$ 
848 SCOT 
ciation, and determined to hazard a battle. Mary, whose 
interest it was to delay the decision other fate, imprudently 
favoured his wishes. She attacked his army in an advan¬ 
tageous position at Langside, and being completely defeated, 
fled to England, and threw herself upon the generosity of 
queen Elizabeth, by whom she was detained a prisoner 
for the period of nearly twenty years, and was at last tried 
and executed upon an accusation of high treason. See Eng¬ 
land. 
In the mean time the regent Murray, by his vigorous ad¬ 
ministration, soon restored Scotland to tranquillity; and 
continued to govern without any serious molestation till his 
death in 1570, by the hand of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. 
He was succeeded in his high office by the earl of Lenox, 
during whose rule, and that of his successors Marr and 
Morton, the kingdom was distracted by civil war. “Fellow 
citizens, friends, brothers, took different sides, and ranged 
themselves under the standards of the contending factions. 
In every county, and almost in every town and village, 
king’s men and queen’s men were names of distinction. 
Political hatred destroyed all natural ties, and extinguished 
the reciprocal good will and confidence which hold mankind 
together in society. Religious zeal mingled itself with these 
civil distinctions, and contributed not a little to heighten and 
inflame them.” 
Morton, the last regent, during the minority of James, 
having excited the enmity of several of the nobility, was 
accused of being accessary to the murder of Darnley, and 
suffered for that crime in 1581, though the proofs of his 
guilt were far from being satisfactory. After this event, 
James himself began to exercise the sovereign authority ; 
but his love for favouritism proved prejudicial to his own 
peace and that of his kingdom by fomenting jealousy 
among his nobles. One of these favourites, the earl of 
Arran, conducted himself in so arrogant and tyrannical a 
manner, that a confederacy was formed against him; and 
the king was forced to deprive him of all his offices and 
honours, and to declare him an enemy to the country. 
James having been bred in the principles of the Protestant 
faith, exerted himself on every occasion to secure the re¬ 
formed church from the danger of being overthrown by the 
Catholic party, which was synonymous with the queen’s 
party, and continued to be very formidable so long as she 
lived. When his mother was put to death by queen Eliza¬ 
beth, however, he remonstrated strongly against her conduct, 
and even declared war; but that princess soon found 
means to sooth his anger, and regain his friendship. During 
the whole of his reign, James was constantly in danger of his 
life from the plots of the Popish lords, towards whom he 
shewed more lenity than was probably politic or prudent. 
On one occasion his person was seized by Bothwell, but he 
happily contrived to escape from his power, before any of 
the ulterior objects of that bold measure could be effected. 
Several attempts to murder him were likewise made, by 
various persons; but the most dangerous, though unsuc¬ 
cessful, conspiracy formed against his life, was that usually 
denominated the Gowrie conspiracy, from the title of the 
principal actor, John Ruthven, earl of Gowrie. From the 
mystery in which all its circumstances are involved, it has 
greatly excited the attention of historians; some even ques¬ 
tioning the existence of any plot, and maintaining that the 
king murdered the Ruthvens without any reasonable cause. 
This opinion, however, is justly considered by Dr. Ro¬ 
bertson as extremly improbable; though it must be con¬ 
fessed that the conduct of James, and the impression on the 
public mind against him at the time, cast an air of great 
suspicion over the whole transaction. 
From this peried no event of material interest in the his¬ 
tory of Scotland occurred till the year 1603, when the 
death of queen Elizabeth opened the way for the accession 
of James to the throne of England, and laid the basis of 
that more intimate union, which has since consolidated the 
power and resources of both countries.—The remainder of 
the history of Scotland is continued in England, which see. 
LAND. 
IV.—Face of the Country. 
Scotland though altogether a hilly and irregular country, 
is divided into highlands and lowlands. The low country 
forms, 1st. A tract stretching from Inverness along the sea 
shore, as far south as Aberdeen or Stonehaven: 2d. A tract 
which commences by an eastern margin, extends hence to the 
Lammermuir range southwards, and then crosses westward 
to Glasgow, though even this affords little continuous plain 
country, being every where interspersed with hills, or 
interrupted by ridges. 
The mountain land is divisible into two distinct tracts. 
Of these the north-western forms the country of the Highlands, 
and the southern comprises the great pastoral district, 
commonly known by the term dales, the ancient seat of the 
Highlanders. 
The Highland mountains are separated from the middle 
and low district by a tolerably distinct line, which may be 
traced along their declivities, to which the very indefinite 
appellation, Grampians, has been applied. Commencing at 
the Mull of Cantyre,the boundary is the sea, and successively 
the Clyde, until we reach Dunbarton. Hence, and omitting 
the minuter details, it may be conceived to pass through 
Callander, Crieff, Dunkeld, and Blairgowrie; after which 
it ranges along the north side of the great plain of Strathmore, 
till it is lost near Stonehaven. Hence northward, the boundary 
of the mountains is much less easy to mark, whether in 
description, or on the ground itself, from the irregular man¬ 
ner in which the ridges terminate in the lower lands. 
The northern boundary of the southern mountain district 
is less marked; but, in a general way, it may be conceived 
to commence eastward with the Lammermuir ridge, passing 
along the Pentlands to Tinto, Hawkshaw and Loudon Hill, 
and then turning southward by Wardlaw, Dalmellinton and 
Larg Fell, so as to terminate near Creetown, in Galloway. 
Thus it leaves a considerable tract of irregular low country to 
the westward. 
But the middle district is, as we remarked, rendered 
occasionally hilly by ridges and distinct elevations. One of 
the chief of these is the great Sidlaw range, which com¬ 
mencing about Arbroath, stretches away to Perth, where it 
may be conceived to be continued in the Ochils, and 
subsequently in the Campsie hills, till it unites at Dun¬ 
barton to the mountains of the Highlands. The northern 
shore of Fife may be considered a portion of this ridge, and 
the remainder of that county is irregularly undulated by 
eminences, of which the Lomonds are the most remarkable. 
Similar scattered elevations and irregularities are found in the 
opener tract which, commencing at Dunbar, terminates at 
Greenock, or may be supposed continued round by the 
west coast to the Mull of Galloway. A thousand feet 
may be taken as an average of the greatest altitudes of these 
hills. The Highland mountains though described in maps 
as dispersed in ridges, are in point of fact quite irregular and 
present no clear appearance of such a disposition. The 
average height of the loftiest mountains of the Highlands is 
about 4000 feet above the level of the sea. 
The numerous rivers which descend from this moun¬ 
tainous country to the sea, are for the most part rapid 
and precipitous. Their banks, in the upper part of their 
course, generally display the finest and most picturesque 
scenery; the falls and cascades, which are every where 
frequent, greatly adding to the effect. In the Northern 
division there are many considerable rivers, particularly 
the Beauly, Naver, Conon, &c., but these are by no means 
equal to those of the Middle division, where we have the 
Spey rising in the mountainous district of Lochaber, and 
rushing furiously into the eastern sea. In this district, too, 
are the Dee and the Don, which flow into the German ocean; 
the first forming the harbour of Aberdeen, and the mouth of 
the second being two miles farther north; also the North 
and South Esk, the latter forming the harbour of Montrose, 
and the former falling into the ocean three miles farther to 
the north. About 30 miles farther south, the Tay, one of 
the largest rivers in Britain, discharges itself into the German 
ocean, 
