dinavian extraction, and of the race of men who were afterwards called Picts. So are the eldest Orcadians and Shetlanders called in the British history.* Ossian gives us unequivocal evidence, that these islands, in his time, and long before, were governed by northern princes, and that their inhabitants adhered to the religion of Scandinavia; as well as that Northmen and Danes, from Lochlin and Sora, had here harbours and places of resort in their expeditions against the larger British isles. These notices of the bard perfectly agree with some later Latin writers, who make the Picts and Saxons under which names were included also in those days, military adventurers from Denmark and Norway-after being overthrown by the Romans in Britain, flee to Orkney and Thule, (by which is certainly meant either Shetland or Norway.) Thus, Claudian (de IV. Consulatu Honori, V. 31.) says,

-Manduerunt Saxone fuso Orcades, incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule,

Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.

In his poem de Bello Getica, the same poet sings to fame,

-Britannum

Terruit oceanum, et nostro procul axe remotum

Insolito belli tremefecit murmure Thulen.

The Roman writers frequently mention a certain alliance, or relationship, between the Saxons and Picts; that is, the Saxons, Scandians, and Caledonian Picts of northern extraction. Claudian thus expresses himself:

-Domito Saxone Thetys Mitjor aut fracto secura Britannia Picto. Sidonius Apollinaris speaks of Caledonian " Britons, Scots, and Picts, with the Saxons," + as conquered by

The foundations of those buildings called Pechts Houses, ruins of which are still found in Scotland and its subjec islands, bear the strongest resemblance to those of Iceland, where the Norwegian architecture of the ninth century is still followed.

Here it is to be observed, that the Caledonian Britons, Scots, and Picts, are mentioned as three nations radically different. So indeed they were; but the stranger Scots and Picts afterwards subdued the native Britons, and divided their country between them. Caledonia at one

the Romans; and I shall soon have occasion to bring forward more to the same purpose from other Latin authors.

Ossian also agrees with the oldest British historical writers. Gildas, in his second chapter, thus expresses himself: " Britannia-duabus primum gentibus transmarinis vehementer sævis, Scotorum a Circione, Pictorum ab Aquilone, calcabilis multos stupet gemitque per annos." Here it appears clearly that both nations had come to Britain from beyond the seas; the Picts from the north, (i. e. Scottish Islands, Orkneys, Thule, and the Hebrides,) to which they had sailed from Scandinavia; and the Scots from the west; that is, from Ireland or Ierne, † which was their first place of residence known to us. The testimony of Gildas is certainly of great weight. Schioening has, in his History of Norway, brought forward and cleared up passages from Beda, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Ralph Higden, Matthew of Westminster, John of Fordun, Ordericus Vitalis, and others, which shew that the Picts were a Gothic people, particularly from Norway. Buchan

time contained two principal kingdoms, Pictland and Scotland, both of which at last coalesced under the latter name.-In like manner, the Saxons, Jutes, and Angles deprived South Britain of its independence and its name, after the Belga, Cimbri, and Romans had preceded them in the subjugation of the inhabitants. Gaul under

went a similar fate from the Northern Franks; as did also a part of it afterwards from their Norman kinsmen, &c. When we consider the conquests which the Scandinavian and Teutonic nations made in Ireland and England, even while the latter conthe Romans, we are necessarily led to the tinued under the powerful protection of conclusion that Scotland, which lay nearer to Scandinavia, was not exempted from the same visitations.

Beda says he uses the term transmarini to designate the Picts and Scots who lived north of the friths of the Clyde and Forth. In Gildas this meaning can hardly be admitted; but later writers have perhaps adopted the word from him, without being at the pains to ascertain very distinctly its original meaning.

+Thus Claudian, in the verse here quoted, makes the barbarians flee out of Britain, each to his original home; the Saxons and Picts to Orkney and Thule. and the Scots to Ireland.

*

an also considers it as not improbable, that the oldest inhabitants of the Orkney islands were Picts, although he acknowledges that they have always spoken the Gothic (Norse or Icelandic) language; as he likewise admits, that the Picts came to Scotland from Sarmatia, (the Asiatic part of which has doubtless been the original country of the Northern As,) over the Cimbric Chersonesus. With this agree several of the historians of the North, who mention the invasions and settlements of the Scandinavians in Scotland in the elder times; and their notices have been partly collected by Schioening, in his History of Norway. Saxo was also acquainted with several ancient traditions to the same purpose.

My opinion, then, is, that the Picts were chiefly Scandinavians, or descended from Scandinavians, with a mixture, perhaps, of Saxons and Belgians. It is probable, that people

Torfous appeals to Daniel Langhorn's Antiquitates Albionenses, (Elenchus Ant. Alb. p. 275,) where the Gothic origin of the Picts is contended for on many good grounds. This rare treatise, printed in London 1673, which is not to be found in the public libraries in Copenhagen, I have been so fortunate as to procure after this dissertation was well nigh finished. It is true, I found in it little that was new to me concerning that people's origin; but the perusal of the book confirmed me in my former opinion, and I was particularly struck with one pertinent observation of the author's;-“That the express testimony of the elder British historians, such as Beda, was of infinitely more weight than the conjectures of more modern writers, such as Camden." There is also a peculiar coincidence between these and the answer of the renowned Belisarius, in the fifth century, as quoted by Procopius, (de Bello Gothico, 2. B. 4. cap.) when the ambassador of the Goths demanded that Sicily should be given up to them: Et nos item Britanniam Gothos habere sibi permittimus, Sicilia longe præstantiorem. From this we may conclude, that the Saxons and Picts were in those days regarded by the Romans as a Gothic people. Even in the ninth century, the inhabitants of Scandinavia were, in their poetical dialect, called Gautar, Gotnar, or Gothis, although only certain provinces in Sweden then retained the name of Gautland and Gothland.

+ The conquests of these allies, and their settlements in England and Ireland at a very early period, are too well known

of these nations fled to the coasts of Caledonia on occasion of the sea-flood which, long before the Christian era, inundated and changed the face of a great part of many countries in Europe; or, in consequence of other events on the northern continent, which obliged the inhabitants to emigrate in great numbers. The Britons in England are supposed to have been in a state of extreme barbarity before the arrival of the Belge among them; and, in Scotland, they were doubtless not more civilized. The Scandinavians, in the time of Pytheas, had already houses, agriculture, apiaries, and many of the arts and accommodations of polished life, to which the Caledonians were strangers. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the Scandian emigrants brought these with them, along with their language, to the Caledonian islands, coasts, and lowlands, where they settled. Macpherson acknowledges, that the Scots first learnt to build stone houses and large ships from the Scandinavians; but these two can hardly have been the only arts they learnt from them. The northern men, for instance, manufactured better and more beautiful arias. Luno, or Lunn, a smith of Lochlin, is celebrated as the maker of the sword of Fingal, and Ossian seems to me to apply to the Scandinavians, by way of distinction, the epithet ironshielded; whereas, in their first wars with the Romans, the shields of the Caledonians were of wicker, covered with leather. * This, and other arts and improvements, † soon gave a smaller

Scotland lay

to be enlarged upon here. much nearer to the coasts of Scandinavia than the rest of Britain, and bordered (if one may use the expression) upon the islands in the North Sea, of which the northern men had possessed themselves long before the days of Ossian.

* The numerous army of North Britons which, under Galgacus, gave battle to the Romans under Agricola, appears to have been tolerably well provided with arms both of iron and copper. They had no mines worked in their own country, and little or no intercourse with the Romans, and, therefore, can hardly be supposed to have either forged arms for themselves, or procured them from the Roman Britons, but may have had them from the northern men, who were so celebrated as armourers in the days of Fingal.

Tacitus in his Germania, cap. 44,

number of Scandinavians a decided superiority over, and consideration and distinction among, the Aborigines. At that time the Celtic dialect, which is spoken in Scotland, without doubt, differed less widely from the language of Scandinavia than it now does, so that the inhabitants of the two countries were more easily intelligible to each other than the Romans and Britons were. The before-alleged circumstances have either given rise to the establishment of petty states by the strangers themselves, by amicable compact, or their mixing with the natives in such a manner, that the strangers partly became their princes and chiefs.

It was thus that the Scandian Colgorm came to high honour; and the ancestors of both the kings, Lathmon and Carthon, were his countrymen. The Scandians have chiefly spread themselves, from the side of Caithness, over the lowest and most fertile part of the country, which afterwards composed the kingdom of the

Picts.

(To be continued.)

ON THE WANT OF ACCOMMODATION AT THE DUNBLANE MINERAL SPRINGS.

MR EDITOR,

DURING an excursion in Scotland lately, I paid a visit, for a few days, to the mineral springs discovered some

describes the Suiones (Scandinavians) as more civilized than the Germans. Their political institutions were better, and they respected riches. Dr Gibson, who also contends for the German origin of the

Scots, in his revision of Camden's Britannia, (T. ii. p. 887,) allows that the Picts from the beginning excelled the Highlanders in agriculture, and the arts of civilized life. They who betook themselves to the cultivation of the earth, and a more polished mode of life, took possession of the low lands lying along the sea-coast, and were from time immemorial called Picts, Meata, Vecturiones, or Pechts. By some Roman writers they are called Caledonians, while the Highlanders are called Dicaledones, or, as some will have it, Duncaledones; while others comprehend both under the denomination of Caledonians. Probably the Meatæ were not properly of Pictish extraction, but might be indebted to the neighbourhood and government of the Romans for those arts and habitudes in which they excelled the Highlanders.

years ago near Dunblane. They have, I understand, proved highly serviceable in numerous instances; and as, in their nature, they nearly resemble Cheltenham waters, they have been very much resorted to. But it is impossible, in the present situation of the place, and the state of the wells, that they can be generally useful, or that invalids frequenting them can reap all the benefit that might be expected if they had better accommodation.

These wells are upon the property of the Earl of Kinnoul, about two miles north from Dunblane, upon the skirts of extensive and bleak moors. There are two springs, on one of which has been erected a wooden shed, which might be mistaken for a place for retiring to from the effects of the water. In the inside of this temple is hung up a scroll, or writing, purporting to be the terms on which the proprietor allows the public the use of the wells. 1st, Visitors are to pay his tenants for the water at the rate of one penny per pint. 2d, The poor are to have it for nothing, on bringing a certificate of their poverty from the parish minister. 3d, No person is to spit, or commit any nuisance in the place. 4th, If strangers are found using any other than the public roads about the wells, they are to pay damages. In this country a public road seems to be either a narrow way like a sheep's path for foot passengers, so slippery, that it is impossible to walk easily on it, or a broader one for carriages, consisting of a middle path, in which the horse goes plunging to the belly, and dragit sunk in a deep rut to the axle; beging a cart after him, each wheel of

tween the horse track and that of the

wheels, there is usually a small plat of green sward, on which a passenger may pick his way if he has a sharp eye and a steady foot. On these roads an invalid, provided with a pair of mud boots and an umbrella, may take his pleasure; but, if he should trespass, I do not see how it is possible to ascertain the damage he has done, where there are no fences, and little to tread upon but broom and

heather.

At the other spring is the chief erection; a kind of lodging house, consisting of three small rooms and a cellar, or kitchen, or pump-room, into a corner of which the water from

the spring is conveyed by means of a lead pipe. This place, which might cost L. 150, is let to a tenant for L.45 a-year, with the exclusive privilege of selling the water; and, as he cannot pay his rent in this way, he must fall upon other shifts to satisfy his landlord. This house stands in a bog where you cannot stir abroad (as there is no road to it) without wetting your feet, so that a person in a delicate state of health runs a risk of receiving as much injury from the dampness and wetness of the place, as benefit from the use of the water. In these circumstances, visitors usually reside at Dunblane, but the distance and bad roads render even this extremely inconvenient. I was informed that some public-spirited gentlemen offered to build a number of neat cottages round the wells for the accommodation of strangers; but the noble proprietor declined listening to the proposal. Whether he has any views of improving the place himself, or what these may be, I have not learned; but it would seem highly worthy of his attention, and of that of every benevolent person in the neighbourhood, that the public may be allowed to reap all the benefit of the blessings which Heaven has put into his Lordship's hands for alleviating the sufferings of humanity. Nor does this seem in any way inconsistent with his Lordship's interest; and his tenants in that quarter would receive advantage from an increase of visitors to the wells, which would undoubtedly be the case if they were put on a better footing.-I am, &c. 4th Sept. 1817.

BALFOUR OF BURLEY.

W. J.

THE name of this remarkable person, who bore so conspicuous a part in the unhappy scenes of bigotry and tyranny which Scotland displayed towards the close of the reign of Charles II., must be familiar to every class of readers, since the appearance of the "Tales of my Landlord." By the mysterious author of that work, and the discussions to which it has given rise, Burley has been drawn from the comparative obscurity in which he had hitherto remained, known only to the divine and the historian, and held up to the world as a person eminently entitled to respect or reprobation, according to the opposite views which

are still taken of the cause in which he was engaged. At present we do not mean to enter into this discussion; but, anxious to gratify the curiosity of our readers, if we should fail in higher objects, we are happy to be able to lay before them some account of this extraordinary character, drawn up from original manuscripts in his own hand-writing, and from accredited works already before the public, to which we shall refer.

John Balfour of Kinloch was the son of John Balfour, portioner of Kinloch, by his wife Grizzel Hay, daughter of Hay of Paris in Perthshire. He was probably born about the year 1640; and we find him served heir to his grandfather, Robert Balfour, on the 26th February 1663. + His grandfather appears to have had a daughter, Helen, married about the year 1621 to John Williamson, son of John Williamson, portioner of Kinloch; she died before her husband, (whose death took place in the year 1644,) leaving four daughters, of whom Christian, the eldest, disposed of her heritage to John Balfour, her uncle.

This John, the father of Burley, seems to have died before the year 1655, as his son was then boarded with John Hay, who grants a receipt to Robert and Alexander Tamson for fourscore pounds Scots, as payment of the said board, dated at Auchtermuchtie. Hay was Burley's uncle; and it is certain that he afterwards resided with another of his uncles, as the following discharge proves :

"I, Francis Hay of Strowie, grant me to be compleitlie payed and satisfied by John Balfour, portioner of Kinloch, my nevoy, of the soume of four hundreth merks, for the boarding and entertaining of the sd John in meat and clothes, horse and man, for the yeires of God 16 thriescoir six, and 16 thriescoir seven, and of all yeires preceiding ye day and dait heirof; as also of the soum of thrie hundereth eightein punds Scotts layed out, payed, and

The appellation of Burley was used in consequence of his close connection with the Balfours of Burley. About 1560, Sir Burleigh) a gentleman of an ancient and Michael Balfour of Burley (more properly highly respectable family, made a grant of the lands of Kinloch to his "near kinsman," the grandfather of Burley.

+ Retours of Fife.