet in Balcombie Bay, 26 — Bloody Battle at Crail, 26 — Defeat of Scots and Death of King Constantin, 27 — Burial of Constantin, 28 — Contrasted Modes of Emigration in Ancient and Modern Times, 29 — Shall Scotland be blotted out and Daneland substituted ? 31.

Chapter III. Eth

— GRIG — PICTISH PERSECUTION OF COLUMBAN CHURCH — TOLERATION. Outlook after the Battle of Crail, 32— Accession of " Swiftfoot," 32— A Shoal of "Sea Monks," 33 — Accession of Grig, or Gregory, 33 — Gives Freedom to the Scottish Church, 34— First Use of the Term "Scottish Church," 35— The " Pictish Bondage" of Scottish Church, 36 — King Nectan and a new Easter Calendar, 38 — Nectan's Clergy shorn in the Roman Fashion, 40 — The Recalcitrants expelled, 40 — Nectan's Edict revoked by Gregory, 42 — Evils of Nectan's Policy, 42 — Columbites recalled by Kenneth Macalpin 43 — Nectan dies in a Monk's Cowl, 44. b VI CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Gregory' Of Scotland And Alfred Of England

— NORSEMEN — THE FADING COLUMBAN LAMP. A strong Hand at the Helm, 46— Treason among the Picts, 47— Gregory chastises them, 47 — Gregory's Exploits on the Border, 48 — His Conflicts with the Danes and the Britons, 49 — Crosses to Ireland, 49 — Ravages of Hardnute in North of England, 50— Expelled by Gregory, 51— Friendship betwixt Gregory and Alfred of England, 51 — Beauty of Alfred's Character, 52 — Adversities of his Youth, 53 — Illustrious Labours of his riper Years, 53 — Heads Army of Bible Translators, 54 — A dying Lamp, 55.

Chapter V

DONALD— CONSTANTIN — LOST BATTLES AND THEIR LESSONS. Accession of Donald, 57 — Return of the Danes, 57 — The Scottish Alliance with Alfred renewed, 58 — The Danes repulsed, 58 — A Danish Colony settled in Northumbria, 58 — Donald fights two Battles in Moray, 59 — His Death, 59 — Accession of Constantin, 59 — Under Constantin Scotland retrogrades, 60 — A National Assembly at Scone for the Reformation of the Church, 60 — Its Significance, 61 — Civil Divisions of Scotland, 61 — The Country known as Alban, 61 — Boundaries of the Kingdom of Alban, 61 — Out-lying Regions north and south of Alban, 62 — Saxonia on the south and Norwegia on the north, 62 — Divisions of the Kingdom of Alban, 62 — Names and Boundaries of its five Provinces, 63 — Subdivisions of the Province, 64 — Constantin joins the Danes against England, 65 — Is defeated in Battle, 65 — Invades England a second time, 65 — Stratagem of Anlaf, 66 — Battle of Brouny, 68 — Lesson of Defeat, 70 — Retreat of Constantin pursued by Athelstan, 71 — Scottish Boundary recedes to the Forth, 73 — Convention at Abernethy, 73 — Constantin abdicates and enters the Monastery of St Andrews, 73.

Chapter VI. Special Mission Of Scotland

— SYNOD OF SCONE — A TENTH CENTURY REFORMATION. The Silent Forces the Mightier, 75 — Power of Christianity is in the ratio of its simplicity, 76 — Shown in the Power of Columba's Mission, 77 — Sources of Scottish History, 78 — Adamnan's Life of Columba ; Book of Deer, &c, 78— Dr Johnson's eulogy, 80 — General Assembly of the Scottish Church at Scone, 81 — Independence of Scottish Church, 82 — Reformation on the lines of the Bible, 83 — Proceedings closed with an Oath to go forward in Reformation, 83 — Delays the Triumph of Rome, 85 — Revival, 85 — Columban Church in Existence and Action in the Twelfth Century, 85. CONTENTS. VII

Chapter VII. Destruction Of Early Scottish Literature

— THE COLUMBITES META- MORPHOSED — WAS IONA A ROMAN OR A PROTESTANT CHURCH ? Causes of the Destruction of Early Scottish Literature, 86 — The Columbites claimed in our day by Romanists, 87 — This a Hallucination, 88 — Iona and Rome contrasted in their Foundation-stone, 89 — Bede's testimony to the Columbites, 89 — Testimony of Columbanus, 90 — Iona and Rome contrasted in their Top-stone, 91 — The Columban Eucharist and the Romish Mass, 92 — Extraordinary Statement of Father Innes, 92 — Testimony of Claudius Scotus, 93 — The use of the terms "body and blood of Christ," "Altar," "Sacrifice," &c. ; no proof that the Church of Columba believed in Transubstantiation and the Mass, 95-98 — Cave on the Communion Tables of the Early Church, 99— Dr Lindsay Alexander on the Columbite Supper, 100, Footnote — Wooden Communion Tables in Early Irish Church, 101 — The Mass of the Primitive Church, 102 — What the phrase means and how it came into use, 103 — Still used in Eastern Church, 103 — No witness from the dead needed, 104.

Chapter VIII. Reigns Of Malcolm

I. — INDULF — DUFF — CULLEN — SCOTLAND'S ONE TALENT. Disorders repressed, 106 — Malcolm assassinated, 187 — Indulf ascends the Throne, 107— The Danes in Firth of Forth, 107— Battle at Cullen in which Indulf falls, 108— Edinburgh, 108— Duff the Black, 108— Change in Office of Abbot, 109 — Vigour of Duff, 110 — He is assassinated, 110— Cullen King, 111— His Profligacy and Death, 111 — Scotland's one Talent, Bible Christianity, 112 — Scotland trading with its one Talent, 113 — The rich harvest it yields it, 113 — The Scots burying their Talent in the Earth, 114.

Chapter IX. Reign Of Kenneth

— BATTLE OF LUNCARTY — HOUSE OF HAY — ALTERATION OF LAW OF SUCCESSION. Mission of the Norsemen, 116 — Kenneth III., 117 — State of the Hebrides, 117— A Norse Flotilla on the East Coast, 118— Battle of Luncarty, 119— The Scots flee, 119 — Arrested by Hay and his two Sons, 120 — Defeat turned into Victory, 120 — Historic Proofs of the Incident, 121 — Revival of Arts and Agriculture, 122 — Succession to the Crown : the Fittest chosen, 123 — Law of Succession changed, 124 — Death of Prince Malcolm, 125 — Story of King's Death, 126. CONTENTS.

Chapter X. Malcolm II

— CESSION OF LOTHIAN TO SCOTS — BATTLES OF MURTLACH AND BARRY' — KINGDOM OF SCOTIA. Evil Years, 127— Claimants to the Throne, 129— Malcolm II. mounts it, 129— His Character, by Fordun, 129— Battle of Carham, 130— Lothian ceded to Scotland, 130— Danish Fleet off the Spey, 131— Devastations, 132— Spread of the Danish Power in Scotland, 133— Battle of Murtlach, 134— Growth of the Danish Power, 135 — The Danes aim at Subjugation of all Scotland, 136 —A Danish Fleet at the Red Head, 137— Danish Ravages, 137— The Scots Muster at Barry, 137 — Battle of Barry, 138 — Death of Camus, 139 — " Kingdom of Alban " dropped, and " Kingdom of Scotia " substituted, 140 — Last of Male Line of Fergus, 141 — Malcolm II. dies by the Dagger, 142 — The Laurel entwined with Cypress, 142.

Chapter XI. Duncan And Macbeth

This Era in itself trivial, 143 — Lighted up by a great Genius, 144 — Who was Macbeth? 144 — His Genealogy and History, according to Scottish Chroniclers, 145 — According to the Orkneyinga Saga, 147 — Grandeur of Shakespeare's Drama, 148 — We accept the Fiction of the Poet in place of the real History of the Time, 149— Macbeth a good Ruler, 150— His Gifts to the Culdees, 150 — Nevertheless Nemesis follows, 151 — Return of Malcolm, Son of Duncan, 153 — War for the Throne, 153 — Macbeth is slain, 154 — Malcolm ascends the Throne, 154.

Chapter XII. Malcolm Canmore And William The Conqueror

With Malcolm Canmore a new Age, 155— Invaders in Frock and Cowl, 156— Battle of Hastings, 156 — William of Normandy, 157 — England receives a New Master, 157— War betwixt Malcolm Canmore and William the Conqueror, 158— William invades Scotland, 159— William at Abernethy, 160— Terrible Devastations, 161— William fails to conquer Scotland, 162— His Failure a Blessing to both Countries, 162.

CHAPTER XII.

* QUEEN MARGARET— CONFERENCE WITH CULDEE PASTORS. A Royal Closet, 164— Malcolm Tower at Dunfermline, 164— Arrival of Edgar Aetheling and his Sister Margaret at Queensferry, 165— Character of Mar garet's piety, 166-Her Fastings, Charities, and Religious Acts 168-Her CONTENTS. IX Church Reforms, 170 — Conference with Culdee Pastors, 170 — Bishop Turgot, 171 — Scottish Church of Eleventh Century, Anti-Papal, 172 — Points debated in the Conference : 1st, Uniformity of Rite, 172— 2nd, The Lenten Fast, 172 — 3rd, The Lord's Day, 173— 4th, The Question of Marriage, 175— 5th, The Question of the Eucharist, 176 — Culdee "Lord's Supper," 178 — Irish Culdees and the " Supper," 179— The " Hour of Temptation " to Scotland, 180.

Chapter XIII. Glimpses Of The Columban Church In The Middle Ages

— EASTER CONTROVERSY — FALL OF IONA. Continuity of Columban Church, 182— Glimpses of it in Middle Ages, 183— Its Golden Age, 184 — Its first Ebb, 185 — Marked Decadence in Eighth Century, 185 — Expulsion of Columbite Clergy from Pictish Territory, 186 — An Eighth Century Exodus, 187 — Persecutions and Sufferings of the Exiles, 188 — War follows betwixt Pict and Scot, 189 — The Ea9ter Controversy, 198— Difference betwixt the Eastern and Western Observance of Easter, 191 — Council of Nicea, 191 — The Moons do not revolve in accordance with the Council's Decree, 192 — The Nineteen Years' Cycle, 193 — The "Elders" rebel against the Easter Decree, 193 — In 717 Iona submits, 194 — The Material Iona falls, the Spiritual Iona flourishes, 195 — Monastery burned and Monks slain, 196.

Chapter XIV. Translations Of The Chair Of Columba

— THE ONE BISHOP OF ALBAN — A GREAT TEMPEST IN WHICH SCOTLAND DOES NOT SINK. Service rendered by Sword of Dane, 197 — Continued Organisation and Vigour of Columban Church, 198 — Proofs furnished by Rome herself, 198 — Roman Synods at Chalons-sur-Soane and Celcyth, 200 — Translations of Columba's Chair to Dunkeld, Abernethy, St Andrews, 202 — Boundaries of Alban in Tenth Century, 203 — Wreck of Kingdoms and Peoples, 205 — Scotland escapes, 205.

Chapter XV. Epochs Of Revival In Columban Church

Alban's one Bishop, 206 — Who consecrated Cellach ? 207 — Rome includes Bishop and Presbyter in the same Order of Clergy, 207 — Re-establishment of Columban Clergy in East of Scotland, 208 — Enlargement of Liberties of Scottish Church, 209— Synod of Mote Hill. 209— The Columban Church comes again into view in Queen Margaret's Days, 210 — Her success wich the Scots small, 211— They are still outside the Pope's Church, 212. CONTENTS. X

Chapter XVI. The Culdees

— THEIR ORIGIN — THEIR FUNCTIONS — THEIR DIFFUSION. Dissolution of Columban Brotherhoods, 215— Rise of the Ascetic or Anchorite System, 216— The Culdees or Keledei, 217— Name signifies " the Servants of God," 217— Two Theories of their Origin, 218— First, that they are sprung from the Roman Church, 218— Proofs : Legend of St Serf, 218— First Pope, next Abbot of Lochleven, 219— Another form of this Legend, 219— Legend of St Andrew, Patron Saint of Scotland, 220— Legend of founding of St Andrews, 223— The first Ceile Se, 223 — This Theory inconsistent with the Fact that the Culdees were persecuted by Romanists, 224 — Inconsistent with the Fact that they were the Evangelisers of the Continent, 224 — The Culdees a Continuation of the Columban Church, 226 — Great historic Proofs of this, 226 — Culdees Pioneers of the Reformation, 229.

Chapter XVII. Norwegian Kingdom Of Orkney

— MARGARET REVOLUTIONISES SCOT- LAND — DEATH OF MALCOLM AND MARGARET — ESTIMATE OF MAR- GARET'S CHARACTER AND SERVICES. Bye Drama in Orkney and Shetland, 230 — Their early Religion Druidism, 231 — Christianised by Missionaries from Iona, 232 — Norwegian Kingdom in Orkney, 233 — Heathenism returns, 234 — Christianised a second time under Olave Tryggvosson, 235 — From a.d. 1014 the Norwegian Power in Scotland begins to decline, 236 — Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, 237 — Margaret changes her Tactics, 238 — Builds a magnificent Church at Dunfermline, 238 — Pomps and Ceremonials, 239 — Margaret's Ideal of Worship, 239 — Tendency of dying Churches to effloresce into Rites and Ceremonies, 241 — Last Days of Malcolm and Margaret, 242 — Death of Malcolm Canmore, 243 — Margaret's Illness, 243 — Her Death, 244 — Estimate of her Character and Services to Scotland, 245.

Chapter XVIII. Donald Bane

— KING EADGAR — ALEXANDER I. — ALEXANDER'S BATTLE WITH THE BISHOPS — ALEXANDER'S VOW AND MONASTERY OF INCHCOLM. A double vacancy, 249 — Unpopularity of the Reigning House, 249 — Donald Bane, 251 — Eadgar Ascends the Throne, 251 — Introduction of Lowland Scotch, 251 — Alexander the "Fierce," his zeal for the "Church," 253— His religious benefactions, 253 — Turgot becomes Bishop of St Andrews, 254 — Quarrel over his Consecration, 254 — Another vacancy in See of St Andrews, 255— Eadmer elected, 255— Battle of Jurisdiction betwixt the Bishop and the King, 256 — Eadmer leaves the Kingdom, 257 — The " Fatal " Chair of St Andrews, 258— Alexander makes more Bishops, 258— Scotland changing its appearance, 259— The Storm, 259— Alexander's Vow, 259— Founding of Inchcolm, 260— Career of the Monastery, 261— Walter Bower and Thomas Forret, 263. CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XVIII.

* DAVID I. AND NEW AGE OF EUROPE — DAVID'S PERSONAL QUALITIES AND HABITS — WAR TO RESTORE THE ANGLO-SAXON LINE IN ENGLAND — BATTLE OF THE STANDARD. Battle betwixt the Spiritual and the Temporal Powers, 264 — The Spiritual conquers, 265 — Scotland brought within the sphere of this Conflict, 266 — Personal qualities of David, 266 — Painstaking in Administration of Justice, 267 — A lover of the Chase, 267 — His peregrinations : Stirling, Perth, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, 270 — His efforts to raise his Niece to the English Throne, 271 — Treaty at Durham, 272 — Second Invasion of England, 273 — The two Armies at Cutton Moor, 273 — Battle of the Standard, 275 — Subsequent negotiations, 277 — The Norman keeps the English Throne, 278.

Chapter XIX. King David's Ecclesiastical Policy

— ERECTION OF FIVE NEW- BISHOPRICS — SUPPRESSION OF THE CULDEES. David's two projects : Restoration of Saxon Line in England and substitution of the Roman for the Columban Church in Scotland, 2S0 — Alexander I. leaves four Bishoprics, 281 — David's new Bishoprics, 285 — Rossemarkie, 285 — Aberdeen, 286 — Caithness, 287 — Suppression of the Culdees, 288 — At Dornoch, 289 — At Lochleven, 289 — Continuity of Culdees in Lochleven Monastery, 290 — Legend of Servanus, 291 — Culdees of Monimusk, 293 — Culdees of St Andrews, 294 — Their Firmness and Fidelity, 296 — Their Battle of Two Hundred Years, 297— Their Existence traced till the Reformation, 298.

Chapter XX. Founding And Endowing Of Holyrood

Abbey of Holyrood, 299 — Edinburgh in King David's Days, 300 — David and the Wild Boar, 302— The King's Vow, 303— Building of Abbey, 304— Its Monks Augustinian, 305 — Its Endowments, 305 — Numerous Benefactors, 307 — Its Chapels and Altars, 308— The Monks at Breakfast, Dinner, Supper, 309 — Evening Recreations, 311.

Chapter XXI. Interior Of

ABBEY— ROUTINE OF DAILY SERVICES— DUTIES OF THE SEVERAL FUNCTIONARIES — BENEFIT TO SOCIETY ? Divisions of the Monastic Day, 312— Monastic Discipline, 313— Tierce, 313— Sext, Nones, Prime, Compline, 314 — Officers of Abbey : Abbot, Prior, &c, 315 Cellarer, Treasurer, Refectioner, &c., 316 — Question of Benefits flowing from the Abbey, 319. CONTENTS.

Chapter XXII. Founding Of Abbey's Continued

— ABBEYS NORTH OF THE GRAMPIANS — IN VALLEY OF THE TWEED, MELROSE, KELSO, ETC. — VARIOUS ORDERS OF FRIARS — OUTLOOK OF SCOTLAND. Scotland's Aspect changing, 322— Inchcolm, Buildings, 323— Rich Endowments, 323— Drowning and Miracle, 324— Turned into a Lazaretto, &c, 326— Fertile and picturesque spots selected by Monks, 326— Build on Columban Foundations, 327— Monimusk, &c, 327— Abbey of Melrose, 328— Jedburgh, 330— Kelso, 331-Its Regalities, 333— Right of Sanctuary, 334— More Friars, 335 — Houses for Women, 336 — Rural Deaneries, 337 — Worship of New Church, 338 — Sermons of the Friars, 340 — Examples, 341 — Outlook of the Scots, 342 — Coming purification, 343.

Chapter XXIII. Death Of David

— HIS CHARACTER. His latter Days darkened, 344 — Death of his only Son, Prince Henry, 345 — Arrangements for the Succession, 346 — His Death, 347 — His Character, 347 — Difficult to estimate accurately, 347 — His Character as a Ruler tested by Time, 348 — His great Error his Ecclesiastical Policy, 350 — Its Influence most Disastrous, 350 — Scottish Patriotism benumbed, 353.

Chapter XXIV. Reigns Of Malcolm IV

— WILLIAM THE LION — ALEXANDER II. — ALEXANDER III. — BATTLE OF LARGS. Malcolm IV., 355— Gathering Clouds, 355— Why called the "Maiden," 355— Malcolm's Softness with Henry of England, 356 — More Religious Houses, 357 — Accession of William the Lion, 358 — Why styled ' ' The Lion, " 358 — Taken Captive by the English Barons, 359 — Buys his Liberty with the Surrender of the Independence of his Kingdom, 360 — A great Price for one Man, 361— Abbey of Arbroath, 362— Scotland under Interdict, 363— Richard Cœur de Lion gives Scotland back its Independence, 364 — More Priests, 364 — Independence of Scottish Papal Church, 365 — Alexander II. , 366— His Troubled Reign, 366— More Friars, 367— Alexander III., His Coronation, 368— The Comyns, 369 — Alexander's Marriage, 369 — Founding of Abbey of Sweetheart, 370 — Translation of Queen Margaret's Relics, 370 — Last Appearance of the Vikings, 370 — Haco's Armada, 371 — Destructive Storm, 372 — Battle of Largs, 373— Haco conquered by the Elements, 375 — Battle of Largs, an Epoch in Scottish History, 375 — Death of Alexander III., 376. ■0-

Chapter I

a.d. 843—860. UNION OF THE SCOTS AND PICTS — REIGN OF KENNETH MACALPIN. The middle of the ninth century saw the Scots and Picts united under the sceptre of Kenneth, the son of Alpin. The advent of this union was long deferred : it was at last consummated in a.d. 843 ; but even then it received no en thusiastic welcome from those to whom, as might have been foreseen, it brought great increase of power and prestige. The idea of mixing their blood to form one nation, and uniting their arms to establish one central throne, and so taking pledges for the maintenance of peace at home, and the acquisition of influence abroad, however meritorious it seems to us, does not appear to have approved itself to the two races that inhabited the one country of Caledonia. They entertained this idea only when it came to be forced upon them by the stern lessons of the battlefield — a school in which it woidd seem the education of infant nations must begin.

This union was preceded and prepared by a series of great battles. The question at issue in these fierce conflicts in. a was, To which of the two nationalities, the Scots or the Picts, shall the supremacy belong, and by consequence the right to govern the kingdom ? The wars waged to deter mine this point ended in a supreme trial of strength on the banks of the Tay near Scone.1 The engagement was a des perate one. Seven times the Picts assailed, and seven times were they driven back. Their king, Bred, fell in battle, and his armour, afterwards presented to Kenneth MacAIpin, was sent by him to be hung up at Icolmkill.2 From that bloody field the Scots and Picts emerged one nation. Supremacy, which had been the object aimed at by the combatants till now, was abandoned for the more practical and wiser policy of union.

Battle had swept away one of the two thrones which had hitherto borne sway in Cale donia, and the one throne left standing was that of the prince whose progenitor, Aidan, Columba had made to sit on the Lia-Fail, or Stone of Destiny, and anointed as the first really independent sovereign of the Scots. The Picts closed their distinctive historic career when they lost this battle. They were by much the earlier inhabitants of the country, and doubtless regarded the Scots as a new people. The Picts or Caledonians, if not the first, were among the first races that found their way to Caledonia after its plains and mountains had looked up from the waters of the flood. Yet this ancient people were content to lose name and record in the annals of a race whose arrival in the mountains of Argyllshire dated only five cen turies back.

The award of battle had decreed that the elder should serve the younger, and to that award they bowed. Not Pictish blood alone, nor Scottish blood alone, 1 See ante, vol. i. 360. 2 The Chronicle of Huntingdon says that " in his twelfth year Kenneth encountered the Picts seven times in one day, and having destroyed many, confirmed the kingdom to himself." — Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 209. but the two streams commingled, were to form the one blood which was to inspire the valour and fight the battles of the future. Scotland had made a great stride forward, and it was a happy omen of the future career of the united people that in making this new start they put the helm into the hands of that race in whose hearts glowed the faith of Columba. We refuse to credit the legends which say that battle was succeeded by massacre, and that the glory of victory was dimmed and the fame of the victors tarnished by the utter and cruel extermination of the vanquished people.

It is true, no doubt, that from about this time the Picts disappear, or nearly so, from the page of history. Some historians have been able to find no solution of this mystery, save in the supposition that they were swept from off the face of their country by the unsparing and unpitying sword of the victorious Scot. " The extermination of the Picts," says Fordun, " was total and final ; not only were their kings and leaders destroyed, but their race and generation, and even their language failed."1 This is too ready and obvious a solution of the problem to be the true one. It is inherently most improbable. If the Scots of that day were guilty of a crime so enormous, they had sat for three centuries to little purpose, verily, at the feet of Columba and his successors. The deed would have been as impolitic as it would have been cruel.

The hour was near when a foe, which their fathers had not known, fierce as the vultures of the land from which he came, was to invade their country. Already 1 " Sic quidem non solum reges et duces gentis illius deleti sunt, sed etiam stirps et genus adeo cum idiomatis sui lingua defecisse legitur." Scoti Chron., Lib. iv. Buchanan limits the extirpation of the Picts to those who remained in arms against Kenneth after the great battle which gave him the crown. This would gain all the ends of the conqueror, and we may safely conclude that this was the whole extent of the slaughter. the piratical fleets of the Norseman were beginning to be seen on their coasts. The Scots, in these circumstances, could have committed no more deplorable error than stamp out a valour which might on a future day do them good sen-ice on the battlefield.

When the invader should be crowding, horde on horde, into their land, and the clash of swords rose loud, how sorely would the Scots miss those stalwart Caledonian warriors, who, if not locked in the sleep of death, would have contended by their side for a common country, and chased the Norse marauder to his galleys. Besides, it must be taken into account that massacre in the circumstances would have swept off a full half of the population of Scotland, and left the surface of the country to a large extent unoccupied. Yet we are not conscious of any diminution of the population in the times subsequent to the victory of Kenneth MacAIpin. Scot land is as full of men as before. It has no lack of warriors to fight its battles. Whence come these armies ? Not merely from the narrow territories of the Scots in the western border, but from the less mountainous and more thickly peopled districts on the east and north, the very regions which, on the supposition of massacre, had been converted into a desert.

How came these parts to be again so quickly populated ? Did the Scots, by some marvellously rapid process of increase, fill in that short time the empty land ? Or did new races spring from the ashes of the slain to repair the ravages of the sword ? These considerations make the theory we are discussing wholly untenable, and force us to the conclusion, which is certainly by much the more agreeable alternative, even, that the Picts, although the more numerous people, loyally accepted the award of battle, and putting the good of country before the considerations of race, permitted the sword, which had already shed quite enough of blood, to be sheathed, and the wounds of their country to be closed. It is deserving of our notice, moreover, that the monarch under whom we see the united races beginning their career as the one Scottish nation, was the son of that King Alpin, whose bloody head had been affixed as a trophy of the Pict ish arms to the gates of Abernethy.

The dishonour put upon the father was wiped out when the son entered these same gates in triumph to fill the throne of an united people, and stretch his sceptre from west to east across the entire country, and from the banks of the Forth to the great ocean stream that rolls betwixt the promontory of Cape Wrath and the precipices of the Orkneys. It is not always that unions accomplished on the battlefield are lasting. It sometimes happens that when the pressure of the sword is removed the old rivalries and enmities break out afresh, and the nationalities united for a moment again fall asunder, to be parted, it may be, more widely than before. It was not so, however, in the union effected betwixt the Scots and the Picts on the battlefield on the Tay. Nor is it far to seek for the causes that gave that union permanency.

In the veins of Kenneth MacAIpin there flowed the blood of both races. A Scot by the father's side, and a Pict by the mother's, both people had a share in him. Moreover, he enjoyed the prestige of having been crowned on the Lia-Fail. With that stone were linked the traditions of dominion and rule. These traditions stretched back to the remote times of the Irish monarchs, who were said to have received consecration upon it. What is more, this stone was supposed to possess the mysterious power of imparting a peculiar sacreduess and a kingly virtue to the man who was crowned upon it. It had been the privilege of no Pictish monarch to take his seat on that venerable stone. That honour was reserved for the kings of the Scottish nation alone. In our days the ceremony, though still practised, does not count for much ; but in that age it was the better half of the coronation.

Where that stone was there was the legitimate sovereign, and there was the rock of the kingdom, in the popular belief at least. There was another and mightier element of cohesion in the union of which we speak, than either the blood that flowed in the veins of Kenneth MacAIpin, or the virtue of the august chair in which his coronation had taken place. The two peoples were by this time of one faith. When the northern Picts were converted from Druidism to Christianity by Columba, the way was opened for their becoming one with that nation of which the great missionary as a Dal riadan Scot was a member. Columba was the true apostle of union. Pict and Scot had sat together in the school of Iona. Pict and Scot had gone forth together in the same missionary band to evangelise in the fields of France and Germany ; and if they could be members of the same church organisation, and sit at the same eucharistic table, surely they could meet in the same national Council, and pay their homage at the foot of the same throne.

After all it was the Rock of Iona rather than the Stone at Scone that was the bond of union between the Scots and Picts. The work of the sword at au end, the labours of the legislator must now begin. This second task, we may well imagine, was even harder than the first. During the fierce struggle for supremacy which had been going on during the previous reigns, many disorders had grown up, doubtless, which called loudly for correction. There had been a loosening of the bonds of society all over the land. In the Highlands especially the clans had enjoyed a larger than usual measure of license, and were not to be easily broken into orderly and settled courses. Yet the attempt must needs be made. The time was favourable, for the throne was stronger than it had ever before been, and around it was now a united nation.