XXV. former were the men of the hills, and the latter CHAP. those of the plain. The eastern coast of Caledonia may be considered as a level, and fertile country, which, even in a rude state of tillage, was capable of producing a considerable quantity of corn; and the epithet of cruitnich, or wheat, eaters, expressed the contempt, or envy, of the carnivorous highlander. The cultivation of the earth might introduce a more accurate separation of property, and the habits of a sedentary life; but the love of arms and rapine was still the rùling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who stripped themselves for a day of battle, were distinguished, in the eyes of the Romans, by the strange fashion of painting their naked bodies with gaudy colours and fantastic figures. The western part of Caledonia irregularly rises into wild and barren hills, which scarcely repay the toil of the husbandman, and are most profitably used for the pasture of cattle. The highlanders were condemned to the occupations of shepherds and hunters; and as they seldom were fixed to any permanent habitation, they acquired the expressive name of Scors, which, in the Celtic tongue, is said to be equivalent to that of wanderers, or vagrants. The inhabitants of a barren land were urged to seek a fresh supply of food in the waters. The deep lakes and bays which intersect their country, are plentifully stored with fish; and they gradually ventured to cast their nets in the waves of the ocean. The vicinity of the Hebrides, so profusely scattered along the XXV. CHAP. Western coast of Scotland, tempted their curio sity, and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of managing their boats in a tempestuous sea, and of steering their nocturnal course by the light of the well-known stars. The two bold headlands of Caledonia almost touch the shores of a spacious island, which obtained, from its luxuriant vegetation, the epithet of Green; and has preserved, with a slight alteration, the name of Erin, or Ierne, or Ireland. It is probable, that in some remote period of antiquity, the fertile plains of Ulster received a colony of hungry Scots; and that the strangers of the North, who had dared to encounter the arms of the legions, spread their conquests over the savage and unwarlike natives of a solitary island. It is certain, that, in the declining age of the Roman empire, Caledonia, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, were inhabited by the Scots, and that the kindred tribes, who were often associated in military enterprize, were. deeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherished the lively tradition of their common name and orgin; and the missionaries of the Isle of Saints, who diffused the light of Christianity over North Britain, established the vain opinion, that their Irish countrymen were the natural as well as spiritual fathers of the Scottish race. The loose and obscure tradition has been preserved by the venerable Bede, who scattered some rays of light over the darkness of the eight century. On this slight XXV. slight foundation, an huge superstructure of fable CHAP. was gradually reared, by the bards, and the monks; two orders of men, who equally abused the privilege of fiction. The Scottish nation, with mistaken pride, adopted their Irish genealogy: and the annals of a long line of imaginary kings have been adorned by the fancy of Boethius, and the classic elegance of Buchanan *. Six years after the death of Constantine, the destructive inroads of the Scots and Picts required the presence of his youngest son, who reigned in the western empire. Constans visited his British dominions: but we may form some estimate of the importance of his achievements, by the language of panegyric, which celebrates only his U 4 *The Irish descent of the Scots has been revived, in the last moments of its decay, and strenuously supported, by the Rev. Mr Whitaker (Hist. of Manchester, vol. i, p. 450, 431.; and Genuine History of the Britons asserted, &c. p. 154-293.). Yet he acknowledges, 1. That the Scots of Ammianus Marcellinus (A. D. 340.) were already settled in Caledonia; and that the Roman authors do not afford any hints of their emigration from another country. 2. That all the accounts of such emigrations, which have been asserted, or received, by Irish bards, Scotch historians, or English antiquaries (Buchanan, Cambden, Usher, Stillingfleet, &c.), are totally fabulous. 3. That three of the Irish tribes, which are mentioned by Ptolemy (A. D. 150.), were of Caledonian extraction. 4. That a younger branch of Caledonian princes, of the house of Fingal, acquired and possessed the monarchy of Ireland. After these concessions, the remaining difference be tween Mr Whitaker and his adversaries is minute and obscure. The genuine history which he produces, of a Fergus, the cousin of Ossian, who was transplanted (A. D. 320.) from Ireland to Caledonia, is built on a conjectural supplement to the Erse poetry; and the feeble evidence of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of the fourteenth century. The lively spirit of the learned and ingenious antiquarian has tempted him to for get the nature of a question, which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides. Their inBrain vasion of A. D. 343-366. XXV. CHAP. his triumph over the elements; or, in other words, the good fortune of a safe and easy passage from the port of Boulogne to the harbour of Sandwich *. The calamities which the afflicted provincials continued to experience, from foreign war and domestic tyranny, were aggravated by the feeble and corrupt administration of the eunuchs of Constantius; and the transient relief which they might obtain from the virtues of Julian, was soon lost by the absence and death of their benefactor. The sums of gold and silver which had been painfully collected, or liberally transmitted, for the payment of the troops, were intercepted by the avarice of the commanders; discharges, or, at least, exemptions, from the military service, were publicly sold; the distress of the soldiers, who were injuriously deprived of their legal and scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers t. The oppression of the good, and the impunity of the wicked, equally contributed to diffuse through the island a spirit of discontent and revolt: and every ambitious subject, every desperate exile, might entertain a reasonable hope of subverting the weak and distracted *Hyeme tumentes ac sævientes undas calcâstis Oceani sub remis vestris; ... insperatam imperatoris faciem Britannus expavit. Julius Firmicus Maternus de errofe Profan. Relig. p. 464. edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. Fæl. See Tillemont (Hist. des. Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 336.). Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. xxxix. p. 264. This curious has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries. passage XXV. tracted government of Britain. The hostile tribes CHAP. of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the Barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves, with rapid and irresistible fury, from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent. Every production of art and nature, every object of convenience or luxury, which they were incapable of creating by labour, or procuring by trade, was accumulated in the rich and fruitful province of Britain *. A philosopher may deplore the eternal discord of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest. From the age of Constantine to that of the Plantagenets, this rapacious spirit continued to instigate the poor and hardy Caledonians: but the same people, whose generous humanity seems to inspire the songs of Ossian, was disgraced by a savage ignorance of the virtues of peace, and of the laws of war. Their southern neighbours have felt, and perhaps exaggerated, the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts †: and a valiant tribe *The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, &c. of the stranger. See Dr Blair's Dissertation on Ossian, vol. ii. p. 343; and Mr Macpherson's Introduction, p. 242-286. + Lord Littleton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. vol. i. p. 182.), and Sir David Dalrymple has slightly mentioned (Annals of Scotland, vol. i. p. 69.), a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A. D. 1137.) when law, religion, and society, must have softened their primitive manners. |