Ossian Collection > Romance of the Highlands

lo THE ROMANCE OF THE HIGHLANDS.
expedition they lost 50,000 men. The Highlanders would
hang on the skirts of the Roman army and cut off all
stragglers. It is easier for a disciplined army to fight
a fixed battle than to submit to guerilla warfare, and there
were many vantage points among the mountains where
"A hundred men could hold the post
With hardihood against a host."
If the Romans could have subdued the north, they
would never have undertaken the stupendous task of
building barriers across the country to keep their northern
foes in check. First Agricola laid a line of forts between
the Forth and Clyde, and this was followed forty years
later by Emperor Hadrian, who built a wall between
the Tyne and the Solway. Again, the Antoninus wall,
twelve feet high, and well protected, was built on
the line of Agricola's forts. The walls were only a
temporary check. Soon the Highlanders overcame the
difficulty by sailing southwards in their frail boats and
landing at unguarded spots. This went on until about
A.D. 426, when the Romans, pressed by enemies at home,
withdrew their forces from Britain.
To sum up, we can safely afffrm that the Romans
could say veni, vidi, but not vici to the Highlanders.
From that day, and before it, to now, these hardy
mountaineers, the Scottish Highlanders, have never
been actually defeated. Their land has been overrun,
they have been subjected to privations, but they never
have been subdued.
As long as the seat of Government was in the West,
the King was looked upon by the Highlanders as the
supreme head, and he was loyally served by them. With
the removal of the Court they felt themselves neglected
and without a ruler. lona, the greatest seat of learning
in the country, was left unguarded and open to attack by