54 DR JOHNSTON'S NOTICE OF SOME ROMAN URNS. 



These are evidently sepulchral urns of Roman manufacture, and the 

 coarseness of the material, and the rude fashion in which they are orna- 

 mented, prove the ashes they contained to be those of some ignoble per- 

 sons, 



" to fortune and to fame unknown." 



Similar urns have been dug up occasionally in other places in this neigh- 

 bourhood. Two were procured from a gravel bank at Billy mire, in the 

 parish of Chirnside, about 1790 (Stat. Ace. v. xiv. p. 30); and "in 

 1 792, on clearing the ground of a heap of stones which had been collect- 

 ed upon the top of the Crimson, or Cramestone Hill, on the north side 

 of the village of Garington, several earthen urns, of different sizes, were 

 dug up. The urns contained human bones, but had no inscription upon 

 them." (Ibid. p. 584.) I have seen the fragments of two very large ones 

 in the possession of the Rev. A. Baird of Cockburnspath, which had been 

 procured near that village ; and Mr Selby has met with several near 

 Twizel-house. For the possession of those under notice, the Club is in- 

 debted to the attention of the Rev. Mr Campbell of Tweedmouth. 



Since sepulchral urns were never placed by the Romans in temples, 

 but in fields and by high- ways, the situation of the present may possibly 

 serve to indicate the precise line of the great northern road of that peo- 

 ple, called the Devil's Causeway ; and from the name of a hamlet 

 Camp-homes in the immediate vicinity of Murton, we may conjecture 

 that they had also a military station here, which is the more probable, as 

 the remains of a Roman camp are still visible on the banks of the Tweed, 

 near West Ord, which is not more than between two and three miles dis- 

 tance from Murton. 



To ascertain the precise antiquity of these remains I can make no es- 

 say, but a conjectural approximation to it may be allowed. Notwith- 

 standing the stories to the contrary in the Scottish Chronicles, it may 

 safely be taken for granted that the Romans had not penetrated, or at 

 least made any settlement in our district, until Agricola led his armies 

 northwards, about the year 80. They withdrew finally from Britain 

 in the year 426 ; and although they did not occupy our district during 

 the whole of the intervening 346 years, having been repeatedly driven 

 beyond Adrian's Wall by the Picts and Scots, yet they generally repos- 

 sessed themselves of it in a short time, and certainly had encampments 

 in it until within a very short period of their removal. But assuming 

 the latest date for their burial, the urns before us possess all the interest 

 attached to antiquities upwards of 1400 years existence, a larger one 

 than any monument of the border warrior can claim. " In vain we hope 

 to be known by open and visible conservatories, when to be unknown 

 was the means of their continuation, and obscurity their protection." 

 Sir T. Browne. 



Note. Since the above notice was read, I have received from Mr 



