II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and philosophy.* The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion, that the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved in the perpetual resemblance of language, of religion, and of manners; and the peculiar characters of the British tribes might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances.† The Roman province was reduced to the state of civilized and peaceful servitude; the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scors and of the PICTS, of the Saxons. * In the beginning of the last century, the learned Camden was obliged to undermine with respectful scepticism, the romance of Brutus the Trojan; who is now buried in silent oblivion, with Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, and her numerous progeny. Yet I am informed, that some champions of the Milesian colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland. A people dissatisfied with their present condition, grasp at any visions of their past or future glory. Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law, Agricola, might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some British tribes. But it was their sober, deliberate opinion-"In universum tamen æstimanti Gallos vicinum solum occupâsse credibile est. Eorum sacra deprehendas sermo haud multum diversus" (in Vit. Agricol. c. 11). Cæsar had observed their common religion (Comment. de Bello Gallico, 6, 13); and in his time the emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an historical, event (v. 10). Camden, the British Strabo, has modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities. (Britannia, vol. i, Introduction, p. 2–31. [Even in our most Saxon districts, some of the earliest monuments of nature, such as rivers and the meetings of their streams, bear names so radically Celtic, as to leave no doubt respecting the preoccupants of the land by whom they were affixed. The same prevails so widely in other countries, that it was held by Cluverius and Pelloutier to corroborate the ancient writers who made the Celtic and the Gothic races to be one. Bishop Percy, in his preface to Mallet's Northern Antiquities (p. 3-5) has pointed out their error and some of its causes. But he has not shewn with sufficient clearness, how the race which first peopled Europe naturally attached to such objects names that became familiar to their successors, and have been so transmitted to after times.-ED.] In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious Highlanders, whom their birth and educa

who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power, and almost the memory of the Picts, have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honours of the English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former were the men of the hills, and the latter 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 ruling passion of the Picts; and their warriors, who stripped thmselves 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 western coast of Scotland, tempted their curiosity, and improved their skill; and they acquired, by slow degrees, the art, or rather the habit, of tion had peculiarly qualified for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, &c., of the Caledonians, by Dr. John Macpherson, London, 1768, in 4to., and Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq., London, 1773, in 4to., third edition. Dr. Macpherson was a minister in the Isle of Skye: and it is a circumstance honourable for the present age, that a work, replete with erudition and criticism, should have been composed

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 enterprise, were deeply affected by the various accidents of their mutual fortunes. They long cherished the lively tradition of their common name and origin; 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 eighth century. On this slight foundation, a huge superstructure of fable 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

in the most remote of the Hebrides. * Gibbon has forgotten here the true derivation of the name of Ireland, to which he alluded in the beginning of his first chapter (vol. i, p. 5). Erin does not signify Green. The learned authorities, of which, in his preceding note, he adopts one and in his next disputes the other, however opposed in many points, concur in making it denote The Western Isle. It can have been given only by Celts, who saw its headlands from the east, and when these took it there with them, they most probably found it uninhabited, and no "savage and unwarlike natives" to conquer. Irish antiquaries rely too fondly on a few relics, that attest the early visits of ancient travellers, and on some transient gleams of light from monastic cells in a dark period, and thence infer for their country a former state of general civilization and enlightenment Could they establish the fact, it would be the severest condemnation that could possibly be pronounced, of the priest-government, under which they must since have degenerated to

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 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 their present condition.-ED. * 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. 430, 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, Camden, 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 between 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 forget the nature of a question, which he so vehemently debates, and so absolutely decides. Hyeme tumentes ac sævientes undas calcâstis Oceani sub remis vestris; insperatam imperatoris faciem Britannus expavit. Julius Firmicus Maternus de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 464, edit. Gronov. ad calcem Minuc. Fel. See Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv.

scanty subsistence, provoked them to frequent desertion; the nerves of discipline were relaxed, and the highways were infested with robbers. 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 government of Britain. The hostile tribes 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 the Flantagenets, 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 of

p. 336). [The site of Rutupiæ, which Gibbon has here rendered "the harbour of Sandwich," is marked by the Roman remains at Richborough. This important station was the landing-place of emperors and armies, and commanded the southern entrance of the channel between the Isle of Thanet and the mainland. Ruithin, the passage island, was the British name of Thanet. (See Nennius, Hist. Brit. p. 397. edit. Bohn.) This shows it to have been the Riduna of Antoninus (Itin. Marit.), which D'Anville (Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 354) mistakes for Aurigni (Alderney), and Baxter (Gloss. Ant. Brit. p. 202) for Rathlin, on the north coast of Ireland.—ED.]

*Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 39, p. 264. This curious passage has escaped the diligence of our British antiquaries.

The Caledonians praised and coveted the gold, the steeds, the lights, &c., of the stranger. See Dr. Blair's Dissertations on Ossian, vol. ii, p. 343, and Mr. Macpherson's Introduction, p. 242—286.

Lord Lyttelton has circumstantially related (History of Henry II. vol. i, p. 182), and Sir David Dalrymple as slightly mentioned (Aunals of Scotland, vol. i, p. 69) a barbarous inroad of the Scots, at a time (A.D.