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GLASSARIE WRITS 237
adversns quoscunque mortales in guerra et in pace.' And in 1510
Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy granted to his son Archibald
Campbell, afterwards of Glen Lyon, certain lands in Lome for
inter alia the service of a ship of 8 oars when required {ibid.,
II. i. p. 108).
Robert i. no doubt felt the need for strength by sea as well as
by land. He was not likely to forget the galleys of Alexander of
Argyll, or of his son John, who had even for a time commanded an
English fleet. But though he may have desired to develop the
sea-power of his kingdom by means of these charter obligations,
it does not follow the burden was a new one. On the contrary,
long before his time military service by sea was in vogue among
the Celts of the West.
Dr. Skene (vol. iii. p. 235), founding on the Chronicles of the
Picts and Scots, says that 'the Feachtamara or sea expedition of
each tribe in Dalriada was attached to each twenty houses corresponding
to the twenty penny lands which formed the davach
in the West.' And in 1304 John of Strathbolgy, Earl of Athol,
wrote to Edward i. that he had been informed by the Earl of
Ross and the Bishop of Ross that Lochlan (probably a MacRuari)
and his friends have ordered that each dawach of land shall furnish
a galley of twenty oars (Bain, Calendar of Docume?its, ii. 16'33). In
all probability, too, the galleys of Alexander of Argyll and his son
were part of the sea service due by those who held under them
the great territories of their house. If further support is required
for this view it seems to be afforded by a charter by David n. to
Ranald MacRuari, in which the reddendo for Uist and other isles
as well as Garmoran is 'faciendo tarn per mare quam per terrain
servitia consueta' (Act. Pari. Scut., vol. xii. p. 7).
It has already been suggested that the land service of the old
Celtic kingdom furnished the basis of the legislation whereby Robert
i. and other sovereigns sought to secure the safety of the realm.
The same thing seems to hold good of the sea service now under
consideration. For it alone seems to explain the terms of
an Act passed in 1430, which enacts: 'It is statute and ordanit
that al baronis and lordis hafand landis and lordschippis near the
see in the west and on the north partis and namely foment the
ylis that thai haf galayis that is to say of ilk four merkis worth of
lande are aire. And that is til understande of thaim that ar not
feft of galayis before, for thai that ar infeft of befor sal kep and
uphalde the galayis that thai are infeft of and haldyn to sustene
be thare auld feftment. Ande at the said galayis be maid and