Chapter I · ​—INTRODUCTION. (continued 4)

¹ Historians, Volume V. Life of St. Kentigern, pages 69‒72, 348.

But the saint was forced to leave Strathclyde, and went to Wales, where he laboured many years. Afterwards, when King Riderch reigned in Strathclyde, the saint returned and spent the remaining years of his life amongst the Britons. This king seems to have favoured the saint, and promoted his labours among the people. After an active and earnest life spent in the service of humanity, St. Kentigern died about the beginning of the seventh century. Besides attaining to the rank of local saint of Glasgow, under the name of St. Mungo, his memory became widely and greatly revered in Scotland. He also left the impress of his energy on the people of Wales and of Cumberland, as in the latter district eight churches were dedicated to his name. His tomb and relics at Glasgow were objects of extreme veneration down to the period of the Reformation.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 73, 88‒95, 118, 119, 348‒370; History of Cumberland, by ♦R. S. Ferguson, M.A., page 114, 1890.

Before passing to the northern part of the country, the important labours of St. Cuthbert must be noticed. He was born on the southern side of the Lammermoor Hills, and when a boy followed a shepherd’s life. But Nature had gifted him with fine sensibilities and a glowing imagination, united in a vigorous physical frame, and the inner cravings of his mind led him to Melrose and to adopt a religious life. He became the apostle of the border counties. From his retreat at Melrose he carried his teaching of the Gospel to the people in the glens and the hillsides of the Cheviots and the Lammermoors, Ettrick, Teviotdale, Yarrow, and Annan Water. In his missionary efforts among the inhabitants of these localities he often spent several weeks at a time, and then returned to his monastery, like the bird to the ark. His energy was very great, and he faced toil and hardship bravely and cheerfully in the service of God and humanity. Afterwards St. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne. Thus he became a conspicuous and worthy saint in the annals of the English Church.¹ He died in 687.

¹ Mon. Hist. Brit., pages 242‒243. The materials for the life and career of St. Cuthbert, and the many interesting incidents associated with him, are exceedingly voluminous, but the following are the main sources:​—1, An Anonymous Life; 2, the Prose Life by Bede; 3, the Metrical Life by Bede; 4, the History of the Translation of his Body; 5, the Libellus of Reginald; 6, a number of Miscellanies. See T. D. Hardy’s Catalogue of the Materials relating to the History of Britain, Volume I., pages 297‒317.

The most renowned of the early saints who introduced Christianity among the northern tribes of Scotland was St. Columba, as all have recognised in him the features of a veritable hero. He was very fortunate in having two of his successors as biographers, who were near enough to his own time to give their accounts of him a special value. Though we may regret that Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba affords so little information about the state of society in his time, still we should recollect that it was intended for the instruction of his own age and contemporaries, not for the enlightenment of a remote posterity. Thus, in full harmony with the spirit of his time, and the notions and feelings of his own class, Adamnan makes “the Prophetic Revelations, the Miraculous Powers, and the Apparitions of Angels,” the main themes of his life of Columba. Assuredly these were the matters of interest to the monks, so it is only incidentally that facts relating to the real world were introduced. Meagre as the work is of facts, it does contain notices of customs and references to notions then floating in the minds of the inhabitants which are nowhere else to be found.

St. Columba was born on the 7th of December, 521, at Gartan, in the county of Donegal, in Ireland. He was closely related to the royal families of his native country, which gave him a great advantage from the outset of his career. He was carefully educated in Ireland, and when a youth became a pupil of the famous bishop, St. Finnian. About the year 553 he founded the monastery of Durrow, his chief institution in Ireland. It appears he was connected with some of the political disputes of his countrymen, and in 561 the battle of Cooldrevny was fought, and it was suspected that Columba had instigated it. A synod was assembled to excommunicate Columba, but the assembly was not unanimous, and protests were entered. What effect, if any, this may have had on his future course cannot be ascertained, as he left Ireland without any stigma on his character, repeatedly revisited it, and was received with the highest respect.¹

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, Appendix Preface, pages 68‒75. Columba​—“a member of the reigning family in Ireland, and closely allied to that of Dalriada in Scotland; he was eligible to the sovereignty of his own country. His half-uncle, Muircertach, was on the throne when he was born, and he lived during the successive reigns of his cousins, Domhnall and Fergus, and Eochaidh; of his first cousins, Ainmire and Baedan; and of Aedh, son of Ainmire. To this circumstance, as much as to his piety or abilities, was owing the immense influence which he possessed, and the consequent celebrity of his conventual establishments; in fact, he enjoyed a kind of spiritual monarchy collectively with the secular dominion of his relatives, being sufficiently distant in Iona to avoid collision, yet near enough to exercise an authority made up of the patriarchal and monastic.” Ibid., page 8, Note u.

In 563 Columba, with twelve companions, embarked in a wicker-boat, covered with hides, and after touching at Islay, landed and settled on the small isle of Iona. It lay on the confines of the territories of the Scottish and Pictish tribes, and Connal, the ruler of the former, gifted it to Columba, and shortly after its possession was confirmed to him by Brude, the King of the Picts. As Iona lay on the outskirts of the dominions of the two chief tribes, it afforded a convenient centre for intercourse, and there St. Columba founded his chief monastery, and thence sent forth missionaries to convert the rude tribes of the north of Scotland. The Scots of Argyle were then nominally Christians, but the Picts were not, and it was amongst the latter that Columba mostly laboured. He often visited the mainland, and gained a remarkable influence over its chiefs. He at first encountered many difficulties, but the native energy and spirit of the missionary overcame all obstacles. In the year 565 Columba sought out the Pictish king’s seat, which was on the south-side of the river Ness, on or near the old Castle Hill of Inverness. Brude, in his pride, had shut the gate against the holy man, but the saint, by the sign of the cross, and knocking at it, caused it to fly open. Columba and his companions then entered, the King advanced and met them, and received the saint with due respect, and ever after honoured him.¹

¹ Historians, Volume VI., pages 62, 276; Mon. Hist. Brit., page 176; Reeves’ Adamnan, pages 130‒153.

Columba and his disciples then proceeded with their work, and preached the Gospel among the Picts, and baptised them; sometimes whole families were baptised at once and recognised as Christians. It may be observed that Columba occasionally employed the aid of an interpreter when engaged in instructing the Picts in the doctrines of Christianity. This was quite a natural occurrence, for though Columba himself, no doubt, understood the Pictish dialect, it was, however, a different and a difficult matter to intelligibly explain the doctrines of Christianity to the Picts in their own local dialect. Columba founded many monasteries on the mainland and in the Western Isles in his own lifetime, and subsequently the monasteries and churches dedicated to him were very numerous. Every monastery consisted of a body of clergy, who from these centres went out in circuits amongst the surrounding tribes to teach and to convert them, and returned to the monastery as their common home for shelter and support. In this way, as monasteries were gradually established and spread over the country, the inhabitants were converted.¹

¹ Historians, Volume VI., pages 2, 25, 55, 58, 71, 77; Reeves’ Adamnan, pages 289‒298; Book of Deer, Preface, pages 1, 2.

A few incidents connected with Columba’s action and labour among the people may be narrated. When on one of his visits in the land of the Picts, he heard of a famous well which the heathen people, being blinded by the devil, worshipped as a god. The well had many evil qualities, and those who drank of it, or washed in it, were struck by demoniacal art, smitten with leprosy or some severe infirmity. Thus the people were seduced, and paid divine honour to the fountain. Columba having learned the state of the case, went boldly up to the well, and then the Magi rejoiced, as they thought that he too would suffer from the touch of the baneful water; but the saint raised his hands and invoked the name of Christ, then washed his hands and feet, and with his disciples drank of the water which he had blessed. Henceforth the demons departed from the well, and it never after injured anyone; but, on the contrary, it became famous for curing diseases.¹

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, page 119.

St. Columba by the sign of the cross banished the demons which lurked in the bottom of the milking pail; and he also confounded the devilish art of a sorcerer who pretended to take milk from a bull. There is no evidence in the Life of St. Columba of any organised heathen priesthood in Scotland, or in the Isles around it. There is, however, evidence that the kings or great chiefs kept an adviser, one of which we have already met in the person of Cathen, the adviser of the King of Strathclyde, who tried issues with St. Mungo; and no doubt these advisers, who associated with the kings, were a sort of half-magicians and half-priests. The magi that Columba met with, professed to have power over winds and waters; but the saint easily outdid them. There was a certain Broichan who attended King Brude, and this man ventured to measure his powers with St. Columba; but the saint swiftly and utterly defeated him.¹

¹ Ibid., Adamnan, pages 146‒150; Historians, Volume VI., pages 59‒61.

St. Columba was more engaged in fighting demons than heathen priests. He went out one day to a sequestered spot in the woods to pray, and when he began a host of black demons suddenly attacked him with iron darts:​—“But he, single-handed, against innumerable foes of such a nature, fought with the utmost bravery, having received the armour of the Apostle Paul. Thus the contest was maintained on both sides for the greater part of the day, nor could the demons, countless though they were, vanquish him, nor was he able by himself to drive them from the island, till the angels of God, as the saint afterwards told certain persons, and they, few in number, came to his aid, when the demons in terror gave way.” He was represented as being frequently engaged in encounters with demons.¹

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, page 205. The greatest of Columba’s encounters with demons was related thus:​—“Brandubh was killed on the morrow, and the demons carried off his soul into the air. And Maedhog (abbot of Ferns) heard the wail of his soul as it was undergoing pain, while he was with the reapers. And he went into the air, and began to battle with the demons. And they passed over Iona; and Columba heard them while he was writing; and he stuck the style into his cloak, and went to the battle to the aid of Maedhog, in defence of Brandubh’s soul. And the battle passed over Rome, and the style fell out of Columba’s cloak, and dropped in front of Gregory, who took it up in his hand. Columba followed the soul of Brandubh to heaven. When he reached it the congregation of heaven were at Celebration, namely, Te decet hymnus, and Benedic anima mea, and Laudate pueri Dominum; and this is the beginning of the Celebration of heaven. Columba did the same as the people of heaven. And they brought Brandubh’s soul back to his body again. Columba tarried with Gregory, and brought away Gregory’s brooch with him; and it is the hereditary brooch, being an heirloom in Iona, as the testamentary bell was in Armagh, of the coarb of Columba to this day. And he left his style with Gregory.” Ibid., note.

The form of Christianity introduced was essentially monastic, both in the north and the south. As Columba’s institution of Iona was the first in importance, and the chief religious centre in Scotland for a century and a half, it presents the best example. The island of Iona lies north-east and south-west, separated from the island of Mull by a channel about a mile broad; it is about three miles in length, and about a mile and a half in breadth. Its surface is very uneven, and mostly consists of small green patches and rocky projections; the best part of the cultivable land lies along its eastern shore. The original monastery consisted of a church, with its altar and recesses, a refectory, the cells and huts of the monks, and Columba’s house or cell, in which he read and wrote, having several attendants awaiting his orders; and one or more houses for the reception of strangers and visitors not belonging to the monastic family. All these erections were surrounded by a rampart and a ditch called a wall, which was probably intended as much for the restraint of the monks as for security. So far as ascertained, it appears that originally the whole of these buildings were formed of wood and wattles, which perhaps rested upon stone foundations. Outside the wall there were the cow-house and the stable, the barn, the kiln and the mill, the smithy and the carpenters’ workshop. Many of the monks themselves engaged in the labours of the field, among the corn and grass.

Those who entered into the conventual community were considered as specially devoted to the service of God. The Abbot of Iona was the head of the community, and his authority extended over all the monasteries and churches founded by St. Columba. The bishops in Iona and in Scotland in the lifetime of Columba, and for about a century after, were subject to the Abbots of Iona. St. Columba named his own successor, and afterwards a preference was given to the founder’s kin in the election of the Abbots. Thus the notions and feelings of clanship entered into the very constitution of the Columban monasteries; and the kin relation of many of the Abbots of Iona have been traced. In Ireland the feelings of clanship were even more marked in the succession of the Abbots or Coarbs than in Scotland. Dioceses and parishes were unknown in the early Scottish Church. The Celtic form of society was unsuited to such arrangements, as the state of intermittent warfare in which the people lived, often resulted in the extension of the territory of one tribe and the curtailment of another, which rendered even the area of the jurisdiction of clan monasteries exceedingly fluctuating.¹

¹ Historians of Scotland, Volume VI., pages 104, 105, Introduction; Todd’s St. Patrick, pages 154‒161, 172, 504, 505; Ancient Laws of Ireland, Volumes I., II., III.; Reeves’ Adamnan, pages 339‒341; Book of Deer, pages 102, 126‒128.

It seems probable that celibacy was enjoined by Columba on the members of his community in Iona, but marriage was common in his time among the secular clergy, and celibacy was not established in Christendom for long after his day. Women held a high position in the early Church of Ireland and Scotland, as they have always done in the organisation of Celtic society. Columba himself was much revered by the female sex, and there were convents for women even in his time, and female saints of great renown. In the Irish Church some of the coarbs were females, and St. Bridget attained a wide fame and influence not only in Ireland but also in England and in Scotland. This female saint was born about the middle of the fifth century and died about the beginning of the sixth, and the histories of her life are numerous and full of narratives about miracles.¹

¹ Todd’s St. Patrick, pages 11‒14, 171; Historians, Volume VI., pages 41, 42, 69, 71, 85.

Touching divine service, the members of the monastery of Iona were summoned to the church by the ringing of a bell, and at night they carried lanterns. The chief service was the solemn mass, when the offices were chanted, and in which certain saints were commemorated by name. On special occasions the abbot summoned the monks by the toll of the bell to the church in the dead of night, addressed them, asked their prayers, and then kneeled himself at the altar and prayed. Every Wednesday and Friday during the year, excepting the time between Easter and Whitsunday, were kept as fast days, and Lent was strictly observed. The chief festival was the Paschal solemnities, on which occasion the Eucharist was celebrated. Baptism was administered to adult converts, after being duly instructed in the faith, sometimes by the abbot in his travels through the country, and sometimes to an individual a little before his death.

Young men were admitted to the diaconate while students, and part of their duty was to attend the ministers of the altar. Priests’ orders were conferred by the bishop, but the previous imposition of the abbot’s right hand was required as the warrant for the bishop’s interference. Persons retiring from the world to live as associates or probationers in the monastery were admitted. When any one desired admission to the order, the application was submitted to the abbot, who could receive into communion at once or extend the probation over a period of years. The abbot exercised a discretionary power in the regulation of penance, and generally over the whole organisation of the community.

The interment of the dead was a religious office, which implied consideration of the future as well as the present. The faith in the Resurrection rendered it desirable to be buried among the honoured members of the society. The body of the deceased was laid out in the church, wrapped in linen clothes, where it remained for three days and nights, during which the praises of God were sung. Then the body was borne to the grave in solemn procession, and interred with due reverence.

The sign of the cross was much employed. It was customary to cross the pail before milking the cows, to cross tools and implements before using them, and so on. The sign of the cross was highly esteemed, and it was deemed effectual to banish demons, to restrain and prostrate wild animals, unlock doors, and endow pebbles with healing virtues. In St. Columba’s time charms were much used, which were produced by his blessing on a great variety of objects; but it is unnecessary to particularise further, as such notions and practices were not peculiar to St. Columba or his country, for they have been found prevailing among many other peoples widely separated from each other.

The members of the monastery had all things in common. Personal property was entirely disclaimed, according to Columba’s injunction.

Hospitality was a leading characteristic of the early monasteries. When a stranger arrived, sometimes he was at once introduced to the abbot, by whom he was kissed; at other times the interview was deferred. When an expected guest arrived, the abbot and brethren went to meet and welcome him, and he was then led to the oratory and thanks returned for his safety. From this he was led to a lodging, and water prepared to wash his feet. If a visitor happened to arrive on an ordinary fast-day, the fast was relaxed in his favour. Almsgiving was held in high esteem, and Columba often befriended the poor, but beggars who went about with wallets, were not held in such esteem, and grevious transgressors were excluded.

The ordinary food of the community of Iona was very simple. It consisted of bread, sometimes made of barley, milk, eggs, fish, occasionally mutton and beef, and some vegetables. Their clothing consisted of a coarse woollen cloth in its natural colour, and they wore sandals on their feet, which were removed before sitting down to meat.

Besides the religious services the regular employment of the Columban community consisted in reading, writing, and manual labour, according to the example of the saint himself, who allowed no time to pass unoccupied. The primary subject of study was the Scriptures, which all the members of the community had to prosecute, and to commit to memory the Book of Psalms. The Greek and Latin languages, and ecclesiastical writings were also included in their studies. Writing formed an important part of the monastic occupations, and Columba himself was much devoted to it, and many of his books were preserved, especially a volume containing hymns for the various services of each day in the week, which is mentioned by Adamnan. The stated manual labour was agriculture in its various branches, and there is evidence that the monks of Iona were the best agriculturists of the period in North Britain. As the monastery of Iona developed, and the number of its members increased, the work connected with the institution called into being new offices, agents, and servants, whose various duties were defined. In Iona we find the abbot, prior, bishop, scribe, anchorite, butler, baker, smith, attendant, and messengers, and at a later date the president of the Culdees; while the position of Iona necessitated a supply of boats and nautical appliances, and men accustomed with the sea, and several kinds of small vessels were used in connection with the monastery. Small portable boats were used for cruising, crossing rivers, and inland lochs; larger wicker-work boats covered with hides, which were furnished with masts and sails as well as oars, were used for carrying on communication with the mainland and with Ireland.¹

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, pages 339‒369; Sculptured Stones of Scotland, Volume II., Preface, pages 14‒16, 17, 19‒21.

Columba had a severe sickness in the year 593, and he died on the morning of the 9th of June, 597, while kneeling at the altar; without a struggle his spirit gently departed. His remains were wrapped in fine linen clothes and interred in Iona.¹ Columba was a man of great energy and ability, and left behind him an imperishable name associated with the introduction of Christianity in Scotland.

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, pages 227, 235‒240.

He was succeeded by his first cousin, Baithene, son of Brendan. He was nominated by St. Columba as his successor to the abbacy of Iona, and, having enjoyed it three years, he died in 600. He was succeeded by another first-cousin of St. Columba, Laisren, son of Feradhach; he held the abbacy five years, and died in 605.¹ Iona continued to prosper, and occasionally sent forth men who spread the light and established monasteries and churches beyond the bounds of Scotland. The institution of Iona performed good service in its day, and contributed several important elements to the civilisation of Scotland, which have operated in various ways along the roll of ages down to the present time. In spite of its solitary position, evil days came upon it; for in 801, the monastery was burned to the ground by the Norsemen. Again in 806 they landed on the island, and slew sixty-eight of the inhabitants; and they returned in 815 and killed a number of the monks. Such were the results of the early visits of these heathen Norsemen to our shores. By this time the influence of Iona had from other causes begun to decline, and before the end of the ninth century Dunkeld had become the chief religious centre in Scotland.

¹ Ibid., page 372.

It was already stated that Constantine, who ascended the throne of the Picts at Scone in 790, founded a church at Dunkeld; and it appears that the remains of St. Columba were enshrined sometime in the latter half of the eighth century, conveyed to Ireland and preserved there. Kenneth M‘Alpin in 850 removed the relics of St. Columba to the Church of Dunkeld, or at least some of them. Thus Kenneth, as it were, constituted Dunkeld​—the mother church over the Columbans in Scotland; and hence the Abbots of Dunkeld assumed an important position.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 312, 318; Skene’s Celtic Scotland, Volume II., pages 291‒319.

The influence of these early saints, and especially of St. Columba, and their immediate successors, upon the subsequent religious feelings and sentiments of the people was great and abiding, and to us indeed, unrealisable in its natal vigour and glowing energy. For till the Reformation their deaths and miracles were continually commemorated as part of the belief and worship of the people. Their tombs, relics, and shrines, became objects of extreme veneration. Many of their relics were believed to possess marvellous powers, such as the Crosiers, and the Brecbennoch of St. Columba, which were often carried into battles to secure victory to the people who possessed them. These saints also took a firm and extensive hold upon the local history and nomenclature of the country, which is still discernible after thirteen centuries. The wells and springs among the valleys, the deep and winding glens, and in the cliffs of rugged mountains, often bear the names of these early saints; and, moreover, many of the wells had been blessed by them, and thus rendered famous for curing diseases.¹ The caves and rocks retain traces of the early teachers of the Gospel of peace, and the old markets all over the country were named after them; indeed, there were few places of any note that were not associated with the name of some early saint. Looking fairly at these results and assigning to them due importance, we may easily perceive the social influence which the new religion must have had upon the people; and seeing that the action of these saints had one common origin, the general effect was a tendency to draw the separate tribes slowly towards a union amongst themselves. Thus Christianity became an influence which contributed much indirectly to the development of the Scotch nationality, as well as to the civilisation of the people.

¹ There were few if any parishes in Scotland that had not one or more holy wells which were famed for their healing virtues, and many of them were resorted to till quite recent times. See Anderson’s Scotland in Early Christian Times, page 193, 1881.

Section IX.

Gradual Extension of the Kingdom to the End of the Eleventh Century.

After the historic kingdom was founded, and while its development was proceeding from the centre outward, it was persistently attacked by external enemies. The Danes and Norwegians, under the name of Norsemen, threatened its total overthrow. The racial movement of the Saxons had been proceeding onward, since their settlement in the Lothians, slowly but effectively. The powerful tribes occupying the parts of the country not yet included in the kingdom were still warring against it. Thus there were external and internal conflicts going on at the same time; yet the natural vigour and energy of the people enabled them to struggle for centuries with these difficulties and adverse circumstances, and finally to attain success.

Kenneth M‘Alpin was succeeded by his brother Donald, who reigned four years. Constantine I., a son of Kenneth M‘Alpin, then ascended the throne, and soon found himself face to face with the Norsemen. In the middle of the ninth century these ruthless warriors extended their destructive ravages along the east and west coasts of Scotland; they entered by the firths and inlets, and penetrated far into the interior of the country, ransacked it on every side, inflicted much suffering and privation on the people, and prolonged the reign of confusion. They slew many of the inhabitants, and carried numbers of them off as captives, and at length they obtained a footing in Caithness, Sutherlandshire, and other parts along the coasts, where they established lasting memorials of their prowess in the memory of succeeding generations.

In 877 the Norsemen invaded the country in force, and entered Fife, attacked and defeated the Scots, and pursued them through the county. The Scots made a stand at Inverdovet, in the parish of Forgan, but they were completely defeated, and Constantine and many of his followers slain.¹ He was succeeded by his brother, Aed, who reigned one year. Eocha, a Briton, was then placed on the throne, but being too young to reign alone, another king called Giric was associated with him, and they both disappeared about 889. Donald, a son of Constantine I. ascended the throne in 889, and during his reign the Norsemen had obtained possession of Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross. Afterwards they invaded the southern districts; and the king, when fighting against them, was slain at Dunnotter, in Kincardineshire, in 900. He was succeeded by Constantine II., who soon found himself engaged in the struggle with the fierce and implacable Norsemen. They plundered Dunkeld and the surrounding country, but in 904 Constantine invoked the aid of St. Columba, and with the saint’s crozier carried at the head of his army, he attacked the Norsemen in Strathern, and completely defeated them and slew their leader.²

¹ Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, pages 9, 21.

² Ibid., pages 9, 21, 362; Robertson’s Early Kings, Volume I., pages 44, 45, et seq.

In 906 Constantine II. directed his attention to the affairs of the Church, and held an assembly on the Mote Hill of Scone. There the king and Cellach, the bishop of St. Andrews, and the people, all solemnly vowed to observe the laws and the discipline of the faith, and preserve the rights of the Church, and the record adds, “from this day the hill merited its name, the ‘Mount of Belief.’”¹ The stone on which the kings were installed to the throne had long been in Scone, many important meetings had been held there, and henceforth this sacred spot became inseparably associated with the sovereignty and the freedom of the kingdom.

¹ Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, page 9.

Distinct indications now appear of attempts to extend the dominion of the kingdom to the south-west, as when Constantine II. contrived to obtain the election of his own brother Donald as king of Strathclyde in 908, and thenceforth a branch of the Scottish line gave princes to Strathclyde, and thus facilitated its complete annexation in the near future.¹

¹ Ibid.

Constantine II., wearied with the struggle and the difficulties connected with his position, retired to the monastery of St. Andrews in 942, and resigned the throne to Malcolm, a son of his predecessor, Donald. Constantine lived ten years after his retirement, and died in 952. Malcolm I. was a bold man, and attempted to extend his power beyond the river Spey, but he failed. He seems to have obtained some footing in the region to the south of the Forth, sometimes called the Cumbrian kingdom, which was then in a state approaching disintegration. Malcolm reigned eleven years, and was slain at Fetteresso, in Kincardineshire. The struggle between the tribes in the northern and the southern districts of the county still continued to rage, and on the death of Malcolm, Indulf, the son of Constantine II., mounted the throne at Scone in the year 954. He extended the kingdom southward by taking advantage of the distracted and confused state of Cumbria; he seized possession of Edinburgh and added it to the kingdom. Indulf also repelled an attack of the Norsemen in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, and after a reign of eight years he died in 962. A contest for the throne then ensued between Duff, the son of Malcolm I., and Colin, the son of Indulf, and a battle was fought at Drumcrub, in Strathern, in which Duff defeated Colin; but two years later Colin expelled Duff, who died shortly after, and Colin was slain by the Britons in 971.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 10, 151, 171, 288, 302, ♦363, 364.

The same year Kenneth II., a son of Malcolm I., ascended the throne at Scone; and immediately proceeded to throw up entrenchments at the fordable points of the Forth, and attempted to extend the limits of the kingdom southward. He attacked the Britons of Strathclyde and wasted a portion of their territory; and then turned his attention to Northumbria, which he invaded twice, and seems to have subdued and taken possession of some portions of it. Kenneth gave Brechin to the Lord, and thus endeavoured to strengthen his hold on the district around it by securing the influence of the Church. A gradual encroachment upon the local kings and chiefs was effectively proceeding from Scone, the centre of the monarchy; the kingdom was slowly extending in every direction, and the people under the influence of the Church and other attracting affinities were silently becoming a nation. Kenneth II. did much to consolidate the power of the Scots, and after reigning twenty-four years he was slain at Fettercairn, in Kincardineshire in 995.¹

¹ Ibid., pages 10, 152, 289, 365; Chartulary of Brechin, Preface, page 4.

Constantine III., a son of Colin, then succeeded to the throne, but his right was contested by Kenneth M‘Duff. After a severe struggle Constantine was slain in the second year of his reign. M‘Duff reigned eight years, and was killed in Strathern. He was succeeded by Malcolm II., a son of Kenneth II., who ascended the throne in 1005. Malcolm II. began his reign by an invasion of Northumberland, but was defeated, and many of his followers slain. He next attempted to extend his influence over the northern region of the country by the marriage of his daughter with Sigurd, the ruler of the Orkney Islands, and they had a son, Thorfinn, who after his father’s death was confirmed by Malcolm in the possession of Caithness and Sutherland. Having established his grandson in the northern extremity of the country, Malcolm again turned his attention towards the south. In the year 1018, twelve years after his former defeat, he took advantage of the distracted state of Northumbria, mustered all his followers, and marched southward to the Tweed, where he found the Northumbrian army. At Carham a great battle was fought, and Malcolm completely defeated his enemies, many of whom perished in the rout. The result of this battle was the cession of Lothian and the whole of the territory north of the Tweed, and thus Malcolm II. obtained a more important success than any of his predecessors had ever achieved. During his reign the kingdom of Strathclyde became incorporated into Scotland without any serious conflict.¹ The country then began to be called Scotia, and it had reached its permanent frontier on the south side, as it stood when the great struggle with England began, toward the end of the thirteenth century. But in the outlying districts of the north and the west there were still a number of small local powers not under the authority of the monarchy, and it was long ere the King of Scots overmastered them.

¹ Mon. Hist. Brit., page 594; Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, 131; Robertson’s Early Kings, Volume I., pages 92‒96.

The great Dane, Canute, had subdued England, and was at this time reigning as king of that country. It is stated in the Saxon Chronicle that in 1031 Canute marched with an army to the north and met Malcolm II. upon the borders of their dominions, that Malcolm submitted to him and became his man, but “retained his allegiance for a very short time.” Canute and his army returned to the south, and the result of the meeting disappeared with them. Malcolm reigned twenty-nine years, and died on the 25th of November, 1034.¹

¹ Saxon Chronicle; Skene’s Celtic Scotland, Volume I., page 398.

Upon the death of Malcolm the lineal descendants in the male line of Kenneth M‘Alpin, the founder of the Scottish dynasty, became extinct, and he was succeeded by his grandson Duncan, the son of one of Malcolm’s daughters. But other aspirants to the throne disputed Duncan’s right, and he soon became involved in a desperate struggle with the local chiefs beyond the Spey, and Earl Thorfinn, his own cousin, who was ruler of the Orkney Isles, of Caithness and of Sutherland. Duncan seems to have been a very able man; but when he ventured beyond the Spey, Thorfinn and Macbeth joined their forces and proved too strong for him, and after a severe struggle Duncan was slain by Macbeth, near Elgin.¹

¹ Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, pages 63, 65, 152, 175, 206; Historians, Fordun, pages 179, 180, 419.

Macbeth, the Mormaer of Moray, then marched southward and mounted the throne in 1040, and for five years reigned undisturbed. According to some authorities he was descended from Ferchar, the fifteenth King of Dalriada, and his wife, Gruoch, was a daughter of Bode, son of Kenneth, and thus related to the royal line; and, no doubt, Macbeth advanced his claim on these grounds to secure the allegiance of the people. In 1045 Crinan, father of the late King Duncan, and lay Abbot of Dunkeld, mustered all his followers and the opponents of Macbeth, and attempted to drive him from the throne; a severe battle ensued, in which Crinan was slain, and Macbeth gained a complete victory. Macbeth seems to have sent money to Rome, while he was liberal to the Church at home, as it is recorded that ‘Macbeth and his wife Gruoch, King and Queen of Scotland, confirmed to the monks of Lochleven the lands of Kirkness, with freedom from the king, or the king’s son, or the sheriff.’¹ He proved himself an able and vigorous ruler, and the kingdom seems to have enjoyed unusual tranquillity and prosperity under his sway.

¹ Reeves’ Adamnan, page 437; Register of the Priory of St. Andrews, page 114. Dr. Skene thinks that Macbeth visited Rome, but this is not likely, as he could hardly have ventured to leave Scotland so long.

But the late King Duncan left two sons​—mere children at the time of his death, their mother being related to Siward, the Earl of Northumberland. This Earl was of Danish descent, and became connected with the Earls of Northumberland through marriage. In 1054 he mustered a large and well-equipped army, and a naval force to co-operate with it, and invaded Scotland to drive Macbeth from the throne. This army marched northward in quest of Macbeth, crossed the Forth at Stirling, and proceeded towards the Tay; the advance was opposed by the people at several points. Macbeth took up his position around the Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane, a great battle ensued, in which many were slain on both sides. But the result was not decisive, as Siward retired southward, and returned home to Northumberland; and he died in 1055. It seems, however, that Siward’s expedition had enabled Malcolm, son of Duncan, to obtain possession of the country between the Forth and the Tweed; but Macbeth was still king of the country beyond the Forth, and young Malcolm had to depend on his own resources to recover the kingdom from the grasp of his opponent. Malcolm was a prince of much energy, and after feeling his way, and gaining the support of a portion of the people; in 1057 he resolved to try issues with Macbeth. The war was carried beyond the river Dee, and on the 15th of August, 1057, Malcolm overtook Macbeth, and defeated and slew him at Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire. But the struggle for the throne was continued by Lulach, who, on the death of Macbeth, became Mormaer of Moray; he was defeated and slain at Essy, in Strathbogie, on the 17th of March, 1058.¹

¹ Mon. Hist. Brit., page 453; Chronicles of Picts and Scots, pages 65, 78, 175, 206, 210, 309; Saxon Chronicle.

Having thus subdued his opponents, Malcolm III., son of Duncan, usually called Canmore, mounted the throne at Scone in March 1058. As a King of Scotland he had many advantages. He represented the powerful lay abbots of Dunkeld in the male line, and thus inherited their influence associated with the religious foundations dependent upon this monastery; in the female line he represented the royal family who had ruled over the kingdom for a hundred and fifty years; and he married the widow of Thorfinn, the late ruler of Orkney and the Northern district of Scotland, by whom he had a son Duncan. Malcolm’s dominions included the whole of modern Scotland on the south side; but to the northward his actual power terminated at the river Spey, his authority beyond this point was merely nominal. He was too much engaged in attending to the other portions of the kingdom, to find time to subject the northern region.

One effect of the Norman Conquest of England was to drive a number of the Saxon people northward into Scotland. In the summer of 1068, Edgar, a representative of the Saxon line of kings, his mother, and his two sisters, came to Scotland, and were warmly received by Malcolm. One of these distinguished visitors, Margaret, especially attracted Malcolm’s attention, and she became his wife; hence he had a strong motive to interest himself in the Saxon claims. Queen Margaret seems to have been an excellent wife, and she had a large family by the King. Her influence over her husband and the people of Scotland was reported to have been very great; it has been said that she softened and polished the King’s manners and taught him many important things, and that the Scots owe to her a deep debt of gratitude. No doubt she was a good wife, and an accomplished princess, and a very religious woman; still it is just possible that the compass of Queen Margaret’s influence over the people of Scotland may have been a little overdrawn. Dunfermline was her favourite place of residence, and doubtless the inhabitants of that town, and the people of Fife, were greatly benefitted by the Queen and her court in their midst.¹

¹ Turgot’s Life of Queen Margaret. “Her court was a model of purity. In it no wicked or scandalous word was spoken, and more civilised customs were introduced in dress and for the table, the use of linen more probably than tartan, though both have claimed her as their earliest patron. Charity was taught by example. The Queen fed the poor with food she prepared herself; at her cost were erected the first Scottish inns, resting-places on the roads and guest-houses on either side of the Forth for the pilgrims who came to Dunfermline by the ferry, called after her the Queen’s ferry, as that near Wemyss was called the Earl’s ferry, after the Earl of Fife. Her prayers were constant; and the little cave on the Linn, just below the present Drill Hall of the Volunteers, enabled her to practise them in secret. Such are some of the traits in the life by her confessor Turgot. It is the portrait of a friendly and courtly hand, but it bears marks of truth. Only one miracle is recorded.” A Sketch of the History of Fife and Kinross, by Sheriff Æ. J. G. Mackay, page 16, 1890.

Malcolm III. naturally lent his support to the cause of Edgar, and the disaffected chiefs of Northumbria, who were opposed to William the Conqueror. In 1070 Malcolm entered Cumberland with a large army, marched through it, and turning to the east ravaged Teesdale and the North Riding of Yorkshire; and drove a number of the inhabitants into Scotland as captives. These proceedings seem to have aroused the wrath of the Norman Conqueror, and he prepared to meet the Scottish King. In 1072 he mustered an army and a naval force to co-operate with it, and marched northward. The army crossed the ford and advanced into Scotland, while his ships lay in shore: but the record adds that “there they found nothing for their pains.” Malcolm and King William met and agreed to make peace on the conditions that the Scotch King was to receive a grant of certain fiefs in England, with the promise of an annual payment of twenty marks of gold, performing the usual homage in respect of these lands, and giving Duncan, his son by his first wife as a hostage, and promised to become William’s man or friend. Then King William returned home with all his forces.¹ Such are the facts recorded concerning what passed between the two Kings at this meeting, although groundless assumptions and futile inferences have often been founded upon it.

¹ Saxon Chronicle, Volume II., page 177; Simon of Durham, de Gestis Regum; Historians, Fordun, pages 203‒204.

In 1078 Malcolm appears to have penetrated into the province of Moray beyond the Spey. There is only an imperfect notice in the Saxon Chronicle of his proceedings, but so far he seems to have been successful in asserting his authority for a time. The following year Malcolm marched with his army into Northumberland, advanced to the river Tyne and wasted the country, slew some of those who offered resistance, and returned with a number of prisoners and much spoil. In the autumn of the following year, King William sent his brother Robert with an army to punish Malcolm. This army seems to have advanced some distance into Scotland; but Robert effected nothing of importance, and soon returned south to the Tyne, where he built a new castle. William the Conqueror died in 1087, and after this event a number of State prisoners and others kept under restraint in England, were then set at liberty. Malcolm’s son Duncan thus obtained his liberty, received the honour of knighthood, and was dismissed with marks of honour and presents. Still Duncan appears to have remained in England. Four years after the death of the Conqueror, Malcolm III. again advanced into Northumberland with an army, but on learning that a hostile force was mustering to oppose him, he returned home. The English king sent a fleet northward, and prepared to follow it with a land force, but the greater part of the fleet was destroyed by a storm before the land army reached Scotland. When the opposing armies approached each other, Malcolm who knew the condition and strength of the enemy, resolved to risk a battle. So Count Robert the leader of the English army offered to parley, and a peace was patched up, which King William shortly after declined to fulfil. So in the autumn of 1093 Malcolm once more mustered his army, and advanced into Northumberland. When attacking the castle of Alnwick he was slain along with his eldest son and the greater part of his army on the 13th of November;¹ and thus ended his reign of thirty-five years and seven months.

¹ Saxon Chronicle, Volume II. page 198; Hexham Priory: Its Chronicles, etc., Volume I. pages 177‒181, 207, 208, 216; Appendix pages 14‒16; Simon of Durham, de Gestis Regum.

Malcolm Canmore was a man of great natural energy and ability. He acted his part well in the rude and tumultuous times in which his lot was cast. The different races and tribes of the country acquiesced pretty generally in his government, and in his long reign the existing elements of nationality received a considerable turn in the lines of development, to which his personal characteristics, bravery and judgment, contributed their share. Four days after his death, Queen Margaret, his beloved wife, succumbed to the intense grief caused by the unexpected blow, and died. Malcolm III. left six sons, Duncan, the eldest, by his first wife; by Margaret, his second wife, Edmund; Ethelred, who was Lay Abbot of Dunkeld and Earl of Fife; Edgar, Alexander, and David. Then there occurred a political phenomena similar to that which had frequently happened in preceding times, and also in subsequent times, namely, a contest amongst different claimants of the throne.

On the death of Malcolm Canmore, his brother, Donald Bane, at once mounted the throne, and a conflict ensued between him and Malcolm’s sons. Donald Bane appears to have been well supported by the people between the Spey and the Forth, and he held his ground for six months. But when Duncan returned from England, where he had been retained as a hostage for his father, he brought with him a band of Norman adventurers and others, who expelled Donald Bane from the throne. The struggle, however, was continued. After a reign of six months, Duncan was slain at Mondynes in Kincardineshire. Then Donald Bane again ascended the throne at Scone, and reigned three and a half years. In 1097, Queen Margaret’s brother Edgar resolved to make an effort to place his nephew on the throne. He gathered a force in England, and with the sanction of the English King, advanced into Scotland. After a severe struggle, Donald Bane was defeated, and Edgar placed on the throne, and his uncle then returned to England. In 1099 Donald Bane was captured, and condemned to imprisonment for life at Rescobie, where he died, and was interred in Dunfermline. Edgar reigned eight years, died at Edinburgh in January 1107, and was buried at Dunfermline. The most important event of his reign was his surrender of the whole of the Western Isles to Magnus, the King of Norway.¹

¹ Saxon Chronicle, Volume II., pages 196, 197, 202; Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, page 175; Chalmers’ Caledonia, Volume I. page 618; Skene’s Celtic Scotland, Volume I., page 442.

The close of the eleventh century marks the beginning of a most important period in the history of Scotland, as new historic conditions then arose which operated upon the people and the organisation of society externally and internally. Seeing that I have found it necessary to render an interpretation of these new historic conditions, which differs somewhat from the current views of Scottish historians, this seems to be the most appropriate place for presenting an account of the social state of the people, their organisation, art, and culture, prior to the end of the eleventh century. At the end of that period the Celtic race still occupied the greater part of Scotland, and their language was spoken over a much wider area than that of any of the other races, although there were many Angles or Saxons in the southern portion of Scotland, where Celt and Saxon had been in contact for five centuries and had partly commingled, still the Saxons retained their own speech and, in some measure, their distinctive customs. In this region Celtic speech ceased and was superseded by Saxon, and latterly English.

Section X.

State of Society from the Seventh Century to the end of the Eleventh.

In the preceding parts of the introduction little direct information as to the condition of the inhabitants could be found, and what was stated on this point had to be derived from a process of inference. From about the end of the seventh century onward social facts and incidents become more or less available, and increase in number and variety as we proceed towards the period of regular record. In this section I will present some of the features associated with kinship, early traces of tribal organisation, and its relation to the land, marriage customs, and other matters of a social and material character.

It has often been said that a common feeling of brotherhood, even among a small community, is a comparative late development; be this as it may, ample evidence has already been adduced in the fourth section to prove that the early tribes in Scotland had attained a considerable degree of organisation long before the arrival of the Aryan Celts in the island. So if we were to look for the earliest form of society in this country, we would require to go back to the prehistoric ages, which have been already treated, and without obtaining a more definite result, except by making a free use of conjecture and supposed analogies from primitive society in India and the ends of the earth.¹

¹ Maine’s Village Community, pages 21‒41. 1890.

The early form of Celtic society was the tribal community, which was based on actual consanguinity. Even in its most primitive form this is its natural base; although the tribe was the social unit and descent traced through females, still the natural associative elements led to the same result. Thus actual blood-relationship, kin, and kindred, was the original bond of union between the members of the Celtic tribe in its early form; whether kinship was traced through males or females did not affect the original associative bond of the tribe.

It has never been proved that society did not originate from single families, and indeed the point is not susceptible of proof on either view. But it is quite conceivable thus:​—Following the instincts of human nature and the thinking faculty of the mind, the simple fact of blood-relationship or kinship is everywhere the first natural tie of social union which emerges; so this simple fact of kinship originating in single families may have become the recognised bond, as it is the natural associative factor, which in process of time linked the single families as they successively arose into the greater social unit of the tribe, and thus issuing in an organised community. In short, it is not only conceivable but even probable, that single families may have originally developed into tribal communities, and also into mighty nations.

I have already referred to the origin of historic conditions in Britain which affected the organisation of the early inhabitants of Scotland. One result of the operation of these conditions appears in the foundation of the historic monarchy at Scone in 844; external and internal causes were constantly modifying the tribal organisations throughout the four centuries under review. It seems evident that the independent tribes during these centuries were much larger and stronger than the clans in the north and west as we know them in more modern times. During the period under consideration the tribal organisations had arrived at the stage in which a number of tribes, not necessarily of one kin, were living under the rule of a local chief. In the pages of the chronicles these local rulers were sometimes called kings, but to the people over whom they ruled they were known as Mormaers and Toshachs. The prerogatives of the heads and all the officials of the tribe were strictly limited by custom. After the eleventh century the title of Mormaer began to fluctuate, and finally became represented by the Earl. Before the end of this period the central government had obtained a certain control over the heads of the local tribes in the districts between the Forth and the Spey.

Originally, under the tribal organisation, there was no private property in land. The land was the common heritage of every tribal community, and as such it was occupied and used in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, and in other quarters of the globe. But internal and external causes both, in process of time begin to operate and to modify this relation of the tribal community to the land. The long struggle of the chief tribes among themselves was touched on in the preceding pages, and this was one of the causes which affected changes in the original relation of the tribal community to the land. When one tribe conquered another, the spoil of the war usually was the common land of the defeated tribe; and then either the conquerors seized and colonised a part of this land or, as often happened, they restored the whole land to the conquered tribe to be held in dependence and under certain burdens to the tribe which had subjected them. On the other hand, when the victor tribe colonised and appropriated the common land of the conquered tribe, the land was not equally divided, seeing that a preference would be claimed and granted to those members of the tribe who had contributed most to the victory by which the land had been gained. Further, in cases where the land was restored to a subjected tribe, the superiority over it remained with the chief who had conquered it, and thus the chief of a conquering tribe acquired claims and rights over such lands as well as over the subject tribes which occupied them. But chiefs and leaders of tribes had other ways of acquiring rights in land; thus, when a tribe was in possession of an extensive tract of common land, colonies of families were sent out and each received a new patch of it, but whatever portion of this land remained unappropriated it was still the common land of the head of the tribe​—that is to say, the chief or the king claimed a right of superiority over it. There is unimpeachable evidence that whatever rights the Kings of Scotland possessed in land were originally acquired by the means and proceedings indicated in the above sentences.¹ Again, the chief of a tribe often found means to aggrandise his own family, and whenever he became able or an opportunity occurred, he severed his own plot of land from the land of the tribe by enclosing it. In these ways the chiefs and officials of tribes and the kings acquired personal claims upon the lands of the tribal communities, and gradually personal rights connected with land were acquired; then step by step private property in land became established.

¹ “In the dreams of lawyers, as there has been an hereditary king from all eternity, so there has been an hereditary lord of the manor from a time only so far short of eternity as to give the king time to make him a grant. In the realities of history the king and the lord​—that is, the lord on a great scale and the lord on a small one​—are each something which has crept in unawares, something which has grown up at the expense of rights more ancient than its own. Each alike, king and lord, grew to its full dimensions by a series of gradual and stealthy encroachments on the rights of the people. As the king swallowed up the powers and the possessions of the nation, so the lord swallowed up the rights and the possessions of the mark.” Freeman’s History of the Norman Conquest of England, Volume V., page 460.

Socially and politically this period was essentially transitional and progressive. In the first part of it the leading tribes were struggling hard to create a central authority, and the foundation of the Monarchy was the result of this struggle. Though the land still belonged to the tribal community, the chiefs and the kings had acquired rights and claims in connection with it. In the seventh century the local chief of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, granted lands to the monks of the monastery of Deer. In the eighth century Angus, King of the Picts, granted a territory to the Church of St. Andrews free from all secular burdens. This grant was transferred by the ceremonial of the ‘altar sod’ as the mark of its genuineness. Thus St. Regulus, with the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle on his head, followed by the king and the chiefs of his country on foot, marched in solemn procession seven times round the land so bestowed on the Church. Brude, a King of the Picts, founded the monastery on the island of Lochleven, and several early grants of land to this monastery have been recorded. There were other early grants of lands to monasteries by Macbeth and his Queen, Malcolm Canmore, Duncan, and Edgar, Kings of Scotland. It thus appears that grants of land and land rights were common, and sanctioned by the usual customs of the country many centuries before formal charters were introduced.¹

¹ Chronicles, pages 186, 187; Register of the Priory of St. Andrews, pages 113, 114; Register of Dunfermline, page 3.

A number of entries of gifts and grants of lands to the monastery of Deer recorded in Gaelic belong to this period, and may be taken to stretch from the beginning of the eighth century to the early part of the twelfth. The names of eighteen granters of lands are recorded in the Book of Deer, which concludes with a charter in Latin, granted at Aberdeen by David I., in which the King declares that the clerics of Deer are free from all service of laymen and undue exaction, as it is written in their book, on which they had pleaded at Banff and sworn at Aberdeen. This shows that the Gaelic memoranda of these early grants of lands had been admitted in the regular courts as evidence of the tenure of the lands. The first grant was made by Bede, the Pictish Mormaer of Buchan, who gave to St. Columba and to Drostan “the town of Aberdour in freedom for ever from mormaer and toshach.” The next grant of land was by ♦Comgell, son of Aeda, after him Mordach, son of Morcunn, made a grant to Columba and Drostan. Then Matan gave the mormaer’s share of the land in Alteri, and Cuil, son of Baten, gave the toshach’s share of the same piece of land. Malcolm II. gave the King’s share in the lands of Bidbin, Pett meic Gobroig, and two davachs of Upper Rosabard. ♠Domnall and Cathal gave the land of Etanin to God and to Drostan; and then Carmech, Domnall, and Cathal immolated all these offerings from beginning to end to God and to Drostan, “in freedom from mormaer and toshach to the day of judgment.” Comgell, son of Cainnech, toshach of Clan Canan, gave certain lands, both mountain and field, to Christ, Drostan, and Columba, “free from chief for ever.” The names of seven of the old mormaers of the province of Buchan occur in connection with grants in the book.¹

¹ Book of Deer, pages 91‒95, and also the late Dr. Stuart’s very able and valuable preface to the volume.

We learn from the record of grants in the Book of Deer that the mormaer, the local ruler of the province, the toshach, and the King of Scotland, each had separate or divisible rights in the same piece of land, which either of them could convey to another party. This indicates an organisation and gradation of landed rights which is rather surprising, and seems to show a pretty advanced stage of society. The brief descriptions, too, which accompany some of these grants, such as “the field of the clerics,” the number of davochs is stated​—a well-known measure of land in the north-east of Scotland, or “both mountain and field,” which seems to imply a townland of varying extent, and which probably included rights of commonage. The clauses of freedom from mormaer and toshach meant the exemption of the lands of the monastery from taxes of various kinds, which were exacted by the local officials from the people over whom they ruled in the form of land rent: as it was from this source that the polity and organisation of the tribe were kept up. Further, the development of the Central Government, and the extension of the kingdom, had then reached the stage when a tax upon all land was exacted. In spite of all the explicit declarations that the lands of the monastery were free from mormaer and toshach, these lands were still liable for their proportion of the national tax. As this was a tax from which no land in early times was ever relieved, although it might be paid in various ways, such as a portion of the produce of the soil, or in military service; still, in some form, it was everywhere exacted. The rents paid by the people, the occupiers and toilers of the land, was a customary rent due to the local chiefs and headmen of the tribe, and consisted of a part of the produce,​—cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, corn, and the like. There is evidence that the people lived under this form of local organisation in comparative comfort.¹

¹ Book of Deer, Preface, pages 82‒89, 91‒95; Sculptured Stones of Scotland, Volume II., Preface, page 11. Those who desire to make a special study of the early Celtic tribal organisations in Britain and in Ireland, will find the original sources of information in:​—1, Ancient Laws of Ireland, 4 Volumes; 2, Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales; 3, some fragments in the first volume of the Acts of Parliament of Scotland. These have all been published by the Royal Commission.

The names of two local clans were mentioned in the Book of Deer, the Clan Canan, and the Clan Morgan; and in each the toshach appears as the head and leader of the clan; and he also possessed rights in connection with the land, which rights, as we have seen, could be transferred to another party. It further appears that the Toshach at this period performed fiscal duties in connection with the taxes on land, and the local organisation of the tribe. We may then reasonably assume that similar tribal organisations prevailed in other parts of the country, at least from the Firth of Forth to Inverness; and also in Galloway and Argyle throughout this period. In the ancient laws of Ireland there was much care and humanity shown for all the members of the tribe who were unable to support themselves from old age or any other cause. On this matter the early law will compare favourably with that of the present day.¹

¹ Ancient Laws of Ireland, Volume II., pages 194, 341.

The culture of cereals was introduced in prehistoric times. Probably the earliest attempts at agriculture were made on the heights in association with the early settlements in similar positions. This seems probable from the fact that many of the chief towns of Scotland were originally erected on heights of moderate elevation. Agriculture was earnestly practised by the monks, who showed a noble example to the people. In this period the tillage of the soil was gradually advancing and spreading among the people, though the method of cultivation and the implements in use were still somewhat primitive. The staple food of the people consisted of oatmeal and some barley, milk, flesh, fish, venison, kail, and other vegetables, and small quantities of fruit. Cattle, sheep, and horses, formed the chief wealth of the people; and taxes and fines were paid in cows. There was as yet little manufacture, as most families had their own weavers, tailors, shoemakers, and carpenters, within themselves. The minute division of labour only arises after a comparatively advanced stage of civilisation has been reached, when a more complex and artificial state of society causes a greater multiplicity of wants and luxuries. The clothing of the people mostly consisted of woollen stuffs and furs of home manufacture. Their dwellings were mostly formed of wood, clay, and turf, sometimes raised on stone foundations. One class of houses were formed by a wall of upright stakes with twigs interlaced between them, and a second wall of the same kind placed at a short distance apart, and then the intervening space was filled with turf or clay, making a pretty solid wall, which was then roofed.¹

¹ Historians of Scotland, Volume V., pages 16, 17, 57, 66, 67, 68; Volume VI., pages 39, 50, 63, 97; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume X., pages 616‒618; Book of Deer, pages 147‒154.

Shipbuilding had not made much progress. But they had vessels on which sails and oars were used, and these were then sufficient to carry on the intercourse and trade between the different quarters of the country. The centres of population were nowhere very dense. Scone, Dunkeld, Perth, Dundee, St. Andrews, Dumbarton, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Paisley, and northward Brechin, Aberdeen, Burghead and Inverness, were centres of some trade and commerce, and having regular market-days at which business of all kinds was transacted. Markets arise at a comparatively early stage of social organisation and must have been quite common in every quarter of Scotland during this period.¹ Our towns and cities do not owe their origin to any king or chief in particular, as it was the intelligence and sagacity of the inhabitants which selected their sites in far gone ages, and their ♦descendants in succeeding ages who have extended and developed them by prolonged energy and industry.

¹ “In order to understand what a market originally was, you must try to picture to yourself a territory occupied by village communities, self-acting, and as yet ♠autonomous, each cultivating its arable land in the middle of its waste, and each, I fear I must add, at perpetual war with his neighbour. But at several points, points probably where the domains of two or three villages converged, there appears to have been spaces of what we should now call neutral ground. These were the markets. They were probably the only places at which the members of the different primitive groups met for any purpose except warfare, and the persons who came to them at first were persons specially employed to exchange the produce and manufactures of one little village for those of another.” Maine’s Village Communities, page 192.

Touching the department of crime and punishment, among the old laws of Scotland, some fragments appear to embody customs which prevailed in this period, though perhaps they were only in operation in certain quarters of the country. One of these fragments is called “Laws of the Britons and Scots,” it is preserved in Latin, in Norman-French, and in the vernacular Scotch, and has by some been attributed to David I.; and, as I said, it can only be assumed to embody the customs of certain localities, one of which was Strathclyde, the province of the Britons; but its application to the Scots is not so clear. The code contains the fines paid in compensation for crimes, and its peculiar feature is that it was the injured party or his kin who received the fines. The scale of fines was regulated by the rank of the injured party and the nature of the crime committed, thus:​—The fine for the slaughter of the King of Scotland is stated to be one thousand cows or three thousand shillings; for the King’s son, one hundred and fifty cows or four hundred and fifty shillings; the fine for slaying an Earl of Scotland is the same as for the King’s son; and for an Earl’s son, one hundred cows. For slaying a Thane one hundred cows; for a Thane’s son, sixty-six and two-thirds of a cow; for the nephew of a Thane, forty-four cows and twenty-one pence and two parts of a penny. All those of lower rank were called carls, rustics, and villains, or serfs; the fine for slaying a carl, is said to be sixteen cows; but there is no other fine specified for any other injury which might happen to be inflicted upon this class. The lives of the unmarried women were estimated at the same value as their brothers, but the lives of the married females at one-third less than that of their husbands.¹

¹ Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, Volume I., page 299; and also Laws of David I., pages 6‒8. On the same subject there is a vast mass of information in the Ancient Laws of Ireland, and the Early Laws of the Saxons, published by the Royal Commission.

The mulcts for smaller crimes and assaults were stated with equal minuteness. If any one drew blood from the head of the King’s son, or the head of an Earl, the fine was nine cows; in the case of an Earl’s son, or a Thane, six cows; of a Thane’s son three cows; and of a carl one cow. The women as before were placed on equality with their brothers. The fine for a blow without drawing blood was tenpence. As a matter of course, compensation was taken for theft and all other crimes, as well as murder and personal assaults. Another old fragment of Scotch law presents the following exposition of the system: “All laws are either man’s laws or God’s laws. By the law of God, a head for a head, a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye, a foot for a foot. By the law of man, for the life of a man, one hundred and fifty cows; for a foot, a mark; for a hand, as much; for an eye, half a mark; for an eir, as much; for a tooth, twelvepence; for each inch of the breadth of the wound, twelvepence; for a stroke under the eir, sixteenpence; for a stroke with a staff, eightpence, and if he fall, sixteenpence; for a wound in the face he shall give an image of gold,” and so on.¹

¹ Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, Volume I., pages 300, 301, ♦53, 72, 375, 376.

Regarding social morality, much might be said on the relations of the different sexes. Marriage, like every social institution, has passed through many modifications.¹ It was not till after many thousands of years during which the lower passions sought gratification in various forms and degrees of intensity; not till long after the introduction of Christianity that marriage obtained its present position among the most civilised nations of Europe. The custom of capture seems to have been followed by that of purchase, and the custom of purchasing wives long prevailed in Europe, among the Jews, and many other communities. A sum of money, or something equivalent, was paid by the husband or his family to the family of the woman whom he desired to make his wife. Thus in early times a woman was supposed to be always under tutelage, in the position of a subordinate member of the family; and hence when married, she was still regarded as being under the protection of her own kindred. In the earliest of the Saxon Laws in England, which probably belong to the seventh century, the mode of purchasing a wife was stated thus:​—“If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if it be without guile; but if there be guile, let him bring her home again, and let his property be restored to him. If she bear a live child, let her have half the property, if the husband die first. If she wish to go away with her children, let her have half the property. If the husband wish to have them, let her portion be as one child.”² From the same ancient code it appears that the Saxon was in the habit of carrying off young women by force.³ Even in the statutes of the first Christian King of Kent, ample provisions were made for the transfer of money or cattle as the price of the bride.⁴

¹ “The lowest races have no institution of marriage; true love is almost unknown among them, and marriage, in its lowest forms, is by no means a matter of affection and companionship.” Sir J. Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation, page 50. Sir John thinks “that communal marriages, where every man and woman in a small community were equally regarded as married to one another,” was the first form of it, page 67. Again, he says, “I believe that communal marriage was gradually superseded by individual marriage founded on capture,” page 70. He illustrates the capture theory at great length, and with considerable force. But he has not proved that communal marriage was the original form; indeed individual marriage is as conceivable and far more natural than communal marriage.

² Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, page 9.

³ “If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay fifty shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy the object of his will of the owner.” Ibid. page 10.

⁴ Ibid., pages 45, 53. “The principle was carried out with the utmost consistency when the wife proved unfaithful to her owner, nothing was then considered but the market value of the woman; and the adulterer was compelled to spend the equivalent of her original price in the purchase of a new bride, whom he formally delivered to the injured husband. The Church was compelled to accept this with many other discreditable institutions, when it first made converts in England. In the laws of a king of Wessex, who lived at the end of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century, the purchase of wives is deliberately sanctioned; and it is stated in the preface that the compilation was drawn up with the assistance of the Bishop of Winchester, and a large assembly of God’s servants.” Pike’s History of Crime in England, Volume I., page 91.

In the tenth century there was some improvement; though the essence of purchase was still recognised, it was more elaborately worked out, thus: “If a man desires to betroth a maiden or a woman, and if it so be agreeable to her and her friends, then it is right that the bridegroom, according to the law of God, and according to the customs of the world, first promise and give a pledge to those who are her forspeakers that he desires her in such ways that he will keep her, according to God’s law, as a husband should his wife, and let his friends guarantee that. After that, it is to be known to whom the fortesban belongs; let the bridegroom again give a pledge for this and let his friends guarantee it. Then, after that let the bridegroom declare what he will give her, in case she choose his will, and what he will grant her if she lives longer than he. If it be so agreed, then it is right that she be entitled to half the property, and to all if they have children in common, except she again choose a husband. Let him confirm all that which he has promised with a pledge, and let his friends guarantee that. If they then are agreed in everything, then let the kinsmen take it in hand, and betroth their kinsman to wife, and to a righteous life, to him who desires her, and let him take possession of the borh who has control of the pledge. At the nuptials there shall be a mass priest by law, who shall, with God’s blessing, bind their union to all prosperity.”¹ These minute arrangements embodied the feature of purchase, though it makes provisions to secure fair rights in the interest of the wife and children. The Saxons introduced slavery into Britain in some of its worst forms, but the custom of purchasing and endowing a wife involved the conditions that the husband must have had property and freedom, or the permission of his lord, and consequently marriage could not be contracted amongst the servile classes, who were simply regarded as cattle or stock, and joined or separated as it suited the interest and convenience of their masters. Indeed, for these unfortunate classes there was no law but their master’s will and caprice.² This social phenomena was a fatal and degrading weakness in the constitution and organisation of all the ancient empires and nations, and yet these empires and nations have often been held up as endowed with all the characteristics of humanity and all the emblems of true glory!

¹ Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, pages 108, 109. “With slavery in its worst form, the barbarians, who became masters of Britain after the Roman power was broken, introduced the custom of wife-buying. An unmarried woman was, among them, in the position of a chattel, for the sale of which the owner was entitled to make as good a bargain as possible. It was only natural that, in a community in which it was necessary to pay for taking a man’s life, it should be considered equally necessary to pay for the permanent possession of a woman’s person. The payment represented in each case a rude attempt to supersede a primitive condition of universal violence.” Pike’s History of Crime in England, Volume I., pages 90, 91.

² Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, pages 282, 337, 353. These statutes belong to the legislation of the Church, and probably attempted to make the condition of the serfs as endurable as possible.

“In short, as amongst the strictly servile classes marriage was scarcely a permanent bond until after the lapse of many generations of Christianity, so amongst the dependent freemen it could only be contracted with the permission of their lord.” Robertson’s Early Kings, Volume II., pages 127, 328.

In Scotland the institution of marriage was far from being on a proper footing among the people, or even amongst the clergy. The custom of selling and purchasing wives was not as yet extinct in Scotland, and marriages were contracted within the forbidden degrees of relationship. Indeed, long after this period the ties of wedlock were rather lax. The Church often attempted to regulate and enforce marriage as a public and solemn institution, but she came into contact with habits connected with the intercourse of the different sexes which were extremely difficult to overcome, and her efforts were only partly successful. The people did not observe the Lord’s Day, but followed their usual occupations as on other days. Queen Margaret is represented by her biographer as holding a council for the reform of the Church from its strange customs, and the people from their evil habits, and with the Sword of the Spirit she contended with the ecclesiastics for three days. Touching the observance of the Lord’s Day Margaret said: “Let us keep the Lord’s Day in reverence on account of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead on that day, and let us do no servile work on that day on which, as we know, we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil. The blessed Pope Gregory lays this down, saying that we must cease from earthly labour on the Lord’s Day, and continue instant in prayer, so that, if aught has been done amiss during the six days, it may be expiated by our prayers on the day of our Lord’s resurrection.” We are further told that “Many other practices which were contrary to the rule of faith and the observances of the Church she persuaded the council to condemn and to drive out of the bounds of her kingdom.” There is, however, nothing said about the marriage of the clergy themselves, nor about many of the high offices in the Church which were then filled by laymen, nor about the appropriation of benefices by certain parties, which were becoming hereditary in their own families.¹

¹ Statuta Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, Volume I., pages 24, 309, 310; Volume II., pages 36, 37, 42, 59, 60, 68; Turgot’s Life of Queen Margaret.

Many of the monasteries in the Western Isles and in other parts of the country had suffered severely from the ravages of the Norsemen, but their fierce warfare was moderated after they obtained a right to these isles: and the monastery of Iona, which they had destroyed, was restored by Queen Margaret, re-endowed, and filled with monks; and it seems probable that some fragments of the ruins which still exist on the island belong to her time. The Abbey Church of Dunfermline was founded by Malcolm Canmore shortly after his marriage with the Princess Margaret, in honour of that important event. The discipline of the monasteries had somewhat declined, and their usefulness had become impaired; the lands which had been granted for religious uses had become partly secularised and diverted from their original end. Still there were many earnest and religious men connected with the Christian institutions of Scotland; there were communities of anchorites, sometimes called Culdees. Queen Margaret gives her testimony as to the purity and devotion of this class of clerics, for her biographer says that “There were many in Scotland, in different places, who, enclosed in separate cells, lived even on earth the life of angels.” Through them the Queen did her utmost to love and venerate Christ, often visited them, and commended herself to their prayers; as she could not induce them to accept any earthly gift from her, she implored them to prescribe for her some work of charity or mercy. Whatever they desired she devoutly fulfilled, either relieving the wants of the poor or comforting the sick and afflicted. As the religious devotion of the people brought many from all quarters to the church of St. Andrews, she erected dwellings on both sides of the Firth of Forth, so that the pilgrims and the poor might find everything ready there which was required for the refreshment and rest of the body. Servants were appointed there to minister to them, and vessels were provided to ferry them across without payment.”¹

¹ Book of Deer, Preface, pages 105‒106; Register of Dunfermline, page 3; Turgot’s Life of Queen Margaret, Chapter 9.

In the preceding pages of this section it appeared that in the tribal organisations personal rights in connection with the land had arisen. The local ruler of the tribe and other officials associated with the polity of the tribe had obtained personal rights in the land; in so far, at least, as they could dispose of such rights to other parties. It further appeared that the King of Scotland had acquired rights in tribal lands which he could dispose of, and also that all the lands within the kingdom were, in the eleventh century, subject to a national tax. The custom of commuting all forms of crime by a scale of fines, fixed according to personal rank, was noticed, and various customs and practices associated with the institution of marriage, were stated. A brief reference to the state of religion, and to Queen Margaret in relation to it, concluded the section. Taking a view of the entire movement since the foundation of the monarchy, its advance was remarkable; and nothing had, as yet, occurred to arrest the progressive development of the kingdom and the civilisation of the people.

Section XI.

Early Architecture. Sculptured Stones.

In preceding sections various early structures have been noticed, some of which were of a characteristic type, but the singular and curious structures now to be briefly described have occasioned much discussion. This class of erections are called Brochs. The area of their local distribution has been stated thus: Only three specimens are known south of Glenmore​—1 in Berwickshire, 1 in Stirlingshire, and 1 in Perthshire:¹ in Inverness-shire, 47; in Ross-shire, 38; Sutherlandshire, 60; Caithness, 79; Orkney, 70; and in Shetland 75, making a total for the five northern counties of 369. But the greater part of those in Ross-shire and Inverness-shire are in the islands attached to these two counties.

¹ In the month of May, 1891, the members of the Galashiels Ramblers’ Club discovered what appeared to be a Broch on Crosslee Hill in the vicinity of that town. My friend, Mr. George Desson, gave an account of it which appeared in the North British Daily Mail of the 15th May. He says: “All that remains of the structure is the foundation of the walls, which measure 17 feet 6 inches thick, and about 2½ feet high. The walls are of circular form, and enclose a central area of 39 feet 6 inches in diameter; from the central court there are openings to three passages, which apparently led to chambers, two of which have not yet been cleared of the debris, but in the one that has been dug out there is a passage 6 feet long and 3 feet 8 inches wide, while the interior of the chamber is 14 feet long by 4 feet wide.”

The Brochs are all constructed on one typical form, so unvarying that they afford no indications for tracing the development of their special form through a series of stages. “I once heard an eminent Scotch antiquary, very familiar personally with their appearance, gravely maintaining that they were all erected at one time, and from one plan and specification. Though this is, of course, absurd enough, there is not, so far as I know, any example in any part of the world of so numerous a class of buildings which show so little difference in design and dimensions.”¹ The leading features of the Broch may be described as consisting of a circular tower of dry-built masonry, pretty wide and high, and enclosing a central area open to the sky, having all its apartments looking into the enclosed inner court, excepting the entrance to the central area, and having its chambers, stairs, and galleries, formed within the thickness of the enclosing wall. None of the existing specimens are complete, and their original height has not been precisely ascertained, but from the remains and indications of structure it has been inferred that they were from thirty to upwards of fifty feet in height. The only varying point is in their dimensions; as the external diameter of the Brochs varies from forty to seventy feet, so the inner court varies from about twenty to forty-five feet, owing partly to the thickness of the walls, which also vary from about nine to twenty feet. The wall is built solid for about ten feet, excepting the ♦entrance, and where it is partially hollowed by the construction within its thickness of oblong apartments with vaulted roofs. Above this the wall is built with a vacancy of about three feet wide between the inner and outer portions. Upwards, at every five or six feet, this vacancy is crossed by horizontal ranges of slabs inserted as ties between the outer and inner shells of the walls, and thus their upper surfaces form a floor to the space above and their under surfaces a roof to the space below. These spaces form galleries of some six feet high and three feet wide, separated from each other by the slabs of their floors and roofs, and they run round the tower, except where they are crossed in succession by the stair which gives access to them, and their dimensions contract as they approach the top of the tower. The galleries were lighted by ranges of windows above each other, which all looked into the central court enclosed by the wall of the tower. At various points of the inner court are placed the entrances to the apartments on the ground floor, within the thickness of the wall, and to the stair which ascends to the galleries. On the outside of the Broch there is only one entrance, a doorway opening off the tunnel-like passage leading into the central court; it is always on the ground level, from five to seven feet in height, and about three feet wide, passing direct through the thickness of the wall, and so varies from nine to twenty feet in length; at about four feet inward there is a rebute of the masonry faced with slabs, inserted edgeways in the wall, and forming cheeks for the door, behind which are the bar-holes, and behind them the opening to a guard-room built in the thickness of the wall.²

¹ The Brochs, etc. J. Fergusson; page 8.

² Anderson’s Scotland, pages 168, 200‒202; Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume III., page 189, 191‒193; Volume VII., pages 290‒292, 296‒300.

On the ground floor there are usually three or four apartments, in which the people who possessed the Brochs lived. In the central courts of several of them there were drains for conveying the surface water outside the building; and in many of them there were walls which secured a water-supply within the enclosed area of the building. In short, the Brochs clearly indicate a very definite intention in the minds of their constructors, for the design of the structure and the whole arrangements of its separate parts evince a most careful and elaborate adaptation of means and materials to attain the desired ends​—shelter and defence. “The clever constructive idea of turning the house outside, as it were, placing its rooms within its walls, and turning all their windows towards the interior of the edifice, implies boldness of conception and fertility of resource. The height of the wall, which secured the inmates against projectiles, also removed its essentially weak upper part beyond the reach of assault, while the pressure of its mass knit the masonry of the lower part firmly together, and its thickness made it difficult to force an entrance by digging through it​—if such a wall could be approached for this purpose when the whole of its upper materials were deadly missiles ready to the hands of the defenders.” The door, secured by its great bar, was too strong to be carried by a rush; and, placed four or five feet within the passage, it could only be reached by one man at a time, and the narrowness of the passage prevented the use of long levers. Even if it had been forced, and the entrance to the inner court gained, the enemy would have found himself, as it were, in the bottom of a well thirty to forty feet in diameter, with walls fifty feet high, pierced on all sides with ranges of loopholes commanding every foot of the space below. “In short, the concentration of effort towards the two main objects of space for shelter and complete security was never more strikingly exhibited, and no more admirable adaptation of materials so simple and common as undressed and uncemented stone for this double purpose has ever been discovered or suggested.”¹

¹ Anderson’s Scotland, Iron Age, pages 203‒4.

No doubt the origin of the Brochs is assignable to the circumstances and the conditions under which the people lived. As we have seen in the preceding pages the Norsemen commenced their inroads in these localities where the Brochs were erected, and these structures were the most suitable and effective defences against the attacks of marauding enemies, which could then have been devised. The hordes of Norsemen infested the northern and western districts of the country for several centuries before they conquered the people and settled down in any part of the mainland of Scotland. Thus we can easily realise the reasons and the motives which originated the Brochs, and induced the people to make the great and laborious efforts evinced in the remains of these constructions. Further, we know that the inhabitants of the localities where the Brochs are found, had long before the age of these structures learned to labour and to wait, as the chambered cairns of the Stone Age witness. The manifestation of the constructive faculty, a concentration of thought, of energy, and of labour, directed to the accomplishment of a common object, was no new thing which had suddenly started up in this ancient region. But new historic conditions had arisen, new enemies had appeared upon the scene, which changed the surrounding circumstances, and the genius and intelligence of the people rose to the occasion, and they made the best use of the means at their command to protect and defend themselves.

It has been stated that the Brochs are peculiar to Scotland. Though there are many round towers in Ireland and elsewhere, their type is not similar to the Scotch type. “Out of Scotland the type is totally unknown. It is a type possessing features so distinct and peculiar, so numerous and well-marked, so pronounced in their absolute individuality, that if it exists anywhere it is capable of being instantly recognised. But no single instance occurs in Ireland or Wales or Cornwall; no trace of it is found in England, France, or Scandinavia. It is absolutely confined to Scotland alone.”¹