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Highlands defined
As it is generally acknowledged that the physical character of a country influences in a
great degree the moral and physical character of its inhabitants, and thus to a certain
extent determines their history, it may not be deemed out of place to define here the
application of the term Highlands, so far as Scotland is concerned, and briefly to
describe the general physical aspect of that part of our native land. If it hold good at
all that there subsists a relation between a people and the country which they have
inhabited for centuries, the following history will show that this is peculiarly the case
with the Scottish Highlanders. Most of those who
have thought of the matter at all, have doubtless formed to themselves a general notion of
the northern half of Scotland as a
"Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountains and the flood,"
and of its inhabitants as a brawny, rugged indomitable,
impulsive race, steadfast in their friendship and loyalty, but relentless and fierce in
their enmity. Although the popular and poetic notion of the country is on the whole
correct, and although the above epithets may express the main features of the character of
the people, still it requires a close acquaintance with this interesting race, both
historically and by personal intercourse, to form an adequate notion of their character in
all its aspects.
To speak roughly, nearly the whole of the country north of
a line connecting the heads of the estuaries of the Clyde, Forth, and Tay, may be included
under the designation of the Highlands, and, in fact, popularly is so. Indeed, at the time
at which the northern half of Scotland - the ancient and proper Caledonia - emerges from
its pristine gloom, and for the first time glimmers in the light of history, the line
indicated by the forts of Agricola, and afterwards by the wall of Antonine, marked the
southern boundary of the region which was then, and for centuries afterwards, regarded by
the Romans, and also, probably, by the southern Britons, as occupying the same position in
relation to the rest of the country as the highlands proper did at a subsequent period. In
course of time the events which fall to be recorded in the following pages gradually
altered this easily perceived boundary, so that for centuries before the present day, a
much more intricate but still distinct line has marked the limits of what is now strictly
and correctly regarded as the Highlands of Scotland.
The definition of this territory which best suits the
purposes of history, and in all respects most nearly accords with those of political and
social geography, is one which makes it commensurate with the country or locations of the
ancient Highland clans. This definition assigns to the Highlands all the continental
territory north of the Moray firth, and all the territory, both insular and continental,
westward of an easily traceable line from that firth to the firth of Clyde.
The line commences at the mouth of the river Nairn: thence,
with the exception of a slight north -eastward or outward curve, the central point of
which is on the river Spey, it runs due south-east till it strikes the river Dee at
Tullach, nearly on the third degree of longitude west of Greenwich; it then runs generally
south till it falls upon Westwater, or the southern large head- water of the North Esk;
thence, over a long stretch, it runs almost due south-west, and with scarcely a deviation,
till it falls upon the Clyde at Ardmore in the parish of Cardross; and now onward to the
Atlantic ocean, it moves along the firth of Clyde, keeping near to the continent, and
excluding none of the Clyde islands except the comparatively unimportant Cumbrae. All the
Scottish territory west and north - west of this line is properly the Highlands. Yet both
for the convenience of topographical description, and because, altogether down to the
middle of the 13th. century, and partially down to the middle of the 16th, the Highlands
and the Western Islands were politically and historically distinct regions, the latter are
usually viewed apart from the name of the Hebrides.
The mainland Highlands, or the Highlands after the Hebrides
are deducted, extend in extreme length from Duncansby Head, or John o' Groats on the
north, to the Mull of Kintyre on the south, about 250 miles.; but over a distance of 90
miles at the northern end, they have an average breadth of only about 45 miles, - over a
distance of 50 or 55 miles at the southern end, they consist mainly of the Clyde islands,
and the very narrow peninsula of Kintyre,- and even at their broadest part, from the
eastern base of the Grampians to Ardnamurchan Point on the west, they do not extend to
more than 120 miles. The district comprehends the whole of the counties of Caithness,
Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, Inverness, and Argyle, large parts of Nairn, Perth, Dumbarton,
and Bute, and considerable portions of Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen, Forfar, and Stirling.
Considerable parts of this district, however, such as Caithness-shire, the island of Bute
and some large tracts of moor or valley or flanking plain, do not exhibit the physical
features which are strictly Highland.
A district so extensive can be but faintly pictured in a
general and rapid description. Mountains, chiefly covered with heath or ling, but
occasionally, on the one hand, displaying sides and summits of naked rock, and on the
other, exhibiting a dress of verdure, everywhere rise, at short intervals, in chains,
ridges, groups, and even solitary heights. Their forms are of every variety, from the
precipitous and pinnacled acclivity, to the broad-based and round-backed ascent; but, in
general, are sharp in outline, and wild or savagely grand in feature. Both elongated
ridges, and chains or series of short parallel ridges, have a prevailing direction from
the north-east to the south-west, and send up summits from 1,000 to upwards of 4,000 feet
above the level of the sea.
Glens, valleys, and expanses of lowland stretch in all
directions among the mountain, and abound in voluminous streams, and large elongated lakes
of picturesque appearance, - nearly all the inland lakes extending in stripes either
north-eastward and south-westward, or eastward and westward. Along the whole west coast,
at remarkably brief intervals, arms of the sea, long, narrow and sometimes exceedingly
rugged in outline, run north-eastward or south-eastward into the interior, and assist the
inland fresh water lakes in cleaving it into sections.
The rivers of the region are chiefly impetuous torrents,
careering for a while along mountain-gorges, and afterwards either expanding themselves
into beautiful lakes and flowing athwart delightful meadows, or ploughing long narrow
valleys, green and ornate with grasses, trefoils, daisies, ranunculi, and a profuse
variety of other herbage and flowers. Native woods, principally of pine and birch, and
occasionally clumps and expanses of plantation, climb the acclivities of the gentler
heights, or crowd down upon the valley, and embosom the inland lakes.
On the east side, along the coast to the Moray frith, and
towards the frontier in the counties of Nairn, Elgin and Perth, gentle slopes and broad
belts of lowland, fertile in soil and favourable in position, are carpeted with
agricultural luxuriance, and thickly dotted with human dwellings, and successfully vie
with the south of Scotland in towns and population, and in the pursuit and display of
wealth. But almost everywhere else, except in the fairytale of Loch Fyne, and the southern
shore of Loch Etive, the Highlands are sequestered,- sinless of a town,- a
semi-wilderness, where a square mile is a more convenient unit of measurement than an
acre.
A district characterized by such features as we have named
necessarily exhibits, within very circumscribed limits, varieties of scenery of the most
opposite descriptions; enabling the admirer of nature to pass abruptly from dwelling on
the loveliness of an extensive marine or champaign landscape into the deep solitude of an
ancient forest, or the dark craggy fastnesses of an alpine ravine; or from lingering amid
the quiet grassy meadows of a pastoral strath or valley, watered by its softly-flowing
stream, to the open heathy mountain-side, whence 'alps o'er alps arise', whose summits are
often shrouded with mists and almost perennial snows, and their overhanging precipices
furrowed by foaming cataracts.
Lakes and long arms of the sea, either fringed with woods
or surrounded with rocky barren shores, now studded with islands, and anon extending their
silvery arms into distant receding mountains, are met in every district; while the extreme
steepness, ruggedness, and sterility of many of the mountain-chains impart to them as
imposing and magnificent characters as are to be seen in the much higher and more
accessible elevations of Switzerland. No wonder, then, that this 'land of mountain and of
flood' should have given birth to the song of the bard, and afforded material for the
theme of the sage, in all ages; and that its inhabitants should be tinctured with deep
romantic feelings, at once tender, melancholy, and wild; and that the recollection of
their own picturesque native dwellings should haunt them to their latest hours. Neither,
amid such profusion and diversity of all that is beautiful and sublime in nature, can the
unqualified admiration of strangers, from every part of Europe, of the scenery of the
Highlands fail of being easily accounted for; nor can any hesitate in recommending them to
visit the more remote or unknown solitudes.
Such are the main features of the Highlands of Scotland at
the present day, and, to a considerable extent, the description might have applied to the
country at the time of the Roman invasion . Still, in the graphic words of Stuart,
"To form an idea of the general aspect of Scotland , as it was some eighteen hundred
years ago, we must, in imagination, restore to its now varied surface the almost unbroken
gloom of the primeval forest; her waving mantle of sombre hue, within which the genius
loci may be supposed to have brooded over the seclusion and the poverty of 'ancient
Caledon.' In a bird's-eye view, if such a thought may be indulged, the greatest part of
the country presented, in all probability, the appearance of one continuous wood; a mass
of cheerless verdure resting on hill and dale - the sameness of its dark extent broken
only where some lake or green-clad morass met the view, or where the higher mountains
lifted their summits above the line of vegetation. In some districts, considerable tracks
of open moorland might, doubtless, be seen clad in the indigenous heather of the North;
while, in others, occasional spots of pasture-land would here and there appear;- but, on
the whole, these must have formed a striking contrast to the wide expanse of the
prevailing forest."
As the present work is concerned only with
the Highlands of Scotland, it would of course be out of place to give any minute account
of the transactions of the Romans in the other parts of the island. Suffice it to say that
from the time, B.C. 55, when Julius Caesar first landed on the coast of South Britain,
until A.D. 78, when, under the Emperor Vespasian, Cnęus Julius Agricola, assumed the
command in Great Britain, the greater part of midland and south England had been brought
under the sway of the Romans. This able commander set himself with vigour and earnestness
to confirm the conquests which had been already made, to reduce the rest of the country to
subjection, to conciliate the Britons by mild measures, and to attach them to the Roman
power by introducing among them Roman manners, literature. luxuries, and dress. Agricola was appointed to the command in Britain in the year 78
A.D., but appears not to have entered Scotland till his third campaign in the year 80. He
employed himself in the years 80, 81, and 82, in subduing the country south of the friths
of Forth and Clyde, - the Bodotria and Glotta of Tacitus,- erecting in 81, a series of
forts between these two estuaries. Having accomplished this, Agricola made preparations
for his next campaign, which he was to open beyond the friths in the summer of 83, he in
the meantime having heard that the Caledonions- as Tacitus calls the people north of the
Forth- had formed a confederacy to resist the invader.
These Caledonians appear to have been divided
into a number of tribes or clans, having little or no political connection, and almost
constantly at war amongst themselves. It was only when a foreign foe threatened their
much-prized freedom that a sense of danger forced them to unite for a time under the
command of a military leader. Some writers, on the authority of Ptolemy of Alexandria, but
chiefly on that of the pseudo-Richard of Cirencester , give a list of the various tribes
which, during the Roman period, inhabited North Britain, and define the locality which
each occupied with as much exactness as they might do a modern English county. " There was one thing," says Tacitus, " which gave us an
advantage over these powerful nations, that they never consulted together for an advantage
of the whole. It was rare that even two or three of them united against the common
enemy." Their whole means of subsistence consisted in the milk and flesh of their
flocks and the products of the chase. They lived in a state almost approaching to nudity;
but whether from necessity or choice cannot be satisfactorily determined. Dio represents
the Caledonians as being naked, but Herodian speaks of them as wearing a partial covering.
They appear , at all events, if the stone dug up at Blackness in the year 1868, be taken as
an authority to have gone naked into battle. Their towns, which were few, consisted of
huts covered with turf or skins , and for better security they were erected in the centre
of some wood or morass. "What the Britons call a town," says Cęsar, "is a
tract of woody country, surrounded by a vallum and ditch, for the security of themselves
and cattle against the incursions of an enemy; for, when they have enclosed a very large
circuit with felled trees, they build within it houses for themselves and hovels for their
cattle. Notwithstanding, perhaps owing to the scantiness of their covering, which left
their bodies exposed to the rigour of a cold and variable climate, the Caledonians were a
remarkably hardy race, capable of enduring fatigue, cold, and hunger to an extent which
their descendants of the present day could not encounter without risk of life.
They were decidedly a warlike people, and are said, like
the heroes of more ancient times, to have been addicted to robbery. The weapons of their
warfare consisted of small spears, long broadswords, and hand daggers; and they defended
their bodies in combat by small target or shield,- all much of the same form and
construction as those afterwards used by their posterity in more modern times. It would
appear from the stone above referred to that the shields of the Caledonians were oblong,
with a boss in the centre, and their swords short and pointed,- not long and blunt, as
represented by Tacitus. The use of cavalry appears not to have been so well understood
among the Caledonians as among the more southern tribes; but in battle they often made use
of cars, or chariots, which were drawn by small, swift, and spirited horses; and it is
conjectured that, like those used by the southern Britons, they had iron scythes
projecting from the axle.
It is impossible to say what form of government obtained
among these warlike tribes. When history is silent, historians should either maintain a
cautious reserve or be sparing in their conjectures; but analogy may supply materials for
well-grounded speculations, and it may therefore be asserted, without any great stretch of
the imagination, that, like most of the other uncivilized tribes we read of in history,
the Northern Britons or Caledonians were under the government of a leader or chief to whom
they yielded a certain degree of obedience. Dio, indeed, insinuates that the governments
of these tribes of these tribes were democratic; but he should have been aware that it is
only when bodies often assume, in an advanced state of civilization, a compact and united
form that democracy can prevail; and the state of barbarism in which he says the
inhabitants of North Britain existed at the period in question seems to exclude such a
supposition. We have no certain information from any contemporary, and conjecture is
therefore groundless. Later fable-loving historians and chroniclers, indeed, give lists of
Kings of Scotland- or, rather, of Pictland- extending back for centuries before the
Christian era, but these by general consent are now banished to the realm of myths.
It is probable, as we have already said, that the
Caledonians were divided into a number of independent tribes, and that each tribe was
presided over by a chief, but how he obtained his supremacy it is impossible to say. We
have one instance, at least, of a number of tribes uniting under one leader, viz., at the
battle of Mons Grampius, when the Caledonians were commanded by a chief or leader called
by Tacitus, Galgacus, "inter plures duces virtute et genere pręstans." "
The earliest bond of union may probably be traced to the time when they united under one
common leader to resist or assail the Roman legionaries; and out of the Dux or Toshach
elected for the occasion, like Galgacus, and exercising a paramount though temporary
authority, arose the Ardrigh or supreme king, after some popular or ambitious chieftain
had prolonged his power by successful wars, or procured his election to this prominent
station for life."
Whatever may have been the relation of the members of the
different tribes, and the relation of the tribes to each other, it is certain, from the
general tone of the works of Tacitus and other Roman historians in which those early
inhabitants of the Scottish Highlands are mentioned, that they offered a far more
formidable resistance to the Roman arms than had hitherto been done by any other of the
British tribes.
In personal stature, the natives of Caledonia, like those
of other parts of Britain, appear to have excelled their Roman invaders, and from Tacitus
we learn that those with whom his father-in-law came into contact were distinguished by
ruddy locks and lusty limbs. It is also certain that for the sake of ornament, or for the
purpose of making their appearance more terrible in war, they resorted to the barbarous
practice of tattooing their bodies. Indeed it may be taken as a proof of their never
having to any gret extent come under the power and influence of Rome and Roman customs,
that they retained this practice for long after the other Britons had abandoned it, and on
this account, in all probability, afterwards acquired the name of Picts.
The people whom Agricola encountered in Scotland cannot
have been otherwise than tolerable proficients in the common branches of art; how else can
we suppose them to have been supplied with which they are said to have appeared before
him? Indolent and uninformed as were the bulk of the people, they must have had among them
artificers both in wood and in iron, not unskilled in their respective trades- able to
construct the body of a car - to provide for its axles of great strength - above all, able
to construct the wheels and arm them with those sharp-edged instruments that were destined
to cut down whatever opposed their course.
Agricola, in the summer of 83, after having
obtained information as to the nature of the country and the aspect of its inhabitants
from exploring parties and prisoners, transported his army across the Frith of Forth to
the shores of Fife by means of his fleet, and marched along the coast eastwards, keeping
the fleet in sight. It cannot with certainty be ascertained at what part of the Forth this
transportation of the forces took place, although some bold antiquarians assert it must
have been not far from Queensferry. The fleet, Tacitus tells us, now acting, for the first
time, in concert with the land-forces, proceeded in sight of the army, forming a
magnificent spectacle, and adding terror to the war. It frequently happened that in the
same camp were seen the infantry and cavalry intermixed with the marines, all indulging
their joy, full of their adventures, and magnifying the history of their exploits; the
soldier describing, in the usual style of military ostentation, the forests which he had
passed, the mountains which he climbed, and the barbarians whom he put to the rout; while
the sailor had his storms and tempests, the wonders of the deep, and the spirit with which
he conquered winds and waves.
The offensive operations of the sixth
campaign were commenced by the Caledonian Britons, who, from the higher country, made a
furious attack upon the trans-Forthan fortifications, which so alarmed some of Agricola's
officers, who were afraid of being cut off from a retreat, that they advised their general
to recross the Forth without delay; but Agricola resisted this advice, and made
preparations for the attack which he expected would soon be made upon his army. As
Agricola had received information that the enemy intended to fall upon him from various
quarters, he divided his army into three bodies and continued his march. Some antiquarians
have attempted to trace the route taken by each division, founding their elaborate
theories on the very slender remains of what they suppose to have been Roman
fortifications and encampments. As it would serve no
good purpose to encumber our pages with these antiquarian conjectures, detailed accounts
of which we will be found in Chalmers, Stuart, Roy, and others, we shall only say that,
with considerable plausibility, it is supposed that the Ninth Legion encamped on the north
side of Loch Ore, about two miles south of Loch Leven in Kinross-shire. Another legion, it
is said, encamped near Dunearn Hill, about a mile distant from Burntisland, near which
hill are still to be seen remains of a strength called Agricola's camp. At all events the
divisions do not seem to have been very far apart, as will be seen from the following
episode.
The enemy having watched the proceedings of the Roman army
made the necessary preparations for the attack, and during the night made a furious
assault on the Ninth Legion at Loch Ore. They had acted with such caution that they were
actually at the very camp before Agricola was aware of their movements; but with great
presence of mind he dispatched a body of his lightest troops to turn their flank and
attack the assailants in the rear. After an obstinate engagement, maintained with varied
success in the very gates of the camp, the Britons were at length repulsed by the superior
skill of the Roman veterans. This battle was so far decisive, that Agricola did not find
much difficulty afterwards in subduing the surrounding country, and, having finished his
campaign, he passed the winter of 83 in Fife; being supplied with provisions from his
fleet in the Forth, and keeping up a constant correspondence with his garrisons on the
southern side.
By this victory, according to Tacitus, so complete and
glorious, the Roman army was inspired with confidence to such a degree, that they now
pronounced themselves invincible, and desired to penetrate to the extremity of the island.
The Caledonians now began to perceive the
danger of their situation from the proximity of such a powerful enemy, and a sense of this
danger impelled them to lay aside the feuds and jealousies which had divided and
distracted the tribes, to consult together for their mutual safety and protection, and to
combine their scattered strength into a united and energetic mass. The proud spirit of
independence which had hitherto kept the Caledonian tribes part, now made them coalesce in
support of their liberties, which were threatened with utter annihilation. In this
eventful crisis, they looked around them for a leader or chief under whom they might fight
the battle of freedom, and save their country from the dangers which threatened it. A
chief, named Galgacus, by Tacitus, was pitched upon to act as generalissimo of the
Caledonian army; and, from the praises bestowed upon him by that historian, this warrior
appears to have well merited the distinction thus bestowed. Preparatory to the struggle they were about to engage in, they sent their
wives and children into places of safety, and, in solemn assemblies in which public
sacrifices were offered up, ratified the confederacy into which they had entered against
their common enemy.
Having strengthened his army with some
British auxiliaries from the south, Agricola marched through Fife in the summer of 84,
making for a spot called by Tacitus Mons Grampius; sending at the same time his fleet
round the eastern coast, to support him in his operations, and to distract the attention
of the Caledonians. Various conjectures have been broached as to the exact line of
Agricola's march and the exact position of the Mons Grampius. The most plausible of these
is that of General Roy, who supposes that the march of Agricola was regulated by the
course of the Devon; that he turned to the right from Glendevon through the opening of the
Ochil hills, along the course of the rivulet which runs along Gleneagles; leaving the
braes of Ogilvie on his left, and passing between Blackford and Auchterarder towards the
Grampian hills, which he saw at a distance before him as he debouched from the Ochils. By
an easy march he reached the moor of Ardoch, from which he descried the Caledonian army,
to the number of 30,000 men, encamped on the declivity of the hill which begins to rise
from the north-western border of the moor of Ardoch.
Agricola
took his station at the great camp which adjoins the fort of Ardoch on the northward. If
the Roman camp at Ardoch does mark the spot where the disastrous engagement about to be
noticed took place between these brave and determined Caledonians and the invincible Roman
legions, it is highly probable that Agricola drew out his army on the neighbouring moor,
having a large ditch or trench of considerable length in front, the Caledonian host under
Galgacus being already disposed in battle array on the heights beyond. The Roman army is
supposed to have numbered about 20,000 or 30,000, the auxiliary infantry, in number about
8,000, occupying the centre, the wings consisting of 3,000 horse. The legions were
stationed in the rear, at the head of the entrenchments, as a body of reserve to support
the ranks, if necessary, but otherwise to remain inactive, that a victory, obtained
without the effusion of Roman blood, might be of higher value.
Previous to the commencement of this interesting fight,
according to "the fashion of historical literature at that time," a speech is
put into the mouth of each general by the historian Tacitus. "How much more valuable
would it have been to us had Tacitus deigned to tell us something about the tongue in
which the leader of the barbarians spoke, or even his name, and the name of the place
where he fought, as the natives uttered it ! Yet, for the great interests of its day, the
speech of Galgacus was far removed from a mere feat of idle pedantry. It was a noble
rebuke on the empire and the Roman people, who, false to the high destiny assigned to them
by Virgil, of protecting the oppressed and striking down the oppressors, had become the
common scourge of all mankind. The profligate ambition, the perfidy, the absorbing pride,
the egotism, and the cruelty of the dominant people - how could all be so aptly set forth
as in the words of a barbarian chief, ruling over the free people who were to be the next
victims.
The narrative of the battle we give mainly in the words of
the Roman commander's son-in-law, Tacitus, who no doubt had the story from Agricola's own
mouth. The battle began, and at first was maintained at a distance. The Britons wanted
neither skill nor resolution. With their long swords, and targets of small dimension, they
had the address to elude the missive weapons of the Romans, and at the same time to
discharge a thick volley of their own. To bring the conflict to a speedy decision,
Agricola ordered three Batavian and two Tungrian cohorts to charge the enemy sword in
hand. To this mode of attack those troops had been long accustomed, but to the Britons it
was every way disadvantageous. Their small targets offered no protection, and their
unwieldy swords, not sharpened to a point, could do but little execution in a close
engagement. The Batavians rushed to the attack with impetuous fury; they redoubled their
blows, and with the bosses of their shields bruised the enemy in the face, and, having
overpowered all resistance on the plain, began to force their way up the ascent of the
hill in regular order of battle. Incited by their example, the other cohorts advanced with
a spirit of emulation, and cut their way with terrible slaughter. Eager in pursuit of
victory, they pressed forward with determined fury, leaving behind them numbers wounded,
but not slain, and others not so much as hurt.
The Roman cavalry, in the mean time, was forced to give
ground. The Caledonians, in their armed chariots, rushed at full speed into the thick of
the battle, where the infantry were engaged. Their first impression struck a general
terror, but their career was soon checked by the inequalities of the ground, and the close
embodied ranks of the Romans. Nothing could less resemble an engagement of the cavalry.
Pent up in narrow places, the barbarians crowded upon each other, and were driven or
dragged along by their own horses. A scene of confusion followed. Chariots without a
guide, and horses without a rider, broke from the ranks in wild disorder, and flying every
way, as fear and consternation urged, they overwhelmed their own files, and trampled down
all who came their way.
Meanwhile the Britons, who had hitherto kept their post on
the hills, looking down with contempt on the scanty numbers of the Roman army, began to
quit their station. Descending slowly, they hoped, by wheeling round the field of battle,
to attack the victors in the rear. To counteract their design, Agricola ordered four
squadrons of horse, which he had kept as a body of reserve, to advance the charge. The
Britons poured down with impetuosity, and retired with equal precipitation. At the same
time, the cavalry, by the directions of the general, wheeled round from the wings, and
fell with great slaughter on the rear of the enemy, who now perceived that their own
stratagem was turned against themselves.
The field presented a dreadful spectacle of carnage and
destruction. The Britons fled; the Romans pursued; they wounded, gashed, and mangled the
runaways; they seized their prisoners, and, to be ready for others, butchered them on the
spot. Despair and horror appeared in various shapes; in one part of the field the
Caledonians, sword in hand, fled in crowds from a handful of Romans; in other places,
without a weapon left, they faced every danger, and rushed on certain death. Swords and
bucklers, mangled limbs and dead bodies, covered the plain. The field was red with blood.
The vanquished Britons had their moments of returning courage, and gave proofs of virtue
and of brave despair. They fled to the woods, and rallying their scattered numbers,
surrounded such of the Romans as pursued with too much eagerness.
Night coming on, the Romans, weary of slaughter, desisted
from the pursuit. Ten thousand of the Caledonians fell in this engagement: on the part of
the Romans, the number of slain did not exceed three hundred and forty.
The Roman army, elate with success, and enriched with
plunder, passed the night in exultation. The Britons, on the other hand, wandered about,
uncertain which way to turn, helpless and disconsolate. The mingled cries of men and women
filled the air with lamentations. Some assisted to carry off the wounded; others called
for the assistance of such as escaped unhurt; numbers abandoned their habitations, or, in
their frenzy, set them on fire. They fled to obscure retreats, and, in the moment of
choice, deserted them; they held consultations, and, having inflamed their hopes, changed
their minds in despair; they beheld the pledges of tender affection, and burst into tears;
they viewed them again, and grew fierce with resentment. It is a fact well authenticated,
that some laid violent hands upon their wives and children, determined with savage
compassion to end their misery.
After obtaining hostages from the Horestians, who in all
probability inhabited what is now the county of Fife, Agricola garrisoned the stations on
the isthmus and elsewhere, recrossed the Forth, and took up his winter quarters in the
north of England, about theTyne and Solway. In the meantime he gave orders to the fleet,
then lying probably in the Frith of Forth or Tay, to proceed on a voyage of discovery to
the northward. The enterprise appears to have been successfully accomplished by the Roman
navy, which proceeded coastwise as far as the Orkneys, whence it sailed by the Western
Islands and the British Channel ad Portum Trutulensem, Richborough in Kent, returning to
the point from which it started. This is the first voyage on record that determined
Britain to be an island.
The Emperor Domitian now resolved to supersede Agricola in
his command in North Britain; and he was accordingly recalled in the year 85, under the
pretence of promoting him to the government of Syria, but in reality out of envy on
account of the glory which he had obtained by the success of his arms. He died on the 23rd
of August, 93, some say, from poison, while others attribute his death to the effects of
chagrin at the unfeeling treatment of Domitian. His countrymen lamented his death, and
Tacitus, his son-in-law, preserved the memory of his actions and his worth in the history
of his life.
During the remainder of Domitian's reign, and
that of Hadrian his successor, North Britain appears to have enjoyed
tranquillity; an
inference which may be fairly drawn from the silence of the Roman historians. Yet as
Hadrian in the year 121 built a wall between the Solway and the Tyne, some writers have
supposed that the Romans had been driven by the Caledonians out of North Britain, in the
reign of that Emperor. But if such was the case, how did Lollius Urbicus, the Roman
general, about nineteen years after Hadrian's wall was erected, penetrate without
opposition to Agricola's forts between the Clyde and the Forth? May we not rather suppose
that the wall of Hadrian was built for the purpose of preventing incursions into the south
by the tribes which inhabited the country between that wall and the Friths? But, be this
as it may, little is known of the history of North Britain from the time of Agricola's
recall till the year 138, when Antonius Pius assumed the imperial purple. That good and
sagacious emperor was distinguished by the care which he took in selecting the fittest
officers for the government of the Roman provinces; and his choice, for that of Britain,
fell on Lollius Urbicus.
The positive information concerning the
transactions of this general in North Britain is as meagre as could possibly be, the only
clearly ascertained fact in connection with his commnd being that he built a wall between
the Forth and Clyde, very nearly on a line with the forts established by Agricola.
"The meagreness of all ancient record," says Burton, "of the achievements
of Lollius Urbicus is worthy of emphatic mention and recollection, because his name has
got into the ordinary abridged histories which speak of it, and of 'his campaign in the
north', as well-known events, of which people naturally expect fuller information
elsewhere. The usual sources for reference regarding him will however be found utterly
dumb." The story commonly given is that he
proceeded north as far as the Moray Frith, throwing the extensive country between Forth
and Clyde and the Moray Frith into the form of a regular Roman province, which, on the
worthless authority of the pseudo-Richard, was named Vespasiana. All this may have been
the case, and the remains of Roman stations found throughout the wide tract just mentioned
give some plausibility to the conjecture; but there is only the most slender grounds for
connecting them with any northern expedition of Lollius Urbicus. At all events we may very
safely conclude, from the general tone of the records which remain of his and of
subsequent expeditions, as well as from the fact that they found it necessary to divide
the Lowlands from the Highlands by a fortified wall, that the Romans considered the
Caledonians of their time very troublesome, and found it exceedingly difficult if not
impossible to bring them under their otherwise universal yoke.
It may not be out of place to give here some
account of the wall of Antonine. The wall or rampart extended from Carriden on the Forth,
two miles west from Blackness, and about the same distance east from Bo'ness, to West
Kilpatrick on the Clyde. The date, which may be depended on, assigned to the building of
the wall is between 138 and 140 A.D. Taking the length of this wall from Kilpatrick on the
Clyde to Caeridden or Carriden on the Forth, its extent would be 39,726 Roman paces, which
exactly agrees with the modern measurement of 36 English miles and 620 yards. This
rampart, which was of earth, and rested on a stone foundation, was upwards of twenty feet
high and four and twenty feet thick. Along the whole extent of the wall there was a vast
ditch or prœtentura on the outward or north side, which was generally twenty feet
deep and forty feet wide, and which, there is reason to believe, might be filled with
water when occasion required. This ditch and rampart
were strengthened at both ends, and throughout its whole extent, by about twenty forts,
three being at each extremity, and the remainder placed between at the distance of about
two English miles from one another; and it is highly probable that these stations were
designedly placed on the previous fortifications of Agricola. The following, going from
east to west, are the names and sites of some of the stations which have been identified:-
Rough Castle, Castlecary, Westerwood, Bunhill, Auchindinny, Kirkintilloch, Bemulie, East
Kilpatrick, Castlehill, Duntocher, West Kilpatrick. It will be seen that to a certain
extent they are on the line of Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, and throughout nearly its
whole length that of the Forth and Clyde canal. Its necessary appendage, a military road,
ran behind the rampart from end to end, for the use of the troops and for keeping up the
usual communications between the station or forts.
From inscriptions on some of the foundation stones, which
have been dug up, it appears that the Sixth legion, with detachments from the sixth and
twentieth legions and some auxiliaries, executed these vast military works, equally
creditable to their skill and perseverance. Dunglas near the western extremity, and
Blackness near the eastern extremity of the rampart, afforded the Romans commodious
harbours for their shipping, as also did Crammond, about five miles west from Edinburgh.
This wall is called in the popular language of the country Grime's or Graham's Dyke. In
1868 a large oblong slab, in first-rate preservation, was dug up at Bo'ness, in the parish
of Kinneil (Bede's Peanfahel, "the head of the wall"), containing an inscription
as distinct as it was on the day when it came from a Roman chisel. The remarkable stone is
now in the Scottish Antiquarian Museum.
We have no distinct mention of the Caledonians again until
the reign of Commodus, when, about the year 183, these troublesome barbarians appear to
have broken through the northern wall, slain the general in command of the Roman forces,
and pillaged the lowland country beyond. They were, however, driven back by Ulpius
Marcellus, who succeeded by prudent management in maintaining peace for a number of years.
In the beginning of the reign of Severus, however, the Caledonians again broke out, but
were kept in check by Virius Lupus, who appears to have bribed rather than beaten the
barbarians into conformity. (See also The Antonine Wall in Scotland)
The irrepressible Highlanders again broke out
about the year 207, and this time the Emperor Severus himself, notwithstanding his bad
health and old age, came from Rome to Britain, determined apparently to "stamp
out" the rebellion. On hearing of his arrival the tribes sent deputies to him to
negotiate for peace, but the emperor, who was of a warlike disposition, and fond of
military glory, declined to entertain any proposals.
After
making the necessary preparations, Severus began his march to the north in the year 208.
He traversed the whole of North Britain, from the wall of Antonius to the very extremity
of the island, with an immense army. The Caledonians avoided coming to a general
engagement with him, but kept up an incessant and harassing warfare on all sides. He,
however, brought them to sue for peace; but the honours of this campaign were dearly
earned, for fifty thousand of the Romans fell a prey to the Caledonians, to fatigue, and
to the severity of the climate. The Caledonians soon disregarded the treaty which they had
entered into with Severus, which conduct so irritated him that he gave orders to renew the
war, and to spare neither age nor sex; but his son Carcalla, to whom the execution of
these orders was intrusted, was more intent in plotting against his father and brother
than in executing the revengeful mandate of the dying emperor, whose demise took place at
York in the 4th February, 211, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and in the third year
of his administration in Britain.
It is in connection with this invasion that we first hear
of the Meats or Męatę, who are mentioned by Dion Cassius, or rather his epitomiser
Xiphiline, and who are supposed by some to have inhabited the country between the two
walls, while others think it more likely that they were a part of the Caledonians, and
inhabited the district between the Grampians and the wall of Antonine. We shall not,
however, enter into this question here, but endeavour, as briefly as possible, to record
all that is known of the remaining transactions of the Romans in the north of Scotland,
reserving other matters for the next chapter.
It was not consistent with the policy by
which Carcalla was actuated, to continue a war with the Caledonians; for the scene of his
ambition lay in Rome, to which he made hasty preparations to depart on the death of his
father. He therefore entered into a treaty with the Caledonians by which he gave up the
territories surrendered by them to his father, and abandoned the forts erected by them in
their fastnesses. The whole country north of the wall of Antonine appears in fact to have
been given up to the undisputed possession of the Caledonians, and we hear of no more
incursions by them till the reign of the emperor Constantius Chlorus, who came to Britain
in the year 306, to repel the Caledonians and other Picts. Their incursions were repelled
by the Roman legions under Constantius, and they remained quiet till about the year 345,
when they again entered the territories of the provincial Britons; but they were
compelled, it is said again to retreat by Constans, son of Constantine the Great.
Although these successive inroads had been always repelled by the
superior power and discipline of the Romans, the Caledonians of the fourth century no
longer regarded them in the formidable light in which they had been viewed by their
ancestors, and their genius for war improving every time they came in hostile contact with
their enemies, they meditated the design of expelling the intruders altogether form the
soil of North Britain.
The wars which the Romans had to sustain against the
Persians in the East, and against the Germans on the frontiers of Gaul, favoured the plan
of the Caledonians; and having formed a treaty with the Scots, whose name is mentioned for
the first time in history in this connection by Ammianus Marcellinus, they, in conjunction
with their new allies, about the year 360 invaded the Roman territories and committed many
depredations. Julian, who commanded the Roman army on the Rhine, despatched Lupicinus, an
able military commander, to defend the province against the Scots and the Picts, but he
was recalled before he had done much to repel them.
The Picts - who on this
occasion are mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus as being divided into two nations, the
Dicaledones and Vecturiones - Scots, being joined by the Attacots, "a warlike race of
men," and the Saxons, numbers of whom appear at this early period to have settled in
Britain, made another attack on the Roman provinces in the year 364, on the accession of
Valentinian. These appear to have made their way as far south as London, and it required
all the valour and skill of Theodosius the Elder, father of the emperor of that name, who
was sent to Britain in the year 367, to repel this aggression, and to repair the great
ravages committed by the barbarians. The next outbreak occurred about the year 398, when
the Picts and Scots again broke loose and ravaged the provinces, being repelled by a
legion sent over by the great Stilicho, in answer to the petition of the helpless
provincials for assistance.
In the beginning of the fifth century the
enervated Romanized Britons again appear to have been subjected to the tender mercies of
their wicked northern neighbours; and in reply to their cry for help,
Honorius, in 416,
sent over to their relief a single legion, which drove back the intruders. The Romans, as
is well known, engrossed by overwhelming troubles nearer home, finally abandoned Britain
about the year 466, advising the inhabitants, who were suffering from the ravages of the
Picts and Scots, to protect themselves by retiring behind and keeping in repair the wall
of Severus.
Such is a brief account of the transactions
of the Romans in Britain so far as these were connected with the Highlands of Scotland.
That energetic and insatiable people doubtless left their mark on the country and its
inhabitants south of the Forth and Clyde, as the many Roman remains which exist there at
the present day testify. The British provincials, indeed, appear in the end to have been
utterly enervated, and, in the worst sense, Romanized, so that they became an easy prey to
their Saxon helpers. It is quite evident, however, that the inhabitants of Caledonia
proper, the district beyond the wall of Antonine, were to a very slight extent, if at all,
influenced by the Roman invasion. Whether it was from the nature of the people, or from
the nature of the country which they inhabited, or from both combined, they appear to have
been equally impervious to Roman forces and Roman culture. The best services that their
enemies rendered to the Caledonians or Picts were that they forced them to unite against
the common foe thus contributing towards the foundation of a future kingdom; and that they
gave them a training in arms such as the Caledonians could never have obtained, had they
not been brought into collision with the best-trained soldiers of the world in their time.
We have in what precedes mainly followed only one
thread in the very intricate web formed by the early history of the Highlands, which, to a
certain extent at this period, is the history of Scotland; but, as will have been seen,
there are various other threads which join in from time to time, and which, after giving a
short account of the traces of the Roman invasion still existing in the Highlands, we
shall endeavour to catch up and follow out as far as possible. It is not necessary in a
history of the Highlands of Scotland, as we have defined that term, that much space should
be given to an account of Roman remains; for, as we have already said, these Italian
invaders appear never to have obtained anything like a firm footing in that rugged
district, or made any definite or characteristic impression on its inhabitants.
"The vestiges whence it is inferred that
the Empire for a time had so far established itself in Scotland as to bring the natives
over to the habits of peaceful citizens, being almost exclusively to the country south of
Antonine's wall, between the Forth and Clyde. Coins and weapons have been found farther
north, but scarcely any vestige of regular settlement. None of the pieces of Roman
sculpture found in Scotland belong in the districts north of the wall. It is almost more
significant still, that of the very considerable number of Scottish Roman inscriptions in
the various collections, only one was found north of the wall, and that in the
strongly-fortified station of Ardoch, where it commemorated that it was dedicated to the
memory of a certain Ammonius Damionis. On the other hand, it is in that unsubdued district
that the memorials of Roman conquest chiefly abound".
The whole of Britain was intersected by Roman ways, and as, wherever a Roman
army went, it was preceded by pioneers who cleared and made a durable road to facilitate
its march, there can be no doubt that the north of Scotland was to a considerable extent
intersected by highways during the invasion of Agricola, Lollius Urbicus, and Severus. One
road at least can be traced as far north as Aberdeenshire, and is popularly known in some
districts as the Lang Causeway. This road appears to have issued from the wall of
Antonine, passed through Camelon, the Roman port on the Carron, and pushing
straightforward, according to the Roman custom, across the Carron, it pursued its course
in a general north-east direction through Stirling, Perth, by Ardoch, through Forfar and
Kincardine, to about Stonehaven.
It would appear that there are traces of Roman roads even
farther north. Between the rivers Don and Urie in Aberdeenshire, on the eastern side of
Bennachee, there exists an ancient road known in the country by the name of the Maiden
Causeway, a name by which some of the Roman roads in the north of England are
distinguished. This proceeds from Bennachee whereon there is said to have been a
hill-fort, more than the distance of a mile into the woods of Pitodrie, when it
disappears: it is paved with stones, and is about fourteen feet wide. Still farther north,
from Forres to the ford of Cromdale on the Spey, there has been long known a road of very
ancient construction, pointing to Cromdale, where the Romans may have forded the Spey.
Various traces of very ancient roads are still to be seen by Corgarf and through Braemar:
the tradition of the people in Strathdee and Braemar, supports the idea that there are
remains of Roman roads which traverse the country between the Don and the Dee. Certain it
is, that there are obvious traces of ancient roads which cross the wild districts between
Strathdon and Strathdee, though it is impossible to ascertain when or by whom these
ancient roads were constructed, in such directions, throughout such a country.
Along these roads there were without doubt many camps and
stations, as it is well known that the Romans never halted even for a single night,
without entrenching themselves behind secure fortifications. There are many remains of
what are supposed to have been Roman camps still pointed out in various places north of
the line occupied by Antonine's wall. These are well known even to the peasantry, and are
generally treated with respect. The line of these camps reaches as far as the counties of
Aberdeen and Inverness, the most important being found in Strathallan, Strathearn and
Strathmore. Besides the most important of these camps, that at Ardoch, traces of many
others have been found. There was one on the River Earn, about six miles east of Ardoch,
which would command the middle part of Strathearn lying between the Ochil hills on the
south and the river Almond on the north. Another important station is supposed to have
been established near Callander, where, on the tongue of land formed by the junction of
the rivers Strathgartney and Strathyre, the two sources of the Teith, are seen the
embankments referred to by Scott as................
"The mouldering lines
Where Rome, the empress of the world,
Of yore her eagle wings unfurled."
Another camp is placed at Dalgenross, near the confluence
of the Ruchel and the Earn, which, with Bochastle, would command the western district of
Strathearn. Another important station was the East Findoch, at the south side of the
Almond; it guarded the only practicable passage through the mountains northward, to an
extent of thirty miles from east to west. The Roman camp here was placed on a high ground,
defended by water on two sides and by a morass with a steep bank on the other two sides.
It was about one hundred and eighty paces long, and eighty broad, and was surrounded by a
strong earthen wall nearly twelve feet thick, part of which still remains. The trenches
are still entire, and in some places six feet deep.
On the eastern side of Strathearn, and between it and the
Forth, are the remains of Roman posts; and at Ardargie a Roman camp was established with
the design, it is supposed, of guarding the passage through the Ochil hills, by the valley
of May water. Another camp at Gleneagles secured the passage of the same hills through
Glendevon. With the design of guarding the narrow, but useful passage from the middle
Highlands, westward through Glenlyon to Argyle, the Romans fixed a post at Fortingal,
about sixteen miles north-west from the station at East-Findoch.
A different line of posts became necessary to secure Angus
and the Mearns. At Coupar Angus, on the east side of the Isla, about seven miles east from
Inchtuthel, stood a Roman camp, of a square form, of twenty acres within the ramparts.
This camp commanded the passage down Strathmore, between the Sidlaw hills on the
south-east, and the Isla on the north-west. On Campmoor, little more than a mile south
from Coupar Angus, appear the remains of another Roman fort. The great camp of Battledyke
stood about eighteen miles north-east from Coupar Angus, being obviously placed there to
guard the passage from the Highlands through Glen Esk and Glen Prosen. About eleven and
a-half miles north-east of the camp at Battledykes was another Roman camp, the remains of
which may still be traced near the mansion-house of Keithock. This camp is known by the
name of Wardikes. The country below the Sidlaw hills, on the north side of the estuary of
the Tay, was guarded by a Roman camp near Invergowrie, which had a communication on the
north-east with the camp at Harefaulds. This camp, which was about two hundred yards
square, and fortified with a high rampart and a spacious ditch, stood about two miles west
from Dundee.
Traces of a number of others have been found,
but we need not go farther into detail. This account of the Roman transactions in Scotland
would, however, be incomplete without a more particular notice of the well-known camp at
Ardoch. Ardoch village, in Perthshire, lies on the
east side of Knaigwater, ten miles north from Stirling, and is about two miles from the
Greenloaning station of the Caledonian railway, the site of the camp being a little
distance to the north-west of the village. As this station guarded the principal inlet
into the interior of Caledonia, the Romans were particularly anxious to fortify so
advantageous a position. "The situation of it," says the writer of the Old
Statistical Account of Muthill, "gave it many advantages; being on the north -west
side of a deep moss that runs a long way eastward.
On the west side, it is partly defended by the steep bank
of the water of Knaik; which bank rises perpendicularly between forty and fifty feet. The
north and east sides were most exposed; and there we find very particular care was taken
to secure them. The ground on the east is pretty regular, and descends by a gentle slope
from the lines of fortification, which, on that side, consists of five rows of ditches,
perfectly entire, and running parallel to one another. These altogether are about
fifty-five yards in breadth. On the north side, there is an equal number of lines and
ditches, but twenty yards broader than the former. On the west, besides the steep
precipices above mentioned, it was defended by at least two ditches. One is still visible;
the others have probably been filled up, in making the great military road from Stirling
to the north. The side of the camp, lying to the southward, exhibits to the antiquary a
less pleasing prospect. Here the peasant's rugged hand has laid in ruins a great part of
the lines; so that it may be with propriety said, in the words of a Latin poet, 'Jam seges
est, ubi Troja fuit.' The area of the camp is an oblong of 140 yards, by 125 within the
lines. The general's quarter rises above the level of the camp, but is not in the centre.
It is a regular square, each side being exactly twenty yards. At present it exhibits
evident marks of having been enclosed with a stone wall, and contains the foundations of a
house, ten yards by seven." There are two other encampments adjoining, having a
communication with one another, and containing about 130 acres of ground. A subterranean
passage is said to have extended from the prĘtorium under the bed of the Knaik.
Not far north of this station, on the way to Crieff, may be
traced three temporary Roman camps of different sizes. Portions of the ramparts of these
camps still exist. A mile west of Ardoch, an immense cairn lately existed, 182 feet long,
45 broad at the base, and 30 feet in sloping height. A human skeleton, 7 feet long, in a
stone coffin, was found in it. |
