° It PERTHSHIRE. an7 
man, that paffes between the mofs and the river Teith. The 
veftiges of this laft road have been traced, from about four 
miles north-weft of the bridge of Dript, where formerly there 
was a ford, acrofs the river, fouth-eaft by Torwood and Lar- 
bert, to Camelon on the wall. This road is laid about a foot 
deep with gravel, under which, in fome places, is alfo a layer of 
ftones, and it appears to have been about twenty feet wide, 
though, by the land having been under tillage, its breadth can- 
not be exa¢tly afcertained. The direétion of it, after it crofles 
the Forth at Dript, is in a line that points north-weft to the pafs 
of Leny, the chief avenue to the Highlands on this fide, and. 
through which the military road to Fort William is now ac- 
tually conducted. It is therefore confidered, with great probabi- 
lity, as having been originally defigned for the ufe of the troops 
employed to repel the incurfions made by the Caledonians, from 
the mountains, into the Roman province. At the fame time, it 
may have been connected with the other roads that ftretched more 
directly toward the north, by Dumblane and the well known fta- 
tion of Ardoch. It can fcarcely be doubted, that it alfo com- 
municated with the road in the mofs, and that this laft is to be 
reckoned a part of the military works of the Romans. 
On the whole, therefore, the conclufions to which we are: 
thus neceffarily led appear to be thefe: That before the time: 
of AcricoLa, the firft of the Roman Generals who attempted 
to fecure the northern frontier of the province by a regular 
chain of pofts *, the greater part of the level country on the 
banks of the Forth was occupied by extenfive forefts: That 
about this period, or foon afterwards, a great part of thofe fo- 
refts, 
* Tue chain of pofts between the Forth and Clyde is mentioned by Tacitus, 
Vit, AGRIC, cap. 23. as the work of AGRicoLa’s fourth campaign, which coincides 
with the year 81 of our zra. See HorseLey’s Britan. Book i. chap.3. It was 
about fifty years afterwards that the wall of Antoninus was built, nearly in the 
fame line. The age of the mofs cannot therefore be eftimated at much lefs than. 
1790 years. ; 
