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Gentleman's Magazine 1901 part 1 p.103
repose on summer grass. The are written as if the "world
would never grow old," and as the lady I quote above says,
they never do grow old. The knights themselves are said to
have died. Witness the lament of Sir Ector over the death of
Sir Lancelot in Malory, one of the most priceless things in
literature; but the world preferred to believe them still in
Avalon, whence the return of Arthur was for centuries
anticipated.
The Celts are naturally the firmest upholders of the view
that Arthur and his principal knights are real, and efforts
are made to connect Gawaine with the Cuchullin of Irish
legend. If we could indeed transfer the scene of the
Arthurian exploits from Cornwall to Ireland many
difficulties would vanish, but the references to Cornwall
and South Wales are too numerous and too direct to permit
any such transference of scene.
KING ARTHUR IN SCOTLAND.
ONE school of antiquaries would find in Cumbria and Scotland
the scene of Arthur's principal exploits, and notably that
of his death. According to its members, Glein is Glen in
Ayrshire; Dubglas is not, as held by Geoffrey of Monmouth,
in Lincolnshire, but Douglas in Lennox; Coit Cebidon is on
the Carron in Tweedale, Castle Guinnion is in Wedale, Leogis
is at Dumbarton, Treuroit on the banks of the Forth, near
Stirling, where Arthur's Round Table is still shown. Agnet
is a name for Edinburgh, and Badon Hill is not Bath on the
English Avon, but Bowdon Hill in Linlithgow, on the Scottish
Avon. These views, expounded in Mr. W. F. Skene's "Four
Ancient Books of Wales" and Mr. Stuart Glennie's "Arthurian
Scotland," are well summarised by Mr. C. F. Keary in the
life of Arthur in the "Dictionary of National Biography."
Dr. Dickson favours the view that Arthur's last battle,
which was fought, it must be remembered, against a
confederacy of Picts, Scots, and Saxons, or renegade
Britons, took place at Camelon on the river Carron, in the
valley of the Forth. That names and superstitions connected
with Arthur and his associates abound in Southern Scotland
is clearly shown.
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