and some think it stood where Couper of Fife stands now. But the name Orrea seemeth to point at the loch and water of Or, in the middle of this shire. It is certain, that at the end of that loch, about an old chapel, there are trenches to be seen yet'. It is very probable, that there was a Roman station near to the place where the town of Leven stands now, or where the town of Kenuay stands now: for Boeth. Hist. Scot. l. 5. f. 86. relateth, that in the year of our salvation 1521, not far from the mouth of the water of Leven in Fife, a great many Roman coins were found by shepherds, put up in a brass vessel, some of them of gold, and some of them silver, upon some of which was, in the face of the medal, a Janus double-fac'd, and on the reverse the beak of a ship; others of them had the face of some Roman emperor, with the legend of their name, offices and honours about it, and upon the reverse was the picture of Mars, Venus or Mercury, or some other idol, or the Wolf giving suck to Romulus and Remus from her dugs, or these characters, S. P. Q. R. that is, Senatus Populus Que Romanus. Many such are found in divers places in Scotland, and were col lected No appearance of a town is to be found near Lochore. Indeed a transient entrenchment would scarce be distinguished by so high a title, when military stations were frequent, and towns so rare. But the situation assigned "in Vennicontibus," puts it beyond a doubt, that the urbs Orrea was not in Fife; for the Vennicontes were to the north of the Tay, as is evident from the rivers of their country, according to Ptolomy, and Richard of Cirencester: Tava, Esica, Tinna, Deva, the Tay, the South Esk, the North Esk, and the Dee. To place this town in Fife, is to confound all the ancient geography of Scotland; and the mere resemblance of a name is too slight a reason for so bold an alteration. The towns of the Horesttii, of whose country Fife was a part, were Alauna, Lindum, and Victoria, none of which seem to have been within the bounds of the county, but to have been situated on the military way that was formed from the wall of Urbicus, eastward towards Aberdeen, and are supposed to have been Kier, or Alloa, Ardoch, and Perth. Cambden's Britannia, fol. 922. Pink. Part III. Chap. v. Stat. Acc. Vol. VIII. No. 40. and XVIII. No. 19. lected by our famous antiquary Mr. James Sutherland, and are to be seen in the lawiers library at Edinburgh. I have a good many my self, in silver and brass, in my cabinet. Without doubt, after-times may discover in this shire, and in other parts of North Britain, many Roman antiquities, when curious persons will search for them: for Tacitus telleth us, that it was one of the means that Agricola used to tame the Britains, that he privately exhorted and publickly joined with them to build temples, houses, seats of justice; and by degrees brought them to erect porticos and baths '. The cities we have, most conveniently situate, will be found, many of them, to be founded in the ruines of the Roman garrisons: they spared no cost to erect them. I have given account of severals in the treatise I printed upon the Roman wall, and have given the figures of some of them 2. CHAP. In the course of the last century, some Roman coins, brass swords, and daggers, have been found in different places, but none of much consequence for illustrating the history of the county. Indeed the finding of Roman arms or money in any district, is no proof that there was a Roman station in that neighbourhood; for many of them must have been lost in skirmishes or in journies; others may have been collected by the ancient inhabitants, for curiosity or for use, and may have passed through many hands before they were lost or buried in the places where they arc now discovered. 2 The author of Iter. Sept. treats Sibbald's opinions on this subject with great contempt. Indeed Gordon points out our author's errors about Roman antiquities in so many cases, that but little credit can be given to his conjectures. The places which he considers as Roman stations are Burntisland, Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Kinghorn, &c.; but the reasons he assigns for their Roman origin arc futile and inconclusive. Iter. Sept. Part I. App. to Chap. iv. Sibbald's Conjectures concerning the Roman Ports, &c. in the Firths, § i. Chap. i. and Historical Inquiries concerning Roman Monuments in Scotland, passim. CHAP. VIII. Concerning the Wars with the Danes in this Shire. When such of the Picts as willingly submitted to out kings, were incorporated in one kingdom with the Scots, under our kings; there were several of the chief men amongst them, who persisted in opposing our kings, and were therefore forfeited, and their lands in this shire, and elsewhere, were given by our kings, to those who did best service in the subduing them: some of those chief men who were forfeited, removed with their followers and adherents to Norway and Denmark, from whence they had their descent and origin: others went to Northumberland and the adjacent counties in England, where they fixed their abode, and infested with their incursions, these counties in Scotland which lay nearest to them, which is clear from the history of Ingulphus, lately publish'd from the manuscripts. He says, "Complevit itaque dies suos inclytus rex Edwardus, Ethelstanusque filius ejus successerat. Contra quem, cum Analaphus filius Sitrici, quondam regis Northanhumbrorum insurgeret, et bellum ferocissimum multorum viribus moliretur, conspirantibusque cum dicto Analapho, Constantino rege Scotorum, et Eugenio rege Cumbrorum, ac aliorum regum comitumque barbarie infinitâ, contra Athelstanum regem convenissent, arctissimo feedere conjurati, et dictus rex Anglorum cum suo exercitu occurrisset; licet præfatus barbarus infinitam multitudinem Danorum, Norreganorum, Scotorum, ac Pictorum contraxisset, &c." And below, "Jam Orcadensium, ac Pictorum L globos globos pertransicrat, &c." And it's certain, there were some of them under the name of Picts in England, in the time of William the Conqueror, as appeareth from a statute of his (we shall give you) which the learned Selden furnisheth to us, from an imperfect copy of Hoveden the English historian, and from William Lombard's Codex de priscis Anglorum legibus, wherein he says, (Ubi editæ quidem sunt, nec tamen undequaque exemplari quo utor consonæ,) he judgeth it fit to exhibite it. in his notes and Spicelegium ad Eadmerum, page 189. thus: "WILLIELMUS Dei gratia Rex Anglorum, Dux Normanorum, omnibus hominibus suis Franciæ et Angliæ, salutem, Lex LI. De Religione et Pace Publicâ. Statuimus im primis "After the death of the renowned king Edward, Athelstane his too succeeded. Against him Anlaff, son of Sitric, formerly king of Northumberland, rebelled and carried on a cruel war. Having entered into a confederacy with Constantine king of Scots, and Owen king of Cumberland, and many other barbarous chiefs, he fought the king of England. The army which Anlaff drew together, consisted of a vast multitude of Danes and Norwegians, and Scots and Pi&s, &c." And below, "He had passed the troops of the Orkneymen and the Pics." Hist. Ing. ann. 948. In the middle of the 10th century, therefore, when Constantine III. reigned over the united nations of North Britain, the Picts were still recognised as a distinct race.—The number of the army of the allies, collected chiefly by the influence of Constantine, to whom Anlaff had fled for protection, was very great. It was conveyed to the Humber in 615 ships. At the battle which ensued, called the "Great Battle" of Brunburgh, (supposed to be Burgh on the Humber,) the greatest and bloodiest that this island ever beheld according to Milton, Athelstane obtained a complete victory, which established hit authority over all England. On the side of the allies, besides the greatest part of the Scottish nobles, and an incredible number of the people say our historians, five kings and twelve celebrated chiefs fell, and the son of Constantine was among the slain. This battle did not happen in 948, as marked in the reference to Ingulph, but 938. Athelstane died in 941. Boeth. Book XI. Chap i. Buchanan, Book VI. Pink. Part V. Chap. ii. Henry, Book 11. Chap. i. § 4. Hume, Chap. ii. 2 "Where are published several of the ancient laws of England, which, however, do not every where agree with the copy I use." primis super omnia, unum Deum per totum regnum nostrum venerari, unam fidem Christi semper inviolatam custodiri, pacem et securitatem, et concordiam, judicium et justitiam inter Anglos et Normannos, Francos et Britones Walliæ et Cornubiæ, Picos et Scotos Albanie, &c." It is to be remarked, that Albania here is to be taken, as Luddus and Pricæus make it, to contain the country benorth the Humber 2, 1" William, by the grace of God, King of the English, and Duke of the Normans, to all his subjects of France and England, greeting. Law It. Of religion and the public peace. We ordain, in the first place, and above all, that one God be worshipped through all our kingdom, and that the faith of Jesus Christ be kept inviolate, that there be peace, security, concord and justice, betwixt the English and Normans, the Franks and Britons of Wales and Cornwall, the Pics and Scots of Albany, &c." William obtained the crown of England in 1066. This statute therefore, if correctly edited, points out the existence of the Picts as a separate people toward the end of the 11th century. 2 * Albany was at this time the proper name of the north and east parts of Scotland, the ancient seats of the Picts. It was no unnatural figure to call the people of Northumbria "of Albany," as they were descended of the inhabitants of that country. Or from the number of them in the north of England, it may for a while have obtained the name of the mother country. That the Picts possessed the north of England up to the Humber, as conquerors of the Britons, for about a century, and that they afterwards remained as subjects to the new invaders of that district, the Jutes and Angles, is well ascertained. Venerable Bede, and also Gildas, mention, that the Picts in 426 had seized all the country to the wall of Gallio, between the Solway and the Tyne, and that about 448, they had extended their sovereignty to the Humber, and that they retained their dominion till about 550 or 560, when Ida founded the kingdom of Bernicia, and Ella that of Deira, to which Princes they submitted. The ordinance of the council of Calcot or Calcuth in Northumbria in 787, against the noted practice of staining their bodies, ascertains that they still remained a distinct race, probably the most numerous people, of that kingdom, which then included both Bernicia and Deira. Thus the Picts are to be traced in the north of England, from the beginning of the 5th, to the end of the 11th century, when they became so mixed with the Danes, Jutes |