SCOTLAND. For the geography, See GREAT BRITAIN. History.—An account has been given under the article Picts (q.v. of the early inhabitants of the country which has iong been known by the name of Scotland. The original Scotia or Scotland was Ireland, and the Semi or Scots, at their first appearance in authentic hisiory,'were time people of Ireland. The Spots were a Celtic race. and their original seat in northern Britain was in Argyle, which they acquired by colonization or conquest, before the end of the 5th .c. and from whence they spread themselves the western coast front the firth of Clyde to the modern Ross. The name of Scotland seems first to have been given to the united kingdom of the Picts and Scots in the 10th century. It was then sometimes styled, by way of distinction, 6'e/4f:4/Vora (New Scotland). and it was a considerable time afterward :4 he fore the name of Scotland was ;Tidied to it, to the eselusion•of Ireland. This interchange of names was a fruitful source of dispute between Irish and Scottish writers in the 16.im and following centuries, and it can hardly be said that even now the coat rove ray is eniirely at an curl.
The first prince of the British Spots mentioned in our authentic annals was Fergus, son of Ere, who crossed over to Britain abont the year 503. His nation had been converted to Christianity by St. Pair ek. and Ferg,ns himself is said to have received the blessing of the saint in his early years. His great-grandson, Cored, was king of the Brutish Sets when Coluntlia (q v.) began the conversion of the northern Picts; and by dna prince. according to time best aulhorities, Iona was gi Veil for the use of the mission. Comm] was succeeded by his nephew, Aldan. who was inaugurated as sovereign by St. Columba in the island of lona—a ceremony Scottish writers, misled by the great French anliininry Marlene, lone believed to be the first cXamffie of tlie benediction of kings A idan wa: a powerful prince, and more than once sue ce,sfoliv invaded the English border, hut toward the end-of his reign he received a severe defeat from the Northumbrian sovereign Ethelfrid at the battle of Degsestan.
The history of Aidan's successors is obscure end uninteresting, except to the pro fessed students of our early history. Their kingdom was overshadowed by the more powerful monarchy of the Picts, with which, es well as with its neighbors in 11:e s. —the ]tritons of Cumbria—it was engaged in almost unceasing conflict. The Scots were fora time under some sort of subjection to the English of Northumbria, lint recovered their iadependt nee on the defeat and death of king Egfrid in battle with' the Picts at Neclltautiwere in 6S5. In the middle of the 9th e., by a revolution, the exact nature of which has never been ascertained, the Scots acquired a predominance in northern Brit ain. Kenneth, son of Alpin, the lineal descendant of Fergus and Aldan, succeeded his father as king of the Seats in 836. The Pictish kingdom was weakened by civil dissen gion and a disputed clahn to the crown. Kenneth laid claim to it as the true heir in the female line, and was acknowledged king in the year 843.
King Kenneth transferred his residence to Fort cviot in Stratherne, which had 'been the Pictish capital, fixing soon afterward the ecclesiastical metropolis of the United Kin admit at Duel:dd. where he built a church, dedicated to Si. Columba. The Picts and each speaking it dialect of the Celtic tongue, gradually coalesced into one pemile, w hose territory extended from the firths of Forth and Clyde to tlie northern extremit2. of Britain. The crown descended to a line of princes of the family of Kenneth, wle.se rule gave a unity and comparative tranquillity to the Scots of Britain, which those of Irehn:d, at no time really united under one prince, never possessed, and the good effects of which, as contrasted with the state of the sister island, are experienced to the pre ss day. The first interruption to the descent of the crown in the line of Kenneth was the reign of a usurper named round whose name, amplified to Gregory by the writers of a later age, a cloud Of legendary fiction gathered. The old family was restored on his expulsion in 893.