Note 301 — Chapter V · THE FOUR KINGDOMS.

It is called ‘Lothene’ in the Saxon Chronicle, and appears to be meant by Lethead in the ancient poem in Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 127. Florence of Worcester calls it ‘Provincia Loidis,’ and the Chronicle of Melrose the same. It appears, as we shall see, under the name of ‘Regio Loidis’ in 654. In its limited extent it was the district between the Avon and the Lammermoors. In the foundation charter of Holyrood, David the First grants to its monks the tenth of all the marine animals which might be thrown ashore ‘ab Avon usque ad Colbrandspath,’ with the tenth of his pleas and other dues within the same limits; and in a charter of Rolland, son of Uchtred, some lands in Lauderdale are described as ‘usque ad divisas de Laodonia versus Lambermor.’ This district now consists of the three counties of East, Mid, and West Lothians. Simeon of Durham refers to it in its large extent when he has ‘pervenit apud fluvium Twedam, qui Northymbriam et Loidam disterminat.’—Sym. Dun. Surtees ed., p. 127.