latter era; nor can we do so without expressing our hope that Mr Tytler may find time, before completing his projected labours, to furnish us with some preliminary matter in the shape of introduction, or otherwise, so as to inform his readers of what royal race Alexander sprung, and over what people he reigned.

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

We have formerly shown that, in the year 496, a body of Irish, then called Scots, had colonized Argyllshire, and made fierce wars on the decaying province of Rome, by the assistance, doubtless, of those called Meatæ, or Middle Britons, who, subjected by the Romans during their power, rose against them when it began to decline. These Scots, moreover, made war upon the Caledonians, more latterly called Northern Picts or Deucaledonians, who had for ages been in possession of the greater part of Angusshire, Perthshire, Fife, and the north-east of Scotland up to the Moray firth. Beyond that estuary it would appear the Scandinavians had colonies upon the fertile shores of Moray, and among the mountains of Sutherland, of which the name speaks for itself that it was given by the Norwegians; and probably they had also settlements in Caithness and the Orcades. When, therefore, Kenneth finally defeated, dispersed, and destroyed the Picts, he obtained possession of the middle provinces of Scotland from sea to sea, having joined his original dominions on St George's Channel to the eastern shores washed by the German Ocean. Behind him, to the north-east, lay the warlike and poor Scandinavians; but in front of his kingdom, and between that and the present English frontier, lay three states, enjoying a boisterous and unsettled independence, and each peopled by a mixed race.

The first of these was Galloway, then extended considerably beyond the limits of the shires of Wigton and Kirkcudbright, to which the name is now limited. This remote and desolate region erelong acknowledged a vassalage to the crown; but being inhabited by a very brave and barbarous people, continued, substantially, a separate state till about 1234. Secondly, bounded on the east, and partly on the north, by Galloway, lay Strathclwyd, inhabited by British tribes, of the nation generally called Meatæ. These also were compelled to acknowledge the superiority of the throne. They may be generally described as occupying the territory from the castle of Dunbarton to

nations, were variable and uncertain, as they failed or succeeded in wars with their neighbours. The last mention of the inhabitants of Strathclwyd, as a people having a separate kinglet or prince, occurs in 1018. Thirdly, still to the eastward of the Strathclwyd Britons lay the provinces now called Berwickshire and the three Lothians. This fertile country was the object of cupidity, in a much greater degree, than the barren mountains of the more western frontier; and, after the decay of the Roman power, it lay peculiarly exposed to the inroads of the Picts, who appear to have settled there a large division of their nation, called Vecturiones, who mingled, doubtless, among such remains of Britons as might still dwell to the south of the Firth of Forth. But when the sword of the Saxons drove back the Pictish incursions, the victors appear to have won from the Picts all the flat country comprehending Berwickshire and East Lothian, and the greater part of West Lothian, which they joined to the Saxon kingdom of Deiria, or Northumberland. The Northumbrian Saxons being in their turn hard pressed by the Danes, their kingdom was so much weakened, that the Scots were tempted to cross the frith of Forth, then called the Scottish Sea, for the purpose of occupying Lothian; and about 830 they made themselves masters of the keys of that province, Dunbar and Edwinsbury (Edinburgh). At a later period (961), Edgar, King of England, in a council held at York, divided the territory hitherto designated as Northumberland, into two parts. The more southern half corresponds with the modern county of Northumberland, the northern moiety comprehended Lothian and the district now called Berwickshire. Finding this latter division of the country so obnoxious to the attacks of the Scots, Edgar made an agreement with Kenneth the Second, and conferred upon him that portion, to be held of the English crown. Thus came Lothian to the government of the Northern Princes, but by grant from the King of England, and therefore under condition of paying homage-a circumstance which has thrown additional confusion into a confused part of British history. Finally, upon like terms, a considerable part of Westmoreland and Cumberland was sometime after conceded to the Scot.

From the time of Kenneth MacAlpine to that of Macbeth-that is, from 841 to 1040, a space of about two centuries, we have a line of fifteen kings of Scots, of whom it is easy to perceive that, in spite of the absurd prejudices concerning the inferiority of the Gaelic race, they sustained successfully the sceptre of Kenneth, and, by repeated battles both with the English and the Danes, not only repelled the attacks of their neighbours, but consolidated the strength of their kingdom, gradually modelling an association of barbarous and in part wandering tribes into the consistence of a regular state.

are seen but indistinctly and dimly; yet, as we catch a glimpse, we see them occupied always in battle, and often in conquest.

The more civilized descendants of the murdered Duncan come on the stage with an interest peculiar to themselves, as well as that which arises from the name of their ancestor, at the tale of whose murder our imagination has been so early awakened. If it be Turner true, as we are told by Fordun, that Malcolm, called Canmore (i. e. Greathead), actually repaired, during the usurpation of Macbeth, to the court of England, already refined by the multitude of Normans whom Edward the Confessor assembled around him, we may conclude him to have been the first of his race who obtained some share of a better education than the wilderness called Scotland could at that time afford. His history shows symptoms of a vigorous and regular government. He had strength and generosity sufficient to receive and protect the heir of his benefactor Edward, when the battle of Hastings had thrust him from his throne. He wedded Margaret, sister to the disinherited Atheling, who, by the influence which she obtained over her husband, tamed the impetuosity of a fiery spirit, and inclined to acts of religion and charity blood which, like that of Malcolm's ancestors, was naturally of a choleric temperament. There can be no doubt that, during the reign of this king, considerable improvement was made by the Scottish nation. The King's bounty and the Queen's benevolence drew to the court of Malcolm Canmore tides of various emigrants, both Normans and Saxons, and these brought with them their respective arts and languages. The English tongue already prevailed in Lothian, where the Northumbrian Saxons and the Danes had been long seated, and where they had communicated to the descendants of the Vecturiones, or Southern Picts, a language which, from their previous intercourse with Scandinavians, that people might be in some degree prepared to receive. When, therefore, the Scottish princes made the important acquisition of Lothian and Berwick, they found the Anglo-Saxon, or English, completely established there; as being the language of a people who had more ideas to express, it must have been more copious than the Gaelic, and we can, consequently, see no reason to wonder that it should have become, by degrees, the dialect of their

court.

In the introduction of the Saxon language into his kingdom, Malcolm himself was a considerable agent. As frequently happens, he caught the flame of religion from the pure torch of conjugal affection. His love of his consort led him to engage in the devotional services which afterwards procured for her the title of a saint. Totally illiterate, the King was unable to peruse his wife's missals and prayerbooks; but he had them gorgeously bound, and frequently, by kissing

When the Queen undertook to correct some alleged abuses of the church, Malcolm stood interpreter betwixt the fair and royal reformer and such of the Scottish clergy as did not understand English, which Malcolm loved because it was the native tongue of Margaret. Such pictures occurring in history delight by their beauty and their simplicity. A king of fierce barbarians, himself the bravest of mankind, takes on him the yoke of devotion at the voice of a mild and beautiful woman, and serves, at least, as a channel for conveying to his savage subjects the instructions which he himself probably comprehended but imperfectly. It reminds us of the classic gems in which Love is represented as bridling the lion. The more violent mood of Malcolm aided the effects of his conjugal affection, and assisted, in a very different manner, the propagation of the Anglo-Saxon language in the north. The spouse of Margaret, mild as a lamb when by her side, was in war an untamed and devastating tiger. Simeon of Durham records, that in 1070 the King of Scots laid waste Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham with such fury, that, besides a great number killed, he swept off such a host of captives, that for many years they were to be found as bondmen and bond women not only in every village, but in the poorest hovels in Scotland. There is also to be added the extreme severity of William the Conqueror, who, to be avenged of the frequent revolts occurring in the north of England, plundered the province as that of an enemy, forcing many thousands to fly into Scotland, where they were protected by Queen Margaret.

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

the English prelates of Canterbury and York to extend their spiritual dominion over Scotland, and invade, in so doing, the liberties of the Scottish church.

His brother David succeeded him in 1123, and more than rivalled the manly character of Canmore. He, too, was sagacious, wise, and valiant; an affectionate husband, and a careful parent: usually victorious in war and prudent in peace; with the advantage of a much better education than had fallen to his father's lot. David was early involved in war; for, being the uncle of the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I., the King of Scots held himself obliged to maintain the succession of that princess against the usurpation of Stephen. Considering how much England was disunited during this reign, it did not, at one period, seem improbable that the territories of the Scottish monarch might have been pushed up to the Humber. But the successes which David obtained only encouraged the insubordinate spirit of the Galwegians, and other rude tribes, which composed his army; and, owing to their disorganization, not less than to the fidelity and valour of the barons of the north of England, he sustained, A.D. 1138, a severe defeat at Cuton Moor, near Northallerton, where, if he had obtained victory, the destinies of the two divisions of the island might, perhaps, have been singularly reversed. At it was, David's power continued so little injured, that Stephen saw the necessity of ceding to him the whole earldom of Northumberland, excepting the fortresses of Bamborough and Newcastle : Cumberland was restored to him at the same time, and on the same condition of homage. David did much for the improvement of his subjects, and even for the civilisation of the Galwegians, upon whom he imposed regulations, tending to prevent their unsparing ravage and bloodthirsty spirit of slaughter. He founded very many religious houses, the endowments of which were afterwards much grudged by his successors, one of whom termed him, in allusion to his canonization, "a sore saint to the crown." His views, however, were more patriotic than his descendants were willing to comprehend. In the monatics establishments, whatever learning the times possessed was carefully preserved: their inhabitants were sometimes engaged in educating the sons of the gentry and nobility; for their own comfort, they cultivated the arts of husbandry and gardening; and, finally, being protected, at this early age, by the sanctity of their character, the church lands alone afforded a safe refuge for agriculture.

Malcolm IV., who succeeded his father David, is commonly, but erroneously, called Malcolm the Maiden.* This was an active and high-spirited prince; yet his treaties with England were unfortunate. Henry II., now in full possession of the English crown, resumed

It appears from a grant made by him to the abbey of Kelso (Cartulary, folio 16) that