1-1)2. 'on antiquities in Scotland. 99 



cholson. jManj circumstances contribute to render 

 this'opinion probable, at first sight, to those who only 

 take a casual, and hasty view of the matter. The 

 huts of all lavage nations are of a circular form, and 

 lighted from the top ; so are these. This general 

 resemblance catches the attention ; and, as these 

 towers are of great magnitude, and must have been 

 reared at a vast expence, it was concluded that they 

 were only huts of a superior kind, that had been e- 

 rected as the habitations of great men or pritices ; 

 but, upon a near examination, it will clearly appear 

 that they never could have been appropriated to this 

 use. 



In the first place, wherever men are found to be 

 in that state of society where huts of the kind here 

 referred to are employed, their princes, if such you 

 please to call them, are little distinguifbed from the 

 people, and live in huts similar to the others. Conve- 

 nieucy is the first improvement that men, advancing 

 ill civilization, try to obtain in their buildings ; gran- 

 deur and ftiow are long postponed to that. Conve- 

 niency is indeed almost the only object that imcivi- 

 lized tribes seem to aim at in their habitations, and 

 they are far advanced in many useful arts before 

 they seem to spend a thought about rendering them 

 cither superb or durable. Hence it happens that we 

 meet with so few vestiges of the riiins of the ancient 

 dwellings of uncivilized tribes, throughout all the 

 nations on the globe. In Scotland, in particular, this 

 is known to be remarkably the case ; for although 

 the site of the ancient city called Bercgonlam, be so 

 ..c\'.rat<rly described by historians, us to leave uo 



