With their goal of “seeing the snow” achieved， Shannon and Christine， with Ian， head back to the little town of Blairgowrie1. They had had another great day with him， with lots of laughs. If you remember， our two backpackers met Ian when they were working at the pub at Henley-on-Thames in England，2 when they house-shared with him and two other young guys. The guys had been quite rude to the girls but， without his friends， Ian seemed very different. You could describe him as generous， friendly and fun.
　　He was British， taking them around Scotland. The girls couldn’t help noticing the difference between English and Scottish people. It seemed to them that the Scottish were rougher and tougher3， but friendlier too. What were the reasons for the differences？
　　Who are the Scots？ “Nasty little Britons” is what the ancient Romans called the different tribespeople4， who lived in the area we call Scotland today， in the first and second centuries. These people were the Picts5. They struck fear in the hearts of the Romans. There are legends about the ancient Picts： they painted their bodies， and had bright red hair and long limbs. They used hand spears6 which they shook， making a terrifying noise. It is said that they often fought their battles naked， even in the cold； often attacking in winter. One Roman wrote， “They are able to bear hunger， cold， and all afflictions7.” The Romans， of course， came from the warm Mediterranean8， and the cold snowy land of Scotland was hard enough for them， without the terror of attack from the Picts！
　　The Romans had gained control of most of North Africa， the Middle East and Europe. By 84 AD the Romans had completely conquered southern Britain； they regarded what is England today as no more than one of their provinces.9 Then they planned to bring the rough “barbarian10” Picts under their rule. But the Picts put up serious resistance. When they were not winning， they would disappear into the mountains and forests of Scotland which the Romans called the “trackless11 wilds”—wild places that had no roads. From there， the Picts regularly launched surprise attacks on the Roman soldiers. As one Roman writer wrote about their campaign in Scotland，“And so disaster followed upon disaster， and the entire year was marked by destruction and slaughter12.”
　　The Romans gave up on Scotland， and instead built a wall as a barrier against the Scottish Picts right across the north of England， and this became the Scottish border. It is called Hadrian’s Wall13， and still stands today. It is something like the Great Wall of China， but not nearly as long. In this way two very different cultures and peoples developed Scotland and England. 　　It is believed that the Picts spoke a form of the Gaelic14 language. This is the language that was spoken by people in the British Isles15 prior to the arrival of the Romans and the many other peoples who settled there over the past 20 centuries. In the 1800s， in most central rural areas of Scotland， many people still spoke Gaelic but all could speak English. However， today， only a very small number of people still speak Gaelic—and that is mostly only in the very isolated highlands and outer islands. So the reason for the strong Scottish accent is that the Scottish people actually spoke another language before they spoke today’s English.
　　But， back to Blairgowrie. Ian had pulled up his car at the Brig o’Blair Bed and Breakfast.16 The last time Shannon and I had travelled with him， he had paid for two rooms. We had very little money left so we were hoping he would pay again， otherwise we would have preferred to save our money and sleep in the car！ We entered the reception17 hesitantly， and the owner greeted us warmly and expectantly. She told us the rates18， and Ian answered， “Great. One room thanks.” He smiled at Shannon. Shannon and I looked at each other and scrambled for our wallets. We had no choice but to pay up to avoid embarrassing ourselves. We took out some of our last pounds. It probably was not a lot of money， but it certainly seemed to be to us！
　　The B