92 Transactions. 



redoubtable Picts and Scots of the fifth and sixth centuries were 

 not disorganised hordes of savages, but that they had learned a 

 great deal from the great Empire that had so long established 

 itself in the southern half of the island, with which they had 

 been at constant war, and against which they had finally main- 

 tained their independence. 



I have in my own mind another explanation of this famous 

 half road, half dyke, that crosses southern Scotland, though I do 

 not think it has been much noticed by writers on the subject. 

 The work, I fancy, dates from the latter end of the fifth century, 

 or even a little later — that is, after the departure of the Romans ; 

 and at that time, I believe, there are excellent grounds for 

 stating that Saxon colonies had been established in the valleys 

 of the Tweed and Teviot in anticipation of the more extensive 

 invasion of the Angles both to the north and south of the wall, 

 which took place nearly a century later. These Saxon colonies, 

 I infer, from the allusions of the Roman writers themselves, had 

 made a beginning of their occupation previous to the departure 

 of the Romans from Britain, and that they sometimes were in 

 conflict with the Picts of the nortli, and sometimes joined them 

 in their attacks on the Roman defences and on the protected 

 Rritons. After the departure of the Pi-omans, doubtless they 

 extended their colonies as far as the dividing water-shed. I have 

 never been able to understand the rapidity with which such districts 

 as Dumfriesshire and West Lothian were apparently Saxonised, on 

 the assumption that the Teutonic wave flowed out exclusively 

 from the Anglian settlements in Northumbria. If, however, we 

 take into account tliat there was an earlier Saxon occupation of 

 the country to the north of the Clieviots, our ditficulty on that 

 point vanishes. And it seems to me also that a sufiicient 

 explanation is given of the defensive character of the military 

 way which the northern Picts made through the Lowlands to 

 reach the Romanised country. The Saxons were down in the 

 valleys hewing down the forests and forming their wicks and 

 crofts. The Picts had no wish to meddle with them, especially 

 as tliey possessed little which was worth coveting. But they 

 wanted a road across the country to get at their natural enemies, 

 the Romans and Romanised Britons, and so they constructed j 

 their Catrail. ■ 



This is not altogether a digression, for it will render more 

 intelligible what follows. Dawston Rigg is one of two places 



I 



