east-lothian-1924/05-019

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN.

the earliest portion is of the end of the seventh century, says that Saxons
occupied many regions " beyond the Frisian sea " (trans or ultra Mare Fresicum
or Frenessicum) as far as the borders of the Picts (usque ad confinia or con-
finium Pictorum) ; and certain versions, obviously of Northumbrian origin,
add after " Frisian Sea " the explanation " which is between us and the Scots,"
indicating the Firth of Forth or " Scots Water." In the twelfth century Vita
Kentigerni the coast near Culross is referred to as the " Frisian Shore "
(Fresicum litus), which is probably an echo from the amplified Nennius. Next
a thirteenth century continuation of the A. S. Chronicle repeats the identi-
fication of the " Frisian Sea " with the " Scottish Sea " or Firth of Forth,
explaining that Frisians and Danes used to land there to co-operate with Picts
and Scots in ravaging Northumbria. This interpretation may not be far out.
However, Procopius the sixth century historian divides Britain between
Britons, Angles and Phrissones, where the last group must stand for the
people better known as Saxons. These names must not be taken too strictly.
All that may be in question here is something analagous to the " Saxon
shore " of south-eastern England, a district vexed from time to time by
descents of Saxons (cf. Art. No. 148 p. 99), with whom Frisians proper were
commonly intermingled. But the Frisians were the great naval and commercial
power of the West during the seventh and eighth centuries, before they were
finally crushed by Charlemagne, and the " Frisian Sea " may be an echo of
that time. The statement in Nennius is probably a late insertion and sub-
equent writers may have drawn upon this.
With respect to such early occupation the scanty historic evidence points
to the same conclusion as the archæology. Oswald of the Bernician or Bam-
borough family, who became King of Northumbria in 634, is said to have
united by his skilful rule the provinces of the Deiri and the Bernicians, ¹
"nations," which we learn from another source, were in 635 still distinct
" in people and customs." ² This would seem to imply a marked predominance
in Bernicia of the old Celtic or British element. Bernicia, however, appears
to have been a somewhat elastic term, covering an undefined portion of the
Scottish Lowlands in general. ³
From this date, 635, for the next fifty years, Bernicia was certainly an
integral part of the Northumbrian kingdom. The church was another unifying
influence, and the great ecclesiastical figure of the time is Cuthbert, a native
of Lothian, who, in his evangelising tours, visited " villages which were re-
motely situated among steep and rugged hills, places others feared to
visit." ⁴ In this description we may recognise the fortified hill villages or
"hill forts," of which the remains still occupy sites in the hills of Lothian,
as The Hopes (Art. No. 257) and others in the Lammermuirs. These high-
lying enclosures stood above the forest and marsh then occupying most of the
level lands and gave clear stretches of pasture, while the flocks could also
be protected from the carnivorous creatures of the woods. From Melrose,

1 Eccl. Hist. Bede III. cap I.
2 Miscellanea Biographica, Surtees Socy. p. 7.
3 Bede even says of Whithorn in Wigtownshire : " Qui locus, ad provinciam Berniciorum
pertinens, vulgo vocatur Ad Candidam Casam, " Which place, pertaining to the province of the
Bernicians, is commonly known as White House." Hist Eccl. III., 4.
4 Bede, Vita S. Cudbercti ix.

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