Note 88 — CHAPTER THE THIRD. CONSTANTINE THE SECOND—A. D. 900-943.

Innes, Ap. 3. Wynton, bk. 6, c. 10. An. Ult. 953. The men of Mærne occasionally make their appearance in early Scottish history, and generally in company with the men of Moray. It has been frequently assumed that they belonged to a certain earldom of the Merns, comprised in modern Kincardineshire, though Mr. Skene (Highlanders, vol. ii., c. 9) places them on the western coast, where he supposes that there once existed an earldom of Garmoran. The same objection, I fear, may be raised against the earldom of Garmoran which is urged against the earldom of the Merns—the total silence of history respecting it. When a dim light is first shed upon the northern provinces, the name of Moray, which must have once been applied to the whole line of sea-coast—Armorica—in this direction, is confined to the westward of the Spey, whilst the eastern tract of country is broken up into the earldoms of Mar and Buchan, and the districts of Strathbogie and the Garioch, both “in the crown,” i.e., conquered. The name of Mærne has by this time disappeared, unless it still survived in Mar, representing only a portion of the ancient province, but I should imagine it is to be sought for in this quarter, which would account for the connection of its people with the men of Moray; and if ancient Mærne once included Kincardineshire, the name of “the Merns” may have been retained, like that of Northumberland or Cumberland, by a comparatively small portion of the original province.