58
At the great epoch of the Roman invasion under Agricola in 80 A.D., the
Selgovse had several towns and many fortlets, which they defended with
characteristic valour against the Roman discipline (t).
The next antiquarian objects which are altogether worthy of a reasonable
curiosity are the Roman roads and Roman encampments, the Roman stations
as we see them opposed to the Selgovæ fortlets, the Roman armour and their
utensils, which are even now turned up from the soil below by the plough and
the spade (u).
When the Romans at length receded from their several positions in the
British Island, they probably left those descendants of the aboriginal Britons
improved in their habits, and converted from the practice of hunting to a
desire of settlement. They naturally on that memorable occasion, established
a government for themselves, according to the maxims of their British
progenitors, which inculcated independence as the only good of a free
people. It is apparent, however, from every intimation of the North British
annals, that the vast peninsula which is formed by the Solway, the Irish sea,
and the Clyde was inhabited by the British dependants of the Selgovæ,
the Novanti and the Damnii, who were seldom at rest among themselves
owing to their personal habits, or disengaged from disputes with their neigh-
bours arising from their independent principles. It was very seldom, indeed,
that the British tribes, wheresoever settled, ever united in repelling the invasion
and the waste of strangers. The known coasts of the Irish sea and the obvious
shores of the Clyde were overrun in 878 A.D. by the Danish Vikinger, who
roved in the ocean, and sought for plunder in every clime. The same
adventurers, sallying out from Northumberland in 875 A.D., wasted Galloway,
and overran Strath-Clyde, a kindred country. The Northumbrian Saxons
having thus invaded the peninsula, retained the ascendency which their
superiority of character for enterprise and union, more than their greatness of
numbers, had given them during the two subsequent centuries. The Saxon
plantation had always been inconsiderable in that peninsula, and the Saxon
authority became extinct at the end of the eighth century, when that peninsula
had not yet acquired the appropriate name of Galloway (x), which of old
included Dumfriesshire (y).
(t) Caledonia, 1, ch. iii.
(u) For the Roman works, roads, stations, and other antiquities in Dumfriesshire, see Caledonia, i.
pp. 105, 120-1. 133, 140, 151-4.
(x) Bede, who ceased to study and to write in 735 A.D., did not know the peninsula by the name of
Galloway.
(y) The Bern MS. Leges Scotie : De pace Domini Regis fracta.