The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society
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The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

clanstrachan.org
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08.03.2013 Views

156 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i accused of partialit}- to the Highlanders, " is naturally an indolent and unindustrious being ; yet when there is occasion for activity and exertion, he is not often to be paralleled. He is modest and unassuming. His courtesy and good breeding are unstudied and becoming, and no feeling of inferiority betrays him into abstraction or awkwardness of manner ; shrewd, inquisitive, and intelligent, he has his faculties collected and at his command. He is sensible of kindness and deeply susceptible of gratitude, but withall he is superstitious, haughty, passionate, ^ and vindictive." i Armstrong.

APPENDIX TO PART I. The Seven Provinces of Scotland. In treating of the earlier part of the history of Scotland, it had been my intention to have refrained from entering more deeply into the subject than was absolutely necessary for the development of the single proposition which I had to establish— viz., the descent of the Highlanders from the northern Picts ; but the remarkable discoveries of Sir Francis Palgrave, regarding the court and privileges of the seven earls of Scotland in the thirteenth century, corroborate so very strongly the views which I had been led to form of the constitution of the Pictish kingdom, and of its preservation in the subsequent Scottish monarchy, that I am induced to depart from my resolution, and to give a more detailed view of the subject in this Appendix. Previous writers of Scottish history have in general overlooked the ancient territorial divisions of the country. That the name of Scotia was, previous to the thirteenth century, confined to the country north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, is undoubted ; the chronicles and ancient writers invariably asserting that these Firths divided Scotia from Anglia. That part of the present kingdom situated to the south of these Firths, appears to have formerly consisted of the two provinces of Lothian and Cumbria, or Galloway ; and these provinces have been frequently noticed by our later historians. These writers have, however, entirely overlooked the fact, that Scotia, or Scotland proper, was likewise divided into provinces. We have seen that frequent allusion is made by the chroniclers and monkish writers to the " provinciae Pictorum";i and from the See Part I., chap. ii.

156 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i<br />

accused <strong>of</strong> partialit}- to the <strong>Highlanders</strong>, " is naturally an<br />

indolent and unindustrious being ; yet when there is occasion<br />

for activity and exertion, he is not <strong>of</strong>ten to be paralleled. He<br />

is modest and unassuming. His courtesy and good breeding<br />

are unstudied and becoming, and no feeling <strong>of</strong> inferiority betrays<br />

him into abstraction or awkwardness <strong>of</strong> manner ;<br />

shrewd,<br />

inquisitive, and intelligent, he has his faculties collected and<br />

at his command. He is sensible <strong>of</strong> kindness and deeply<br />

susceptible <strong>of</strong> gratitude, but withall he is superstitious, haughty,<br />

passionate,<br />

^<br />

and vindictive."<br />

i<br />

Armstrong.

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