Transactions' G5 



invalidates, if it does not destroy, much of the reasoning by which 

 Roy nad sought to identify so many of our northern rectilinear 

 earthworks with Agricola, and seems to leave their Roman origin 

 more doubtful than ever. 



From the statement and review now given, the following 

 inferences regarding Birrens and Birrenswark appear to be 

 legitimately deducible :— (1) Birrens as shown by the inscribed 

 stones found there was almost to a certainty an important 

 Roman settlement. Its earthworks may also be Roman. But 

 the belief that they are, mainly rests at present on the sculptures 

 found in their neighbourhood and on their quadi-angular form. 

 As we know that Roman Camp defences were sometimes imitated 

 by tribes witn whom they came into hostile contact, and who 

 might even modify them to suit their own ideas of a stronghold, 

 it appears to be necessary to have additional proof of a connection 

 in time between the Roman antiquities found at Birrens and the 

 mounds to be seen there, before we can affirm that the latter are 

 also certainly Roman. The proximity of two objects of antiquity 

 is not sufficient evideiace that they belong to the same people and 

 age. (2) Since it is conceivable that a Roman garrison at Birrens 

 would establish a post of observation at Birrenswark, the camps 

 on the latter may be Roman. Their form, irregular as it is, so 

 far favours the supposition. Tliey have a certain resemblance to 

 some of the camps figured in the Plates of Napoleon's Histoire de 

 Jules Cesar, and said to be Roman. It is not to be supposed 

 that Roman Camps were always laid out with the geometrical 

 regularity assigned to them by certain writers. The nature of 

 the ground must have often determined their outline. At the 

 same time, we know far too little about the social and military 

 arrangements of the different peoples that successively occupied 

 Annandale in post-Roman times to enable us on the evidence at 

 present available to say with confidence when or by whom the 

 Birrenswark encampments were raised. Further investigation is 

 required before it can be held as beyond dispute that they are 

 the work of the Romans. General Roy's arguments, while 

 ingenious, are by no means satisfactory when critically examined. 



It may now be asked. Have we then any means of obtaining 

 the desired evidence % Ancient history is all but silent about boch 

 Birrens and Birrenswark. But tliere still remains one source of 

 information to which we can go with some chance of success — the 

 mounds themselves. VVitliin them the secret of their origin and 



