457 



ARDFERT. 



AREIOPAGUS. 



458 



largest and finest ecclesiastical buildings in the department. The 

 manufactures comprise woollen cloth, hosiery, brandy, and sole-leather ; 

 there is also some twide in honey, corn, hay, and wine. 



The fifth arrondissement is named from its chief town Vouners, 

 situated in 49 23' 53" N. lat., 4 42' E. long., 33 miles S. from M<<zieres ; 

 it stands in a fertile district, on the Aisne, 360 feet above the sea level, 

 and has some trade in corn and wine : population, 2410. There are 

 also iron-foundries here, and hurdle and basket-making gives employ- 

 ment to many people in the district. Attigny, on the left bank of the 

 Aisne, 10 miles N.N.E. from Vouziers, was one of the summer 

 residences of the ancient kings of France : population, 1300. 6V 

 on the right bank of the Aire, and near its junction with the Aiane, 

 has a population of 1456 ; the town stands in a very fertile district. 

 and has extensive tile-works ; a vein of silver-ore has been discovered 

 in the neighbourhood. 



The department belongs to the diocese of Rheims, and is under the 

 jurisdiction of the high court of Rheims ; it is comprised in the 5th 

 Military Division, of which Metz is head-quarters. 



ARDFERT. [KERRY.] 



ARDGLASS. [DowssHiRE.] 



ARDMORE. [WATERFORD.] 



N'AMURCHAN. [ARGYLE.] 



OOCH, a village in Strathallan, Perthshire, Scotland, where are 

 the remains of a Roman station, supposed to be the most perfect of any 

 now remaining in the island, and the traces of three temporary Roman 

 camps. The station is on the right of the road from Stirling through 

 Crieff to the north Highlands, and close upon the little river Knaick 

 or Knaig, a feeder of the Allan, which falls into the Forth. 



This station is supposed by General Roy to be the Lindum of 

 Richard of Cirencester, and to have been founded by Agricola in one 

 of his northern campaigns. It was on a road carried by the Romans 

 from the wall erected by them between the friths of Forth and Clyde 

 into Strathmore beyond the Tay, and which crosses the river Knaig 

 immediately below the station. The form of the works is rectangular ; 

 the dimensions are about 500 feet by 430 feet within the entrench- 

 ments, and the four sides nearly face the four cardinal points. On 

 the north and east sides, where the works are most perfect, there are 

 five ditches and six ramparts. From the nature of the ground the 

 direction of the outer rampart varies, but the aggregate breadth of the 

 works on the east side is about 180 feet, and that of the works on the 

 north side is more than 270 feet. The prgetorium, or general's quarter, 

 is near the centre, but not in it ; it is a rectangle, and almost a square, 

 having its greater side about 70 feet, but its sides are not parallel to 

 those of the station. On the south side the works have been much 

 defaced by the process of cultivation, and on the west by the modern 

 military road from Stirling towards Inverness. Three of the gates 

 remain. The entrance at the pnetorian gate crosses the entrench- 

 ments obliquely. There is a road out of the camp on the south side, 

 but whether it coincides with the remaining (dtcuman) gate is not 

 clear from the plans. The Roman stations and camps had usually 

 four gates : the praetorian, in front of the prsetorium or general's 

 quarters ; the decuman, at the back of the praetorium ; and the right 

 and left principal gates. From an inscription on a sepulchral stone 

 dug up at this place, it appears that a body of Spanish auxiliary troops 

 lay in garrison here. 



The west side of the camp is protected by the river Knaig, the banks 

 of which are very steep. The level of the camp is 60 feet above the 

 river. The prsetorium, which has from time immemorial been called 

 Chapel Hill, ha been at some time inclosed with a stone wall. There 

 are the foundations of a building 10 yards by 7 yards which may 

 once have been a chapel. The whole station has been inclosed with a 

 high stone wall in order to preserve it. 



There is a tradition that on one side of the praetorium a subterra- 



passage extended under the bed of the river, but the entrance 



having been closed to prevent hares when pursued from taking refuge 



there, it is not known where the passage is. Search has been made 



for it, but in vain. 



The camps are a little way north of the station on the way to Crieff, 

 and are of different magnitudes. The largest of them has a mean 

 length of 2800 feet and a mean breadth of 1950 feet, and was calcu- 

 lated to hold between 25,000 and 26,000 men. The military road 

 enters the camp by the south gate, and has levelled half of the small 

 work which protected it, leaving the other half of it standing. On 

 the east rampart of this camp is a small redoubt on a gentle eminence, 

 the only thing of the kind in the temporary camps of Agricola in these 

 parts. The area of this camp is marshy, and some parts of it appear 

 to have been always so. 



The second canip> ia smaller, and its ramparts obliquely intersect 

 those of the last. The north end and part of the east and west sides 

 remain entire. Its length is 1910 feet and its breadth 1340 feet, and 

 it would contain about 14,000 men according to the Roman method 

 of encamping. The area is drier than that of the great camp. These 

 camps are supposed by General Roy to have been formed and occupied 

 by Agricola in his sixth campaign ; the smaller one after the larger, 

 when he had divided his forces. The part nf tlm rampart of the first 

 included within the second was not levelled. The lower parts of both 

 where they approach the river Knaig are now demolished. 



The third camp is immediately adjacent to the station, and was 



probably an addition to it. Its mean length is 1060 feet, and its mean 

 breadth 900 feet, so that it would contain about 4000 men. It was 

 stronger than the great camp, and was formed subsequently to it, the 

 works of the great camp having been defaced by its ramparts, and the 

 part included within it has been levelled. 



In this port of Scotland are the remains of two other Roman 

 stations, but neither of them is so perfect aa that at Ardoch. One of 

 them, at Strageath or Strathgeth, on the river Earn, about 6J miles 

 N.N.E. from Ardoch, is thought to be the Hierna of Richard of 

 Cirencester; and between this and Ardoch, about 24 miles from tha 

 latter, is a small post called Kami's Castle, supposed to have been a 

 look-out for both stations, the remains of which are very perfect. 



The other station, of which only slight vestiges remain, is in the 

 neighbourhood of West Dealgin Ross, near the junction of the rivers 

 Ruagh Huil and Earn, about 81 miles N.N.W. from Ardoch, and 84 

 miles W.N.W. from Strageath. Near it are the remains of a small 

 temporary camp, whereof great part of the entrenchments and the 

 four gates (which are covered in a singular manner) remain entire. 

 This station General Roy supposes to be the Victoria of Richard of 

 Cirencester, and the camp that of the ninth legion, which was attacked 

 by the Caledonians in the sixth campaign of Agricola. About half a 

 mile south-west from Ardoch, at the Griunan Hill of Keir, is a circular 

 Roman work. 



About a mile west of Ardoch was a cairn of extraordinary dimen- 

 sions, namely, 182 feet in length, 30 feet in sloping height, and 45 feet 

 in breadth at the base. (Gordon's ' Itinerarium Septentrionale.') The 

 stones have been mostly carried away to form inclosures for the neigh- 

 bouring farms, but a large stone coffin in which was a skeleton seven 

 feet long has been preserved, together with a few large stones 

 around it. 



(Roy's Military Antiquities of the Romans in Noi-tlt Britain; Sir 

 John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland.) 



ARDRES. [PAS-DE CALAIS.] 



ARDROSSAN, Ayrshire, Scotland, a sea-port town and parish in 

 Cunningham, the northern division of Ayrshire, is situated in 55 39' 

 N. lat., 4 46' W. long., 31 miles S.W. from Glasgow by road, and 32 

 miles by the Glasgow and South- Western railway : the population 

 of the town in 1851 was 2071. 



Ardrossan was projected and commenced by the late Earl of Eglinton, 

 whose family derives its title in the British peerage from this place. 

 The town is regularly built, neat, and clean ; the streets are wide and 

 straight, crossing Bach other at right angles. From its exposure to 

 the western ocean it enjoys a dry bracing atmosphere, and is visited in 

 summer as a watering-place by families from various parts of Scotland. 

 There are excellent baths and several comfortable hotels. 



The harbour of Ardrossan was begun in 1806. The port had con- 

 siderable natural advantages, being sheltered by a large island (Horse 

 Island) off the coast : the works were carried on under the auspices of 

 the late Earl of Eglinton. The harbour is considered one of the safest 

 and most capacious and accessible on the west coast of Scotland. 



There is almost daily steam communication between this port and 

 Ireland, and also to and from the Island of Arran. Steamers ply to 

 and from Glasgow and the various ports on the Clyde ; and there are 

 railway trains several times doily to and from Glasgow, Kilmarnock, 

 and Ayr. 



On a hill above the town are the ruins of the castle of Ardrossan, 

 which is said to have been surprised by Wallace when held by the 

 forces of King Edward I., and its garrison destroyed as they returned 

 from quenching a mock fire which had been kindled by Wallace's 

 party in the neighbourhood. A dungeon where the dead bodies were 

 thrown is called ' Wallace's Larder.' The castle is said to have been 

 reduced to ruins by Cromwell. In the neighbourhood are the ruius 

 of Montfode Castle, the baronial residence of a Norman family of the 

 name of Montfort, corrupted into Montfade. 



The parish of Ardrossau is about 6 miles long and on an average 

 about 3 miles broad. ' The parish church is near Saltcoats, but there 

 is a handsome new chapel of ease at Ardrossau. The Free Church 

 and the Independents have places of worship in the town. 



ARDSTRAW. [TYRONE.] 



AREIOPAGUS, ' Hill of Ares,' a rocky eminence at a short distance 

 west of the Acropolis of Athens on which the celebrated Council or 

 Court of Areiopagus held its sittings. It was on this hill that Xerxes 

 posted his troops for the attack on the Acropolis (Herod, viii. 52). 

 According to tradition the hill was so named because the god Ares 

 was here brought to trial before the assembled gods for the murder of 

 Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon. The Council sat in the open air on 

 the southern brow of the hill facing the Agora, in a quadrangular 

 space excavated" out of the rock, and remaining apparently unaltered 

 to the present day. The quadrangle is open toward the south ; round 

 the other sides ran stone benches cut in the rock for the judges' seats ; 

 on the eastern side there is a raised stone block, and a similar one on 

 the western side, which were probably assigned to the accuser and the 

 accused, as described by Euripides (' Iphigeueiain Tauris,' 961). The 

 quadrangle was reached from the valley of the Agora by 16 stone 

 steps cut iu the rock, and still remaining. It was in this celebrated 

 spot that St. Paul preached to the Athenians. At the south-eastern 

 angle of the hill was the sanctuary of the Eumenides, which was a 

 gloomy cavern formed by a chasm in the rock, and containing a fountain 



