ANNALS OF SCOTLAND. 39 



plenty ; infomuch, that the coin of Scotland con- 

 tinued, for many ages, the fame in quality and 

 quantity as coins of the like denominations in 

 England. 



Mention is made by foreign writers of a traffic 

 between Scotland and the Low Countries, whither, 

 in the ninth century, the Scots carried their fifh i 

 and it is obfervable, that this trade fir ft fuggeiled 

 to the Dutch the idea of that fifhery on the coait of 

 Scotland, which was the origin of their rife, from 

 i-nfignificant villages, to High and Mighty States. 



Long before that period, however, the Scots 

 and Picts feem to have been acquainted with cer- 

 tain principles of rude architedture, as appears by 

 fundry houfes and ruins, particularly in the High- 

 lands, of a moft fingular conftruction, and fully 

 defcribed by the antiquaries of the prefent century. 

 Next in time, are the circular towers at Bre- 

 chin and Abernethy, which have alfo been de- 

 fcribed, though their ufes have not been afcertained, 

 by thofe writers. 



It is beyond a doubt that ecclefiaftical buildings 

 of cohfiderable magnitude began to be creeled in 

 the fifth century.; fome of thefe buildings being 

 mentioned by Bede who lived near that period, and 

 by fucceeding hiilorians, and in charters. 



But it was not till the Scots had re-united the 

 Pictifh kingdom, expelled the Saxons, broke the 

 power of the Danes, and eftablifhed peace and 

 fecurity, that the princes, nobility, and dignified 

 clergy, began, by means of commerce and the 

 iiftieries, to erect thofe magnificent fabrics which 

 characterize the nth, I2th, and i3th centuries. 

 Thofe mighty works were carried on with unremit- 

 ting afliduity, under the patronage of a line of ex- 

 cellent mpnarchs, through whofe mild government, 

 wife inftitutions, and patriotic exertions, the king- 

 dom arrived, comparatively, to a confiderable de- 

 gree of refinement, and began to form a part in the 

 c 4 political 



