ExLtbkis p. KENNEDY, ANGLESEA-STREET, COLLEGE GREEN, DUBLIN. &^.i.n^ CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS O N T H E ORIGIN, ANTIQUITIES, LANGUAGE, GOVERNMENT, MANNERS, AND RELIGION, O F T H E ANTIENT CALEDONIANS, THEIR POSTERITY THE PICTS, AND THE BRITISH AND IRISH SCOTS. By JOHN MACPHERSON, D. D, Minifler of Slate, in the Isle of Sky. DUBLIN: Printed by Boulter Griersov, Printer to the King's mofl: Excellent Majcfty. mdcclxviii. TO THE HONOURABLE Charles Greville, Efq; De a r Sir, MY Father, who was the Author of the following DifTertations, would not, perhaps, have dedicated them to any man alive. He annexed, and with good reafbn, an idea of fervility to addrefles of this fort, and reckoned them the diigrace of literature. If I could not, from my foul, acquit myfelf of every felfifh view, in prefenting to you the poft- humous works of a father I tenderly loved, you would not have heard from me in this public manner. You know, my dear friend, the fincerity of my affection for you : but even that affedlion fhould not induce me to dedicate to you, had you already arrived at that eminence, in the ftate, which the abilities and fhining a 2 talents DEDICATION. talents of your early youth feem lb largely to promife, left what really is the voice of friendfhip and efteem, fhould be miftaken, by the world, for that of flattery and interefted defigns. I am on the eve of letting out for a very diftant quarter of the world : without afking your permit fion, I leave you this public tefti- mony of my regard for you, not to fecure your future favour, but to ftand as a finall proof of that attach- ment, with which I am, Dear Sir Your moft affedlionate Friend, and moft Obedient Humble Servant, John Macpherjfbn. PREFACE. TH E following Diflertations are tjie production of the leifure hours of a clergyman in one of the remoteft of the Scottifh ifles. Excluded, by the pecu- iituation of the place of his refideiice, from the fociety of the learned, he indulged his Angular paflion for litera- ture among a few good books. Though the natural bent of his genius turned towards the belles-lettres, he fometimes amufedhim- felf in difquifitions of a more ferious nature. Being mafter of the Celtic, in all its bran- ches, he took pleafure in tracing other lan- guages to that general fource of all the aq- tient and modern tongues of Europe. From inveftigations of this kind many difcoveries in the ancient hiftory of nations arofe. This naturally led to the examination of the mafs of fi<flion, which almoft every nation of Europe poffeffes for the hiftory of their re- moteft an ceftor s . Th ejngre he looked in to thefe legendaryjabrjcsjof antiquity, the lefs he found them capablc_of^eaiii^^ of criticifm. He therefore relblved to write fome general diflertations on that fubject^ a 3 which. vl PREFACE. which, if they could not eftablifh a new and more rational fyftem, would at leafl: cxpofe the abfurdity of the old. It was not altogether from a partiality to his own country that Dr. Macpherfon gave the firft place to Scotland, in his dif- quifitions. Though the Scots have as juft prctenfions to a high antiquity as any nation in Europe, yet their origin is peculiarly in- volved in darknefs. It was the misfortune of North Britain to have been almoil totally deftitute of letters, at a time when monkifh learning, and thofe religious virtues which arofe from afcetic aufterities, greatly flou* rifhed in Ireland, and among the Saxons in England. This was the cafe in the feventh ^nd eight centuries, the sra in which the Hibernian fyftems of antiquity were form- ed. The fennachies and fileas of Ireland made then a property of the Scots of Bri- tain, and, fecure of not being contradided by an illiterate, and I may fay, an irreligious race of men, affumed to themfelves the dig- nity of being the mother-nation. The par- tiality of Bede for his holy cotcmporaries of Ireland is well known. " The good man be- ' lieved and retailed whatever fidions were didated to him by the religious of a nation for whom he had the greatefl regard for their orthodoxy. The PREFACE. vli The almofl continual wars and anomofi- ties which fubfifted between the Englifh and Scots for many ages naturally gave birth to violent national prejudices on both fides. The learned of England could not diveft themfelves of that antipathy to their North- ern neighbours which had feized their whole nation. Though at variance with the Irifli in every other point, they agreed with them wonderfully well in extenuating the natio- nal antiquities of the Sects. Some of thofe gentlemen had the cruelty to extirpate the brave nation of antient Caledonians, left the detefted Scots of latter times ihould derive any honour from the military reputation of a people who once poflefTed their country. Happily for the prefent times, thofe prejudices which blinded both nations have, in a great meafure, fubfided. National a- verfions are loft in the antiquity of thofe national injuries from which they firft arofe. Whatever may tend to do honour to either nation is heard with candor, if not with pleafure, by both. They are, in ftiort, now fo much blended with one another, that whatever throws luftre upon the one, ought to be reckoned an acquifition of reputation to the other.—If to throv/ a new and ftrong light on the antiquities of a nation, refleds a 4 any tiii PREFACE. any honour upon it, the Scots of the prcfcnt age are much indebted to the induftry and learning of Dr. Macpherfon. He travelled back, it is true, into the regions of anti- quity with more advantages than others have "done, and therefore his fuccefs was propor- tion ably greater. A few additional obfer- Vations 1 am to make upon the general fuh- jtdi of the differtations, arofe, if they have any merit, from the difcoveries he had made 16 my hand. Some timfe before the total derelidiion of Britain by the Romans, in the reign of Ho- nbriu's, we find that the Caledonians were tiiftinguifhed into two capital nations, the Deutaledones and Veduriones. By thefe two branches 1 underftand thofe, who, a fhort time thereafter, were known by the names of Pids and Scots. It was after the departure of the Romans, that the defence- Icfs ftate of the degenerated provincials gave the Pids an opportunity of extending them-^ felves to the Eaftern counties to the South of the frith of Edinburgh. From the joint teftimony of all writers who examined the fubjedi the Pids of the earlieflages poffef- fcd only the Eaft and North-eafl coaft of Scotland. From their fituation, with ref- ped to the Scots of Jar-ghael, their country was PREFACE. ix was naturally called by the latter An Dua- chaeldoch, a word compounded of An Dua, or I'uat North, and, Caeldoch, Caledonian country. Some of the South-weft High- landers of the counties of Perth and Argyle diftinguiflicd to this day thofe of Rofs, Sutherland and Caithnefs, by the name of An Dua-ghaely and their country by the appellation of An Dua-ghaeldoch. This appears fo obviouily the etymon of Deii-ca- ledones^ that nothing but a total ignorance of the Galic language could permit antiqua- ries to have overlooked it. The etymon of VeBuriones is not fo ob- vious. We learn from the moft antient do- meftic records in Scotland, that a ridge of mountains, called Drum Albin, was the ancient boundary of the Scottifh territories towards the Eaft. The author of the X^\{- fertations has clearly demonftrated that Drum Albin is the chain of mountains which runs from Lochlomond, near Dum- barton, to the frith of Taine, in the county of Rofs. This Dorfum Britannia?, as it is called by Adamnan, abbot of lona, runs through the Weftern end of the diftrldts of Athol and Badenoch. Thai part of this ridge of hills which extends betv/cen thefe diftrids, for a length of more than twenty miicr. X PREFACE. miles, is called Drum IJachtur, This cir- cumflance is well known to many, befides the natives of that country, as the military road through the Highlands paffes that way. If we fhould fuppofe that Vachtury which is flill retained as the name of a part of Drum Albin, was once the general appella- tion of the whole, the etymon of Veduri- ones is at once decyphered. Vachtury though now taken perhaps in a more confined fenfe than formerly, literally iignifies the upper country. JJachturich is a word of the fame import with Highlanders ; and if the harfh Celtic termination is foftned into a Roman one, Vedluriones differs only in a changea- ble vowel from JJachturtch, We have reafon to believe, from the un- favourable climate, and flerile nature of the foil, in that part of Scotland which lies to the Well of Drum Albin, that the ancef- tors of the Scots lived long in a very un- cultivated ftate ; as deflitute of great natio- nal events as of letters to tranfmit them to pofterity. Though the Scots of Jar-ghael muft, in the nature of things, have been very barbarous and unpolifhed, as far back as the latter end of the fourth century, yet it is to be hoped they were lefs fo than the Attacotti, their neighbours, or rather a tribe PREFACE. xi tribe of the Scots to the South of the Clyde, *' la my youth," fays the holy St. Jerome, ** I faw in Gaul the Attacotti, a Britlfh people feeding on human bodies.