Brythonic rather than Goidelic; and Dr. Rhys surmises that it is really
an older form of speech, neither Goidelic nor Brythonic, and probably
not allied to either, although, in the form in which its fragments have
come down to us, it has been deeply affected by Brythonic forms. Be all
this as it may, it is important for us to remember that, at the dawn of
history, modern Scotland was populated entirely by people now known as
"Celts", of whom the Brythonic portion were the later to appear, driving
the Goidels into the more mountainous districts. The Picts, whatever
their origin, had become practically amalgamated with the "Celts", and
the Roman historians do not distinguish between different kinds of
northern barbarians.

In the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, a new
settlement of Goidels was made. These were the Scots, who founded the
kingdom of Dalriada, corresponding roughly to the Modern Argyllshire.
Some fifty years later (_c._ 547) came the Angles under Ida, and
established a dominion along the coast from Tweed to Forth, covering the
modern counties of Roxburgh, Berwick, Haddington, and Midlothian. Its
outlying fort was the castle of Edinburgh, the name of which, in the
form in which we have it, has certainly been influenced by association
with the Northumbrian king, Edwin.[30] This district remained a portion
of the kingdom of Northumbria till the tenth century, and it is of this
district alone that the word "English" can fairly be used. Even here,
however, there must have been a considerable infusion of Celtic blood,
and such Celtic place-names as "Dunbar" still remain even in the
counties where English place-names predominate. A distinguished Celtic
scholar tells us: "In all our ancient literature, the inhabitants of
ancient Lothian are known as Saix-Brit, _i.e._ Saxo-Britons, because
they were a Cymric people, governed by the Saxons of Northumbria".[31] A
further non-Celtic influence was that of the Norse invaders, who