The history of the county is almost identical with that of the capital. Traces of Celtic occupation are obvious in such names as Inveresk, Almond, Leith, Dalry, Dalmahoy, Dalkeith and others; though most of the villages, hamlets and castles received their present designation from Saxon possessors. The termination _ton_ is very frequent. Following upon the withdrawal of the Romans the land was the scene of intertribal strife, but it was in a measure subdued by the Saxons and passed under the rule of the Northumbrian kings, who held it till 1020, when the Lothians were handed over to the Scottish king, Malcolm II. The people of the Lothians, however, stipulated that they were to retain their manners and customs, and in this way the south-eastern lowlands became the centre from which Anglo-Saxon and Norman civilization gradually spread throughout Scotland, and hence, too, was assured the pre-eminence of Edinburgh. Within the county lie the battlefields of Roslin, where (in 1303) the English suffered three reverses in one day; Burghmuir, where the English were defeated by the earl of Moray in 1334; Pinkie near Inveresk, where (in 1547) the duke of Somerset inflicted heavy loss upon the Scots; and Rullion Green, on the eastern slopes of the Pentlands, where (in 1666) the Covenanters were routed by the royal troops under General Dalziel. See James Grant, _Old and New Edinburgh_ (London, 1880 et seq.); Miss Warrender, _Walks near Edinburgh_ (Edinburgh, 1890); J.C. Oliphant, _Rambles round Edinburgh_ (Edinburgh, 1892); J.M. Bell, _Castles of the Lothians_ (Edinburgh, 1893); W. Baird, _Annals of Duddingston and Portobello_ (Edinburgh, 1898); J. Geddie, _The Water of Leith_ (Edinburgh, 1896); Rev. J. Dickson, _Ruined Castles of Midlothian_ (Edinburgh, 1895); _The Islands of the Forth_ (Edinburgh 1899).