The History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland

The Lowland-men are made up of divers Nations; for a few of them are a little remnant of the ancient Picts; other few are descended from the ancient Albins: who leaving the hills, after the defeat of the Picts, did betake themselves to the Low Country. Divers from the South parts of Britain, had fled thither from the Tyranny of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, as they did of old from the Tyranny of the Romans. Then the English, being so oft in Scotland with their Armies, have left divers in the Country. Also Marriages, and other private occasions, have drawn sundry men from England into Scotland. Lastly, sundry of the Low-Country people are come from beyond Seas, as from France, Germany, Hungary, Flanders, Ireland, &c. of late days: So all being reckoned, they are but few in the Low Country come of the old Albins, Brigantes, or old Picts.

The Lowland-men are made up of divers Nations; for a few of them are a little remnant of the ancient Picts; other few are descended from the ancient Albins: who leaving the hills, after the defeat of the Picts, did betake themselves to the Low Countrey. Divers from the South parts of Britannie, had fled thither from the Tyranny of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, as they did of old from the Tyranny of the Romans. Then the English, being so oft in Scotland with their Armies, have left divers in the Countrey. Also Marriages, and other private occasions, have drawn sundry men from England into Scotland. Lastly, sundry of the Low-Countrie people are come from beyond Seas, as from France, Germany, Hungary, Flanders, Ireland, &c. of late dayes: So all being reckoned, they are but few in the Low Countrey come of the old Albins, Brigantes, or old Picts.

The Low-Country men calls the High-landers Irish, not so much for their ancient descent, as for their language, only differing from the Irish by dialect; and for their ways of living not much unlike: yet one main difference is to be seen in the activity of the Scots, and the laziness of the Irish. On the other side, the Highlanders calls the Low-Country men ⟨image 21⟩Saxons, not so much for their descent (although many of them are come from the Southern people, as we have said, who are a Progeny of the Saxons) as for the language, which differeth only by dialect from the language of the South, which acknowledgeth the Saxon language for its mother Tongue, and for the way of living not so different, save that the Scots are harder bred, and consequently, more fitted for toiling at War namely, then the English are; for we see the English to have pain to toil, and endure Wars, at the first going to the Field, by reason of their tender and soft breeding. The language of the South-Britons of old, was not much different from that of the Gauls, from whence they came into Albion; witness Tacitus, in Agricola his Life: The Gauls then did speak a corrupt Greek,