Dumfries : Its Burghal Origin. 165 



and in 1176 was conducted by William to Henry's court at 

 Feckenham, in Worcestershire. There, for a promise of 

 ;£,'iooo, he made his peace, and did homage to the English 

 King- against all men (that is, without any reservation in 

 favour of William), and so returned, if not quite independent, 

 at anyrate freer and more defiant than ever before of the 

 King of Scotland, and cherishing a deadly hostility against 

 the Anglo-Normans, the alienigenue who had been planted 

 in the province, and whom he proceeded to expel or extermi- 

 nate.^ 



Gilbert evidently nourished an undying hatred of those 

 Norman influences which King WMlliam represented. 

 Repeatedly the hordes of Gallovidians broke into the more 

 civilised region which lay eastward of their borders. Sig- 

 nificant is the name given to Gilbert by a contemporary 

 annalist — " the enemy of the King of Scotland, his lord."'' 

 Racial antagonism interprets for us this keenness of 

 feud. " The fortified towns and burghs of Scotland 

 are well known," wrote William of Newburgh, "to be 

 inhabited by Englishmen." Anglo-Normans were the 

 garrison-colonists of the feudal settlement, and it was no 

 wonder that the dispossessed Celt avenged himself when he 

 could upon his evictor. On the other hand, it was the 

 plainest dictate of policy — nay, shall we not say of grim 

 necessity in the face of the barbarian danger? — to strengthen 

 and develop where it might be those little fortress-towns 

 where the English dwelt, dreaded by the Celt, and returning 

 (as we shall see at Dumfries) his hatred with a contemptuous 

 animosity no less intense. From 1174 until 1185 Gilbert 

 gave William 'ittle peace. History tells specifically of 

 William's offensive proceedings : it leaves to inference the 

 defensive measures adopted by him along what may be 

 called the Celtic line, the borderland of Galloway. Gilbert 

 had in a limited measure probably the goodwill of Henry 

 behind him. It suited Henry that the King of Scotland 

 should have subjects too powerful, and should feel the thorn 



6 Benedict, i.. 126. 



7 Benedict, i., 336, 



