peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_041

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: GENERAL

itself southwards right through north-west Northumbria and past Carlisle to Cumberland,
probably near the beginning of the 10th century. By about 960 the Northumbrians had had to
abandon Lothian as far east as Edinburgh and Inveresk to the Gaelic Scots, and in 975 they
were obliged to cede to the Scots the whole of what was still left them in southern Scotland as
far as the Tweed - a cession which was permanently confirmed at the defeat of Carham in 1016
or 1018.
The position of Peeblesshire in all this is unclear. If the Angles had scarcely settled the
region by the 9th-10th centuries, as the place-names suggest, they are not likely to have done
so in force during the second phase, and it seems probable that, like Dunfriesshire and parts of
Cumberland, the county fell wholly under the control of Strathclyde at this time and that the
Brittonic character of the population was therefore fortified. That this really happened, and
that the county did not form part of the region ceded to the Scots, seems to be suggested by the
fact that when we first see a clear picture of the diocesan organisation Peeblesshire was part of
the bishopric of Glasgow, not of that of St. Andrews which had inherited the remnant of the
English diocese of Lindisfarne (later Durham) in south-east Scotland.
Nevertheless Peeblesshire must have been undergoing a considerable Gaelicisation, so far
as a class of landowning overlords was concerned, already in the later part of the second phase.
Gaelic influences would penetrate south from Midlothian from about 960; moreover they would
come from the west too, for Strathclyde itself was under Gaelic control during the middle of
the 10th century and was eventually more or less integrated into the Gaelic kingdom of "Scot-
land" early in the 11th. As a result, southern Scotland must have been settled in the 10th-11th
centuries by an influx of Gaelic-speaking colonists to whom lands were granted, as appears
from the considerable number of Gaelic place-names, notably those of land-holdings, through-
out the region (Peeblesshire has more than twice as many Gaelic names as Cumbric), though
they are distinctly less common in Berwickshire and Roxburghshire. Good examples in Peebles-
shire are Romanno, Garvald, Fingland, and the various Kips; respectively Rath Manach "the
Rath of the Monks", Garbhallt "the Rough Dingle", Finnghlenn "the Fair Glen", and Cep
"the Block".
The third phase is only beginning at the end of the Dark Ages. Both Cumbric and Gaelic
eventually died out throughout southern Scotland, and this was due ultimately to a revival and
spread of the English element, which was fortified and encouraged as a consequence of the
policy of the sons of Malcolm III and Queen Margaret, notably David I. The whole situation is
neatly summarised by the history of the names for Eddleston. At first this was the Cumbric
Penteiacob or Peniacob, by the 12th century it was called Gillemorestun, and Peniacob is then
said to have been its name "formerly" and "long ago". The implication is that it had become
the property of a Gaelic overlord called Gille Moire ("the Servant of St. Mary"), and that the
local population therefore called it "Gille Moire's tun"; also that that population itself was
English-speaking. Then, at some time before 1189, it was granted to one Edulf son of Utred,
both English names, and was therefore re-named "Edulf's tun". Here are Cumbric, Gaelic, and
"Inglis" names in due chronological order, and the total omission of early Anglian is significant
and symbolical. "Edulf's tun" is demonstrably a late 12th-century name, and the fact is that
none of the other early English names in the county, such as Edston, Wormiston, etc., need
necessarily be any older than the 11th-12th centuries. A list of personal names of certain

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