One sometimes wonders why the history of Ireland and of Scotland, especially in their relations to the larger island, England, are so different, notwithstanding that the same race of men so largely peopled the two countries. Yet, if we look down the long perspective of the centuries, we see how the political winds, which were so harsh to Ireland, were so tempered to Scotland. In “the Pope’s Green Isle,” nearly all the changes that have been wrought by the English or Normans came in the wake of conquest and the sword; whereas in Scotland, the new ideas and institutions introduced by the Anglo-Normans entered slowly by infiltration. The potency of initial changes, in the one case, was that of man; in the other, of woman. It was an English queen, with her English children, who wrought gently but surely the reforms which brought Scotland in harmony with the civilization of Europe. Queen Margaret’s life was one long ministry of reconciliation of Celt and Saxon mainly in direct service of her people, through religion, in both theory and practice. She was a saint in reality as well as by canon. In Ireland, even in the Church, there were, beside a heritage of hate, a Celtic and an Anglo-Norman party always at one another’s throats or reputations. From such legacies of bitterness Scotland was happy enough to escape because it was through a wise woman’s wit and tact that the initial changes were gently and gradually made. It is no wonder that the Scots, as well as the office of canonization, call her “Saint” Margaret. CHAPTER VIII DUNDEE: THE GIFT OF GOD When we look into the name “Dundee,” we find that some derive it from the Latin “Donum Dei” (the “gift of God”). Evidently those who designed the town arms accepted this etymology, for above the two griffins holding a shield is the motto “Dei Donum.” Yet beneath their intertwined and forked tails is the more cautious motto, perhaps meant to be regulative,--for “sweet are the uses of adversity,” in learning as in life,--“prudentia et candore.” While prudence bids us look forward, candor requires honesty as to the past. So the diligent scholarship and editorial energy of modern days delete the claims of local pride, as belated, and declare them “extravagant,” while asserting that so favorable a situation for defence as has Dundee antedates even the Roman occupation. Others, not willing to abandon the legend savoring of divinity, find the name in the Celtic “Dun Dha,” the “Hill of God.” The probabilities are, however, that Mars will carry off the honors, and that the modern form is from the Gaelic name “Dun Tow,” that is, the “fort on the Tay”; of which the Latin “Tao Dunum” is only a transliteration. All Britain was spotted with forts or duns, and the same word is in the second syllable of “London.”