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Ireland and the Making
living on the higher ground still speak
of Britain
guage. John Major, writing about 1520, says
their own lan-
that one
half of Scotland spoke Gaelic in his time and that many
more did so a short time previously. 1
He adds that "we
(i. e., the Scottish people) trace our descent from the
Irish. This we learn from the English Bede. Their
speech is another proof of this," and again, "I say then
from whosoever the Irish traced their descent from the
same source come the Scots tho at one remove, as with
son and grandfather."
In the same century Bishop Leslie wrote his De Gesris
Scotorum, which Father Dalrymple
translated into
English in 1596. The latter says that the "mair politick
Scottis," by which phrase he translates the bishop's poli-
tiores Scoti, use the "Ingles toung," and that "the rest
of the Scottis .... thay use thair aide Irishe tongue."
About 1630 James Howell wrote that "the ancient lan-
guage of Scotland is Irish, which the mountaineers and
divers of the plain retain to this day." 2
Irish annalists,
moreover, nowhere mention any racial difference between
lowland Scots on the one hand and highland Scots and
the Irish themselves on the other. To them Scotland is
simply a kindred province or kingdom, and the frequent
use of the phrase "Eire agus Alba" shows their recognition
of the essential oneness of the people of both coun-
tries. Thus Armagh in the twelfth century was the
national university for Ireland and Scotland. The decree
that every lector in every church had to take there a degree
applied to both countries and in 1169 the High King,
Ruaidhri Ua Concobhair, gave the first annual grant to
maintain a professor at Armagh
the Scots."
1 Historic of Scotland, I, 85, 86.
2 Familiar Letters, Book II, Letter 65.
332
"for all the Irish and