HOW fitting that for his final engagement as First Minister Alex Salmond should attend last night's Scotland-England match.

He's been involved in a struggle with the Auld Enemy all his life. In the biggest contest he took the lead near the end but ended up losing narrowly.

It's tempting to say we won't see his likes again, but let's hold such talk for we are yet to be convinced we have seen the last of this astute, cunning, impressive, infuriating but divisive politician. Moira Salmond may not be getting help with the gardening just yet, as we consider it unlikely he will resist the call of another tilt at Westminster in a General Election which promises to be one of the most intriguing in modern times.

In his resignation speech at Holyrood yesterday he spoke of a Scotland "changed, changed utterly" during the devolution era. As one of our columnists noted earlier this week, he rarely quotes the rest of Yeats' conclusion to Easter 1916: "A terrible beauty is born". That is because the "terrible beauty" of violence has thankfully continued to be absent from Scotland's search for self-determination.

Mr Salmond should take his share of the immense credit involved in carving out a form of civic, inclusive nationalism unique in these islands and beyond. Asians for Independence, English for Independence, the whole concept of New Scots is unimaginable in the context of most other variants of nationalism and that is something everyone can share pride in.

Although he fell at the final hurdle two months ago, he has taken the SNP to unprecedented heights, first steering it to being the largest party at Holyrood in 2007 and successfully negotiating the dangerous waters of minority government, and then, in defiance of the received wisdom about a parliament elected by proportional representation, to outright victory four years later. He bequeathes to Nicola Sturgeon a united party with a booming membership.

Along the way there were popular policies - scrapping tuition fees and prescription charges, freezing the council tax - and controversies such as the Trump affair and the decision to release the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. There was the diplomatic high of the Edinburgh Agreement to a consented referendum and the low of the fight over non-existent legal advice on the EU.

There were also legacies of which we remain critical, above all a tendency to centralise, evident by the weakening of local authorities. Last week's conviction for the World's End murders may be seen as a justification for introducing double jeopardy but ending the requirement for corroboration may be a step too far.

But Mr Salmond's biggest achievement was the referendum campaign itself. Although Yes came up short, the motivation of the "missing million" and the 87 per cent turnout was a triumphant reversal of cynicism and political disengagement of which all of Scotland can be proud and for which he can take a great deal of the credit. We echo his final words to Holyrood: "Goodbye and good luck."