We may answer, without fear, that it was not natural features or climate, but historical events, that made two peoples, instead of one. These events could not be foreseen by a mere student of the topography. Even though the men of both realms spoke the same language and were of the same blood, originally, there issued an English and a Scottish nation, which again had two stories of development. The Highlands have a third, their own story,—usually of isolated combats and clan feuds,—with only the slow infiltration of ideas that in time made a united island, bringing the men of the glens in contact with the rest of Europe.
The chief scene of Scottish history, with its art, architecture, commercial prosperity, and general likeness to Christendom, is in the Lowlands. Here are almost all her great cities, industries, and monuments. In this region, and not in the Highlands, Scotland’s two greatest, or at least most famous, men were born and reared, and here are the cities, which are “the hope of democracy.” In fact, the Celtic Scots never produced a distinct civilization of their own. The Celts, with all their charming traits and bold achievements, have nowhere brought to perfection this composite flower of history.
For purposes of research in libraries, enjoyment in rambles from a convenient centre, and for the study of all classes of the people in town and country, on moors and by the sea, we chose Dundee as the seat of our summer sojourns, seven in number from 1891 to 1913. There in Scottish homes and with companions in plenty, both native and imported, for picnics, tramps, river excursions, and historical explorations, near and far, whether on foot, awheel, by horse, boat, or motor-car, our memories focus on “Scotia’s grandeur,” as well as on “homely joys and destiny obscure,” and, not least, on personal delights.
Before reaching Dundee, the American in Scotland must visit the ancient capital of her kings, Dunfermline, which is on the road thither. Birthplace of “the librarian of the universe,” Andrew Carnegie, and enriched by him with munificent gifts, from money made in the United States, we shall by visiting Dunfermline pay our respects to Scotland’s ancient glories while renewing home memories.
The city lies in the “ancient kingdom” and modern County of Fife, probably of all Scottish shires the richest in striking monastic, feudal, and palatial ruins. Within its borders are Roman, Celtic, and early Christian and mediæval remains. Its name has no relation to a musical instrument, although the screaming tube of military association, comrade of the drum, seems an appropriate symbol for a region so long identified with war. The Tay and the Leven Rivers, within its borders, are famous in song and story, and within the bounds of Fife lie Cupar, St. Andrew’s, Dunfermline, Falkland, Lindores, Kirkcaldy, Burntisland, Crail, and Dysart, all of historical interest.
One who is curious to get at the linguistic secrets locked up in Scottish names calls in the aid of the Celtic scholar and learns that the word, “Dunfermline,” when dissected, yields the meaning, “The Castle of the Winding Stream,” or, more precisely, “The Fort on the Crooked Linn,” the latter word meaning a waterfall between two rocks. When, however, we search into the origin of Fife, the county’s name, we find it to be of Frisian origin; that is, only another form of “Fibh,” which, in Jutland, means “forest.” In the fourth century, when the folk from the Continent were crossing the German Ocean and settling on the island, they gave the newfound woody land a descriptive name true to the facts.
Situated three miles from the water and rising above the level of the Firth, upon a long swelling ridge, Dunfermline is an imposing place. Here, in 1070, King Malcolm Canmore founded an abbey for the Benedictine monks, whom his English Queen Margaret had brought from Canterbury. Dunfermline brings up many memories of this noble queen, to whose influence, greater probably than that of any other one person, Bonnie Scotland owes so much of its civilization.
In a sense, the town, though showing little of royal grandeur, contains Scotland’s Westminster Abbey. Dunfermline Abbey, besides being one of the most important remains in Scotland, has, except Iona, received more of Scotland’s royal dead than any other place in the kingdom. Not only were the sovereigns David, James, and Charles born within the old castle walls, but here rest the bodies of Malcolm Canmore, Queen Margaret, Edgar, Alexander I, David I, Malcolm the Maiden, Alexander III, Robert the Bruce, his queen Elizabeth and his nephew Randolph, Anabella, queen of Robert III, and Robert, Duke of Albany.
THE MONASTERY, DUNFERMLINE ABBEY