The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

i6 THE HIGHLANDERS [parti
finibus, nihil contra gentem Anglorum insidiarum moliuntur aut
fraudium. Bntones quamvis et maxima ex parte domestico sibi
(xlio gentem Anglorum et totius catholicae ecclesiae statutum
Pascha, minus recte moribusque improbis impugnent, tamen et
divina sibi et humana prorsus resistente virtute in neutro
cupitum possunt obtinere propositum.''^ From this passage it
would appear that when Bede finished his history the inhabitants
of North Britain consisted of four races, Picti, Angli, Scoti qui
Britanniam incolunt, and Britones, and from the general tone of
the passage, as well as from the phrase " suis contenti finibus,"
it would seem that these different nations had probably for some
time previous possessed the same territories, and that their
mutual boundaries had not experienced much alteration.
Territories of
'^^^^ southcm boundary of the Picts, which was
the Plots.
^igQ ^j-^g northern boundary of the Angli, appears
Southern from Bcde to have been the Firth of Forth. For, in
boundary.
describing the result of the unsuccessful expedition
of the Angli under Ecfrith, into the territory of the Picts, in the
" Ex quo tempore spes
year 684, he has the following passage :
coepit et virtus regni Anglorum fluere, et retro sublapsa referri.
Nam et Picti terrain possessionis sua; qtiani teniierunt Angli et
Scoti qui erant in Britannia et Britonum quoque pars nonnulla
libertatem receperunt, qnaui ct Jiacterms habent per annos circiter
quadraginta ct scx."^ Now the southern boundary of the Picts
was at that time the Firth of Forth, for he adds immediately
after, that the monastery of Abercorn was " in vicinia freti quod
Anglorum terras Pictorumque disterminat "
; and his expression
"
quam et hactenus habent per annos circiter quadraginta et sex'"
shews that no change had taken place, but that it had continued
to be the southern boundary of the Picts till the year 731, which
is ]\.\?,t forty-six years after the event he was narrating.
The German ocean, and the Pentland Firth, were at that time
the eastern and northern boundaries of the Picts.
Northern The Welsh Triads describe them as extending along
ry.
^j^^ ^^^ ^^ Lochlin, or the German ocean. Adomnan
mentions Lochness and the River Ness as being " in Provincia
Pictorum," near which also he places the palace of the Pictish
'
Bede, b. 5, c. ult.
^
gede, b. 4, c. 26.