40 Transactions. 



ground, reacliing to Chapclcroft Farm. This mossy ground passes 

 to the north and ends on the north-east in a peat moss, used 

 until lately by the inhabitants of Lochmaben to cart their peats 

 from. Thus on three sides the camp was in the days of its 

 occupation, in all probability, surrounded with water, or almost 

 so, and the only possible mode of approach was from the east, 

 where the gateway is. "Wilson in his Pre-historic Annals of 

 Scotland (Vol. II., p. 89) says of Wood Castle that it is " a 

 romarka1)le circular fort near Lochmaben, in Annandale, which 

 General Roy describes as a Roman post, though it differs in every 

 possible feature from any known example of Roman castramonta- 

 tion. That it is a British stronghold is not now likely to be 

 called in question. It bears a close affinity to the circular earth- 

 works which accompany some of the Scottish megolithic circles. 

 . . . . The fortifications here specified are not, however, to 

 be classed with the simple circular hill forts first noted, wherein we 

 trace the mere rudimentary efforts of a people in the infancy of 

 the arts. They display equal skill in the choice of site and the 

 elaborate adaptation of such earthworks to the natural features of 

 the ground." I have searched Roy's Military Antiquities for a 

 description of Wood Castle, and I find no description of it. All I 

 find is a ground plan and elevation drawn to a scale on Plate 

 VIII. of " The Roman Post of Wood Castle." Now, Roy belonged 

 to a school of antiquarians who tried to prove that the chief 

 remains in the country are Roman, just as old-fashioned teachers 

 tried to inculcate English grammar by teaching Latin rules. The 

 circumstance that a Roman way passes close to Wood Castle is, 

 I think, purely accidental, and the fact that the camp is not on a 

 hill top cannot be considered as powerful evidence against the 

 theory of its being British, when it is remembered that the 

 Britons affected lakes, that the camp is of essentially British con- 

 struction, and that the Romans have never been known to alter 

 the characteristic shape of their encampments. Those who wish 

 to pursue the matter further will be aided by consulting Maclagan's 

 Hill Forts of Scotland, Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, and 

 Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. 



III. New Studies of Some Old Scotch Ballads. By Mr Wm. 

 M'DowALL, F.S.A. 

 Mr W. M'Dowall occupied about an hour in analysing and 

 commenting upon some choice specimens of our old ballad 



