There was a time when a fair whack of what is now southeast Scotland was in the realm of the King of Northumbria. The southwest was never at any time part of Northumbria. At various stages in the history of the south west the spoken language was an ancient form of Welsh. The demise of Gaelic as the language of Strathclyde is surprisingly recent---it was still almost universally used at the time of Mary, Queen of Scots. A mere glance at many of the old place-names---farms, etc.,makes this pretty obvious. We are, however, conducting a spurious discussion here; the Scottish Nation is one of the oldest in Europe. Border lands changed ownership and allegiances many times in the past, and I'm sure all of us here are aware of that fact. I am a wee bit puzzled by DmcG's reference to "Lowland clearances", though. Rab Burns was a contemporary of many of those who had to leave these shores for what they hoped would be a better living. Strange that he made no great song about it---? You could say that the clearances are ongoing; Scotland's population is in ongoing dangerous decline .