166 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. James Boardman, containing an 

 account of the Explosion of Gunpowder at Corunna, January 13, 1809, 

 after the retreat of the army under the command of Sir John Moore. 



Mr. Sansom exhibited specimens of the Pohjpodium Alpestre, a fern 

 new to Britain. It is found in the mountains of Perthshire not 

 unfrequently ; hut, until lately detected by Mr. H. C. Watson, it had 

 been mistaken for Lastrcea felix fcemina, which it very much resembles. 

 Also specimens of Schizea pusilla, a fern peculiar to one locality in 

 New Jersey (U.S.), where it occupies a spot of about one square mile in 

 extent. 



In the absence of the author, the following paper was read by the 

 Secretary : — 



WHO WAS MACBETH? 

 By the Rev. Abraham Hume, D.C.L., LLD., F.S.A., &c. 



At the close of the darkest period of Scottish history, viz., in 843, it 

 is known that Kenneth II, commonly called Kenneth MacAlpine, became 

 king of all Scotland. He had previously been the sovereign of the small 

 community, who, coming from Scotia Major (Ireland), settled in Argyle 

 and Lorn, which they called Scotia Minor ; but the principal portions of 

 Caledonia, which lay north of the Forth and Clyde, had till this period 

 been governed by a succession of Pictish kings. The name " Scotland " 

 was unknown except in reference to Ireland ; and the whole of the modern 

 Lowlands, with some small exceptions in Strathclyde and Galloway, 

 formed part of England. They were sometimes called " Lodoneia," but 

 generally included in the extensive name " Northumbria." 



Two hundred years after Kenneth, Macbeth was king of Scotland ; 

 and his reign terminated with his life, shortly before the Norman conquest. 

 The two centuries which elapsed in the interval, have never been regarded 

 as belonging to quite the darkest part of Scottish history, and yet little 

 was known about them till a comparatively recent period. Historians were 

 satisfied to commence with Malcolm Canmore, the contemporary of our 

 William I. ; and wliile admitting that there had been such persons as Ken- 

 neth MacAlpine at one end of a line and Macbeth at the other, they were 

 content to leave the narrative in its original obscurity, and to say that 

 " shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it." The researches of our 

 modern antiquaries, however, have thrown back the clouds, so that our 

 information respecting this period is now comparatively full ; and at least 

 as credible as the accounts of our Saxon kings, the principal statements 

 respecting whom are currently admitted . N uraerous facts and statements 



