Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/192

 cLxxxiv PREFACE. of the Scottish kingdom, the two Alpins were iden- tified, and the Scottish kingdom of Dakiada was extended over the intei'vening century. But the necessity of giving a much greater antiquity to the settlement of the Scots in the country, and a priority of occupation over the Picts, led to the Scottish kings of Dalriada being removed back, so as to place them entirely before the Pictish monarchy, and to give them a settlement in Scotland lonw prior to the Christian era. In this form of the fable the truth was preserved, that a period of Pictish rule did intervene between the two Scottish king- doms, although it was extended to the whole dura- tion of the Pictish monarchy, instead of being limited to the century of Pictish occupation in Dalriada. These two forms of the Scottish fable were finally combined in the scheme of history pro- pounded by John of Fordun. Chalmers, in his " Caledonia," early perceived an inconsistency between the legendary events of the life of Alpin, the father of Kenneth, with the facts recorded in the chronicles of Alpin, the last king of Scottish Dalriada ; for the former is said to have attacked the Pictish kingdom, to have fought his battles in the east of Scotland, and to have been defeated and slain at Pitelpin, said to be a corrup- tion of Basalpin, or the death of Alpin, in the Carse of Gowrie, while aU the chronicles state that the latter " occisus est in Gallowethia postquam eam " penitus destruxit et devastavit." Chalmers refers,