Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/115

PEEFACE. cvii and occupied by the Scots, and were separated from them by Drumalban. This part of their kingdom was termed Gruithentuaith or Fictama. South of the Firths, they formed the population of the two districts of the " Campus. Manann"^ and of Galloway. This statement appears at first sight to be inconsistent with the language of Bede, which certainly implies that he knew of no Picts south of the Firth of Forth ; but what he states so emphati- cally is, that the Firth of Forth divided the Regnum Anglorum from the Regnum Pictorum. This ex- cludes the idea that the kingdom of the Picts extended south of the Firth, or that there was any independent kingdom of the Picts south of that estuary ; but it does not exclude the possibility of districts embraced within the "Eegnum Anglorum" having had a Pictish population any more than it does districts having a British population, which we know existed within the limits of the Anglic kingdom. In the pas- sages of Bede which are founded on, he is obviously talking more of the boundaries and extension of kingdoms and governments, than of the under population ; and from his mere silence in a work of this kind, no safe argument can be adduced. The few and scattered notices of the "Campus " Manann " evidently point to a Pictish population subject to the Anglic kingdom, whose attempts at ^ The tract on the Corca Laidhe, contained in the Books of " Balli- " mote" and " Lecain," mentions " Seal balbh ri Cruithentuaithi " acus Manahul," that is, Seal balbh, king of Gruithentuaith and Manann, showing the two as formins one kingdom.