Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/134

 cxxvi PEEFACE. that these additional kings are local kings, recorded by the one chronicler and not by the other. The " Pictish Chronicle " is, in fact, the " Chronicle of " Brechin," and probably records the kings of that part of the country ; on the other hand, the kings of the house of Ferat seem peculiarly connected with the district of Gowrie. Alpin is defeated at Mon- crief, and afterwards at Scone. Ferat, the son of Bargot, had his seat at Migdele, or Meigle ; and Druskin, the son of Ferat, was defeated, according to some, at Forteviot, according to others at Scone. It is probable that while the "Pictish Chronicle" records the kings who reigned over that part of the Pictish territories in which Brechin was situated, the later lists include those who reigned at Scone, whether they were kings of the whole of Pictland, or of the district around Scone only.^ The variation between the list of the Scottish ' f the SciTtf kings of Dakiada subsequent to the close of Bede's narrative is of much more importance, and enters far more deeply into the veiy foundation of Scottish V.iriation in 1 The " Irish Annals" record in 780 the death of " Elpin rex " Saxonum," which corresponds with the end of the reign of Alpin, son of Uroid or Ferat, and the district in which Scone and Meigle are situated appeai-s to have formed part of Oswy's conquest, so that this family may have been mainly supported by the Saxons. If he reigned thirty years in this district, it brings us to 750, in which the "Annals" record a great battle between the Picts and the Britons, in which the Picts were defeated, and the brother of Angus, son of Fergus, slain. His reign of sixteen years, allowing a year for the short reigns there given, brings us to 733, the year after the death of Nectan, son of Derde, in 732, and Garnad, son of Ferat, must have reigned in this district during the reigns of Nec- tan and Drust, that is, from 706 to 729.