[1] Amm. Marc. l. 28, c. 8. In a treatise, “de situ Britanniæ,” palmed off upon Richard of Cirencester, the district beyond the northern wall is erected into a province, and called Vespasiana, a name which in itself is a palpable blunder of the age which attributed every Roman relic in Scotland to the time of Agricola. The work abounds in internal evidence of its falsity. Vespasiana is said to have received the name in honour of the Flavian family, and in compliment to Domitian “in whose reign it was conquered” (l. 2, c. 6, s. 50), and with Mæata to have been lost under Trebellius, the successor of Lucullus, who had been put to death by Domitian (l. 2, c. 2, s. 16): but of these two provinces, which must have been created by his own father-in-law, Tacitus, writing during the reign of Trajan, displays a profound ignorance. Valentia again, the creation of Theodosius, about 369, is said to have been made a consular province by Constantine, who died two and thirty years before! (l. 1, c. 6, s. 3.) Such are a few specimens of the stupid blunders of its fabricator Mr. Bertram.
[2] Nen. Geneal. The See of Dôl, in Brittany, dates its rise from the flight of Bishop Samson from York.
[3] Nen. Geneal.—Llywarch, Marwnad Urien and Taliesin, quoted by Carte, vol. i. p. 209, and by Turner, Ang. Sax., bk. 2, c. 4. A translation of the latter poem will be found in Camb. Reg. v. 3, p. 433, fully justifying the regrets of Turner “that any historical poem should be translated into verse.” A tract of hill and moor, stretching from Derbyshire into Scotland, is often known in the early chroniclers as “Desertum,” the waste or desert. The battle in which Ida fell was probably the famous “battle of Badon,” which, according to Taliesin, “avenged the blood of the lords of the north,” and Urien was, I suspect, the “good and valiant uncle,” for opposing whom Gildas blames Maelgwn Gwynnedd.
[4] Tigh. 502, 574. Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves), App. 2, p. 435. Bed. Ecc. Hist., l. 3, c. 3. According to Beda, the grant of Iona was made by the Pictish king, and the question is a matter of dispute—as what question in early Scottish history is not? Dr. Reeves, the learned editor of Adamnan, is inclined to a compromise, Conal granting, and Bruidi confirming, the grant.
[5] An. F. M. (O’Donovan), 554, and Note; and Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves), passim. The great family of the Hy Nial supplied the Ardrighs or kings paramount of Ireland, uninterruptedly from the dawn of authentic history, until their power was shaken by the Northmen. The northern branch was subdivided into the Cinel Eogan and Cinel Conal, more familiarly, but less accurately, known as Tyrone and Tirconnell; the southern into Clan Colman and Siol Aodh Slane.
[6] Tigh. 563. Bed. Hist. Ecc., l. 3, c. 4, 5, 26. Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves), l. 1, c. 37; l. 2, c. 35. Craig Phadrick is supposed by Dr. Reeves to represent the Rath of Bruidi. The southern Picts had been already converted by Ninian, a British bishop, according to Beda (l. 3, c. 4); and if the conjecture is correct which assigns this conversion to the early part of the fifth century, it must have been effected during their temporary occupation of the province of Valentia. If reliance can be placed on traditional chronology, the migration of Cynedda Gwladig, the ancestor of the “noble tribes” of Wales, from Manau Guotodin—supposed to mean the “Debateable Land” between Picts, Scots, Angles, and Britons [Adam. Vit. Col. (Reeves), p. 371, d.]—must have taken place about the same period, and was caused, probably, by the encroachments of the Picts.
[7] Beda—as above.
[8] Bed. Hist. Ecc., l. 5, c. 24. Tigh. 717. The foundation of Abernethy is ascribed by the chronicle of the Picts to a Nectan, who lived 300 years before this reign, but I suspect the later builder of the “stone church” was the real founder. Innes (Ap. ii, v.) quotes from the book of Paisley, “In illa ecclesiâ (Abernethy), fuerunt tres electiones factæ quando non fuit nisi unus solus episcopus in Scociâ. Tunc enim fuit ille locus principalis regalis et pontificalis per aliqua tempora tocius regni Pictorum.” As the “primacy” originally vested in Iona, passed subsequently to Dunkeld and St. Andrews, neither of which were in existence before the early part of the ninth century, it may be inferred that, during the intervening period, it remained with Abernethy. It was usually vested in the Cowarb, or representative of the original founder; and its leading privileges were the Lex, or right to Can and Cuairt—tribute and free quarters—and other dues.
[9] Bed. Hist. Ecc., l. 3, c. 1, 3.
[10] Bed. Hist. Ecc., l. 2, c. 5; l. 3, c. 24; l. 4, c. 2, 12. Edd. Vit. Wilf., c. 19. The tenero adhuc regno of Eddius is changed by Malmesbury (de Gest. Pont.) into teneram infantiam reguli, an expression scarcely applicable to Egfrid, who was twenty-five when he ascended the throne. Thus inaccuracies creep into history.