SCOTLAND. The general description of this part of the kingdom will be found under the head of GREAT BRITAIN. Under the differ ent counties are mentioned the more remarkable historical events of which each has been the theatre, with occasional notices of, or references to, the early settlers. We propose here briefly to recapitn late the leading facts in reference to the settlement of Scotland, and the prominent points in its history till its establishment as a kingdom.
We first hear of the Soots as a people inhabiting Ireland, which island they in the 5th century divided with the Iliberni, the previous inhabitants, over whom however they acquired so decided a superiority as to be enabled to give their name to the country, which was exclusively called Scotia from the 5th to the 10th century. In the beginning of the 6th century a colony of Scots from tho north of Ireland emigrated to North Britain, and effected a settlement in tho district now constitutin; Argyleshire to which they gave the name of Dalriada, It is said, from their leader Riada. Here the Dalriadic Scots—the 'Seed qui Eritanniam incolunt; as they are called by Bede, remained for more than 800 years, during which the rest of the island to the north of the friths of Forth and Clyde formed the kingdom of the Nets, which, while governed by one king, was divided into two populations, the Northern or Highland Picts, and the Low land or Southern Pieta—the Septentriones and Australes Picti of Ilede.
The Pictish king, Angus MacFergus, in 736, effected a conquest of and a line of Pictish princes reigned there till 819, when the Ddrisslic family recovered their ancestral dominions. A victory obtained by Constantine MacFergus, a descendant of Angus, In 789, established the superiority of the southern Picts, and, being followed I by a reign of 30 years, enabled Constantine to introduce the principle of succession by descent, and to make the monarchy hereditary in his family, instead of its being as formerly to some extent elective.
In 843 the whole of North Britain was united under the sceptre of Kenneth MacAlpin, originally king of the Scots of Dalriada, but thenceforth styled king of the Picts. Throughout the 10th century, North Britain, ruled as one kingdom by the successors of Kenneth MacAlpin, was known by the name of Albania, undoubtedly the same with Albion, or Albin, which is the most ancient name attributed to the island, and that by which the Gael of Scotland distinguish it to this dsy. About the middle of this century however, we find the
name Scotland began to be applied to North Britain ; and from the commencement of the 11th century the people are designated the Scoth simply, and not the Scots of Britain, or of Albania, by way of distinction from the main body of the nation, which had been till now considered as settled in Ireland.
Scotland proper at this date comprised only that part of the inland to the north of the Forth and Clyde. But the south of modern Scotland, in whole or in part, was also occasionally comprised under the same name. It may be divided into three districts :-1, Lodonia, comprehending the Lothians and other counties to the south, formed, from the middle of the 5th century, a part of the Anglo-Saxon king dom of Bernicia, and the people appear to have been mainly Angles from that date. The Northumbrian king Egfrid transferred it to tho Pieta, and it was formally surrendered by Edgar to the Scottish king Kenneth IV., in 971. 2, Strathclyde, comprehending, besides Lanark, Renfrew, and the northern half of Ayrshire, at least the town and rock of Dumbarton, then called Alcluyd, which was its capital This was a Cymric or Welsh kingdom, and remained independent of the Scottish crown till the defeat of its last king, Dunwallon, by Kenneth Ill., in 973. 3, Galloway, which comprised the modern counties of Kirkcudbright and Wigton, together with the southern portion of Ayrshire. Its history is very obscure; but it is spoken of as having been a Pictish country so early as the 6th century, and the English historians notice the Pieta of Galloway as appearing iu the Scottish array at the battle of the Standard, fought in 1133. The district of Cumbria, lying within what is now called England, was made over to Malcolm I., king of the Scots, by the Saxon king Edmond L, in 916, and being held as an English fief, constituted an appanage of the Scottish crown from that date down to the year 1072.