Letter

Dear Sir

I had the pleasure of yours of the 24^th of January a Long while ago. It is Idle to make an apology for being so Slow in Acknowledging it — My time was Otherwise Necessarily taken Up, is Enough. I write you a Suplement to the one you acknowledge the receipt of, which you would have had before Yours reached me — it was addressed to Roger Mostin.

The papper which is here Inclosed I submitt entirely to Your Judgement. If Any one hath already Said that the Scots are but a branch of the Picts emerging from Barbarity And have at Last turned out Conquerors of Irland I know him not. How could it be Otherwise? They were Caledonians who As well as the South Brittains painted their bodies. The Romans found them first in Caledonia And Some time after that in Irland. I could have gone a much greater Length but as I believe it a new System I did not care to Encumber it with more Novelties. I drew only the General Plan And Leave it to Any Other to confirm it confute it or neglect it. I return you hearty thanks for the Torpedo Letter — I always thought it a Mediterranian fish, And to Say the truth I knew Little about it, having only some years ago read ^of it with wonder. I think it was in Borielli de motu Animalium, who I believe knew As Litle of the Doctrine of Electricity As Claudian.

I have not yet seen Dr Johnson's Journey, but some Scrapes in a Magazine — I sent for the book itself for tho he was pleased to make ^me a Present of Some Other Parts of his works he will not I suppose offer me this. I wish for his own Sake he had not wrote it, for I Esteem the man on Account of his Learning, and inflexible virtue if I mistake him not. He coud have Lost Nothing by Looking to Your Manner of Writing. His prejudices Against Ossian's poems he brought from London And brought them back Again because he met with few who inclined to differ with him. He thought Mr Macpherson shoud have Left the original for the Inspection of the Public — He coud find none that had Manuscripts of it in the Highlands — Only Songs in the Mouths of rehearsers which ^he was informed were not Literally translated. I believe nobody took much pains Upon him. Mr Macpherson Seems to be very angry at him.

I Expect to have your book returned to me next week. In the mean time please know that you have been MisInformed about Canna.¹ Mr Macdonald of Clanranald Set the Island on to MacLeod And a Mackinnon — both these sublet their farms to small Tennants at much higher rents than they payed the Proprietor which is a common care in the Highlands. In the mean time these small tennants Are more at mercy in Narrow Islands than Any were Else and therefore the proprietor should indeed take Every precaution to guard them Against the Oppressions of the Principal Farmers.

If I remember right You call orinsay near Colinsay a Monastery. It is called a priory in the antient Lists of the Priorees of Scotland. As I was never Upon the place I cannot positively Say whether it is Really an Island or not; but I can say that there are Several Islands called oransay, that is, an Island consecrated to St Oran Columba's Fellow Labourer And that it is a Circumstance Peculiar to Each of them that I know, that on time of full Sea they are Islands but in time of Ebb the sands Are dry betwixt ^them And the next Continent. Why Such Islands were chosen for St Oran I know not, but this peice of Singularity Shoud not be forgotten.

It will give me Pleasure to hear from You Soon for I will be Seeking health abroad in Summer.

I am with very great regard, Dr Sir,
Your very Obedient humble Sevt

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir March the 15^th
1775.

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Enclosure

P.1^st

To Mr Pennant.

Dear Sir

As a great Part of Scotland hath had the good Fortune to have been visited by you, a man whose Politeness is Equal to his knowledge which is Extensive enough, by a man who is fully qualified to bring the state of Past times in review before Us And to paint the present with Justness And propriety; Litle disposed to disoblige, but Where Truth & Public Interest conjoined, guide the way; And As I find you are further in the humour of travelling over that Part of our Countrey which you have not yet seen, with Intention to favour the world with Other Curious And Useful discoveries, I will presume to Lay before You a Conjecture which is not quite new And for Us Obvious As it is, hath not yet been pursued for ought I know, to Any Extent, about the first Inhabitants of a Countrey you pay So much attention to.²

Our People of Brittain & Irland, like other Nations both Antient & modern, taking Advantage of the darkness of Antiquity, have not Only indulged their credulous vanity in giving themselves an old Setlement in their Several Countries but have fetched their Ancestors from a far, wherever their Pride could be tickled by an honourable descent, bu a Similarity of Customs or perhaps merely for the Sake of Going out of the common road And connecting themselves with distant Strangers. Had it not saved our Friends, pen, Ink, time & passion to be Laid out on more Useful subjects, if they had from the beginning contented themselves with the Usual course of things, peopled Brittain from Gaul the next Continent And Irland from Kintire And Gallaway. The Pruning knife of Criticism is from Age to Age Lopping off the Extravagant Fictions of former times And will at Length reduce them to a more natural appearance. The Emulation Which is common in close Neighbourhoods ^determined the people of South Brittain to derive their origine one way — The Caledonians having been Split into two principal branches, the Picts & Scots, have gone differently to work. The Picts who had no writers among them, must come from Any Countrey on the Continent Where painting the body was fashionable And the Similarity betwixt the words Scot & Scythi hah been the Cause Why Some of our Countrey men thought them the Same people, tho the Just have given themselves and the Scots a Spanish ^descent As a more honourable origine, which

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2^d

By falling under the animadversion of the Learned is better known than Such trifles deserve.

It is now my Intention to trace the Course of Population according to the Nature of things, as Suggested to Us by ^in the Lights cast up it by the first writers, who are the Only Sūre Guides: more So, than the fancyful Unauthenticated reveries of Ignorant Ages, tho Afterwards supported more Plausibly dressed out by their more Learned Sucessors.

The Romans on their first Acquaintance with the Nations to the North of the Friths of Clyde & Forth gave them the General title of Caledonians, in process of time they Learned to distinguish them into tow Principal Tribes, the Picts & Scots And on a nearer view they found them Subdivided into Smaller casts, on all of Whom they bestowed the general appellation of Caledonians And Isidore Even in the Seventh Age, so Jumbles the Picts and Scots together that he Affirms the Later Also painted various figures on their bodies, by pricking them with Iron bodkins And rubbing them Over with Ink. Yet, out of Respect to men of Letters who, finding that the Scots did not at all, or so commonly Paint as the Picts, woud fetch from distant Countries, a further Deduction so became necessary to put the Truth in a clearer point of view, tho Obvious Enough to Any Who considers it void of the Prejudice which the Belief of Ages brings along with it.

It is Universally agreed that all the Brittains painted in this manner — that they struck the figūres or outlines of different Animals on their bodies When they were Young, by Useing an Able Artist to prick them with a needle or bodkin And rubbing the diminutive marks of the Iron with the Juice of a certain Herb, which gave them a blue and Lasting Colour. The Unextinguishable Characters Enlarging in the advance of Years looked in the Eyes of Civilized strangers, As if the figures were immediately painted off, which was the reason Why the Romans called them Picti, tho the word Puncti woud have been nearer the Fact, and a Literal translation of the Gaulic word Peaƈtigh and of the Greek word στίκτοί. The Nobless And the Commons were distinguished here As well As the Thrace, by the figures of different animals And by the Largeness And Smallness of the Characters As were Also the Several Tribes from One Another And that they might not hide these marks of distinction, their breasts, backs And arms were Exposed to view Especially in time of batle, when it was Necessary in the hurey of Arms to find out the Friends or Relations with the glance of An Eye And to have Witnesses of the Prowess or Cowardice of the Military man among his own Acquaintances. In some parts of the world

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3^d

The Souldiers were marked with the Ensigns of their General As were the Votaries of Certain false Deities with Something Peculiar to their Service and Tertūlian affirms that the Brittains were distinguished by their Stigmata As Other Nations by their Particular Ensigns.

An Unmixed People, who all from the highest to the Lowest, being bred & Educated in the very Same manner preserved the Same colour of hair, the same whiteness of Skin, great Similarity in their features And in the proportion of their Limbs, woud need these visible marks of distinction, Especially in the first periods of Society when they went almost quite naked. For the same Reasons, which Nature Suggested to all in Similar Circumstances, we find Americans painted from one End of their Extensive Continent to the Other, some in the Absolute want of Iron or Any Other Mettal pricking their flesh with a pointed bone. It is true, that those who Live close to the Neighbourhood of the European Colonies, by trading in furs, in Other Small branches of Commerce or by Some Services have purchased Cloaths Which rendered their corporeal Ensigns inviseable And consequently Unless, if they do not Sometimes mark their faces And wear their hair in a Particular distinctive mode. Thus when South Brittain became Subject to the Romans And the debateable Lands betwixt the Walls were also converted into a Province Under the Name of Valentia, Such of the Natives As dreaded Slavery most flew to the Forrests of Caledonia. These fugitives from the Severity of Provincial discipline And the Inhabitants of the Unconquered part of the Island had the denomination of Picts given them by the Romans And by the South Brittains who had Submitted to their Laws & fashions. This name was appropriated to them from about the End of the third And beginning of the fourth Century As the Custom Expressed by it was Peculiar to them And Laid Aside by the Provincials And at the same time the Name of Scots is bestowed by the Romans on the Inhabitants of the Western Side of Caledonia by Which they woud Seem to Intimate that painting was not, at Least As Generally practised among them As among their Neighbours.

But how came it about that the Scots, a branch of the Old Caledonians As the Romans allowed them to be quited this barbarous practice of striking their bodies with the figūres of different Animals While their Eastern Neighbours continued it And for Several Centuries were known by the Appellation of Picts is a question of Some little Curiosity.

The Picts, So called, being hemmed in betwixt the German Ocean And the vast Cluster of hills called the Grampians which stretch themselves from Strathern to Lochness And further, had no outlet by which they might intermix with Strangers,

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4^th

But by the Passage of Bodotria towards the Roman Provinces And As it is Probable that Pictavia, as well as South Brittain And Every Countrey, in the Original state of Barbarity, was Split into many Independant Principalities, it is very Like that there woud be Litle of the Spirit of Union among them, except when they saw a powerful Enemy Close to their Gates, as in the case of Agricola And the Emperor Severus; And thus Sequestered from Strangers, but when they Sallyed out, some of them Only, upon a Plundering Party And returned quickly when they got their hands full or were beaten back, they might continue Long Enough in a State of the utmost Barbarity if they were not conquered by more Polished People than themselves. But how came to Scots to be that People, when they were, at almost the Same distance from the Schools of Civility ^Life And Originally Enured to the Same Customs And way of Living?

To the Scots & Picts, men unatached to Any Land by houses, for they none but the huts of a day's Labour, by Temples or by Agriculture, Every Soil woud be Equal. The Necessity of Providing Subsistence for themselves And their Families Ennobled the professions of Robbery And Arms And compelled them to a wandering Itinerant Life, in quest of Game: they must have chosen to dy of Famine or to Plunder & fight. The Picts, possessing the Eastern Coast of Caledonia from South to North, whom we Suppose Minced into Many Independent States According As Rivers, Rocks, mountains And Arms of the Sea bounded them, must have been in a state of war Among themselves, like the Highland Clans in a Later Period, And confined to their favourite trade near home: for the more Northern Tribes of them woud Scarce be permitted to march Undisturbed, thro the States which Lay across their Way towards the Roman Provinces.

The Inhabitants of the western Coast made the Earlyer Progress in the Arts of Good Order And Civility As being nearer the Roman Colonies, to which History bears Testimony they made frequent Sallies together with Some of the Picts in their Neighbourhood As they woud to Such of the Western Isles as Lay within their view And Easyly Subdued them as being Severed from One Another, thinly peopled and under Unsurmountable difficulty of Leagueing together for Mutual defence. And tho the ^Scots were at first but a Single Tribe of the Picts, Unanimous therefore in all their Resolves, Separated from the Rest by a Range of Unhospitable mountains they woud gather Strength And be tempted by their Fortune in Irland, a Countrey favoured by Nature with very fine harbours which were better known And more frequented by Strangers than those of Brittain.

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5^th

Here, they woud see Civilised People ^on the Coast Exchange their furs, their Share of the Roman booty, whatever Trinkets they had with the Merchants for the Cloathing And ornaments which their Vanity demanded. At Length when the Plunder of the Province and the Merchants tradeing to Irland Supplyed them with Cloaths, they were Under a Necessity, Like the South Brittains, of giving Up the Custom of Painting their bodies, at which Period they offered themselves as a people quite different from the More Barbarous Picts, which was the cause Why distant Progenitors were Sought out for them with So much Assiduity.

But still to preserve the distinctive marks of their Subordinate Divisions they transposed the Animal ^Family figures to their Shields. Seneca I think says that the Scots Painted their Shields And I find the Shield of ^a Hero ^thus described in An Old Gaulic Poem, which it seems Escaped Mr Macpherson's Search — "He fitted his red-tanned bossy Shield to his Left arm on which was drawn the Picture of ^a Lion, a Leopard, a Griphin And the biteing Serpent. At Last the Colours, which might be Seen from a greater distance, with the Animal drawn Upon itwhich distinguished the Tribes was introduced a further Improvement In One of Fingal's batles, I find three or four Pair of Colours displayed at Once, dazzling the Eye from afar with the Lustre of Best Ore: Which they Must have Learned from the Romans; As we may Conclude from Homers Silence that they had no Standard in the Heroic times he describes tho his Greeks And [...]^Trojans lived in a much more Advanced Period of Society than the Cotemporary [sic] Picts Scots & Picts we Speak of. Armoreal bearings may very Justly be Supposed to ow their origine to this Practice And it is not Unlike that when Patronimies gave place to Surnames which happened much about the time the Picts ceased to be a distinct People, that those who have taken Up the Name of Lion, wolf, Fox, Hawk, or of Any other Animal made choice of that which distinguished their Tribe from the beginning, for in that quarter of the Countrey where Patronimies are still Used no Such Surnames are to be Met with.

Here a very pertinent Question occurs — Could a Single Tribe from Caledonia assisted by a few Islanders conquer Irland and give it their own name or coud they in Any degree improve by the Company of Such Mortals As the Irish are represented to have been? Woud not the Scots, pray, Learn the Art

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6^th

of War, from the Romans by an apprenticeship of about three hundred Years And would not they Also Learn from the folly of their Neighbours in South Brittain who never pursued any common Interest to form themselves into indefeatable bands by the strictest treaties and Alliances? Thus prevailing in power, policy and Numbers, Irland whither the fertility of the Soil & Mildness of the Climate would tempt them to make frequent Visites, would become An Easy Purchase, at Least in part, Irland whose Inhabitants have not yet been said to fight without their own Island, whose habitations were common & Uncircumscribed — far from being appropriated by an Extensive Monarchy. If one Legion ^with a few Auxiliaries would Make an Intire conquest of in Domitian's time What may not be Expected from Men of approved valour Who made Such havock in South Brittain?

The frequent intercourse of the Scots with the Romans, the Brittains, the western Islanders, the Irish And the merchants from different Countries who traded to the Irish harbours, would as Iron polisheth Iron rub off something of their barbarous rūst As a more Enlarged Experience would Also improve them in the Art of War.

Their conquests in Irland however, would produced but very Small Effects: it is agriculture Alone, an Art Unworthy of the Military Men of that Age, that can fix attendance Upon Any Particular Spot of Earth; And it was as well they did not apply to tillage, When the Lived among Enemies who in one day woud Easyly destroy the fruits of a year's Industry. They had Every thing to Seek by the Sword And to defend by the Sword: They woud be skipping backwards And forwards to Irland And Scotland As Necessity, pleasure or Amusement directed them — per diversa Vagantes Amm. Marcell: Thus Irland As well as Scotland was the Scene of Fingal's batles: People who made war their Profession, could not be long [...] As being the Source of their Livelyhood, And reckoned that of their Glory could not be Long at rest. The Brittains might properly Enough call them Schuits, wanderers, As in the Western Isles they call the Campbelton Vessels who go from Loch to Loch, in quest of Herrings the black Schuits, which might be naturally Latinized into Scoti. The Goths first came like a Swarm of Locusts to destroy the Roman Empire. Can Historians or Geographers fix the seats of Such rapacious Itinerants? they can Only point them out for the present time.

However, it appears that the Scots made at Length a Setlement in that British Island, for tho Ammianus Marcellinus found them in Irland ^Brittain about the End of the third Age; And Porphyry Somewhat Earlyer orosius met with them in Irland about the beginning of the fifth, where they raised themselves Up to Such Eminence As to give their own Name to the Island. St Laurence Archbishop of Canterbury, who could not be Mistaken calls it Scotia, in a Letter addressed to it's own Bishops about they year 605. Isidore And

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7^th

Adamnanus in the same Century bear Testimony to this Fact, tho at the Same time it appears Upon Irrefragable Evidence that they kept Possession of their Dominions on the Western coast of Caledonia. Thus Stationed in the different Countries, their best harvest lay towards the South. Their Neighbours the Picts Joined them in their Attacks on Valentia and South Brittain, they former of Which they made An Intire conquest of, Upon withdrawing the Roman Legions; And it cannot be doubted but the Irish woud also Support them from their Countrey Where they had the Principal direction themselves. In the System I here Lay down, these passages of Claudian can be Easyly Understood without passing them to the torture of Severe Criticism ––––– totam cum Scotus Iërnen Movit, et in festo Spumavit remige Thetis. [...] Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Hiberne ––––– As others may, particularly from the Ecclesiastical writers, which have been often Squeesed to Serve the Purposes of different writers Enterprizers.

Thus Supported by their Friends in the Western Isles, by the Irish Scots and by continual Experience in Arms on a more Enlarged Scene of Action, the Albin Scots would at Length become an over match for the Eastern Picts.

This Speculation might be caryed much further but I will conclude it with observing that the Same Religion, the Same Customs, the Same Language proclaim the antient Inhabitants of the British Isles the very Same People And it hath happened at Any time that a Tribe of Men trusting themselves to the Uncertainties of wind And weather, from a distant Part of the Continent, in the ill contrived vessels of former Ages, Should Arrive in Irland or Wales, they woud bear So Small a proportion to the Natives, As to be Soon Assimilated to them. Hanno the Carthaginian, by Order of Senate Planted thirty thousand Men on the Western Coast of Africa, but, as they bore no proportion to the Natives, when deprived of the Support of the Mother Countrey, they brutalized in the woods or were destroyed by Wild beasts, for there were no Vestiges of them to be met with And the Same would be the fate of a Small Parcell of Men who Setled in any Wild Countrey. They woud presently find themselves oppressed with Every want which they would be Obliged to Supply by violent means or by Very rough Expedients — a Spirit of Discord would creep in among themselves And their Children for want of Care & Culture would become of a piece with the Natives. Old Caledonia is distinguished in one respect from the most, if not all the Kingdoms of Europe; It's Situation soil and the Military Spirit of it's Inhabitants were Ever impregnable Securities Against the attempts of foreign Invaders. It is the race of the Aboriginal Natives, with a Very few Exceptions, you meet with in the Countrey

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8^th.

You mean to adorn with Curious ^& Useful Remarks And that you may Live Long to promote the Happyness And Honour of the Human Species is the Sincere wish of,

Dr Sir
Your Most Obedient humble Servant

Kilmuir in Sky March the 15^th
1775.

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Editorial notes

1. See Pennant, A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), p.314.
2. The following treatise would later appear as 'Dr. Macqueen on the Origin of the Picts and Scots' in The Gentleman's Magazine, LXIV (1794).