Transnctio)iK. 6 1 



ramparts and ditches as surrounds Birrens and certain other 

 " camps " in North Britain are certainly Roman, before accepting 

 as unquestionably correct the popular and, it may be added, the 

 very natural theory of their origin. Since Birrens ought, I believe, 

 to be regarded as an advanced post intended to check the advance 

 of the natives of the north in their repeated assaults on the 

 southern wall, and subsequently as an integral part of its lines of 

 defence, there is the more reason why all doubts on a point so 

 interesting should, if possible, be cleared away. 



The precise locality where, the time when, and the circumstances 

 under which, the Birrens' sculptures were found, those once at 

 Pennicuik excepted, have, unfortunately, not been noted. Sir 

 John Clerk's, however, were certainly met with to the west of the 

 present mounds and ditches, and there is every reason to suppose 

 that some of the antiquities in Pennant's liirt were also discovered 

 there. They may have been within or adjoining to a " civil 

 settlement " attached to the station proper. In 1831 the writer of 

 the account of Middlebie in the " New Statistical Account of 

 Scotland " has the following statement : — " There was originally 

 another camp adjoining to it (Birrens), which, being on the 

 ground of a small proprietor, was dug up some years ago, and is 

 now completely destroyed. In this last there were found many 

 splendid specimens of Roman antiquity, particularly large stones, 

 neatly cut and ornamented with inscriptions perfectly legible ; but 

 most of them have been sold or given away, and none, I believe, 

 exist in their native parish except one erected in the neighbour- 

 ing garden of Mr Irving of Burnfoot." There were also buildings 

 within this space, one of them erected, though perhaps at a some- 

 what recent date, to proteet Brigantia, if we may adopt Sir John 

 Clerk's suggestion. " I doubt not," he says, " but some great 

 men in England, who are lovers of antiquity, have so far 

 reverenced the heathen religion as to have built a temple for the 

 sake of this statue." This opinion he qualifies somewhat 

 in his Latin Dissertation, in which he speaks of the building 

 that sheltered it as a teinpluin seto delubruni Homanum, 

 "It was built," he tells us, "of squared stone, and was 

 thirty-six feet in length and about twelve in breadth. 

 The situation was somewhat marshy, and lay outside 

 the fortifications of the camp, as if it stood in need of no 

 protection from man, being committed to the care of the gods of 

 the Romans." It would be interesting to find out if possible the 



