most important town in South-west Scotland. It is a great agricultural centre and a trading port.

8. The above-named seven towns have populations of between twelve and twenty thousand. There are seven other towns with populations of between six and twelve thousand: these are Forfar, with manufactures similar to those of Dundee; Falkirk, surrounded by ironworks and noted for its cattle market; Hawick and Galashiels, having woollen manufactures, the latter being specially noted for tartans, tweeds, and shawls; Wick and Peterhead, both fishing towns; and Port Glasgow, formerly the port for Glasgow, but declining in importance, owing to the river being made navigable as far as the latter city. It has, however, a large iron ship-building yard.

9. There are some towns with populations of less than six thousand which are interesting from their historic associations. St. Andrew's is an ancient city, with the oldest university in Scotland. Its magnificent cathedral was pulled down by a mob, incited by the preaching of John Knox in the parish church. At Kelso, at Melrose in Tweed-dale, and at Jedburgh in the vale of the Jed, there are ruins of old abbeys.

LESSON XI.

HISTORICAL.-LANDMARKS OF THE EARLY INHABITANTS.

1. Before the invasion of the Romans the whole of the British Isles were inhabited by Celtic tribes. Those tribes living in South Britain as far north as Perthshire were called Cymry; those living in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, were Gaels. The Cymry and Gaels spoke different but similar languages; whilst the Gaels of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, and the Isle of Man, used different dialects of the same language. In the more remote districts these languages are spoken to the present day-the Cymric in Wales, Erse in Ireland,

Manx in the Isle of Man, and Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland. Under the influence of education and the greater advantages for intercourse, however, they are gradually disappearing.

2. We know but little of the history of England in very early times; and we know still less of that of Scotland. The Romans invaded the country more than once, and probably established colonies in some parts, for their footprints remain in the shape of crumbling bridges, forts, baths, and old walls.

3. The native tribes were called by their more southern neighbours, the Britons, Cooill daoin, which meant "the people of the woods." The name was changed by the Romans to Caledonia. The Caledonians, living in the wild mountains and gloomy forests of the North, were a fierce and warlike people, and were never subdued by the Romans in the same way that the Britons were. So fierce were the attacks of these hardy northern Iclans that the Romans built walls and chains of forts across the narrower parts of the country for their own protection. The remains of these walls-from the Forth to the Clyde, and from the Tyne to Solway Firth-can still be traced.

4. The Caledonians were afterwards called Picts, and their country Pictland. It is probable that the Cymry, living south of the Grampians, and the Picts, were the same people. Long before the Romans had left Southern Britain a tribe called the Scoti had crossed from the north of Ireland into Argyll, and had gradually extended their dominion over the nearly-related tribes who occupied the Highlands.

5. On the departure of the Roman soldiers we read that the Picts and Scots made incursions over the Border and ravaged and laid waste the country. It was to repel these northern invaders that the Britons, it is said, called in the aid of the Saxon pirates. The Picts and Scots were defeated and driven back, and the Saxons and other kindred tribes became masters of the whole of South Britain-except Wales and Cornwall-as far north as the river Forth. Down to the eleventh century the

country between the Tyne and the Forth was a portion of England.

6. When the Danes and Northmen were making raids on England some of the chiefs turned their attention to Scotland and its islands. They took possession of the Orkneys and Shetlands, most of the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man, and also established themselves at many points on the west and north coasts.

7. In the ninth century the Picts and Scots became blended into one nation; and, a century later, their country was called Scotland. Malcolm Canmore was crowned King of Scotland in 1056.

8. Thus, the people of Scotland are descended from two Celtic tribes-the Cymry and the Gaels-the AngloSaxons, and the Northmen or Norsemen from Norway. "The mountains and the valleys, the rivers and the lakes, continue to murmur the voices of these different races, whose language still adheres to the soil."

9. Of course the names derived from the languages of all the different tribes are to a certain extent spread over the whole country; but the preponderance of certain names testifies to the settlement of different races in

different parts. The Gaelic names are most common in the Highlands; the Anglo-Saxon south of the Forth. Ben signifies a mountain, and this word is prefixed to the names of scores of mountains in the Highlands. Thus :-Ben-more (great mountain); Ben-cruachan (the stack-shaped mountain); Ben-cleugh (stony mountain); Ben-dearg (red mountain). In South Scotland ben is replaced by pen, the Cymric form, as :-Pentland Hills, Pen Craig in Haddington, Penwally in Ayrshire, and numerous others. Loch means a lake, and most of the openings on the western coast are called lochs as well as the mountain lakes. On the east and south-west coasts many of the openings are called firths, or forths, a corruption of the Norwegian fjord, or fiord, a name which tells of invasions from across the North Sea. Gleann (Gaelic), and glen (Anglo-Saxon) mean a small valley, and strath, an extensive valley; and these prefixes are extremely common in the North of Scotland. In the

southern counties the valleys are called dales, as Tweed-dale, Teviot-dale, Clyde-dale, and many more, showing that this district was peopled by the AngloSaxon race. Uisge, or esk, signifies water, and we have one river Esk in Dumfries, two in Forfar, and two in the county of Edinburgh. Blair means a plain, originally a battle-field; as Blair-Athol, Blair-Gowrie, Blair-more, and so on. Ard, or aird, signifies a height, hence the airds in Inverness-shire; Aird Point, in Skye; and Ardnamurchan Point. Carn, or cairn, means a rocky mount, or a conical heap of stones, as Carntoul (the hill of the barn); Cairngorm (the blue mountain); Carnie (little carn). Cenn, ken, or kin, signifies a head or point, as Cantyre, or Kintyre, Kinnaird's Head, Kenmore, Kinloch, Kinross, and many others. Dun means a fort ; hence Dumbarton, Dundee, Dumfries, Dunbar, and Dunblane. Llevn means smooth; hence Loch Leven, and two rivers of the same name. Burgh, or borough, is the Anglo-Saxon for a fortified place, and so in the south-eastern counties we have Edinburgh, Musselburgh, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh. Mor is the Gaelic word for great; thus we have Glenmore (the great glen), Strathmore (the great valley), and Kenmore (the great headland).

10. The names of most of the islands, and many of the lochs on the west coast, as well as nearly all the names in the Orkneys and Shetlands, tell of the invasions of the fierce Northmen. Why should a county in the extreme North be called Sutherland or Southland? Simply because the Norsemen had settled in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and Sutherland to them was the mainland to the south. Brora, Thurso, Wick, and many other names in the fertile straths and glens of the North are Norse names. The suffix a in the Norse language means an island; hence we have Sanda (sand island), Stronsa (stream island), Westra (west island), Ronaldsa (the island of a Norwegian chief). Voe means a bay; hence Westvoe, Saxvoe, and others. The Norsemen called the Hebrides Sudreyjar, the southern islands. In the eleventh century the two sees of Sudreyjar and the