Scotland > 1868, 1878 - Slater's (late Pigot & Co.'s) Royal national commercial directory and topography of Scotland > 1861

A CONCISE EPITOME
OF
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OCOTLAND is separated on the south-east by the Solway Frith and the Cheviot Hills from
England, and is bounded on every other side by the sea. It is comprised (exclusive of the islands)
between latitude 54° 35' and 58° 45' north, and between longtitude 1 Q 48' and 6° 7' west of Greenwich.
Its extent from north to south is two hundred and eighty British miles, and its greatest breadth about
one hundred and fifty. The superficial contents are computed to be 31,324 square miles, or 20,047,462
statute acres (152,967 acres are fresh-water lakes) ; of which about 6,000,000 are cultivated, and about
13,500,000 uncultivated. The islands and islets on the coast are, it is supposed, nearly three hundred
in number ; the most remarkable are the Shetland, Orkney, and Western Islands.
Early History. — The most early mention made of this portion of Britain by any historian, it, by
Tacitus, who flourished about one hundred years after Christ. The original population seems to have
consisted of Cimbrians, from the Cimbric Chersonese, the modern Jutland. About two centuries before
the Christian era, the Cimbrians appear to have been driven to the south of Scotland by the Caledonians
or Picts, a Gothic colony from Norway. Tacitus denominates the country Caledonia; the Venerable
Bede, who wrote about the year 700, names the country the Province of the Picts ; and Alfred the
Great, who translated his history into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, about the year 882, called the people
Piohts, and their country Piohtland. From the Picts, then, or Piohts, probably originates the popula-
tion of the Lowlands, the Lowlanders having been, in all ages, a distinct people from those of the western
Highlands. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the name of Scotia, previously applied to Ireland, was
given to modern Scotland, by which title it is designated by Adam of Bremen. About 258 years after
Christ, the Dalraids of Bede, the Attacotti of the Roman writers, passed, or repassed from Ireland into
Argyleshire, and became the progenitors of the Scottish Highlanders, who speak the Irish or Celtic
language, while the Lowlanders have always used the Scandinavian or Gothic. Fergus I, who is
supposed to have reigned about 330 years before Christ, is said to have been the founder of the Scottish
monarchy. From him, till the year 1006, there are reckoned eighty-two kings ; after which, till Britain
became subject to one monarch, the succession was as follows : Malcolm II ; Duncan I ; Macbeath (or
Macbeth); Malcolm III ; Donald VII ; Duncan II ; Edgar; Alexander I ; David I; Malcolm IV ;,
William; Alexander II; Alexander III ; John Baliol; Robert Bruce; Edward Baliol; David IIS
Robert II ; Robert III ; James I ; James II ; James III ; James IV ; James V ; Mary; James VI.
In 1603, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, and con-
stantly resided in England ; he and his successors calling themselves kings of England and Scotland, and
each country having a separate parliament, till, in the year 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, both
kingdoms were united under the general name of Great Britain.
Surface, Climate, &c. — The most remarkable and, perhaps, the most distinctive feature of Scot-
land is her mountains. The principal ones are the Grampian hills, which run from east to west— from
near Aberdeen to Cowal in Argyleshire, almost the whole breadth of the kingdom. Another chain of
mountains, called the Pentland Hills, runs through Lothian, and joins those of Tweedale. A third,
called Lammermuir, rises near the eastern coast, and runs westward through the Merse. Besides the
continued chains, among which may be reckoned the Cheviot or Teviot Hills, on the borders of England,
Scotland contains many detached mountains, some of them of stupendous height. Ben Nevis, in Inver-
ness, the highest mountain in Scotland, is 4,370 feet above the level of the sea; Cairngorn, in Banff, Ben
Lawers, in Perth, Braeriach, in Aberdeen, and some others, are not much inferior in altitude. Tim
general surface of the country is singularly irregular, being, on the whole, hilly or mountainous, more
especially the northern district, which comprehends nearly two-thirds of Scotland, and forms what is
called the Highlands, extending from Dumbarton nearly to the extremity of the island, about two hundred
miles. Nothing can be more awful to a stranger than the appearance of the Highlands, where dusky
mountains rise above each other, and lose their heads in the clouds ; while the tremendous rocks fill the
mind with dismay, heightened in no small degree by the noise of numberless torrents, which pour down
their steep sides. The gloomy vales and glens below — narrow, deep, and dark, add sublimity to thu
scene. The Lowlands, or that part of Scotland not included within the district of the Highlands, may
be said to comprise the portion which lies between the Friths of Tay and Clyde,-and extends southward
<o (he English frontier, and nearly the whole of Forfarshire. In this division the proportion of cultivated
Bind is very considerable, exhibiting, in many parts, verdant plains, watered by copious streams, and
covered with innumerable cattle ; in others, pleasing vicissitudes of gently rising hills and bending vale-,
tertile in corn, waving with wood, and interspersed with flowery meadows. Situated in the midst ut
the ocean, and ia a high northern latitude, Scotland cannot boast of a regular climate. It is various
too, in different places ; the cold, however, is not so intense as it is in similar latitudes on the Continent.
'1 he thermometer does not sink so low during the winter, as it does in the vicinity of London. Moun-
tainous countries are always most subject to rain ; and Great Britain, being a sort of inclined plane,
gradually declining from west to east, it has been thought that, on this account, the western coast is more
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