Three chapters, in the beginning, are employed in detailing the history to the acceffion of Malcolm Canmore. In this narration, we observe many mistakes of facts, many innaccu racies of language, and many extravagancies of opinion. But we fhall not fpecify them, as we haften to exhibit one for all; remarking only that every author like the prefent, who keeps bis fancy more active than his judgment, and exerts his powers of fpeculation more frequently than he employs his ftores of knowledge, is fure to enfuare himself in extravagance, inac-. curacies, and mistakes, by an indolent, vague, and general mode of reference. Edward, the fon of Alfred, and King of Weft Saxony, is related, in the Saxon Chronicle, to have progreffively recovered the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, with the principalities of Wales, &c. to the supremacy of West-Saxony. In 918, Edward, it is faid, went to Buckingham with his army, there stayed four weeks, and built two caftles, one upon either fide of the water, before he departed; and Earl ThurEytel fought him to be his lord; and all the military officers, and almost all the higher nobles, that belonged to Bedford, fought too. In 919, Edward went with his army to Bedford, and took the caftle, and to him returned almost all the caftellans that fubmitted to him before; he was there four weeks, and built a castle on the fouth-fide of the water before he departed. In 920, Edward went to Maldon, and built the castle, and garrifoned it, before he departed. In 920, Edward ordered a march to the castle at Tocefter, and built it; the same year he went with an army to Colchester, and repaired the caftle, and renewed it where it was broken; and to him fubmitted much people of Eaft-Angles, or of Eaft-Saxons, who were under Danish government; and all the army of the East-Angles (wore to be one with him, and would all do what he would. In 922, Edward went with an army to Stamford, and ordered a caftle to be built on the fouth-fide of the water, and all the people who belonged to the northern caftle fubmitted to him, and fought him for their lord. In 923, Edward marched with an army to Thelwall (on the Chefhire fide of the Mersey, near Warrington) ordered a caftle to be built there, to be fortified, to be garrifoned. In 924, Edward marched with an army to Nottingham, ordered a caftle to be built on the fouth-fide of the river, oppofite the other, with a bridge over the Trent between both; "marched thence into Peac-land to Badecanwyllan, and ordered a caftle to be erected and garrifoned in its ne ghbourhood; and then, the Scottish king, and all the Scottish people, and Regwnald and Eadulph's fon, and all who dwelt in Northumbria, whether Englith, Danith, Norwegians, or others, and the king of the Strath-cluyd Welth, with all the Strathcluyd Welsh, chofe him for their father and their lord." We

have carried on the regular detail of proceedings fo particularly, from 918 to 924; in order to fhow, in the cleareft light of narration, and with the full blaze of hiftorical irradiation, that the Peac-lond and the Badecanwyllan of the last year are, what indeed the critics have hitherto understood them to be, Bakewell in the Peak of Derbyshire. Yet, to the astonishment of all hiftory, and to the confufion of all criticifm, we find Mr. He ron, in p. 48, relating, that "Edward advanced to a place named Badecanwyllan in Pictland; thither the princes of Cambria and Strath-Clyde, with Conftantine king of the Scots, repaired to pay Edward-homage." This is one of thofe miftakes, which come forward to every eye. Here, however, it was probably inadvertently made. But the fame ftrange mifapplication of the Saxon Chronicle had been made before, and wilfully made, in the Antiquarian Tranfactions of Scotland, 1792. There, in c. i. 412, fays Dr. Geddes," this peace between the Picts and English appears to have been of long duration, and not to have been grofsly violated until the reign of Edward the Elder, who, in 924 (fays the Saxon Chronicle) entered into Pielland as far as Badecanwyllan." A note adds thus, juft to thow the Dr. was determined to make the mistake:

Badecanwyllan is fuppofed by Gibfon, to be Bakewell in Derbyshire; but this is altogether incredible; it must have been a place, I think," in the heart of the Pictish territories, where there had been no town or garrison be fore this period, but which was now neceffary to keep the Scots in awe." All this is merely the wanton furmife of a mind, that wishes to deceive itfelf. The chain of facts which we have given above, in the very language nearly of the Chronicle itself, at once precludes the whole. The line of operations extends only to Mercia, but the incidental effects reach into Northumbria, Strath-cluyd, and Scotland. Thus the king marched to Buckingham, Bedford, Maldon, Tocefter, and Colchefter, to Stamford, Thelwell, Nottingham, and Bakewell, all in Mercia. But the effect of his march to Colchester was, that many of the Eaft-Angles, many of the Eaft-Saxons, and all the army of the Eaft-Angles, offered him their allegiance. And the effect of his march to Nottingham and Bakewell was, that Northumbria, Strath-cluyd, and ScotJand submitted. The effect of both marches was merely incidental; just as incidental as another in the fame Chronicle, concerning the fame king, under 922; when Edward rode to Tamworth, on the death of his fifter Ethelfleda there, and "all Mercia, that had been under her, turned to him, and the king of North-Wales, with all the North-Welth, fought him for their lord." We might just as reasonably, from this event,

fix Tamworth in North-Wales, as place Badecanwyllan in Pictland. We may as well indeed tranfplant both to the moon, yet he, who could undertake a new translation of the Old Teftament for Chriftians of the Romish communion, but in his very preface to deny the infpiration of it, and even degrade the antiquity of the five earliest books in it, and furmiling them to be drawn up about the days of David, from fome ancient writings, he knows not what or whence, may be allowed to turn the Peak of Derby thire into the reign of the Picts, and transform the Saxon Bakewell into fome town or other with a Pictifh appellation.

Mr. Heron's Hiftory, as it is called, confifts in the first part of fixty pages of narrative, and a hundred and feventy eight of differtation. In the latter is the excellence of the work: Mr. Heron's mind feems particularly fitted for the bufinefs of differtation; and, unfettered by the manacles of facts, expatiates with dignity and grace on this kind of fairy ground.

Hiftory," he fays in p. 61, " performs but half her task, when The records only the public tranfactions of a nation. The events are comparatively few, which relate at once to the common interets of a whole people. It is private life, that exhibits the most interesting and molt inftructive fcenes. Human character, unmarked by cir cumftance or habit, is too general to be clearly and difcriminately comprehended by the intellect. To imprefs the imagination, feeling and action must be difplayed in their minute modifications. How little is to be known of the energies and capacities of human nature, by furveying only the co. bats of army with army, or the nego iations of ftate with ftate. The domeftic labours, enquiries, difcoveries, opinions, and enjoyments of a people, are, therefore, not lefs avorthy* to be commernorated in hiftory, than their wars and political tranfactions. That would undoubtedly be the most perfect form of hif torical compofition, in which the hiftorian should, with the art of the epic poet, intermingle the hiftory of manners with that of policy, fo as to work them up together into one beautiful and orderly whole. But the hiftory of familiar life confifts of fo great a multitude of detached particulars, as to be hardly fufceptible of fuch curious perfection of structure: and, in the diftribution of parts, it is the tafte of the age rather to fubdivide than to combine."

On this principle Mr. Heron fets out in differtations.. We fhall felect fome paffages from there, in order to do full juftice to his work. "The animals of thefe forefts and moraffes were not numerous. Several were ferocious; and they were almost all wild," as all the inhabitants of forefts and

Mr. Heron's argument required him rather to have faid, are not less neceffary

moraffes

moraffes were certain to be. "Wolves and foxes lurked among the thickets, in caves, on the mountains, and in the depth of the woods; and preyed almost as rapaciously as their human neighbours;" (a fuggeftion, even against the rude state of fociety in Britain, as outrageous as it is novel)" on the gentler animals of which thefe had not yet affumed the care." This is another ftroke of wild fublimity, in defcribing what Mr. Heron calls, a few lines preceding," the first period" of the Scotch hiftory, the period prior to the Roman invasion of the ifle. Then, as we are pofitively informed, concerning every part of the ifland, the interior as well as the maritime, the northern equally with the fouthern, the inhabitants had a great number of cattle; "Britanniæ pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in infulâ ipfà memoriâ proditum dicunt; maritima pars ab iis, qui-ex Belgis tranfierant;-pecoris magnus numerus" (Cæfar v. 12). And, as to the rude state of fociety among them," ex his omnibus longe funt humanissimi, qui Cantium incolunt ;-interiores plerique," not all even of them, "frumenta non ferunt, fed lacte et carne vivunt." Nay, we even find that leporem et gallinam et anferem gustare fas non putant, hæc tamen alunt animi voluptatifque caufâ." (v. 14. 12). So very civilized, and fo thoroughly domefticated, were even the northern Britons at that period! But let us proceed with Mr. Heron.

"The Aurocks, whofe bones and horns are yet often found buried under many layers of earth, were the largest of the ancient Caledonian quadrupeds; although not nourished by carnage, yet the flightest provocation was, at any time, enough to exafperate them to rage; and their rage was death, to almost every other inhabitant of the foreft.".

Thefe aurocks, of which we remember not to have ever heard before, are either the mere creatures of romancing fiction, like the rocks and the hipps-griffins of other regions, and should not have been mentioned at all; or are the moofe-deer of our whole ifle and of Ireland, noticed particularly by one of our local antiquaries, and fhould, therefore, have been mentioned as deer*. "But let us defcend from this higher region with our author, and bring him down to the very invafion of the Ro

mans.

"Hunting and fishing appear to have been the chief means by which the Maate and Caledonians procured their fubfiftence; at a time when they were invaded by Agricola. In fuch a country as that which they inhabited, there could be little agriculture, and hardly any regular pafturage of flocks or herds of domestic animals. Caves

* Whitaker's Hift. of Manchefter, octavo, 11,92-94.

in the rocks; round huts wrought of wattles and daubed with clay; and, perhaps, logs of wood, or loofe ftones piled in artificially toge ther, and covered on the roof with ferns or brambles, were the only habitations in which they knew to fhelter themfelves."

We have already fhown from Cæfar, that all the Britons except the fouthern lived upon milk and flefb meat," and bred a large quantity of cattle." The moit northerly indeed were fo far from having "little agriculture," that they had none at all: and, therefore, lived upon flefh-meat and milk alone. But they must have had, for that very reason, a large pafturage of flocks," and numerous "herds of domeftic animals," Their houfes too were not fuch as this caricature-painter, in mere unthinking fpleen, delineates them. They were, as Cefar tells us, exprefsly of thofe in the north as well as the fouth of the ifle, nearly fimilar to the houfes in Gaul; "hominum eft infinita multitudo, creberrimaque ædificia fere Gallicis confimilia.” (v. 12). So utterly untrue is Mr. Heron's account! He afterwards allows, indeed, that "they had horfes and chariots of war;" and, by the allowance annihilates his prior account. The nation must have arrived at no fmall degree of skill in the manual arts, that could fabricate a chariot for war. But Mr. Heron endeavours to take off the confequence of the British chariot in battle, by alledging," it feems, to have been rather for the fake of the terror which their horfes and carriages produced, by their very appearance, for the confufion which they occafioned by their march, and for the convenience of flight, than for any advantage in actual combat, that they brought them to the field of battle." This is equally in the fame ftrain of degrading falfity' as the reft. The very chariots in this battle with Agricola are acknowledged by Tacitus to have ftruck a terror into the Romans at first," recentem terrorem intulerant." (Agric. Vit. 36.) In their operations against Cæfar alfo, they engaged his horfe with so much activity and fuccefs, that Cæfar was obliged to keep his horfe clofe to the foot during his march; "magno cum periculo noftrorum equitum, cum iis confligebat, atque hoc metu latius vagari prohibebat." (v. 19.) Even in Agricola's battle, the chariots were fo little ufed merely "for the convenience of flight," that, when the horfe, to whom they were attached, had fled, they fled not themfelves, but moved and attached themfelves to the foot; "equitum turmæ fugâre, covinarii peditum fe prælio mifcuère;" So thoroughly is untruth incorporated into every part of a work, which has, however, many ingenious, many ftriking paffages.

(To be continued.)

ART.