À T O U R
TtTMULt.
Servavit cives. Vidorem reppulit hoilem.
Unus cum natis agminis inliar erat.
H ie Decios agnofce tuos magna: aemula Rom#,
A u t prior hac ; aut te his Scotia major adhuc*.
The noble families of Hay derive their defcent from this ruffle
hero, and, in memory of the aition, bear for their arms the inftru-j
ment of their victory, with the al’lufive motto of fub jugo. Tradition
relates, that the monarch gave this deliverer of his country,
in reward, as much land as a greyhound would run over in a certain
time, or a falcon would furround in its flight: and the ilory
fays that he chofe the laft.
Over this trait are fcattered numbers of Tuinuli^ in which are
frequently found bones and entire ikeletons, fometimes lodged in
rude coiflns, formed of ftones, difpofed in that form ; at other
times depofited only in the earth of the barrow. In one place is
an upright ftone, fuppofed to have been laid over the place of fe-
pulture of the Danijh leader. The prefent names of two places on:
this plain certainly allude to the aition and to the vanquiihed
enemy. Turn again Hillock points out the place where the. tor
rallied, and a fpot near eight Tumuli, called Danemerk, may defign
the place of greateft flaughter.
Continue my ride through a fine plain, rich in corn ; the crops
of wheat excellent. The noble Tay winds boldly on the left; the
eaftern borders are decorated with the woods of - Scone. The fine
bridge now completed, the city of Perth, and the hills and rifing I
woods beyond, form a moil beautiful finiihing of the profpeit.
* J o b . JonJioni Heroes Scoti,
P erth ,;
I N S C O T L A N ‘ D. 73
§ P e r t h , till about the year 1 4 3 7 * , the capital of Scotland, and P e r t h .
refidence of its princes, the feat of its parliaments and its courts of
juitice, is placed in the middle of a verdant plain, which it divides
into two parts, one called the north, and the other the fouth, Inch.
Boethius afferts that it is not of any great antiquity, and that it
was founded by William the Lion, after the deftrudtion of Bertha,
A. D. 1210, a place about two miles to the north. He adds, that
William gave his new foundation the name of St. John's Town, in
honor of the faint ; but other writers pretend that it firit .had the
name of Perth from the owner of the land on which it was built : but
it is more probable that the derivation is from the antient Bertha.
ft But leaving the uncertainty of etymology ; it is clear that Perth
is much more antient than Boethius feems to admit. That it was a
place of commerce in the year 1128, is evident from the charter of
David I. to the abby of Holyrood houfe, in which he gives the
monks a hundred ihillings out of his fmall tithes there, or out of
the duties arifing from the firit merchant fhips which might arrive
in that port J : And that it was a town of itrength in 1160, is
equally apparent from the fiege of Malcolm IV. which it fuftained
that year againft Feretach, Earl of Strathern, who was obliged to
retire from before the place J. It is undeniably true that Perth
fuffered a great misfortune from an inundation at the time Boethius
#as mentioned, which deitroyed feveral houfes, carried away the
»ridge, and obliged the king and royal family to fave themfelves in
a little boat II. The town flood then on, or nearly on, the fame
Gall*s Gabions, 24. 4 Maitland's Hill. Edinburgh 1 4 ;.
Î Roger de Hoveden, inter S erif, fo ft Be dam. 492. || Major, 138.
L ground