The salt-water Loch Leven in Argyll was on the west the south frontier of
"Pictland," which, on the east, included all the country north of the
Firth of Forth. From Loch Leven south to Kintyre, a large cantle,
including the isles, was the land of the Scots from Ireland, the
Dalriadic kingdom. The south-west, from Dumbarton, including our modern
Cumberland and Westmorland, was named Strathclyde, and was peopled by
British folk, speaking an ancient form of Welsh. On the east, from
Ettrick forest into Lothian, the land was part of the early English
kingdom of Bernicia; here the invading Angles were already settled--though
river-names here remain Gaelic, and hill-names are often either Gaelic or
Welsh. The great Northern Pictland was divided into seven provinces, or
sub-kingdoms, while there was an over-King, or Ardrigh, with his capital
at Inverness and, later, in Angus or Forfarshire. The country about
Edinburgh was partly English, partly Cymric or Welsh. The south-west
corner, Galloway, was called Pictish, and was peopled by Gaelic-speaking
tribes.

In the course of time and events the dynasty of the Argyll Scoti from
Ireland gave its name to Scotland, while the English element gave its
language to the Lowlands; it was adopted by the Celtic kings of the whole
country and became dominant, while the Celtic speech withdrew into the
hills of the north and northwest.

The nation was thus evolved out of alien and hostile elements, Irish,
Pictish, Gaelic, Cymric, English, and on the northern and western shores,
Scandinavian.