Part 18

A perceptible and very remarkable evidence of this is the sympathy which the English people in general feel for the North, the ancient home of their fathers, and particularly for Denmark. The Englishman himself will generally aver, with a sort of pride, that he derives his descent from the North. A Dane travelling in England will everywhere find an unusually cordial reception. He will in general be regarded more as a countryman than as a foreigner, merely because he is a Dane. He will discover that the English, instead of having forgotten their kinsmen beyond the sea, with whom they were formerly united, feel themselves attracted to them by the ties of blood and friendship. He will continually hear complaints of the deplorable attitude which the policy of England assumed with regard to Denmark at the commencement of the present century; and he will adopt the conviction that in this mistaken policy, the people themselves, at least, were not to blame. He will at times be induced to forget that he is at a distance from his native land and from his nearest relatives; for the highly-striking agreement between the character of the English and that of their Scandinavian kinsmen causes a Dane to imagine that he is still among his own friends, in the home which he has long since left. It was certainly also something more than mere accident that, during the last war in Denmark, the Danish cause nowhere, out of the North itself, awakened such general sympathy among the people, nor found so many bold champions, both in speeches and publications, as in England. May we not in these facts trace the effects of near relationship, and perceive the ties of blood?

It should not pass altogether unnoticed that the sympathies of the English for Denmark, and their fraternal feeling towards the Danish people, have increased in proportion as they have been obliged to acknowledge that the Danes of modern times still know how to defend their independence, liberty, and honour, with the bravery inherited from their forefathers. Not to speak of the last contest, so glorious for Denmark, it is particularly the battle in Copenhagen Roads, the 2nd of April, 1801, which has maintained in England the ancient fame of Danish valour. The English regard this action not only as one of Nelson’s greatest triumphs, but as one of their most glorious naval battles, particularly on account of the sturdy resistance which they encountered. On Nelson’s monument in Westminster Abbey, on which his most glorious battles are recorded, that of Copenhagen is named first. Nelson himself describes the action as the bloodiest and most desperate he had ever beheld. That he is correct in this respect, and that he has not extolled the bravery of our nation merely to enhance his own, we Danes, at least, cannot doubt, since we cannot even admit that the battle must be unconditionally regarded as lost by us.

For the rest, it is remarkable how frequently the English confound the battle in Copenhagen Roads in 1801 with the carrying off of our fleet in 1807, and place these two entirely distinct events under one and the same head. The English historians have endeavoured gradually to conceal the dishonour attaching to the robbery of our fleet in 1807; and this has even been carried to such an extent, that the rising generation but too often reckons that ignominious act amongst Nelson’s triumphs. They imagine that the surrender of our fleet was the result of the battle in the Roads; and yet Nelson had fallen two years before, at the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. Fortunately for his honour, he was thus spared from partaking in the robbery of the fleet of a nearly-related people, with whom England was at peace.

But this is not the only error which the Dane must correct when he hears in England the name of Nelson extolled at the expense of Denmark and of historical truth. Yet he will find it difficult to refute another similar mistake, namely, a firm belief in Nelson’s “_complete victory_” in the battle of 1801. It is just as unshaken an article of faith among the British people that Nelson then gained a brilliant victory, as it is an acknowledged certainty, founded on fact, that at all events the battle was neither won by the English nor lost by the Danes. Nay it is certain that almost the whole of Nelson’s fleet would have been destroyed, or taken, if the Crown Prince of Denmark—for fear of engaging in a lengthened war with England, and from other purely political reasons, as well as, it must also be observed, at Nelson’s own request—had not put a stop to the battle. Curiously enough, in two of the finest poems which the English and Danish people can produce, Campbell’s “Battle of the Baltic,” and Hertz’s “Slaget paa Rheden,” the combat is represented in each as honourable to the respective nations.

Not long since, a Dane in England was led into a warm argument respecting the disputed result of this battle; when the master of the house suddenly recollected that an old invalid, who looked after the boats on the canals in the garden, had served under Nelson. He called out to him that “here was a Dane, and that he had certainly seen that sort of folks before.” “Yes, master,” answered the honest tar, “but on that day the Danes made it much hotter than we liked.”

This terminated the dispute. The time, however, in the order of Nature, cannot be far distant when the Dane in England may look in vain for such support from men who were present at the battle. He must then be contented to state his opinion, without the least hope of its carrying any weight; though he can, at all events, console himself with the reflection that, when the conversation turns on the mutual relations between England and Denmark, the latter may point to conquests of a very different, as well as far more important and altogether undisputed kind.

In the long series of brilliant victories, won not only by the Danish sword, but by the Danish national character in England, and which, by the conquest of that country, essentially contributed to found there a greatness and a power before unknown, the Danish people possess memorials so proud and brilliant, that they may be reckoned among the most beautiful ornaments in that glorious wreath which from time immemorial encircles the Danish name. We may safely leave them by the side of the best and most imposing memorials of most other nations.

THE NORWEGIANS IN SCOTLAND.

SECTION I.

Nature of Scotland.—The Highlands and Lowlands.—Population.—Original Inhabitants.

None of the seas of Europe are so rough and stormy as that which washes its northern and north-western coasts. Even in Jutland the effects of the cold north-west wind which sweeps down from the icy sea between Norway, Iceland, and Scotland, are severely felt. Along its west coast, for a distance of several miles inland, there are no woods, but only low stunted oak bushes, which in many places scarcely rise above the tall heather. Still farther eastward, and even in Funen and Zealand, which the north-west wind does not reach till it has passed over considerable tracts of land, it has such an influence on the woods, that in their western outskirts the trees are bent, and as it were scorched or blighted at the top. The North Sea, whose surges, breaking on the coast of Jutland, are heard even in calm weather far in the interior, rises to a fearful height during a storm. It would long since have washed over Jutland, and perhaps the whole of Denmark, if Nature had not placed sand-banks or shoals along the coast, as a sort of bulwark, against which the highest waves break harmlessly.

The North Sea is, however, an enclosed one, and little more than a bay of the Atlantic. Its swell is not so great, nor its storms so violent, as those of the open sea beyond, towards the north and west; where the Atlantic breaks on one side against Greenland and North America, and on the other against Norway, Scotland, and Ireland. The sand-banks and shoals which form a sufficient defence for Jutland against the North Sea, would there scarcely be able to resist the open and agitated ocean. On the extreme north-western coasts of Europe, the Atlantic has completely washed away the earth and sand; the bare cliffs, which often rise to a considerable height, alone remain, and still defy the fury of the waves. These rocky coasts, with their numerous towering and ragged crags, with their many and deeply-indented fiords, convey an idea of the power and greatness of the sea as striking as it is true. Everywhere outside lie rocky islands, which, like outposts, stop the advancing waves, and only allow them, if with increased speed, yet with diminished power, to approach the land through narrow channels, or sounds. During violent storms some of the islands are flooded by the sea, which, as it rolls forwards, strives to overtop the cliffs; whence it glides back, again to repeat the same vain attempt. The firm, rocky, isle-bound coasts of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, are evidently for Europe what the sand-banks and shoals of Jutland are for Denmark.

It is natural, therefore, that those countries which in the north-westernmost part of Europe lie farthest out towards the Atlantic Ocean—such as the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scotland, Ireland, and part of England—should have their highest and wildest mountains and cliffs towards the west, and in the neighbourhood of the sea. This is more clearly seen the farther we proceed northwards: namely, in the Scandinavian Peninsula and in Scotland.

In Norway the rocks often rise almost perpendicularly out of the sea. In the neighbourhood of the coast they reach a considerable height, and then sink gradually towards the east, until they lose themselves in the broad and comparatively low valleys of Sweden. Whole rows of islands lie scattered along the west coast of Norway, round which the sea often whirls in impetuous eddies. On the coast itself, where the land is most exposed to the bleak sea winds, such extensive forests are not to be seen as in the interior of the country; nor do any fertilizing streams wind their way through the short and narrow valleys. It is only here and there that the water from the rocky springs or melted snows, leaps, after a short course, over the edge of the cliff into the open sea, or into the deep fiords with which the coasts are everywhere indented. The greatest rivers in Norway take a more eastern course, and often make their way from the Norwegian highlands through the richly-wooded lowlands of Sweden to the Baltic. In Sweden the coasts are neither so steep nor so indented as in Norway. The waves of the enclosed and comparatively quiet Baltic do not require to be resisted like those of the Atlantic Ocean.

Very similar features are found in Scotland. The whole of the northern and western coast lying towards the Atlantic is wild and rocky, with numerous islands, deep firths, and steep shores; behind which, rock towers upon rock, as if to form an impenetrable barrier against the sea. The country is almost without forests, the streams and the valleys are of small extent, and fertility consequently very limited. But by degrees the rocks sink down towards the south-east and east, till they terminate in the broad, well-watered, and fertile coast districts along the North Sea; which, on account of their inconsiderable elevation, are called the Lowlands of Scotland. Thus the Highlands answer very nearly to Norway, and the Lowlands to Sweden. But as the Scandinavian Peninsula is larger than Scotland, so also are its natural features on the whole on a grander scale. The rocks of Norway are mountains of primitive granite, which in some places rise to a height of 8000 feet, and of which large ranges are covered with eternal snow and ice. Scotland, on the contrary, has transition rocks, whose highest peak, Ben Nevis, which is only somewhat more than 4300 feet above the sea, is not even always covered with snow. Nor can the Scottish Lowlands be compared as to extent to the Swedish valleys, with their immense forests and their large rivers and lakes. Nevertheless the natural features of Scotland are in their way no less beautiful than those of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The sea, which indents the coasts on all sides; the well-cultivated, and partly also well-wooded plains, which, particularly towards the mountain districts, undulate in hill and dale; and lastly the Highland itself, with its many streams, waterfalls, firths, and lakes, afford the richest and most magnificent variety. To these features may be added a milder climate, and in the Lowlands a far richer fertility, than in Norway and Sweden; which have considerably contributed to give the landscapes of Scotland, even in the wildest districts of the Highlands, a somewhat softer tinge than is found in the high Scandinavian North.

A very marked difference exists between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands, not only with regard to the nature of the country, but also to the original descent and the characteristics of the present population. The Lowlands, which are the seat of a highly-developed agricultural, domestic, and manufacturing industry, are inhabited by a strong and laborious people, speaking a peculiar dialect of the English language, and descended partly from the Celtic Scots, but more particularly from immigrant Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, Normans, and Flemings. Commerce and trade, carried on by means of canals, railways, steamships, and similar easy means of communication, thrive vigorously in large and wealthy cities.

The Highlands, on the contrary, which only a century ago were almost inaccessible from the land side, have scarcely a large town. Rocks and heaths are found instead of the fruitful fields of the Lowlands. With the exception of a few districts farthest towards the north-east, where the soil is more fertile, there are only seen in the valleys, along the firths, and by the sea, small fields of barley and oats, which would not yield the most scanty subsistence to the poor inhabitants if the rocks did not afford pasture for cattle and numerous flocks of sheep; and if the sea, the firths, which abound with fish, as well as the rivers and lakes, did not contribute some part of their riches. The hardy Highland Scots, a great part of whom do not understand, or at all events do not speak English, but still commonly use the Celtic or Gaelic tongue, live here thinly scattered in poor and low peat cabins, which it is often difficult to distinguish from the surrounding rocks. The Highlanders in the districts farthest towards the west and north have preserved their language and other national characteristics purest; for farther towards the Lowlands, a more modern civilization has gradually forced its way forwards, in spite of the mountains. The old warlike dress which formerly distinguished the Highlander, particularly so long as clanship was in full vigour, has, since the annihilation of that system, become every day more rare. The kilt, or short skirt, has almost entirely given place to more modern clothing; the tartan plaid alone is still seen wrapped in the old fashion round the shoulders of the Highlander.

In our days the various tribes of the Highland and Lowland populations live in peaceful union under one and the same government. But during several centuries Scotland was the theatre of the most sanguinary contests between the Celtic Highlanders and the Teutonic Lowlanders. The former, who were animated with an inveterate hatred of the Lowlanders, continually made hostile incursions into the Lowlands, and, after burning and ravaging the country, retired with cattle and other booty to their mountains, whither they knew well the Lowlanders durst not follow them. The exasperation and hatred of the Highlanders were not entirely without foundation. In ancient times they had been sole masters in Scotland, from the Cheviot Hills to the Orkneys and the Shetland Isles, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea; and they had retained this mastery even long after their kinsmen, the Britons in England, had been compelled to yield to the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.

The celebrated Roman commander, Agricola, had, it is true, in the first century after the birth of Christ, made his way so far into the Lowlands that, as a defence against the Highlanders—the much-dreaded Caledonians, or Picts—he constructed a wall with a deep ditch before it, from the Firth of Forth to that of Clyde, in the low tract through which the Glasgow Canal has since been conducted. The Romans even extended their conquests farther northwards, as far as Burghead on the Moray Firth, to which place they formed regular high roads. But they were not able to defend themselves against the persevering attacks of the Caledonians, or Picts, and were soon obliged to retreat to the south of the Cheviot Hills; where the great wall, with its many towers and deep ditches, which they had built from the Solway Firth to the River Tyne, became their chief defence against the harassing inroads of the Highland warriors. But this wall also was surmounted by the Picts, whose courage and daring increased in proportion as the power of the Romans, both at home and abroad, was rapidly waning. At last the Picts destroyed the wall, and after the fall of the Roman dominion, made incursions into England, where neither the descendants of the Romans, nor the Britons, found any means to repel them. It was not till the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England that the Picts were again compelled to fly towards the north over the Cheviot Hills, where they found sufficient employment in defending their own homes.

For, whilst they were spreading themselves over the rich plains of the north of England, a foreign, though nearly related, Celtic people, the Scots from Ireland, had taken possession of their south-western frontier districts. Hence they spread themselves to such a degree over the Lowlands that both these and the Highlands, though the latter were almost entirely independent of the Scottish sovereigns, were called by one name, Scotland. After many battles the older Pictish inhabitants were, about the year 900, entirely amalgamated with the Scots in the Lowlands. Meanwhile a storm had gathered which threatened no less danger to the Scots in the Lowlands, than to their kinsmen, the Picts, in the Highlands. The dominion of the Celts, which had long before ceased in other and more accessible lands, was no longer to find a sure place of refuge even in Scotland, though its coasts were protected by the stormy Northern Sea, and its interior filled with rocks and warlike men.

SECTION II.

The Anglo-Saxons.—The Danes and Norwegians.—Effects of their Expeditions.

The same want of unity and the same internal disputes which had brought ruin on the Celts in other places, prepared the way for foreign conquerors in Scotland. An indomitable fate decreed that the newer and higher civilization of Christianity should here, as in the rest of Europe, be founded and promoted by a Teutonic people. But though the Anglo-Saxons had conquered almost all England, they were not able, by their own power, to subdue the Celts in Scotland. The Anglo-Saxon kings undertook, indeed, several expeditions against that country, in which they were at times pretty successful; but they were not able to hold steady possession even of the Lowlands. Subsequently, however, the Anglo-Saxons wandered by degrees, and in a more peaceful manner, from the northernmost parts of England over the Scottish border, and established themselves both in the towns and in the rural districts. The number of these emigrants appears to have increased very considerably after the conquests of the Danes and Norwegians in the midland and northern districts of England in the ninth and tenth centuries, when a great part of the Anglo-Saxons were driven from their old dwellings, and obliged to fly towards the north. Saxon institutions may even have been introduced into the Lowlands in the tenth and eleventh centuries, after an expedition of the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar. But the rocky highlands of the interior constantly defied all conquest; and the northern and western coasts, together with the surrounding islands, could be subdued only by considerable fleets, which the Anglo-Saxons did not possess.

But what in this respect the Anglo-Saxons were obliged to leave undone, was for the most part accomplished by the warlike and shrewd men of the Scandinavian North, who were then masters of the sea. Even from the oldest times, connections, both of a warlike and peaceful nature, had existed between Scotland and the opposite shores of Scandinavia. The old Sagas, for instance, bear witness that the Danish king Frode’s daughter, Ulfhilde, was married to “the founder of the Scottish kingdom;” and that the Danish prince Amleth (Hamlet) married the Scotch queen, Hermuntrude. From Denmark, moreover, and particularly from Jutland, many colonists afterwards emigrated to the Scotch Lowlands, whose coasts were, besides, plundered by the Danish Vikings.

The Danish colonists, even in the north of England, were much mixed with Norwegians, and this was still more the case in the Scottish Lowlands. The more north the districts lay, the farther were they removed from Denmark, and the nearer did they approach Norway; whilst the features of the country much more resembled the Norwegian fiords, valleys, and rocks. Whilst, therefore, the Scandinavian colonists in the Lowlands were of Norwegian-Danish descent, the Highlands and islands farthest towards the north and west, were conquered, and in part peopled, by Norwegians only. This happened about the same time as the Danish conquests and settlements in England. The Norwegians founded kingdoms on the northern and western coasts of Scotland, which existed for centuries after the destruction of the Danish power in England. They introduced their own manners, customs, and laws, and gave Norwegian names to the places colonized by them. They appear not unfrequently to have married native Celts; at least it is often stated that Norwegian chiefs married daughters of the Celtic, or Pictish, and Scotch aristocracy, whose pure nationality and power were thus gradually broken down. The unfortunate Celts were now in a painful position. The Celtic Scots in the Lowlands were pressed upon by the Anglo-Saxons and Northmen, whilst the Pictish Highlanders were assailed both from the Lowlands and from the Norwegian kingdoms in the west and north. The most essential result of the Norwegian conquests and settlements in the Scotch Highlands was, that the Northmen, in conjunction with the Norwegian-Danish colonists in the Lowlands, and with the Anglo-Saxons who dwelt there, overthrew the Celtic dominion, and, like the Danes in England, prepared the way for the eventual triumph of the Norman spirit and Norman institutions. In the Lowlands this took place in the twelfth century, but much later in the Highlands and surrounding islands.