Inver, lat. 58° 9´ N., long. 5° 10´ W.
The line of separation then between the Welsh or Pictish, and the Scotch or Irish Kelts, if measured by the occurrence of these names, would run obliquely from S.W. to N.E., straight up Loch Fyne, following nearly the boundary between Perthshire and Argyle, trending to the N.E. along the present boundary between Perth and Inverness,[Inverness,] Aberdeen and Inverness, Banff and Elgin, till about the mouth of the river Spey. The boundary between the Picts and English may have been much less settled, but it probably ran from Dumbarton, along the upper edge of Renfrewshire, Lanark and Linlithgow till about Abercorn, that is along the line of the Clyde to the Frith of Forth.
[2]. In the very early periods the Saxon inhabitants of different parts of England would probably have found it difficult to understand one another.
[3]. Beda, Hist. Eccl. i. 22. “Qui, inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quae historicus eorum Gildas flebili sermone describit et hoc addebant, ut nunquam genti Saxonum sive Anglorum secum Brittaniam incolenti verbum fidei praedicando committerent.”
[4]. “Tu vide, rex, quale sit hoc quod nobis modo praedicatur: ego autem tibi verissime quod certum didici, profiteor, quia nihil omnino virtutis habet, nihil utilitatis, religio illa quam hucusque tenuimus; nullus enim tuorum studiosius quam ego culturae deorum nostrorum se subdidit, et nihilominus multi sunt qui ampliora a te beneficia quam ego, et maiores accipiunt dignitates, magisque prosperantur in omnibus quae agenda vel adquirenda disponunt. Si autem dii aliquid ualerent me potius iuvare vellent, qui illis impensius servire curavi.” Beda, H. E. ii. 13. That Coifi is a genuine Northumbrian name, and not that of a Keltic druid, is shown in a paper on Anglosaxon surnames, read before the Archæological Institute at Winchester by the author in 1845.
[5]. Palgrave, Anglos. Commonw. i. 562 seq. The Roman part of the theory is very well exploded by Lappenberg, who nevertheless gives far too much credence to the rest.
[6]. Vol. i. p. 42 of Tindal’s translation.
[7]. This seems very doubtful, at least until lapse of years, commerce, and familiar intercourse had broken down the barriers between different races.
[8]. In the second edition of Tindal’s Rapin there is a print representing the Kings of the Heptarchy in council. The president, Monarch or Bretwalda, is very amusingly made larger and more ferocious than the rest, to express his superior dignity!
[9]. Hist. Angl. Sax. bk. iii. ch. 5, vol. i. p. 319.