various abbeys of Melrose, Newbottle, Cambuskenneth, Kinloss, Dryburgh, and
Jedburgh, as well as the priory of Lesmahago, and the Cistercian convent of
Berwick, all of which were founded and endowed by him. The effects which
these comparatively enlightened bodies of men must have produced upon the
country, ought to save David from all modern sneers as to his apparently extreme piety. Sanctimoniousness does not appear to have had any concern in the matter: he seems to have been governed alone by a desire of civilizing his kingdom, the rudeness of which must have been strikingly apparent to him, in consequence of his education and long residence in England. The progress made by the country, in the time of David, was accordingly very great. Public buildings were erected, towns established, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce promoted. Laws, moreover, appear to have been now promulgated for the first time. David was himself a truly just and benevolent man. He used to sit on certain days at the gate of his palace, to hear and decide the causes of the poor. When justice required a decision against the poor man, he took pains to explain the reason, so that he might not go away unsatisfied. Gardening was one of his amusements, and hunting his chief exercise; but, says a contemporary historian, I have seen him quit his horse, and dismiss his hunting equipage, when any, even the meanest of his subjects, required an audience. He commenced business at day break, and at sunset dismissed his attendants, and retired to meditate on his duty to God and the people. By his wife, Matilda, David had a son, Henry ; who died before him, leaving Malcolm and William, who were successively kings of Scotland ; David, earl of Huntingdon,
from whom Bruce and Baliol are descended, and several daughters. David I. is said, by a monkish historian, to have had a son older than Henry, but who perished in childhood after a remarkable manner. A person in holy orders had murdered a priest at the altar, and was protected by ecclesiastical immunity from the punishment due to his offence. His eyes, however, were put out, and his hands and feet cut off. He procured crooked irons or hooks to supply the use of hands. Thus maimed, destitute, and abhorred, he attracted the attention of David, then residing in England as a private man. From him this outcast of society obtained food and raiment. David's eldest child was then two years old; the ungrateful monster, under pretence of fondling the infant, crushed it to death in his iron fangs. For this crime, almost exceeding belief, he was torn to pieces by wild horses. On losing his son Henry in 1152. king David sent his son Malcolm on a solemn progress through the kingdom, in order that he might be acknowledged by the people as their future sovereign. He in like manner recommended his grandson William to the barons of Northumberland, as his successor in that part of his dominions. Having ultimately fixed his residence at Carlisle, the pious monarch breathed his last, May 24th, 1153; being found dead in a posture of devotion. David I., by the acknowledgment of Buchanan himself, was " a more perfect exemplar of a good king than is to be found in all the theories of the learned and ingenious." [1]
DAVIDSON, John, an eminent divine, was born, we may suppose, some time about the year 1550, as he was enrolled a student of St Leonard's college in the university of St Andrews, in the year 1567 ; where he continued
- ↑ James I. is recorded by Mair to have pronounced this sentence over the grave of his illustrious ancestor—"Rest there, thou most pious monarch, but who didst no good to the commonwealth, nor to kings in general;" which Hellenden has rendered—"he was ane soir sanct for the crown." This only shows that the utility of monasteries was less in the time of James I. than in the days of David I., and that king James regarded nothing as useful but what was conducive to his grand object, the increase of the royal authority. The death of James I. is a sufficient answer to his apophthegm: he was assassinated in consequence of his attempts to render himself useful to kings in general—that is to say, his attempts to rise upon the ruins of the nobility.
