empire withdrew Albinus from the defence of the British frontier.

The Caledonians renewed their incursions, and were again seconded by the Meate, who had by this time almost fully vindicated their independ ence. Virius Lupus, a governor, sent by Seve rus, was forced to buy the retreat of the invaders with money, when he could not repulse them in arms. Secure of feeble opposition and hopeful of levying from time to time the same tribute, the barbarous warriors continued to infest the Roman provinces with incessant hostilities.

They were enemies not unworthy of Severus. Superior to the infirmities of age, he came into Britain to aid the yielding provincials. The country between the two walls was the scene of many a skirmish, in which the natives, with various success, strove to turn or retard the progress of the Roman army. But neither disease, nor the natural difficulties of the country, nor the valour of its inhabitants, could prevent Severus from carrying his victorious arins into Caledonia. The vanquished inhabitants were glad -to purchase peace by the surrender of their arms, and the cession of a part of their territory.

The last great work executed by Severus, was the erection of a stone wall twelve feet high, and eight in thickness, nearly in the same direction as the turf wall of Adrian, and extended from near Tinmouth, on the eastern coast to the Solway Firth on the western.

Yet the terror of Severus could not long overawe the fierce courage of the Caledonians and Meate. Hardly had the dying emperor retired

to York, when they renewed the war. Caracalla was sent against them; but, in his anxiety, first to secure the succession of the empire, and then to enjoy the pleasures of Rome, he soon terminated, by a peace, those hostilities, which he had from the beginning negligently prosecuted.

The walls of Severus had for more than a century protected the provincial Britons behind it from the invasion of their northern enemies. The Scots and Picts now broke through it. Lupi

cinus was sent by Julian against them; they re tired at his approach. But they soon renewed the invasion, and again burst through the wall. They continued their ravages unchecked, till at length the father of the great Theodosius was sent against them. He came upon them near London, encumbered with loads of spoil, and multitudes of prisoners. They fled before the hero, leaving their plunder and their captives behind them. He pursued their flight till they were driven beyond the wall of Antoninus. Restoring this barrier against their future inroads, he reduced the southern division of Scotland into a province, and, in honor of the emperor, named it Valentia.

When the Roman forces, and the flower of the British youth followed to the Continent, the usurper Maximus, and his son Victor, in their unsuccessful opposition to the avenger of Gratian, provincial Britain was left a defenceless prey to the Scots and Picts, who rushed upon it with tager rapacity. Amidst the subsequent distresses of the empire, the Romans assisted the Britors, but with a feeble and temporary aid, and at last were obliged to refuse their protec

tion, and to withdraw all their forces from the island.

A.D.

The abject Britons, thus reduced to de spair, and listening only to the suggestions 449. of fear, imprudently invited the protection

of the Saxons.

The Caledonians soon found more formidable enemies in the Germans. The Scots and Picts were routed near Stamford in a bloody battle. And the victorious allies established themselves in the fairest provinces of South Britain, and in the south-east of Scotland up to the Firth of Forth. It is even doubtful whether some looser parties did not scatter themselves over the whole eastern coast from the Forth to the Murray Firth.

A.D.

547.

In the course of the sixth century, Ida, the leader of a body of Angles, founded the kingdom of Northumberland, comprehending the counties of Northumberland, the Merse, and the three Lowthians.

In their first struggles with the Britons, the Ango Saxons were induced to seek the alliance of the Scots and Picts, who at this period were governed by their own hereditary princes.

If we may trust old chronicles, the line of Fergus had ere this time been settled on the Scottish throne, and the race of the Drust on the Pictish. But the history of all these princes is for some centuries too barren, or too fabulous to inerit a particular detail.

843.

At length, in consequence of intermar

A. D. riages between the royal families of the two nations, after a long series of wars the Scots and Picts were united under one sove

reign, Kenneth Mac Alpin, heir and representative of the Scottish regal line, who, after a not inglorious reign, died at Forteriot, leaving to his successor a whole nation whom he had found enemies, now subjects and friends.

CHAP. II.

From the Union of the Scots and Picts to Malcolm Canmore.

DONALD, brother to Kenneth, reigned four years. He was

followed by Constantine, his ne phew, son of Kenneth.

Donald Con

stantine.

At this time Denmark, and the northern nations sent over great numbers of their inhabitants to Scotland as well as England, Constantine offered them a friendly reception, and thus procured some respite from their depredations.

Another party of Danes, landing on the coast of Fife, and committed most horrid barbarities. Constantine defeated one of their chiefs in a pitched battle, but was in his turn totally routed by another, and, being made prisoner, was beheaded by the enemy in a cave, called afterwards the Devil's Cave. Constantine was succeeded by Eth his brother Eth, who reigned but one year. The prince, who next mounted Gregory the the throne, was Gregory, surnamed Great.

the Great. The extreme cruelties committed by the Danes, and the inability of the Saxon princes to protect their northern do

minions,

minions, induced many of the inhabitants to put themselves under the protection of Gregory, and to pay him homage.

He recovered Fife from the Danes' and Picts. The former he pursued into Northumberland, where he defeated them under their leader, Hardnute, or rather Halfden; and having expelled them that province, he turned his arms against the Cambrian Britons, who had seized on Dumbarton and the adjacent provinces, which formerly belonged to their ancestors.

An accommodation was entered into, but violated by the Cambrians, who invaded Annandale. Their prince was defeated and slain, and Gregory made himself master of Cumberland and Westmoreland. His successes did not terminate

here.

The king of Ireland being a minor, his authority was usurped by two factious noblemen. Gregory passed over to Ireland in person, and, after several victories, entered the capital as guardian of the young king; appointed a regency, and having left garrisons in the strongest fortresses, he returned into Scotland, where he

A.D. 892.

finished a life of action and of glory at

Dundon in the Garioch, and was buried with his ancestors at Icolmkill.

It is certain that a great friendship subsisted between Alfred and Gregory, and that the former agreed to yield to the latter all the lands belonging to the Scots and Picts between the two prætentures.

Donald III. of Gregory.

This friendship continued under Donald III., the worthy successor Alfred received considerable ser