be subjected to the usual style of sneering misrepresentation which is applied to all innovators, until they gain the public to their side, and rise above the reach of detraction. We have also to anticipate the indifference of country-gentlemen, too indolent to conquer the difficulty of getting the fitting and indispensable machinery, or to procure the assistance of experienced workmen. Even in the cases in which the new system may be brought to a trial, it may fall under discredit from the haste of the proprietor, or the no less formidable conceit and prejudices of the workman. The one may be disposed to leave out or hurry over some of the details, which are peculiarly slow and gradual, though producing such an immediate effect when completed; the other, unless closely watched, will assuredly revert to his own ancient practice, in despite of every charge to the contrary. In either case, the failure which may ensue will be imputed to the Allanton system, though it should be rather attributed to departure from its rules.

Notwithstanding all these obstacles, the principle is so good, and the application so successful, that we shall be much surprised if, erelong, some professional person does not make himself master of the process, and proceed to strive for that eminence which he cannot fail to achieve when it is found he possesses the art of changing the face of nature, like the scenes in a theatre, and can convert, almost instantly, a desert to an Eden. Nurserymen and designers will then find it for their interest to have the necessary machinery, and gangs of experienced

workmen, to enable them to contract for raising, transferring, and upholding any particular number of trees, which a country-gentleman of moderate fortune may desire to place in groups, or singly, in his park. The alteration will be thus effected without the proprietor, who wishes but to transplant some score or two of trees, being obliged to incur the full expenses of providing and instructing superintendents, as if he meant to countermarch the whole advance of Birnam wood to Dunsinane. Earlier or later, this beautiful and rational system will be brought into general action, when it will do more to advance the picturesque beauty of the country in five years than the slow methods hitherto adopted can attain in fifty.

Our readers are now enabled to answer with confidence the question of Macbeth :—

"Who can impress the forest? Bid the tree

Unfix his earth-bound root?"

But the subject, though to ourselves of special interest, has already, perhaps, detained some readers too long. Non omnes arbusta juvant.

[152

ARTICLE XVI.

TYTLER'S HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

[This Article, headed," History of Scotland. By PATRICK FRASER TYTLER, Esq., F. R.S. E. and F.A.S. Volumes 1 and 2. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1829," appeared in the Quarterly Review for November, 1829.]

IN our last Number, we made some remarks on the history of the northern part of this island during those ages in which the light dawns slowly as the sunrise on a morning of mist. The present author has adopted for the subject of his work a period somewhat later than that at which we left off, and thus escapes the dim and doubtful discussion over which our heads have ached, and our readers' eyes have perhaps slumbered. Feeling our own optics a little too much dazzled by passing at once from the darkness of Kenneth MacAlpine's period into the comparative full light of Alexander the Third's reign, we shall introduce our readers more gently to the latter era; nor can we do so without expressing our hope that Mr Tytler may

find time, before completing his projected labours, to furnish us with some preliminary matter in the shape of introduction, or otherwise, so as to inform his readers of what royal race Alexander sprung, and over what people he reigned.

On this point it is singular to discover that the Scots, whose fabulous history represented them, down to the end of the eighteenth century, as a nation of the purest blood and most ancient descent in Europe, can, notwithstanding that vaunt, be easily traced as a mixed race, formed out of the collision and subsequent union of several different populations, which remained slightly connected or occasionally dissevered, till the difference in their manners was worn away by time, and they coalesced at length into one people and kingdom.

We have formerly shown that, in the year 496, a body of Irish, then called Scots, had colonized Argyllshire, and made fierce wars on the decaying province of Rome, by the assistance, doubtless, of those called Meatæ, or Middle Britons, who, subjected by the Romans during their power, rose against them when it began to decline. These Scots, moreover, made war upon the Caledonians, more latterly called Northern Picts or Deucaledonians, who had for ages been in possession of the greater part of Angusshire, Perthshire, Fife, and the north-east of Scotland up to the Moray firth. Beyond that estuary it would appear the Scandinavians had colonies upon the fertile shores of Moray, and among the mountains of Sutherland, of which the name speaks for itself that it was

given by the Norwegians; and probably they had also settlements in Caithness and the Orcades. When, therefore, Kenneth finally defeated, dispersed, and destroyed the Picts, he obtained possession of the middle provinces of Scotland from sea to sea, having joined his original dominions on St George's Channel to the eastern shores washed by the German Ocean. Behind him, to the northeast, lay the warlike and poor Scandinavians; but in front of his kingdom, and between that and the present English frontier, lay three states, enjoying a boisterous and unsettled independence, and each peopled by a mixed race.

The first of these was Galloway, then extended considerably beyond the limits of the shires of Wigton and Kirkcudbright, to which the name is now limited. This remote and desolate region erelong acknowledged a vassalage to the crown; but being inhabited by a very brave and barbarous people, continued, substantially, a separate state till about 1234. Secondly, bounded on the east, and partly on the north, by Galloway, lay Strathclwyd, inhabited by British tribes, of the nation generally called Meatæ. These also were compelled to acknowledge the superiority of the throne. They may be generally described as occupying the territory from the castle of Dunbarton to near the village of Melrose; but their limits, like those of all savage nations, were variable and uncertain, as they failed or succeeded in wars with their neighbours. The last mention of the inhabitants of Strathclwyd, as a people having a separate kinglet