Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 93 



ing place for ' the Kings of the Picts,' and to the doctor ' it is as clear as a sunbeam, that the Pictish 

 race of Kings lie ALL buried within it.' In confirmation of this hypothesis, the Reverend Doctor 

 writes, that on the 10th May, 1821, the interior of the tower was dug into, when, at about four 

 feet from the surface, the Sexton found, in presence of the gentlemen assembled, ' plenty of human 

 bones, and the fragments of a light green urn, with a row of carving round the bottom of the neck,' 

 and that, digging still farther, they ' came to three broad flags, which either served as the bottom 

 of the first coffin or the cover of another, and by removing one which seemed the largest, found 

 that there were plenty of bones below ; and thus, after gaining our end in ascertaining the original 

 design of building it, as a cemetery for the Royal Family, we desisted,' says the doctor. We intro- 

 duced ourselves to Dr. Small, from whom we purchased a copy of his work. We are quite satisfied 

 he is a gentleman on whose veracity implicit reliance may be placed ; but we rather fear he jumps at 

 conclusions, and is not a little credulous and still worse, we doubt his antiquarian skill. Shade of 

 Huddleston, how wouldst thou shudder, if shades can shudder, to learn that Dr. Small derives Pit- 

 tendriech, your burial place of the Druids, from two common Scotch words ascribing the origin of 

 the term to the circumstance of the Romans having ' got a more dreich piece of road pitten to them,' 

 when forming their famous way through North Britain ! The doctor, in describing his researches 

 in the tower, adds, that the Sexton of Abernethy, afterwards, found ' seven other human skulls all 

 lying together, all of them full-grown male skulls,' buried in the tower, one of which, the most en- 

 tire, was carried away by Sir Walter Scott. Our friend, Thomas Simpson, the successor of the 

 sexton alluded to by the doctor, hints pretty broadly, that situated so close to the kirk-yard as the 

 tower is, there would be no great difficulty in finding skulls in the latter, when it was once seen 

 there was a demand for them. Thomas applies to this case the famous axiom in political economy, 

 that the demand regulates the supply." History of Brechin, pp. 265, 266. 



I may also observe, that in another passage in his work, Mr. Black distinctly 

 says, " Dr. Small's speculation does not coincide with our opinions ;" and also 

 gives as his own opinion, that " the Round Tower of Brechin was erected some- 

 where about the year 1000," an opinion which I shall hereafter show is not 

 far from the truth. As to Dr. Small's statement, and the speculation respecting 

 it in which he indulges, I may safely leave it to the consideration of my an- 

 tiquarian readers, who will be at no loss to determine the value of the alleged 

 discovery of "fragments of a light green urn with a row of carving round the 

 bottom of the neck," a monument of pagan antiquity not previously found 

 in the British isles ; and this is the fact that proves to the South Minister So- 

 ciety of Antiquaries that the Abernethy Tower, at least, was a pagan structure ! 



I have also to state that Mr. Windele, at the time when he sent me 

 the extracts from Mr. Black's work, also very kindly favoured me with the 

 copy of a letter from the historian of Brechin to William Hackett, Esq., of Mid- 



