60 



descent of that nation, it must be confessed that it were idle to hope 

 to reconcile the public judgment to a new system so diametrically 

 opposite to the old."* — How self-confident must he be who would 

 nevertheless attempt it ! 



The era of this remarkable event seems more controvertible than 

 the fact, which may possibly arise from the circumstance of different 

 smaller bands having, in the friendly intercourse which long subsisted 

 between the Scots and the Picts, passed at various intervals from 

 Ireland into Scotland. Some fix this great emigration as long before 

 the birth of Christ. The annals of Tigernach, with which Jocelin and 

 more modern antiquaries-f- agree, pass into the other extreme, and 

 assign it to the year A. D. 503; and Wintown in his Chronicle^ to 

 A. D. 452 ; Cambrensis, Stanihurst, and Cooper, in his continuation 

 of Lanquet, state it as immediately previous to the coming of Saint 

 Patrick; but a remark of Bede, (as cited post in this section,) shews it 

 must have been some time prior to the year 388. Richard of Ciren- 

 cester fixes it {ante, p. 58,) with most accuracy, as in the year of the 

 world 4325; and Whitaker, accordingly, with arguments which we 

 would not attempt to abridge, defines§ the period to the year 320.11 



Thus stands the simple narrative of this remarkable colonization. 

 Such is the pillar of light that attends its little exodus ; but there are 

 those to whom that pillar too is " a cloud and darkness." Ihnes dis- 

 believes it, but he confesses himself " a stranger to the antiquities of 

 Ireland."** Doctor Mac-Pherson considers so recent a colonization 

 improbable, because "a mountainous country like Scotland bids the 

 fairest for inhabitants of great antiquity ; * * * the sterility of rocks, 



* Introd. p. 142. f See Rees's Cyclopaedia, article " Scotland." 



I Book 4. c. 8. § Genuine History, p. 272. 



II See post. Per. 2. sect. 3. Hume agrees in this period. 

 *• Preface to Essay, p. xliv. 



