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Monthly Review of Literature, 



[FEB. 



and after numerous contretems, and severe 

 suffering on the part of the young and 

 interesting couple, they finally meet and 

 " explain." 



The other conspicuous victim of this 

 charming set, is that of a young lady, of 

 great beauty, of course, and fascinating 

 qualities, who marries a lord, already some- 

 what connected with the party, and now 

 high in office. Of course, her marriage 

 gives her importance, and everybody is 

 put immediately in requisition to draw her 

 within the magic circle. One lady, an old 

 stager, it appears, is especially appointed to 

 drill the poor unsuspecting lady, who is all 

 simplicity and frankness, and devoted to her 

 husband qualities which are treasons to the 

 society ; and a profligate youth is encou- 

 raged to pay her his patronizing and insidi- 

 ous attentions to detach her unfashionable 

 fondness from her caro sposo. This gen- 

 tleman goes somewhat beyond the rules of 

 the institution, and almost succeeds in cor- 

 rupting her; but, luckily, his purpose is de- 

 tected before an eclat is produced ; the lady 

 goes abroad with her well-judging husband, 

 and an absence of a couple of years seems 

 to cure all. The sufferers, of course, re- 

 nounce the Exclusives. 



The Cabinet Cyclopaedia : Sir Walter 



Scott's History of Scotland ; 1830 



Though histories of Scotland undoubtedly 

 abound, nobody, who knows any thing 

 about them, will think another, and that 

 Other coming from Sir Walter Scott, su- 

 perfluous. The story of the country was, 

 in fact, till now, untold in a style and 

 spirit to keep us awake, and with a judg- 

 ment, at once sharp and sound, to engage 

 our confidence. Of the older writers on 

 Scottish history, who reads either Buchanan 

 or Boethius ? and of more modern ones, 

 Robertson is confined to Mary and James, 

 and as to Pinkerton and Hailes, though 

 both go farther back, it must be allowed, 

 the first wanted judgment, and the other 

 materials. The treasures collected within 

 these twenty years by Mr. Chalmers and 

 Mr. Thomson of the Register-Office, are 

 reported to be immense ; and of these Mr. 

 Tytler is now taking the full advantage. 

 His history, at the first glance, might be 

 expected to supersede Sir Walter's, but it is 

 too voluminous too controversial is not 

 yet completed, and, besides, only begins 

 with Alexander III. The rest are all for 

 the antiquary, or for schools, or relative to 

 particular periods only, and of little autho- 

 rity. A popular view of the whole history 

 was obviously still wanting and who, for 

 talents natural and acquired from personal 

 position from early association from con- 

 tinuous study of the subject from indefa- 

 tigableness from rapidity and facility of 

 execution, was so admirably calculated to 

 perform the task as Sir Walter Scott ? He 

 has done it, distinctly, vividly, happily. 

 The externals of research the parading of 



authorities the balancing of evidence 

 the pros and cons these are the scaffold- 

 ing, and are all swept away, and the build- 

 ing is left full and free in its fairest propor- 

 tions. The rapid and searching glance 

 which he casts into the chaos of his mate- 

 rials, like electric fire, often evolves and 

 separates the pure elements. It follows not 

 that Sir Walter is always right ; his pur- 

 pose, it must be recollected, was to give 

 results only, and our reliance is upon the 

 strength and rectitude of his judgment. 

 No doubt he often cuts the knot which more 

 perseverance might untie, but then it is 

 generally where it is scarcely worth the labour 

 of solution. 



The early history is full of confusion, with 

 conflicting statements at every turn the de- 

 bateable ground of antiquaries for centuries 

 the Scots and the Picts, the Celts and the 

 Goths, where they begin, where they end, 

 whence they spring, and where they vanish 

 or amalgamate. Sir W. seizes upon the 

 prominent points, and leaves the minor 

 and mingled details to more minute in- 

 quirers. In the time of the Romans, he 

 finds none but Caledonians these were, of 

 course, Britons, or at least undistinguishable 

 from them now. In the fifth century ap- 

 pear Picts and Scots who were these ? 

 The Picts were Caledonians, called .Picts 

 by foreigners, the Romans, to distinguish 

 them from the southern, and now more 

 civilized natives, from the fact of their still 

 painting their bodies nee falso nomine, 

 says Claudian. They occupied, apparently, 

 the whole line of the eastern coast, from the 

 extreme north down to the Firth of Forth, 

 and were mixed up, more or less, with set- 

 tlers from Scandinavia, who must be called 

 Goths, while the Picts were by origin Celts. 

 The Scots, on the other hand, were colo- 

 nists from Ireland, established late in the 

 fifth century, and covering the western 

 coast, to the Firth of Clyde, till they came 

 up with other Irish settlers of an older 

 period. After the invasions of the Saxons, 

 in the sixth century, the whole country now 

 called Scotland, appears to have been di- 

 vided under five distinct governments 

 1st. the Saxons, extending along the coun- 

 try from Berwick to the Firth of Forth 

 2nd. the kingdom of Strathclyde, occupying 

 the central parts of the Lowlands, as far, to 

 the south, as the borders of Cumberland 

 3rd. Galloway, filled with the elder Irish 

 colonists, and a remnant of unexpelled 

 Picts 4th. The Irish settlers in Argyll 

 and still farther north, and 5th. The Picts 

 of the north and east. Of these five, the 

 Picts were at this period by far the most 

 numerous. In the ninth century, the Picts 

 and Scots, after a struggle of centuries, 

 finally merged into one nation, under the 

 dominion of Kenneth Macalpine ; and from 

 this period vanishes the .name of Pict, not 

 so much from destruction, as is often stated, 

 though there was probably enough of it, as 

 from their melting into the Scots, of whom 



