Note 141 — Chapter V · The Line of Atholl.

Chalmers, who has traced in his Caledonia the memorials of these contests with all the zeal of an enthusiastic antiquary, is angry with Pinkerton for asserting that “there is not a shadow of authority for the Danish wars of Malcolm the Second;” remarking that “popular tradition, with well vouched remains, are historical documents of sufficient authority for narrative facts.” For the facts, undoubtedly, but not for the narratives, which have been subsequently appended. The remains, so industriously noted down by Chalmers, fully attest the frequent conflicts occurring along the Scottish coasts with the Northmen, but they do not prove the truth of minute descriptions of battles unknown before the time of Boece, who wrote in the early part of the sixteenth century.