Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

LECTURE III. 93
Scotsmen. In one of these Scottish MSS. we
have a transcript of a very curious and inter-
esting MS., known in Ireland as " The Syn-
chronisms of Flann of Bute/' forming part of
what is called " The Book of Ballimote." In
this MS. w^e have lists of the kings of Ireland
and Scotland within contemporaneous periods :
and the age of it may be conceived, when we
find that the list of Scottish kings closes with
Malcolm M' Kenneth, the third king in order
before Macbeth. The names of the kings, as
given in this document, correspond very nearly
w^ith those given by Buchanan ; and we are led
to the conclusion, that the early history of Scot-
land, as given by that writer, is not altogether
fictitious, or that at least he had some docu-
mentary evidence for the facts which he stated.
It is quite possible, with regard to the history
of the past, to be over-sceptical as well as over-
credulous. Men have laughed very heartily, or
sneered, with marvellous pretensions to superior
intelligence, at historical details which the
research of more industrious inquirers than they
has shown to be in accordance with truth.
Flann of Bute, or, as the Irish call him, Flann
Mainistreach, the author of the " Synchron-
isms," flourished about the year 1050. The MS.
in which his lists are contained, contains also