THE CRITICAL REVIEW. For the Month of March, 1779. Annals of Scotland. From the Acceffion of Robert I. furnamed Bruce, to the Acceffion of the House of Stewart. By Sir David Dalrymple. 4to. 12s. 6d. boards. Murray. TH HIS volume is a continuation of the author's Annals of Scotland from the acceffion of Malcolm III. furnamed Canmore, to the acceffion of Robert I. of which we gave an account in a former Review *. It was fir David Dalrymple's original defign to have extended the work to the restoration of James I. but various reafons have induced him to end it at the acceffion of the House of Stewart. The method of relating the tranfactions of any country in a series of annals, if confidered in respect to precision, is of every hiftorical narrative, perhaps, the most difficult to accomplish, and requires in the writer the minuteft investigation of the dates of events, as well as the most full and diftinct profpect of past ages, to fupport the chronological detail without either interruption, or the admiffion of fuch anecdotes as do not coincide with the scope of general hiftory. This undertaking, however, fir David Dalrymple has executed with a degree of accuracy and fidelity that is entitled to our warmeft approbation. The prefent volume commences at the year 1306, when, on the 27th of March, Robert Bruce afcended the throne of Scotland. This heroic prince, our author oblerves, had many and formidable obftacles to furmount in his progress to fovereign * See Crit. Rev. vol. xli. p. 27. VOL. XLVII. March, 1779. M power; power; the folemn oaths, and even the general inclinations of the nobility; the revenge of the potent houfe of Comyn; the whole force of England; and the guilt of what was commonly held to be a facrilegious murder. Refpecting the vow made by Edward I. that he would avenge this crime, we meet with the following obfervations in a note. The circumstances attending this vow, as related by M. Weftm. p. 454, are fingular. Tunc allati funt in pompatica gloria duo cygni vel olores ante regem, phalerati retibus aureis vel fiftulis deauratis, defiderabile fpectaculum intuentibus. Qui-、 bus vifis, rex votum vovit Deo coeli et cygnis," &c. This is a most extraordinary paffage, for the interpretation of which I have confulted antiquaries, but all in vain. The fame ceremony is mentioned in Le livre des trois filz de Roys, f. 91. Apres parolles on fit apporter ung paon par deux damoifelles, et jura le roy premier de deffendre tout fon dit royaume à fon pou voir," &c. 66 Sir Henry Spelman, Afpilogia, p. 132. obferves, that the antient heralds gave a fwan as an imprefe to muficians and finging men. He adds, " fed gloriae ftudium ex eodem hoc fymbolo indicari multi afferunt." He then quotes the paffage from M. Weftm. but he neither remarks its fingularity, nor attempts to explain it. 6 his Afhmole, Hiftory of the Garter, c. 5. fect. 2. p. 185. obferves, that Edward III. had thefe words wrought upon furcoat and fhield, provided to be used at a tourneament, "Hay, Hay, the wythe fan, By G s foul, I am thy man." This fhews that a white fwan was the imprese of Edward III. and perhaps it was alfo ufed by his grandfather, Edward I. How far this circumflance may ferve to illuftrate the passage in M. Weftm. I will not pretend to determine.' 1 Another note in the next page affords the most convincing proof of the attention with which our author has conducted his refearches. The English hiftorians, antient as well as modern, affert, that Edward I. marched into Scotland in 1306, and, in the manner of a favage conqueror, over-ran the country. It is certain, however, from the dates of various inftruments in the fecond volume of Foedera Angliae, that Edward did not march into Scotland in 1306. On the 22d July, 1306, he was at Beverly; Foedra, T. 2, p. 1005. 28th July, at Thresk; ib. p. 1005: 14th Auguft, at Corbridge; ib. p. 1017. 28th and 31ft Auguft, at Newburgh in Tindale: ib. p. 1018. 1020. 6th and 7th September, at Thirlewal; ib. p. 1025. 7th October, at Lanercoft; ib. p. 1027. He fpeaks at that time of his having been recovered from a dangerous illness by the care of Nicolas de t de Tynchewyk his phyfician. He appears to have remained a Lanercoft during the months of October, November, December, January, and February; ib. p. 1022.-1037. He was at Lynftock on the 6th of March; ib. p. 1045; and at Carlisle, or in that neighbourhood, from 10th March, to the beginning of July, 1307; ib. p. 1046-1058.' We shall present our readers with the fubfequent note, likewife, as it tends to refute an anecdote which has been related by feveral hiftorians, relative to the countefs of Buchan, who had crowned Bruce, and was therefore committed to clofe confinement in the caftle of Berwick. M. Weftm. p. 455, fays, Capitur etiam et illa impiiffima conjuratrix de Buchan, de qua confultus rex, ait, quia gladio non percuffit, gladio non peribit; verum, propter illicitam conjurationem quam fecit, in domicilio lapideo et ferreo, in modum. coronae fabricato, firmiffimè obftruatur, et apud Bervicum fub dio forinfecus fufpendatur, ut fit data, in vita et poft mortem, fpeculum viatoribus, et opprobrium fempiternum." Other Englib hiftorians, copying M. Weftminster, have faid the fame thing. We cannot, therefore, blame Abercrombie for faying, She was put in a wooden cage, fhaped like a crown, and in that tormenting posture hung out from high walls, or turrets, to be gazed upon and reproached by the meanest of the multitude; vol. i. p. 579. Hemingford, vol. i. p. 221, relates the story in a manner fomewhat different. He fays, that the earl of Buchan, her husband, fought to kill her for her treafon; but that Edward restrained him, and ordered her to be confined in a wooden cage. • The intentions of Edward I. touching the durance of the countess of Buchan, will be more certainly learned from his own orders, than from the report of M. Weftminster. His orders run thus: By letters under the privy feal, be it commanded, that the chamberlain of Scotland, or his deputy at Berwick upon Tweed, do, in one of the turrets of the faid caftle, and in the place which he fhall find moft convenient, caufe conftruct a cage ftrongly latticed with wood, [de fuift, i. e. beams of timber or palifades], crofs-barred, and fecured with iron, in which he fhall put the counters of Buchan. And that he take care that the be fo well and fafely guarded therein, that in no fort she may iffue therefrom. "And that he appoint one or more women of Berwick, of English extraction, and liable to no fufpicion, who shall minifter to the jaid countefs in eating and drinking, and in all things elfe convenient, in her faid lodging place. "And that he do caufe her to be fo well and frisly guarded in the cage, that he may not speak with any one, man or woman, of the Scottish nation, or with any one elfe, faving with the women who thall be appointed to attend her, or with the guard who fhall have the cuftody of her perfon. M 2 "And "And that the cage be fo conftructed that the countefs may bave therein the convenience of a decent chamber, [efement de chambre courtoife]; nevertheless, that all things be fo well and surely ordered, that no peril arife touching the right cuftody of the faid countess. "And that he to whom the charge of her is committed shall be refponfible, body for body, and that he be allowed his charges;" Foedera, T. ii. p. 1014. Such were the orders of Edward I. and he furely was not a man who would fuffer his orders to be disobeyed. Here, indeed, there is a detail concerning the cuftody of a female prifoner, which may feem ridiculously minute, but which is inconfiftent with the story related by M. Weftminster, and other hiftorians. To those who have no notion of any cage but one for a parrot or a fquirrel, hung out at a window, I despair of rendering this mandate intelligible.' In relating the ftratagem practifed by a peafant named Binnock, for furprising the cattle of Linlithgow, by introducing eight refolute men in a load of hay, our author takes occafion to mention the maxims, or political teftament of Robert Bruce, as they are preserved in Fordun. Sir David Dalrymple obferves, that they are curious, and not difficult to be underfood. How far this may be the cafe, in respect of an English reader, let the extract determine. "On fút fuld be all Scottis weire Of gud king Robert's teftament." Sir David Dalrymple makes a very pertinent remark, in regard to the authority of the metrical hiftorian, Barbour, whom he has fo much, and with juftice, followed in the Annals. The latter, in mentioning the fiege of Perth, fays, that the king was the fecond man that took the wall. This little circumftance, fir David obferves, adds much to the credibility of Barbour's narrative: for a writer of romance would have reprefented the king as the firft. The The author's fubfequent remark, refpeating the number of forces with which Edward II. entered Scotland, is of too much importance to hiftory not to be laid before our readers. An eminent hiftorian fays, "That the army of Edward, which, according to the Scots writers, amounted to an hundred thousand men, was probably much inferior to that number;" Hume, Hiftory of England, vol. ii. p. 135. In proof of this, he obferves, that "we find in Rymer, T. iii. p 481, a lift of all the infantry affembled from all parts of England and Wales, and they are only 21,540 It is ftrange that the author fhould have fo widely mistaken the fenfe of the record. In Rymer there is not a list of all the infantry affembled from all parts of England and Wales, but merely an order to the sheriffs of twelve counties, to two earls, and to fix or seven barons, requiring them to furnish certain quotas of infantry. The coun-. ties mentioned are Cheshire, Derbyshire, Durham, Lancafhire, Leicester fhire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Yorkfhire. A writ, indeed, was directed to the earl of Glouceffer and Hertford, and another to the earl of Hereford and Effex; but thofe writs refpected the particular eftates belonging to the two earls, and not the counties under their adminidration. The writs published by Rymer relate not to the fouthern, Or western counties of England. It is not probable that Edward would have invited the aid of twenty-feven Irish chiefs, and yet have neglected to require the affiftance of the most populous parts of his own dominions. If we take into the account the Irish, and the English fubjects refiding in France, and if we suppose that all the counties and all the barons in England furnished their quotas in equal proportion, we fhall, have no difficulty in pronouncing, that the numbers of the English army, as related by our hiftorians, are within the limits of probability. Edward himfelf fays, and it is a circumstance which merits attention, that he had fummoned to the rendezvous all who owed military fervice; [totum fervitium noftrum,] Foedera, T. iii. p. 478.' Sir David Dalrymple's ufual accuracy is evident in his account of the battle of Bannockburn, which, as we have not yet given any fpecimen of the narrative, we fhall infert for that purpose. The king of Scots appointed a general rendezvous of his forces at the Torwood, between Falkirk and Stirling. Their number fomewhat exceeded thirty thoufand. There were allo upwards of fifteen thousand, an unarmed and undifciplined rabb e, who followed the camp, according to the mode of those times. M 3 • The |