strong standing armies and to govern large counties on the frontier. On the Welch frontier were established the marches of Cheshire, Shropshire, and Herfordshire. On the Scottish border similar great earldoms, like Northumberland, were created. The Lords Marchers were instructed to be prepared to meet and repulse all raids of the highlanders and to return their attacks in an effort to finally subjugate them and to add their territories to the possessions of the English Crown. The presence of these powerful barons did much to lessen the evils of border raids, but the very danger which William foresaw and feared when he created these strong guardians of the peace soon threatened the Crown of England. The Barons upon several occasions rose in revolt and in their attacks upon the Crown they were strongly supplemented by the very people whom they were to subdue. Chief among these uprisings was that in 1399, when Owen Glendower, a Welchman attempting to reestablish the independence of Wales, joined with the earls of Northumberland, Worcester and Douglas in their revolt against the authority of the English Crown. This rebellion was finally put down but raids and conspiracies continued along the borders, especially the Scottish border, until the final union of the crowns and the parliaments of Scotland and England in 1707. Thus, for over seventeen hundred years did the raiding expeditions of the highlanders play an important part in the making of the history of Great Britain.

As one might easily imagine, the effect of these raids was not solely to put the natives of the lowlands on the defensive. Offensive expeditions were often sent out to pursue the impudent highlanders and to effect, if possible, the conquest of their mountain fastnesses. The dispatching of such expeditions with their results logically brings us to the last great geographic factor influencing the history of Great Britain; that of the strategic position of the avenues of approach into the highland regions.

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF WALES

Of the two highland regions, Wales was the more accessible due to its smaller area and to the greater number of passes into it. Its central highlands are tapped by a number of valleys which, cut out by the head-waters of the Severn River, slope to the eastward. To the south of the mountains runs a fairly wide coastal plain along which access to the western coast is relatively easy. To the north runs another coastal plain, narrower than that to the south. The connection of this plain with the west is, however, cut off by the Snowdon Mountains in northwestern Wales. These mountains also extend westward nearly to the coast. Hence, guarded from approach by either the northern or the western coastal plains, the region to the north-west of the Snowdons is an extremely isolated part of Wales, in fact, the most isolated of any of its parts. This district, known in ancient times as Gwyneth, was the last of the Welch strongholds to fall before the Norman kings.

In the invasion of Wales, little was accomplished prior to the Norman Conquest. After William's subjugation of England he directed a blow at Wales but without any marked effect. In the next century Henry II flung armies into Wales upon three occasions but all these attempts were failures. The pioneer work of conquering the Welch mountaineers was not to be done by the Crown, but was accomplished by the Lords Marchers located on the Welch border. These individuals, in their counter attacks upon the highland raiders worked up the valleys of the Severn tributaries and along the southern and northern coasts until by Edward I's reign they had subdued all of Wales except the province of Gwyneth. In this well protected corner of the Welch Highlands the last of the independent Welch evaded the enemy successfully by retreating up the Snowdons when attacked. All attempts to starve them out were fruitless, for but a short distance off shore to their rear lay the island of Anglesey from which provisions could be secured in abundance. With the accession of Edward I to the throne of England came, however, the death-knell of this last stronghold of a brave and independent people. Edward determined to accomplish the downfall of this last source of disturbance in Wales. Leading an army by the northern coastal plain and sending his navy to occupy the strait separating Anglesey Isle from the mainland, Edward succeeded in besetting the Welch from front and rear. Thus surrounded, the fate of the brave defenders in the Snowdons was sealed. Surrender and British rule was all that remained for them. In this manner was stamped out the last trace of Welch independence which the highlands had fostered and maintained for centuries. Wales was conquered because of the natural weaknesses in its strategic position resulting from the presence of a number of fairly easy avenues of approach into its highland areas. Scotland, however, was not to be thus betrayed by Nature.

THE NATURAL STRENGTH OF SCOTLAND

In the consideration of the strategic position of the avenues of approach into the Scottish Highlands, the passes of the Southern Highlands will not be considered, for, although they were the sites of several notable battles and figured to some extent in the affairs of Britain, they never were a decisive force in influencing the history of the island. Lying between two great lowland areas and cut by several convenient passes, they never became a serious hindrance to the advance of the power of the nation inhabiting the lowlands of England.

The approach to the highlands north of the Midland Plain was, however, from the beginning of recorded history in Britain down to 1707 a constant challenge to invading forces and the strength of Highland Scotland's secure and impregnable position. But one practical route was available for movement into the Highlands north of the Midland Plain. A succession of low hills, the Campsie, the Ochils and the Sidlaws, extending from east to

area.

west across the northern part of the Midland Plain or Great Rift Valley, is the first barrier to be encountered in an advance toward the Highland Through these hills there is but one convenient pass, namely, that made by the River Forth between the Ochils and the Campsies. This pass being at the head of the only route to the Scottish Highlands early became an avenue of great strategic value. On its site the Scots erected a strong castle, Sterling Castle, and for the possession of this important fortification, several memorable battles were fought including that of Bannockburn. North of this important pass the pathway into Scotland led along the eastern coastal plain to the eastern end of Glenmore. Along this highway an invading army, which had succeeded in passing the first barrier at Sterling, was further liable to obstruction on a march to Glenmore by narrow places in the plain where the Scots upon the higher ground could offer a stubborn resistance. Chief among these points of strategic advantage was the region about Dunbar. Here the Highland forces met Cromwell while he was on his expedition to effect the subjugation of Scotland. With more valor than generalship the Scottish army gave up the vantage point which they held and descended to the plain where they met defeat at the hands of Cromwell's well trained army. As to the strategic value of Glenmore little can be said, for no army of invasion ever attempted to use it as a means of entering the highlands. The union of Scotland and England came before any English army reached either of its termini with a force strong enough to attempt the expedition. After the union it did become important as a means of crushing insurrections and eventually in breaking up the clan system in the remote highland areas. Three forts were erected along this great valley in order to preserve the peace. There is no doubt but what Glenmore was to the Scotch what Menai Strait was to the Welch only it was much stronger in being impossible of investment from the sea. The Scotch Highlands also had the advantage over the Welch Highlands in that the central part of its highlands are, with but one exception, free from the easy valley routes which tap the Welch mountains, and further, approach along a coastal plain is limited to but one route in Scotland whereas Wales is nearly circumscribed by such lowlands. These facts easily explain why Wales fell before the power of England while Scotland was long able to remain unconquered.

Thus, from almost the beginning of human life in the highlands of Great Britain down to the present time, the isolation of the highlands, their climate and soil, and the strategic position of the avenues leading into them have all, either singly or collectively, been an important factor in shaping the history of Great Britain.

INFLUENCE OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SCOTLAND

UPON THE PEOPLE

(From Geikie's "The Scenery of Scotland.)

HE connection between the physical features of a country and the his

"TH tory and temperament of its people has hardly received, from either

historians or geologists, the attention which it deserves. Though not obtrusive, it is real and close, and amid other and more potent influences has never ceased to play its part in the moulding of national character and progress. It may be seen (1) in the distribution and migration of races; (2) in the historical development of a people; (3) in industrial and commercial progress; and (4) in national temperament and literature. I propose briefly to refer to the illustrations which these questions receive in Scotland.

(1) "The fundamental distinction between highlands and lowlands has had a powerful effect on the wanderings and ultimate grouping of the different races of mankind. Nowhere can the influence of this topographical contrast be better observed than in Scotland. The Scottish Highlands, sharply defined against the Lowland plains, and washed around their other sides by the stormy Atlantic Ocean, offered in rude times a wild and almost inaccessible asylum against invasion. There the original Gaelic population has been able to maintain itself, while wave after wave of hostile immigrants has broken against the bases of the hills. The Cymri, who came after the Gaels, possessed themselves of the southern part of the country; but they do not seem ever to have advanced beyond the limits of their Strathclyde territories. The Romans carried their conquests up to the borders of the Highlands, but there was nothing among those dark mountains to invite them. farther. They marched into the northern wilds, indeed, but it was rather for vainglory and to punish their savage assailants than with the view of permanent occupation. And so tracing their wall and planting their forts across the narrowest part of the island, they were content to let the Highlanders keep their fastnesses.

"When the next wave of conquest brought successive hordes of Norsemen and Danes from beyond the sea to our shore, the same physical features, which had guided and limited the march of the southern invaders, once more set bounds to the progress of the Vikings from the north.

"The lowlands of the northern counties and of the Midland Valley lay open to the war-boats of the pirates, and there, driving out or absorbing the Celtic population, the Teutons firmly planted themselves. But they never pushed their way far into the mountains. Down to this day, in spite of the slow but unceasing diffusion and amalgamation of the races, the geological boundary between the rough ground of the crystalline schists on the one hand, and the drift-covered plains of the Moray Firth on the other, is still in great measure the boundary of the Gaelic-speaking and English-speaking popula

tions. On these fertile lowlands, we hear only English spoken, often with a northern accent, or with some northern words that seem to remind us of the Norse blood which flows in the veins of the hardy fisherfolk and farmers. We there come upon groups of villages and towns. The houses, though often poor and dirty, are for the most part solidly built of hewn stone and mortar, with well-made roofs of thatch, tile, slate, or flagstone. The fuel in ordinary use is coal, brought by sea from the south.

"But no sooner do we advance within the Highland districts of the crystalline schists than all the human associations of the ground, as well as its physical aspect, appear changed. Gaelic, though slowly dying out, is still over wide regions the vernacular tongue. There are few or no villages. The houses, built of boulders gathered from the soil, and held together with mere clay or earth, are covered with frail roofs of ferns, straw, or heather, kept down by stone-weighted ropes of the same materials. Fireplaces and chimneys are luxuries not yet universally adopted, and the pungent blue smoke from fires of peat or turf finds its way out by door and window, or beneath the begrimed rafters. The contrast of geological structure and scenery which allowed the Teutonic invaders to drive the older Celtic people from the coast-line, but prevented them from advancing inland, has sufficed during all the subsequent centuries to keep the two races apart."

Speaking of the influence of environment upon national temperament, Geikie says, regarding the differences manifest in the Irish Celts and the Highland Celts of Scotland, "I am disposed to regard this difference in temperament as traceable in great measure to the peculiar condition of the Highlander's environment. Placed in a glen, often narrow and rocky, and separated from his neighbors in the next glens by high ranges of rugged hills, he has had to contend with a scant and stony soil, and a wet, cold, and uncertain climate. He has to wage with the elements a never-ending battle, wherein he is often the loser. The dark mountains, that frown above him, gather around their summits the cloudy screen which keeps the sun from ripening his miserable patch of corn, or rots it with perpetual rains as it lies week after week on the sodden field. He stands among the mountains face to face with nature in her wilder moods. Storm and tempest, mist-wreath and whirl-wind, the roar of waterfalls, the rush of swollen streams, the crash of loosened landslips, which he may seem hardly to notice, do not pass without bringing, unconsciously perhaps, to his imagination their ministry of Hence the playful mirthfulness and light-heartedness of the Celtic temperament have, in his case, been curdled into a stubbornness which may be stolid obstinacy or undaunted perseverance, according to the circumstances which develop it. Like his own granitic hills, he has grown hard and enduring, not without a tinge of melancholy, suggestive of the sadness that lingers among his wind-swept glens, and that hangs about the birken slopes around his lonely lakes."