Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/83

PREFACE. Ixxv III. ANCIENT TOPO- GEAPHT OF THE COUNTRY. Such being the series of the fragments of our n,- chronicles anterior to the time of Forclun, which ^!°!'!t,„^™ are still to be found, it remains to say something of their bearing upon the scheme of the early history of Scotland presented by that writer in his " Scoti- " chronicon ;" and for this purpose it will be neces- sary first to advert to the ancient topography of the country. TakiuQf the frontier of the kingdom of Scotland in the time of Fordun, viz., the Tweed, the Cheviots, and the Solway, as the geographical limits of our inquiry, it may be stated as an undoubted fact, and one lying at the very foundation of the real history of the country, that, prior to the tenth century, the name of Scotland, or Scotia, whether in its Saxon or in its Latin form, was not applied to the whole, or any part of this territory. Prior to that period, these names were appropriated exclusively to Ireland. The territory forming the kingdom of Scotland was included under the general term of Britannia, the name applied to the whole island, but the northern part of Britannia was likewise known by the Celtic name of Alba, or Alban. The more ancient name of Ireland was Hibernia, and its Celtic name Eire or Erin, or, in its Welsh form, Ywerdon. From an early period, Ireland likewise received the name of Scotia, as the patria or mother country of the Scots. But while the name of Scotia