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who prayed to be a Templar was warned that he must rise when he wished to sleep; he must endure fatigue when he needed rest; he inust suffer hunger and thirst when he wished to eat and drink; and he must go into a different country from the one in which he wished to remain. King William's brother, David, Earl of Huntingdon, is said to have gone on a crusade with Richard the Lion-hearted, and it was on his return from the Holy Land that, according to old tradition, he founded Dundee. The story is, that on his way home a vehement tempest arose between Norway and the Orkneys. In the midst of this extreme jeopardy, after he had made a vow to build a church in the honour of the Virgin Marie, if he might escape that danger of the seas, he arrived at length in Tay water beside Dundee,. . . without rudder or tackle. The place where he arrived, before that time hight Alectum, but he then changed the name, and called it Dundee, which signifieth as though ye should say, the gift of God, Donum Dei.'1 . . . Earl David, according as he had vowed, built a church. He also built an abbey called Lindores, for monks of the Tyronensian order in 1178, and in the following year the Earl of Buchan founded Fyvie, for the same order, which was affiliated to Arbroath. In the same reign Richard de Moreville founded Kilwinning for Tyronensians, the Cistercian abbey of Glenluce, and the Augustinian abbey of Inchaffray were also founded, and a monastery was erected at Dalmulin for monks and nuns of the English order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham. In the year 1203, Iona or Hy appears for the last time in the Irish Annals. Amongst the latest records of the holy island, the

1 Hollinshead's Chronicle, p. 385. In this reign the town of Perth, near the confluence of the Almond and the Tay, having been overwhelmed by a flood, was rebuilt in its present situation, and called St. Johnstone.

existence of many silent lives is revealed, whose unrecorded history was as separated from the world and its strife as their dwelling-place was alone in the ocean, for late in the twelfth century, or early in the thirteenth, Reginald, Lord of the Isles, erected there a monastery of Benedictines (probably of Tyron), and a Benedictine nunnery. After a lingering illness William the Lion died at Stirling, on the 4th of December 1214, and was buried at Arbroath. He was in the seventy-second year of his age, and the forty-ninth of his reign. His only legitimate son was in his seventeenth year, and he succeeded to the throne as Alexander II.

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"Ye lied, ye lied, ye warlock hoar !

For the sun shines sweet on fauld and lea."

IIe put his hand on Earlie's head,

He show'd him a rock beside the sea
Where a king lay stiff beneath his steed,
And steel-dight nobles wiped their ee.'
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

ALEXANDER II.'s predecessors had given themselves and the English kings much trouble by laying claims to portions of the northern counties of England. Alexander wisely renounced these pretensions, and we find that in the year 1222 there was an attempt made to measure an exact frontier line between England and Scotland. The existence of a tract near the Borders called the Debateable Land proves that the measurement was never actually accomplished.1 Henry III. presented Alexander II. with certain manors in Cumberland and Northumberland, and for this

1 Towards the end of this reign there was a threatening of war with England. It was however averted, and a most pacific arrangement was made in the Treaty of Newcastle.'

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he did an elegant but nominal homage by bringing a falcon to Carlisle Castle every year. After the annulment of the treaty of Falaise there was a hundred years of peace with England. A touching interest hangs round that one brief period in the history of the chosen race, when there is a pause in the career of exterminating warfare, and every man rested under his own fig-tree; so many a time from the chronicle of misery the reader of this country's history turns back to that happy hundred years. If ever the bright side of the middle ages predominated, it was under the excellent government of the last Alexanders. The farmers of the abbot and the baron were discovering the fertility of the broad valleys of Scotland, and fields and orchards began to spread over many a wasted moor. A lively commercial intercourse was opened up with other countries-the common exports were wool, skins, great quantities of fish, salted and cured, horses, sheep, and cattle, and more rarely pearls, falcons, and greyhounds; and among the imports were fine linen and silks, broadcloth, rich carpets and tapestry, wine, oil of olives, spices, and confections of all kinds, drugs, arms, armour, and cutlery.1 Foreign trade carried on to this extent implied a considerable naval equipment for mercantile purposes alone. 'The first mention of coal in Scotland is found in a charter granted in 1291 to the abbot and convent of Dunfermline, giving them the privilege of digging coal in the lands of Pittencrief, but the first workers of the mineral are supposed to have been the monks of Newbattle Abbey.'2 Wood and peat and charcoal continued however the common fuel, and it was not till wood became scarce that attention was turned to the ‘black stanes.' We hear of King David's silver

1 See Tytler's History of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 305-307.
2 Bremner's Industries of Scotland, p. 2.

mine in Cumberland; iron was dug and wrought in the thirteenth century in the forests of Moray, and in the twelfth century there is evidence that gold was found. From very early times the natives had discovered gold in the riverbeds, and with the aid of stone hammers they formed it into rude personal ornaments, and were reproachfully characterized by the Norsemen in their Sagas as 'the forlorn wearers of rings." The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed was the thriving centre of mercantile adventure in these days, and it was fast increasing in wealth and importance. In all the other burghs, whether the royal burghs, holding directly of the crown, or the burghs of regality and the lesser burghs of barony, holding of great lordships, trade was in active progress. These 'walled towns,' whose situation is generally exceedingly beautiful, owed their existence to St. David. His enlightened policy soon filled them with a crowd of willing settlers from Southern Britain and Flanders, who were guaranteed the enjoyment of even more, than the usual freedom and privileges under the royal protection.' A society marked by rare individuality and a curious exclusiveness existed within those quaint old walls. Those townsmen who arrived at the exalted position of provost, bailie, or bedell, were on no account to derogate from their dignity by making bread or brewing ale for sale; and every dyer, butcher, or tanner who worked at his calling with his own hands was excluded from the privileges of the burgherhood. No burgh was complete without a hospital; no royal burgh without a castle. Leprosy was the disease of the age. . . . Every one struck with leprosy within the walls was to be removed at once to the Spittal; and if he had nothing of his own a collection of twenty shil

1 See Bremner's Industries of Scotland, p. 115.
2 Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. i. p. 299.

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