eamque dum pertransiret, habuit maxima negotia, quod silvas cæderet, et loca alta perfoderet, quodque paludes obrueret aggere, et pontes in fluminibus faceret." This is confirmed by Herodian in the third book of his history, where he treateth of the same Severus: "Sed imprimis (inquit) tamen curam habuit pontibus occupare paludes, ut stare in tuto milites possent, atque in solido præliari. Siquidem Britanniæ pleraque loca frequentibus oceani alluvionibus paludescunt '."

Claudian, Carm. xxii. ver. 247. giveth us a description of this country, in a poetic way, thus:

Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monstro,

Ferro picta genas cujus vestigia verrit

Cærulus, oceanique, æstum mentitur amictus.

In which, besides that he pointeth at the Picts, the inhabitants of it, he insinuateth, that it is on many sides encompassed with the sea, as it is indeed towards the east, the south and north parts.

It appeareth clearly, that it was a hilly country, and that it was at that time full of woods, and had many lochs or fresh water pools in it. The many inlets of the sea, and

the

"Of this island, somewhat less than the half is ours; and when Se verus, wishing to reduce the whole under his power, entered Caledonia, he met with the greatest difficulties during his march through it, in having to cut down the woods; to dig through heights; to raise em bankments in the marshes, and to build bridges over the rivers."

2 "His first care was to secure the marshes with banks or bridges, that the soldiers might stand in safety, and fight on solid ground; for many parts of Britain are formed into marshes, by frequent inundations of the sea." This campaign of Severus, was the most disastrous to the Romans of any they fought in Britain. In the necessary, but arduous labours, Of forming a road for the army, in this woody and fenny region, and in skirmishes with the warlike tribes who possessed it, the Roman army, in a few months, lost 50,000 men, an incredible number, were it not attested by their own historians. Xiphilin. a Dione, lib, 76. cap. 876.

the emboucheurs of the waters, are hinted at, by what is cited out of Herodian. The mosses placed in several parts of the country, shew there were many woods; for these arose from the corruption of the timber in the woods. All which is confirmed from what Hector Boeth saith of this country as it was of old. Thus it appeareth, both from ancient and modern historians, that this country was for the most part waste, and only imployed for pasture of beasts, and that it was full of woods, though now they are all perished, what by the length of time, and what by the cutting of them by the Romans, to make way for their armies, and by our kings, to reach the robbers which did haunt them.

Now, it is time to inquire who these Caledonian Picts. were, and whence they came, and to give some account of their government, their religious rites, and their manners, their language and way of living, and of the wars these of them in this country had with the Romans, and our predecessors the Scots, till such time as they were incorporated with us under our kings.

СНА Р. IV.

Sheweth what sort of people these Caledonians, designed Dicaledones and Vecturiones were, and from what

JULIUS

Country they came here.

ULIUS CESAR, in his commentary de bello Gallico, lib. 5. in these words, "Britanniæ pars interior ab iis incolitur,

See before, page 8. note 2. Dean Bellenden, the translator of Boethius, must also shew his zeal for the honour of Scotland, by adding to the list of its productions in his author, a considerable quantity of corn, to persuade

quos natos in insulâ ipsâ memoriâ proditum dicunt '," sheweth that they were such ancient possessors of the inner part of the country, that they thought themselves they were Aborigines: And Diodorus Siculus, in his Bibliotheca, is of the same opinion: and the panegyrist Eumenius, in panegyride Constantino Cæsari Augusto dicto, where he preferreth the actions of Constantine in Britain, to the exploits of Julius Cæsar there: He sheweth, that the Picts were in Britain long before Cæsar came there, in these words: "Ad hoc natio etiam tunc rudis, et soli Britanni Pictis modo, et Hibernis assueta hostibus adhuc seminudis, &c." And these Picts, even in this tract we now write of, were in Agricola's time so numerous, and their forces were so aboundant, that Tacitus says, cap. 25. of the life of Agricola, that, "interim cognoscit hostes plurimis agminibus inrupturos,

persuade us that this country was well cultivated in these early days, as if no Roman historian had written, and the state of society had not then precluded much attention to agriculture. "Fyffe, whilk is ane plenteous region, full of woddis, lesuris and valis, to the gret proffet baith of corne and bestyal," fol. 46.

1 "The inhabitants of the inland parts of Britain, say, that it has been delivered down to them by tradition, that they are the indigenous natives of the island."

2 The panegyric, of which a part is imperfectly quoted in the text, was pronounced by Eumenius, in presence of Constantius Chlorus, on his victory over Allectus, in the year 296. The passage is curious, not only because it contains the first mention of the name Pics, and proves that they were known to Julius Cesar, but because it has perplexed the best critics, (Buchanan, Acidalius, de la Baune,) and has compelled them to make strange transpositions, and insertions, to render it intelligible. In a late edition however of the Panegyrists, (at Nurenberg, 1779,) the true reading has been given from an excellent MS. as follows: "Ad hoc natio etiam tunc rudis; et solis Britanni Pictis modo et Hibernis adsueti hostibus, adhuc seminudi, facile Romanis armis, signisque, cesserunt." "Moreover the nation, he (Jul. Cesar) attacked was then rude; and the Britons, used only to the Pics and Irish as enemies, and being yet themselves but half naked, easily yielded to the Roman arms and ensigns." Pink, Part III. Chap. 1.

inrupturos, ac ne superante numero, et peritia locorum circumiretur, diviso et ipse in tres partes exercitu incessit '." We are now to inquire, what people they were, and from whence they came hither. Tacitus, cap. 11. concludeth from the habit of their body, that they were Germans: "Namque, (inquit) rutilæ Caledoniam habitantiam comæ, magni artus, Germanicam originem adseverant." And the venerable Bede is much of the same opinion, Ecclesiast. Hist, lib. 1. cap. 1. "Contigit (inquit) gentem Pictorum de Scythia (ut perhibent) longis navibus non multis oceanum ingressam." And below he saith, "Petentes Britanniam Picti habitare per septentrionales insulæ partes cæperunt 4." This opinion of Bede is well explain'd and confirm'd by the learn'd Dr. Stillingfleet, in his Origines Britannicæ, cap. j. p. 245. thus: "Besides these two (people) he makes a third race of men in Britain, whom he fetches out of Germany, and these were the Caledonian Britains: but he takes Germany in a very large sense, so as to extend as far as the Sarmatæ, and to comprehend under it the northern nations of the Cimbri, and the Gothones, and the Sueones; from whom it seems very probable, that the Caledonian Britains were descended, as the southern Britains came from the Celtæ, whose language and religion were kept up among them. But the Caledonians came from the European Scythians,

1 2

That is, "In the mean time we had advice, that the enemy's design was to divide, and attack us in many places at once: whereupon, lest he should be under disadvantage by the number of the enemy, and their knowledge of the country, he likewise divided his army into three bodies." Sibbald.

2 66

They that live in Caledonia are red headed and big limb'd, which speaks them of a German extraction." Sibbald.

"It happened that the nation of the Picts, entering (he ocean from Scythia, as is reported, in not many large ships."

4 "The Picts going to Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts of the island."

thians, to whose coasts they lay much nearer than to those of the Celtæ, and their larger proportions, which Tacitus observes, agree very well with this supposition.

"And these, if I mistake not, were the original Picts, but not called by that name, till new colonies came over to people the country, after the terrible devastation of it by the continuance of the Roman wars: for Claudian, de quarto Consul. Honorii, makes Thule the country of the Picts; and after all the disputes which have been about it, Olaus Rudbeck hath made it very probable in his Atlantica, c. 19. that Scandinavia is meant by it; which he proves not only from the testimony of Procopius, who affirms it; but from the exact agreement of the relations of Pythias, Isidorus and others with that, and neither with Isleland, nor any other place."

"Besides, Bede, lib. 1. cap. 1. saith, The common tradition was, that the Picts came out of Scythia, which is affirmed by Matt. Westminster and many others; but they do not mean the Asian, but the European Scythia, which comprehended under it all the most northern nations. ab extremo Aquilone, saith Pliny, lib. 6. cap. 13. And elsewhere he saith, lib. 4. cap. 12. that the Getæ, the Daci and Sarmatæ, and even the Germans, were called Scythians. Herodotus, lib. 4. mentions the northern Scythians, to whom there was no access by those who dwelt near the Palus Mæotis, without the help of seven languages: and when Darius fought with them, they retired northwards, towards their own country. Ptolomy, Tab. 8. Europe, places the royal Scythians near the Hyperborean mountains, which could never be found in the vast plains of Poland and Muscovy, there being no mountains there, answering to their description, as Hebersteinius, Rerum Muscov. pag. 61. and Matthias a Micou, Sarm. Europ. l. 9. c. 3, 4. confess: and therefore Olaus Rudbeck, Atlantic, cap. 2. hath undertaken

to