An introduction to the history of Great Britain and Ireland: By James Macpherson, ...

THE PRETENDED TESTIMONY OF FOREIGN WRITERS EXAMINED, AND CONFUTED.

General Reflections.

* 1.1 ABOUT the middle of the fourth age, the unconquered barbarians of Caledonia became known to the Ro|mans under the name of Picts and Scots. Marcellinus, who is the first historian who met them in Britain, was an abso|lute stranger to their being a new people, who then made their appearance in the island* 1.2. In the period of time between the expedition of Julius Agricola and the reign of Constantius we have already seen, that the improbability of the transmigra|tion of a foreign colony into North Bri|tain is so great that, without positive evi|dence, the story can never be believed. The abettors of the Hibernian antiquities,

finding that the credit of the domestic annals of Ireland could never establish this fact, had recourse to some passages of foreign writers, which they wrested to their purpose.

The impossibility of an Irish migration into North Britain between the reign of Constantius and the dereliction of Britain by Honorius, is supported by arguments equally strong with those we have pro|duced for the period before the first of those emperors. Those who after Con|stantius succeeded to the imperial purple, till the days of Valentinian, were rather insulted than feared by the wild nations of Caledonia. The latter, therefore, were under no necessity to implore the assistance of foreign auxiliaries; neither can we suppose that they would cede to a pitiful band of Irish barbarians any part of those territories, which they defended, with so much spirit, against the disciplined armies of the lords of the world.

Claudian.

* 1.3 The supporters of the Hibernian ex|traction of the British Scots pretend to have found in Claudian a direct proof of their system. That Poet, in his pane|gyric on Theodosius, has the following lines.

Quid rigor aeternus coeli; quid sidera prosunt, Ignotumque fretum? Maduerunt Sax|one fuso Orcades: incoluit Pictorum sanguine Thule: Scottorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne* 1.4.

But we may venture to affirm, that there is nothing in this passage conclusive in fa|vour of the old Milesian tale. Claudian indulged all the wantonness of a poetical fancy in this panegyric on Theodosius. It was the poet's imagination only that

"warmed Thule with Pictish blood, moistened the sands of Orkney with Saxon gore, and thawed the frozen Ierne into tears for the slaughter of the Scots."

It is idle, in short, to search for fact in the hyperboles of poetry; Marcellinus, though particularly fond of Theodosius, has not recorded these prodigies of valour: Even Latinus Pacatius, though a pane|gyrist, says no more, than that the Scot was driven back to his native fens* 1.5, and the Saxons destroyed in conflicts by sea.

* 1.6 Without insisting upon what shall here|after appear at least probable, that Ireland is not meant by the Ierne of Claudian, we may aver, that there is nothing in these verses decisive concerning the origin of the Scots. If the Hibernians were of Ca|ledonian extract; if, from the ancient ties of consanguinity, a friendly inter|course was maintained between the Irish and the inhabitants of Albany; a person of a less warm imagination than Claudian might suppose that the former sincerely lamented the misfortunes of their mother nation† 1.7.

* 1.8 In Claudian's panegyric on Stilicho, there is a passage which has been often transcribed with triumph in opposition to the antiquity of the British Scots.

Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit, Munivit Stilico, totam cum SCOTTUS IERNAM Movit; et infesto spumavit remige Tethys. Illius affectum curis, ne bella time|rem SCOTTICA, nec Pictum tremerem, nec litore toto Prospicerem dubiis venientem Saxona ventis.

Britain is here personified; she makes her acknowledgments to Stilicho for his ser|vices to her at a very perilous conjunc|ture.

"She owed her safety to that able commander when the Scot had put all IERNA in motion; when the ocean was agitated into a foam by hostile oars. He delivered her from the terrors of a Scot|tish war, from Pictish incursions, and from beholding piratical squadrons of Saxons coming to her coasts with the veering winds."

It will be hereafter shewn that the name of Ierna may, without any violence,

be applied to the western division of Scot|land, including the isles: But should the Ierna of Claudian be the same with Ire|land, it would little avail the abettors of that system which we now oppose. There is no necessity to believe that the poet adhered to historical fact. Virgil, with|out any authority, extended the victories of Augustus to nations, whom neither he nor his lieutenants ever looked in the face* 1.9; and why should not the same privilege of invention, exaggeration, and flattery be allowed to the laureat of Honorius?

* 1.10 Not to insist upon the improbability that the Irish in that state of barbarism in which they were certainly involved to|wards the close of the fourth age, could annually transport armies into Britain, we may safely affirm, that the Tethys of Claudian was rather agitated into a foam by Saxon than by Hibernian oars. The Saxons, in the days of Honorius, were

in some measure a maritime people; Tethys signifies the ocean: the sea be|tween Germany and England has some right to that title, but the channel be|tween Ireland and Caledonia was never dignified with so high a name. This cri|ticism is sufficient to destroy the whole force of the argument drawn from Clau|dian. It appears not from history that the Scots ever infested the Roman divi|sion of Britain by sea: Constantine ap|pointed an officer called Comes littoris Sax|onici, to take the charge of part of the coast of the province, which was most exposed to the piratical depredations of the Saxons; but of a Comes littoris Scottici Hibernici we have never heard.

* 1.11 If the province of Valentia comprehend|ed the country between the walls, why did not the Hibernian Scots land every other season in Galloway? How came not the Irish rovers to attempt a descent in either of the divisions of Wales or in Cumber|land? Was not the coast of Lancashire almost as near to the Isle of Man, which, according to Orosius, was possessed by Scottish tribes, as any part of the conti|nent of Caledonia was to Ireland? Why, in the name of wonder, was a bulwark of turf or stone a better security against the Irish Scots than against the Saxons of Friezeland or Holland, as both were transmarine nations with respect to the

Province? Why did the Irish, with a peculiar absurdity, land always on the wrong side of the Roman walls, which they must have scaled or destroyed before they could penetrate into the province? It is impossible to believe that all their ex|peditions could have been so ill-concerted; and this consideration alone is sufficient to demonstrate that the Scots, whom the Roman writers so often mention, were inhabitants of Caledonia. Walls were constructed and legions employed to de|fend the province from their incursions, but fleets were never fitted out to intercept or destroy them at sea.

Orosius.—Isidorus.

The Hibernian system being deprived of every support from Claudian, let us next examine some passages of other an|cient authors whom our adversaries have raised to their aid. * 1.12 If Orosius, a Spanish priest, found the Scots in Ireland about the beginning of the fifth age, Marcelli|nus met with them in Britain about the middle of the third* 1.13. * 1.14 Isidore of Seville, who flourished in the seventh age, says, that in his time, Ireland was indiscrimi|nately

called Scottia and Hibernia; and that the latter name proceeded from its lying over against Iberia and the Canta|bric ocean¶ 1.15.

* 1.16 On this etymon of Hibernia great weight is laid by the abettors of the Can|tabric descent of the Irish. Should the name of Hibernia arise from the position of Ireland with respect to Iberia, Mauri|tania, and a part of Gaul ought to have obtained the same appellation, from a similar situation with regard to Spain. Ireland itself, from a parity of reason, ought to have a name resembling that of Britain, which lies so near it, rather than from Iberia, divided from it by an immense ocean. The bishop of Seville, the truth is, knew very little about Ire|land or its inhabitants; and his ridiculous derivation of the name of Scots, is a lasting monument of his talent in etymo|logy† 1.17.

* 1.18 Isidore is not the first learned prelate who gave to Ireland the name of Scottia; a bishop of Canterbury, about the year

605, bestowed upon that island the same appellation. We shall not dispute with the Irish that their country received the name of Scottia some centuries before it was appropriated to Caledonia. But no argument can arise in favour of their su|perior antiquity from that priority. A colony of the ancient Grecians possessed themselves of a district of the lesser Asia, which afterwards obtained the name of Ionia. That colony, and their ancestors in Greece for a series of ages, were called Ionians, but their territories in Europe never possessed the appellation of Ionia; and, from that circumstance, will any man conclude, that the Ionians of Ephe|sus and Miletus were more ancient than those of Attica?

Gildas.

* 1.19 The testimony of Gildas seems, at first sight, more favourable to the Hibernian system than that of Isidore. This writer, with an irascible disposition, soured by the misfortunes of the times, was queru|lous, wrathful, scurrilous, and at no less enmity with the whole world than with the enemies of his country, the Scots,

Picts, and Saxons* 1.20. It is almost need|less to observe that Gildas calls the Scots and Picts transmarine nations, as Bede has explained away that appellation in a man|ner that is not unfavourable to the system which we endeavour to establish† 1.21. The strength of the argument against us arises from the epithet of Hibernian robbers, with which the passionate Gildas has dig|nified the ancestors of the Scots† 1.22. Not to insist upon the more proper reading of the passage, as it is restored by Dr. Gale¶ 1.23, which destroys at once the au|thority in favour of the Hibernian descent of the Scots, we may, upon another foun|dation,

fairly deny the consequences ge|nerally drawn from the vague expression of Gildas. Propertius in one of his ele|gies gives the epithet of Hiberni to the Getes of Thrace. Gildas was remarkably fond of expressing himself in the language of poetry. His diction from so puerile an affectation partakes more of the turgid declamation of tragedy, than of the pre|cision and simplicity of a grave historian. Had he, by way of sarcasm on the severity of the climate of Caledonia, bestowed the epithet of Hiberni on its inhabitants, he should not have written improperly, un|poetically, or unlike his own manner.

* 1.24 The British and Irish Scots spoke the same language, wore the same kind of dress, and were distinguished by every characteristical mark necessary to make a foreigner believe that both nations were originally the same people. Whether the Scots of Hibernia, or those of Albania, were the most ancient, every one was at freedom to resolve in his own way. Had Gildas positively decided in favour of the former, his authority can go no further than his confessed knowledge in antiqui|ties. But it appears from other circum|stances, that the British writer was a very bad antiquary. The Scots, accord|ing to him, infested for the first time, the Roman province, when Maximus with|drew the legions from Britain. There is

not perhaps any piece of ancient history better ascertained, than that a tribe of the Caledonians, under the name of Scots, made incursions into the province near seventy years before the rebellion of Maximus. The account which Gildas gives of the Roman walls betrays his ig|norance in the tradition, as well as histo|ry, of his own country; and therefore it is difficult to say why the testimony of such a writer, had it even been less equi|vocal, should be thought decisive concern|ing the antiquities of a people to whose tradition and history he must, in the na|ture of things, have been an absolute stranger.

Bede.

* 1.25 Bede, a Saxon monk, flourished in the monastery of Girwy upon the Tyne about the commencement of the seventh century, and displayed uncommon talents and learning for the age in which he liv|ed. In his history of the Saxon churches the venerable writer distinguishes, with precision, the British Scots from those of Ireland, and positively affirms that the former derived their blood and origin from the latter. Bede did not confine his ge|nealogical enquiries to the Scots. He en|deavoured to trace all the British nations to their respective origins.

* 1.26 The Britons, properly so called, says he, were the first inhabitants of this Island, and they originally transmigrated from the Armorican division of Gaul. The Picts, in an after age, seized upon North Britain; for to the name of Cale|donia the Anglo-Saxon was an absolute stranger. After the Britons and Picts had possessed the Island for some ages, Britain, in its northern division, received a third nation from Ireland under the conduct of Reuda. Whether the Irish Scots ob|tained settlements of the Picts by force or favour was a point which Bede could not determine. He was however inform|ed that they were called Dalreudini, from their illustrious leader Reuda, and from the Galic word deal, which, according to the venerable writer, signified a por|tion or division of a country* 1.27.

* 1.28 It is remarkable, that not one English or Scottish antiquary ever implicitly adopt|ed every part of the Anglo-Saxon's sys|tem. The Picts and Scots, according to him, as separate nations, and from very different origins, possessed North Britain before the commencement of the Chris|tian aera. Camden, Usher, the two

Lloyds, Stillingfleet, Innes, and many more, rejected, some one part or other, and some the whole of Bede's account of the southern Britons; but all these learn|ed men received without examination his system of the Hibernian extraction of the British Scots.

* 1.29 Where we have an opportunity to ex|amine Bede's account by the criterion of collateral history, we find that he has committed a very essential mistake. The southern Britons were so far from deriv|ing their blood from the inhabitants of Armorica, that, on the contrary, the Armoricans had transmigrated from Bri|tain not many ages before Bede's own time. If Bede therefore was in an error with respect to the origin of a people, whose history, on account of their con|nection with the Romans, was known, it is much more probable that he knew no|thing certain concerning the antiquities of a nation, who had not among them the means of preserving, with any certainty, the memory of events.

* 1.30 From the political and religious preju|dices which prevailed, in the days of Bede, between the British Scots and the Saxons, we may conclude that the venerable writer had very little conversa|tion with the antiquaries or senachies of the former nation. Had he even consult|ed them, very little light could be derived

from them in an age of ignorance, cre|dulity, and barbarism. Bede, on the other hand, entertained a friendly partiali|ty for the Scots of Ireland. That people were, in his time, remarkable for mon|kish learning and ascetic austerities; which, together with their benevolence and hospitality to the Saxon students, who flocked into their country, recom|mended them, in a very high degree, to the venerable Anglo-Saxon* 1.31. The good man, we may take it for granted, em|braced every opportunity of conversing with those Hibernian missionaries and pilgrims who came over in swarms into Britain, in those days of conversion and religious pilgrimage. From them he bor|rowed all that genealogical erudition which he displays in the beginning of his ecclesiastical history.

* 1.32 The sudden transition which Bede makes from the tale of Reuda to a pane|gyric on Ireland, furnishes a strong pre|sumption that he derived his information from that quarter. Having observed, in the course of a very favourable description of Ireland, that no reptile is seen in that country, that the air destroys serpents, that the leaves of Hibernian trees and the shavings of timber are efficacious anti|dotes

against poison; after having remark|ed, that the happy island flowed with milk and honey, and was not destitute of vines; he concludes with a new declara|tion, as if that doctrine had been strongly inculcated upon him by his Irish friends, that the British Scots derived their origin from that fortunate country.

* 1.33 It is apparent from another circum|stance, that Bede borrowed his account of the Scots from the Irish. He calls the inhabitants of Iar-gaël by the name of Dalreudini, an appellation utterly un|known to the historians, writers of chro|nicles, bards, and senachies of Scotland, though common in the annals of Ireland. Bede's account of the Picts being almost word for word what has been handed down in the historical rhimes of Ireland* 1.34, fur|nishes a striking proof of the Hibernian origin of the whole of the Anglo-Saxon's genealogical tale: Both the Irish and he supposed that the Picts were distinguished by that name, which, according to them, is derived from a Latin epithet, near five compleat centuries before the foundation of Rome was laid by Romulus. The system of Bede being thus traced to its source, the tales of the Irish bards, and those tales having been already thrown in|to

discredit, we may infer, that the vene|rable writer's authority concludes nothing for the Hibernian descent of the British Scots.

* 1.35 To destroy from another principle, the tale of Bede and the story of Reuda, it may not be improper to observe, that the learned Usher found out that a district in the county of Antrim, which has for ma|ny ages been distinguished by the name of Route, is the Dalriada of the old Irish* 1.36. Dalriada, says the ingenious prelate, de|rives its name from Cairbre-Riada, the son of Conaire, who held the scepter of Ireland in the third century. But we may venture to affirm that Usher, in this supposition, was very much misled. Rute or Reaidh in the old Scotch language signifies a ram. From the first of these synonimous words, the territory in the county of Antrim, from which it is pre|tended, that the British Scots originally transmigrated, received the appellation of the Route, and from the second is to be deduced the name of Dalriada, literally the valley of the Ram.

* 1.37 Usher quotes a patent which is preserv|ed in the Tower of London, wherein it appears, that John king of England granted to Allen lord of Galloway the territory of

Dalreth and the Island of Rachrin, which is situated over against that district† 1.38. From the syllabication of the two local names in the patent, we may conclude that the etymon we have given of Dalriada is per|fectly just. Rachrin, which may, with great propriety, be reckoned an appen|dage to the ROUTE, signifies the ram's promontory, in the Irish tongue; and Dalriada itself being expressly called the land of Rams, in the Irish patent mention|ed by the primate himself, is a circum|stance that is decisive in our favour.

* 1.39 Dalreath or Dalreadh, which was af|terwards latinized into Dalriada, could not possibly, according to the genius of the Irish language, be derived from Cairbre-Riada, were it even certain that such a monarch ever existed. Riada signifies a long-hand, an appellation joined to the name of Cairbre, on account of the singu|lar length of his hands. The Route, therefore, in propriety of language, ought to have been called Dal-Cairbre, if it must at any rate receive its name from that pretended monarch.

* 1.40 The primate, with all his erudition, could only produce the authority of Joce|lyn and Tigernach† 1.41, writers of the ele|venth

and twelfth ages, in support of the Irish origin of the Scots in Britain. Had these writers even been less notoriously fabulous than they appear to be, it is cer|tain that they flourished in too modern a period to know any thing of the trans|actions of the Irish in the dark ages, prior to the introduction of Christianity and letters by Patrick. The two writers, it is true, place the transmigration of the Scots into Britain on this side of that aera, but the testimony of the Roman writers sufficiently destroys that absurd position* 1.42.

* 1.43 Tigernach and Jocelyn contradicted one another materially, and Bede, who lived more than three centuries before the first of those writers, differs toto coelo from both; but had all the three concur|red in transporting the Scots into Britain under the same leader, and in the same year, we might, with reason, presume that they were all mistaken. Usher has ascertained the bounds of Dalriada, or the Route in Antrim, and found its whole extent about thirty miles† 1.44. Were it even certain that Dalriada produced more men th n any district of the same ex••ent

in ancient Ireland, still it is incredible, that an army could be mustered there sufficient to subdue the principality of Iar-ghaël. Should the dominion of Ar|gyle only comprehend Braidalbin, Can|tyre, Knapdale, and Lorn, the natives must have been an overmatch for the in|habitants of the small country pent up within the river Boisy and Glenfinneacht. Should it be admitted that the Dalriadans were supported in their expedition into Caledonia by some other Irish tribes, it is reasonable to suppose that the eastern Picts would have aided their friends of the West, at a time, when they confes|sedly had nothing to fear from any other foreign enemy.

Nennius.—General Observations.

* 1.45 The testimony of Nennius deserves little attention; he derived his intelligence concerning the origin of the Scots from the Hibernian senachies* 1.46, and their tales have been already examined and exploded. The system of Irish antiquity which Nen|nius has preserved is, in many instances, diametrically opposite to those genealogi|cal

schemes, which the modern writers of Ireland have new modelled and adorned; and hence an internal proof arises con|cerning the uncertainty of Hibernian annals.

* 1.47 As a concluding argument against the Hibernian extraction of the Scots, it may not be improper to observe, that the Ca|ledonians might be called Hibernians, their country in general Hibernia, and the western division of it Ierna or Yverdon, without deriving their blood from the Irish. The Saxons of England, it is well known, had their Norfolk and Suf|folk, and the appellation of Southerons and Norlands are not hitherto totally ex|tinguished among the Scots: The ancient Picts, in like manner, were divided into two great tribes, the Vecturiones and Deucaledones, the inhabitants of the northern and southern divisions, according to the testimony of Marcellinus* 1.48.

* 1.49 After the Caledonians, upon the decline of the Roman power in the southern Bri|tain, began to infest the province in se|perate bodies, the two principal tribes in those incursions were distinguished by the

names of Picts and Scots, by the histo|rians of the empire. If the Picts spoke the Gaëlic or Caledonian language, they must certainly have called the territories of the Scots, Iar, Eire, Erin, or Ard-Iar† 1.50, words, all of them, expressive of the situation of the country of the Scottish tribes, in opposition to the Pictish division of Caledonia; if they spoke the ancient British, they would have distinguished the country of the Scots by the name Yverdhon, or, as it is pronounced, Yberon or Yveron. These names being communicated to the Ro|mans by the Britons, or by Pictish pri|soners, it was natural for them to latinize them into Ierna, Jouverna, or Hibernia. In common conversation, the western Highlands are called by those who speak the Galic language IAR, or the West; and when the Hebrides are comprehended in that division of Scotland, the Galic appellation of Iar-in has been always given to the whole. The district of Atregathel, or rather Iar-ghaël, so often mentioned in the annals of Ireland and Scotland, as the first possessions of the Hibernian colonies in Britain, carries in its name a demonstration of this position,

as well as a decisive argument against the ancient system of the origin of the Scots. Iar-ghaël literally signifies the Western-Ghael, or the Scots, in opposition to the Eastern-Ghael, or the Picts, who posses|sed the shore of the German ocean.

* 1.51 In the neighbourhood of Drumalbin, a ridge of hills which divided the Scottish from the Pictish dominions, there is a lake, which, to this day, is called Erin. The river Erin or Ern rises from that lake, and gives its name to a very consi|derable division of the county of Perth. In this district there are to be seen several Roman camps to this day. The Romans could not be strangers to the name of a country where their armies remained long enough to leave such lasting memorials of themselves behind. Juvenal, from the soldiers of Agricola, might have heard of the district of Erin, which he softened into Juverna; and the troops of Theodo|sius might have carried the same intelli|gence to Claudian.

Notes

• * 1.1

  First ap|pearance of the Scots.
• * 1.2

  Amm. Marcell. lib. xx. The very learned and ingenious Dr. Macpherson has, in his critical disserta|tion on the British and Irish Scots, proved against the bishop of St. Asaph, that Ammianus Marcellinus does not furnish even an obscure hint, that the Scots were a new people in Britain, in the reign of Constantius.
• * 1.3

  Claudian's pretended authority
• * 1.4

  Claudian. de quart. consulat. Honorii.
• * 1.5

  Redactum in paludes suas Scottum. Latin. Pacat in Panegyr. Theod.
• * 1.6

  examined,
• † 1.7

  Should it be admitted that the Scots of Valenti|nian's time were skilled in maritime affairs, and had passed from Ireland into North Britain, they ought, after Theodosius had chased them to their vessels, to have directed their flight to their native island. On the contrary, Claudian's hero, or rather Claudian himself, pursues them sword in hand, into the Hyperborean ocean.

  SCOTTUMque, vago mucrone, secutus Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus Undas.
• * 1.8

  and confut|ed.
• * 1.9

  Incedunt victae longo ordine gentes. Hic Nomadum genus et discinctos Mulciber Asros: Hic Lelegas, Carasque, sagittiferosque Gelonos Finxerat. Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis; Indomitique DahaeVirg. Aeneid. viii.

  Super Garamantas et Indos Proferet imperium, jacet extra sidera, tellus Extra anni solisque vias.— Hujus in adventum jam nunc et Caspia regna Responsis horrent Divûm et Maeotia tellus. Virg. Aeneid. vi.
• * 1.10

  A critical remark.
• * 1.11

  Conclusive arguments.
• * 1.12

  Orosius.
• * 1.13

  Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xx.
• * 1.14

  Isidorus.
• ¶ 1.15

  Scottia eadem et Hibernia, proxima Britanniae in|sula, sed situ foecundior. Haec ab Africo in Boream porrigitur, cujus partes priores Iberiam et Cantabricum Oceanum intendunt; unde et Ibernia dicta: Scottia autem quod ab Scottorum gentibus colitur. Isidor. Orig. lib. xiv.
• * 1.16

  examined,
• † 1.17

  Scotti propria linguâ nomen habent a picto cor|pore, eo quod aculeis ••erreis cum atramento, variarum figurarum stigmata annotentur. Isidor. Orig. lib. ix.
• * 1.18

  and con|futed.
• * 1.19

  Gildas ex|amined,
• * 1.20

  Ex in Britannia (so Gildas and Bede, in imitation of the Romans, called that part of the Island which had been subject to the empire) duabus gentibus trans|marinis vehementer Saevis, Scottorum a Circo, Picto|rum ab Aquilone, calcabilis multos stupet gemitque per annos.—Tum erumpens grex••atulorum, (Sax••nes) de cubili leaenae barbariae tribus, &c.

  "Then that ken|nel of whelps (the Saxons) issued out upon us from the den of the barbarous lioness:"

  And in another place this passionate writer says,

  "The fierce Sax••ns of ever execrable memory, detested by God and man, were admitted into the Island like so many wolves into the fold."
• † 1.21

  Transmarinas autem dicimus h•…•…s gentes, non quod extra Britaniam essent positae, sed quia a parte Britto|num erant remotae, duobus sinibus maris interjacenti|bus. Bede, Hist lib. i. c. 12.
• † 1.22

  Revertuntur ergo impudentes grassatores Hiberni domus, post no•…•… multum temporis reversuri.
• ¶ 1.23

  Vid. Gale's edition of Gildas. Instead of rever|tuntur Hiberni domus the doctor reads more grammatical|ly Hibernas domus; that is, that the Scots after commit|ting their depredations returned home for the •…•…nter.
• * 1.24

  and con|futed.
• * 1.25

  Bede's
• * 1.26

  genealogi|cal account of the Bri|tish nations
• * 1.27

  Duce Reuda de Hibernia egressi, vel amicitia vel ferro, sibimet, inter eos, (Pictos) sede, quas hactenus habent vindicarunt; a quo duce . . . . hodie Dalreudini vocantur.

  —It is to be observed that deal does not signify portion or division.
• * 1.28

  never impli|citly adpted.
• * 1.29

  His mis|takes
• * 1.30

  arise from various causes.
• * 1.31

  Bed. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26.
• * 1.32

  He received his accounts of the Scots from Ire|land.
• * 1.33

  confuted.
• * 1.34

  Keating, p. 60, 61, 62.
• * 1.35

  Usher's ar|guments in support of Bede
• * 1.36

  Usser, Brit, Eccles, Antiq. p. 320.
• * 1.37

  examined;
• † 1.38

  Usser. ubi supra.
• * 1.39

  confuted.
• * 1.40

  Authority of Jocelyn and Tiger|nach
• † 1.41

  Tigernach carries down his annals to A. D. 1088, in which he died. Jocelyn compiled a life of St. Patrick from all the •…•…utile tales and traditions he could collect, and published it in the year 1175, at the desire of Thomas O'Connor, archbishop of Armagh.
• * 1.42

  Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xx.
• * 1.43

  exploded.
• † 1.44

  Usser. ubi supra.
• * 1.45

  Nennius.
• * 1.46

  Sic mihi peritissimi Scottorum (Hibernorum) nun|•…•…averunt. Nennius edit. Rog. Gale, p. 101.
• * 1.47

  Conclusive arguments
• * 1.48

  Eo tempore Picti in duas gentes divisi, Deucale|donas et Vecturiones. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxvii.

  Camdenus, vir in patria historia illustranda accuratissi|mus, legendum putat Deucaledonios, velut sic nominatos ab occidua Scotiae ora, quà Deucaledonius oceanus ir|rumpit.
• * 1.49

  against the Hibernian extraction
• † 1.50

  IAR signifies the West; Eir is a corruption of Iar; Erin is the same with the western country, and Ard-Iar is the Galic name for the western quarter.
• * 1.51

  of the Bri|tish Scots.