The history, ancient and modern, of the sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross : with the description of both, and of the firths of Forth and Tay, and the islands in them ... with an account of the natural products of the land and waters / By Sir Robert Sibbald.

  • Robert Sibbald
Date:
1803
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history, ancient and modern, of the sheriffdoms of Fife and Kinross : with the description of both, and of the firths of Forth and Tay, and the islands in them ... with an account of the natural products of the land and waters / By Sir Robert Sibbald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/502 (page 11)
    CHAP. II.] ANCIENT NAMES OF THE COUNTRY. be importeth, that it is the kingdom of the Picts, of which it was indeed a choise part '. The Monks write, that it was called Fife from Fifus Duffus a nobleman, who did eminent service in war: But in these days men had their names and designations from the lands they had, and the lands were not designed from them’. Besides, it is altogether unlike and inconsistent in itself, to think the government would give so large a tract of ground to any one man. It was such Monkish legends gave rise to the fable of Scota, Pharach’s daughter, and the one probably is as much a fiction asthe other. ‘The learn’d Mr. Maule has, with more judgment, deduced it. from veach, that is, painted, which these who followed the OPT} English Caledanians, but common to the Gothic tribes, sufficiently refutes the fancy. The name is much older than their acquaintance with the Romans, and is to be traced from the ancient seats of the Goths on the Euxine, through Scandinavia, to the east coast of Britain: In all which places are found, Piki, Viki, Pehti, and Pihts, the name they still retain among their descends ants ; PiGti was only this name, softened to the Roman pronunciation. * Probably Forthric, the kingdom on the Forth. If the country be- tween the friths was divided into three parts ; the first, or Fife, would con tain the northern and eastern parts; the second, the middle region, through, which run the rivers Leven and Orr, afterwards called Lochoreshire ; and she third, the lands along the Forth, justly distinguished, as Ric, a king- dom, on account of their superior richness and fertility. Sir Robert con- ‘neéts Forteviot with this district ; but the country of the Picts, in reference to its capital, was called Fortren, a name which often occurs in the Annals of Ulster. If the word ought to be written Fothric, it is probably taken from one of its princes, as Fothe or Foithe seems to have been a very coms mon name among the Picts. It requires a wonderful partiality for the word Veach, to shape it into so-many forms, Vec, Vac, Wauch, Pict, Foth, Fife, = ‘To take names from lands, was not introduced till the rath century, when the feudal forms began to be more fixed and regular. Before that, at least among the Pits, it was common to give the name of the owner to his property. Of this, Sir Robert himself gives an instance, in the last chapter of this work, where he says Leuchars was named, “a Locro Pidtse rom magnate ejusdem possessore.”