KICARDUS CORINENSIS. 191 



A school of Roman antiquaries, however, was at work in that 

 eighteenth century, with much learning and zeal, but with still more 

 credulity. Sir Walter Scott has pictured them with graphic humour 

 in his immortal Antiquary, with his " Essay upon Castrametation, with 

 some particular remarks upon the vestiges of ancient fortifications late- 

 ly discovered by the Author at the Kaim of Kinprunes :" the supposed 

 Castra pruinis of Claudian. Agricola was the central figure of all 

 their speculations ; and Tacitus the authority on whose narrative their 

 discoveries and speculations were ever throwing new light. In the 

 midst of such seductive toils, the discovery of Richard's manuscript, 

 was like the lost books of Livy to the historian of early Rome. The 

 acutest among the critical investigators of the age — though engaged 

 in controversies carried on with a bitterness happily unknown to 

 modern literary dissentions, — concurred in welcoming the Benedictine's 

 Itinerary ; and so ingeniously adapted its vaguest hints to their own 

 speculations and discoveries, that for nearly three quarters of a century, 

 no doubt, was raised as to Bertram's good faith in the reputed discovery. 



Foremost among those who thus gave confirmation to Richard's 

 treatise on ancient British geography, by identifying its iters and 

 stations with their own discoveries, was the distinguished author of 

 "The Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain." Major- 

 General Roy had served as an officer of engineers under the Duke of 

 Cumberland, in his Scottish Campaign of 1745. He was employed in 

 the surveys and military works suggested by the events of that critical 

 period; and was subsequently commissioned to construct a map of 

 Scotland from actual survey. In doing so he made careful and accu- 

 rate drawings of Roman camps, roads, and other earth-works : the 

 whole of which, with his descriptive narrative, furnished the materials 

 for a costly folio printed at the expense of the Society of Antiquaries 

 of London, in 1791, under the comprehensive title of "The Military 

 Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain; and particularly their 

 ancient system of castrametation : illustrated from vestiges of the camps 

 of Agricola existing there. Hence his march from South into North 

 Britain is in some degree traced ; comprehending also a treatise, 

 wherein the ancient geography of that part of the island is rectified, 

 chiefly from the lights furnished by Richard of Cirencester." 



The work of General Roy is, and ever will be, an invaluable contri- 

 bution to the history of the period of Roman occupation of Britain. 

 It furnishes accurate surveys of many important earth-works, since 



