Sir Tristrem; A Metrical Romance, Ed. by W. Scott (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: language similar to that of the vanquished, it is probable that no great alteration took place in that particular, the natives of the south-eastern border continuing to use the Anglo-Saxon, qualified by the Pictish dialect, and to bear the name of Angles. Hence, many of our Scottish monarchs' charters are addressed Fidelibus suis Scottis et Anglis, the latter being the inhabitants of Lothian and the Merse. See Macpherson's excellent Notes on Wintoun, Vol. II. p. 474, Diplomata, pp. 6, 8, Independence, Appendix 2d. The Scots, properly and restrictively, meant the northern Caledonians, who spoke Gaelic; but generally used, as in these charters, that name includes the Picts, with whom they were now united, and all inhabitants of Scotland north of the Friths of Clyde and Forth. In Strath- clwyd, and in the ancient Reged, the Britons were gradually blended with the Scoto-Angles of Lothian and Berwickshire, and adopted their language. Here, therefore, was a tract of country including all the south of Scotland, into which the French or Romance language was never forcibly introduced. The oppression of the Norman monarchs, and the chapter{Section 4frequency of civil wars, drove, it is true, many of their nobility into exile in Scotland; and, upon other occasions, the auxiliary aid of these warlike strangers was invoked by our Scottish kings, to aid their restoration, or secure their precarious dominions. Twice within three years, namely in 1094 and 1097, the forces of the Anglo-Normans aided Duncan and Edgar, the sons of Malcolm, to expel from the Scottish throne the usurper Donald Bain. In the War of the Standard, most of David's men at arms are expressly stated to have been Normans, and the royal charters, as well as the names of our peerage and baronage, attest the Norman descent o...