SCOTLAND (ANTIQUITIES). 



153 



Antiquities. Some of the antiquities of Scotland 

 are described in the articles relating to the places 

 where they are noticed. Of Roman Antiquities 

 none are more remarkable than the fortified line 

 between Forth and Clyde, called by the different 

 names of Agricola's wall, Antoninus' wall, and 

 Grahams dyke. The accounts of the commencement 

 and termination of this rampart, at its east and west 

 ends, are different ; some making it to commence at 

 Caer-ridden on the Forth, and to terminate on the 

 Clyde at West Kilpatrick, others making it com- 

 mence at Kinneil, and terminate at Dunglass ; but 

 the difference in length in these cases, is very in- 

 considerable, not amounting to more than a mile. 

 The whole length is forty Roman, or twenty-seven 

 British miles. The rampart consisted of a ditch, 

 of which the dimensions are not now well known, 

 though it is presumed to have been twelve feet 

 wide. It is supposed that the foundation of this 

 rampart was formed of stone, and that it was, at 

 least in places much exposed to attack, faced with 

 stone. Upon the wall, at different distances, forts 

 were erected. At less considerable distances, tur- 

 rets were reared for the accommodation of small 

 bodies of troops, employed in the defence of the 

 rampart. Of the larger forts, eighteen are known 

 to have existed, at the distance of about two miles 

 from each other ; of the inferior turrets, the num- 

 ber and intermediate distances are unknown. Along 

 the south side of the rampart, a military way was 

 formed for the accommodation of troops passing from 

 one part of it to another. Of this road the vestiges 

 have for the most part disappeared ; though in a few 

 places it is still visible. The curious monument on 

 the banks of the Carron, in Stirlingshire, called Ar- 

 thur's Oven, and supposed to have been a temple of 

 the god Terminus, was destroyed in the last cen- 

 tury, for the sake of the materials of which it was 

 built, by the proprietor of the soil. Gfeneral Roy, 

 and other antiquarians, have investigated, with con- 

 siderable success, the course of the Roman roads 

 through Scotland; but the existence of them are 

 very inconsiderable, though there are many obvious 

 indications of the camps and stations with which 

 they communicated. Among the thirty-three Bri- 

 tish cities, specified by Richard of Cirencester, as 

 the most celebrated and conspicuous, three only 

 appear to have been situated in North Britain; 

 these are, Theodosia, Dumbarton ; Victoria, Deal- 

 gin Ross, Perthshire ; and Proroton, Burghead, 

 Elginshire. Of the remains of Roman camps, that 

 at Ardoch, in Perthshire, supposed to have been 

 that occupied by Agricola, in bis fourth campaign, 

 in the year 84, is the most remarkable, and is 

 reckoned the most complete. It appears to have 

 been surrounded by three or four ditches and ram- 

 parts. Its length is 1060, its breadth 900 feet; 

 and, according to the ordinary distribution of Ro- 

 man soldiers in their encampments, it is reckoned 

 to have been sufficient for 26,000 men. The pas- 

 sages across the ramparts to the gates upon the four 

 sides, are still visible ; and within the camp, but 

 not exactly in its centre, may be distinguished the 

 pratorium, or general's quarters. The camps 

 of the Danes are seen in many places of Scot- 

 land, and are distinguished from those of the 

 Romans, by being of a circular form, and generally 

 placed in situations difficult of access. Circles of 

 obelisks, called, by some antiquarians, druidical 

 temples ; by others, supposed to be places for the 

 administration of justice among the Gothic nations, 

 are found in several districts j one of the most re- 



markable is at Uig, in the Isle of Lewis, Ross- 

 shire; it consists of twelve stones, set on one end, 

 about seven feet high, and about six feet distant 

 from each other. The centre is occupied by an 

 obelisk, rising to the height of thirteen feet. At 

 Brechin, and at Abernethy, are circular towers, 

 which have baffled the penetration of the antiqua- 

 rians, to discover either by whom they were erected, 

 or for what purpose. That at Abernethy is seventy- 

 four feet in height, and forty-eight in circumference, 

 and consists of sixty-four courses of hewn stone. The 

 height of the tower at Brechin is eighty feet ; that 

 of an octagonal spire, which surmounts it, is twenty- 

 three feet, making the whole elevation 103 feet. The 

 diameter at the foundation is sixteen feet. Of what 

 have been termed vitrified forts, the most remarkable 

 is that of the hill of Knockfarril, near Dingwall, in 

 Ross-shire. The enclosure is 120 feet long, and 

 forty feet broad. Another is situated on the hill 

 of Craigphadrick, near Inverness, the enclosure 

 eighty paces long, and twenty-seven broad. Similar 

 vestiges are perceived at Dunevan, Nairnshire ; at 

 Fordun castle, near Fort Augustus ; on the west 

 side of Glenevis, in Lochaber : at the castle of Fin- 

 haven, in the county of Angus ; on the hill of 

 North, Aberdeenshire ; and in many other places. 

 Many specimens remain of the baronial castles of the 

 middle ages, and of the churches and monasteries. 



Descriptive Geography. Scotland may be consi-* 

 dered a mountainous country, as it posseses very 

 little of what may be called level land, except those 

 tracts along the courses of its principal streams. 

 Yet it is nationally divided into two distinct por- 

 tions, the Highlands and the Lowlands, although 

 it may, with more propriety, be naturally divided 

 into three parts, the Northern, the Middle, and 

 the Southern districts. The Northern is separated 

 from the Middle district by the chain of lakes occu- 

 pying the great valley of Glen-more-na-h'-alabin, 

 and extending from the Firth of Moray to Loch 

 Linnhe. The second, or Middle district, reaches 

 southward to the Firths of Forth and Clyde, now 

 connected by the canal to which those rivers give 

 name ; and the Southern district, of course, lies 

 between this line and the English border. The 

 Northern district is almost wholly rugged and 

 mountainous, forming a most irregular surface, in- 

 clining from the west towards the north-east and 

 east, on which side, near the coast, are vales and level 

 lands sufficiently fertile to repay the toils of hus- 

 bandry. The Middle district is likewise extremely 

 mountainous on the west and north, where stretches 

 the rocky spine of the Grampians, almost across the 

 island ; but here the flat country is more extensive, 

 sloping on one side of the hills, towards the north, 

 and on the other side, towards the eastern coast. 

 The southern district, though less elevated than the 

 preceding, is by no means destitute of hills, among 

 the chief of which are those of Pentland and Lam- 

 mermuir. There are also considerable tracts of 

 moss and heath, but the fertile and cultivated por- 

 tions are of more extent, and the coast on the north- 

 east, the west, and the south, are the principal seats 

 of national industry and commerce, the influence of 

 which extends into the interior of this district, 

 which, as well as the eastern coast of the preceding, 

 is thickly inhabited, and said to contain a larger 

 proportion of cultivated land than many parts of 

 England. 



Few countries exhibit a greater diversity of sur- 

 face and aspect than Scotland. Its mountains vary 

 in extent and altitude, from the swelling hill or 



