Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/101

Rh twenty years after the death of David, says that the towns and burghs of Scotland were then chiefly occupied by English inhabitants. We know, too, that in the next reign numbers of Flemings left England and took refuge in Scotland. "We can trace the settlement of these industrious citizens," says Mr. Tytler, " during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in almost every part of Scotland; in Berwick, the great mart of our foreign commerce; in the various towns along the east coast; in St. Andrew's, Perth, Dumbarton, Ayr, Peebles, Lanark, Edinburgh; and in the districts of Renfrewshire, Clydesdale, and Annandale. There is ample evidence of their industrious progress in Fife, in Angus, in Aberdeenshire, and as far north as Inverness and Urquhart. It would even appear, from a record of the reign of David II., that the Flemings had procured from the Scottish monarchs a right to the protection and exercise of their own laws. It has been ingeniously conjectured that the story of Malcolm IV. having dispossessed the ancient inhabitants of Moray, and of his planting a new colony in their stead, may have originated in the settlement of the Flemings in that remote and rebellious district. The early domestic manufactures of our country, the woollen fabrics which are mentioned by the statutes of David, and the dyed and shorn cloths which appear in the charter of William the Lion to the burgh of Perth, must have been greatly improved by the superior dexterity and knowledge of the Flemings; and the constant commercial intercourse which they kept up with their own little states could not fail to be beneficial in imparting the knowledge and improvements of the continental nations into the remoter country where they had settled." A manuscript in the Cottonian Library, the work of a contemporary writer, is quoted by Mr. Macpherson for the fact, that in the reign of David I., the Frith of Forth was frequently covered with boats manned by English, Scottish, and Belgic fishermen, who were attracted by the great abundance of fish (most probably herrings) in the