Note 230 — Chapter VII

The reign of Edgar has been occasionally regarded as the era of a thorough Saxonizing of all Scotland, except the Highlands; but with respect to this opinion I can only use the words which Father Innes applies to the laws of Aodh Fin—“De hisce...... altissimum apud scriptores nostros silentium.” If Thane and Thanage are supposed to be, not Saxon names applied to Scottish institutions, but actual Saxon institutions introduced beyond the Forth, it should be explained why the Saxon Thane was as totally different a character from the Scottish Thane as Thane-land was from a Thanage. The Saxon held by military service—cnicht-service, an expression scarcely traceable to Normandy; the Scot by Scottish service and rent—in fee-farm. Why also is only one Thane traceable in the Lothians, if all the Thanes came from the Saxons? Compare Appendices N and R.