ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY. 



BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., 



Professor of History and English Literature, University College, Toronto. 



It is now close upon the completion of a full century and a half 

 since there issued from the London press, in A.D. 1726, the Itinera- 

 ruim Septentrionale of Alexander Gordon, familiar to all men as 

 that prized folio which Jonathan Oldbuck undid from its brown- 

 paper wi'apper in the Hawes Fly, or Queensferry Diligence, on that 

 memorable day wheq. we are first privileged to make the acquaintance 

 of The Antiquary par excellence. Over its pages many a devotee of 

 archaeology in that Augustan age, and since, following his example, 

 has " plunged, nothing loath, into a sea of discussion concerning urns, 

 vases, votive altars, Roman camps, and the rules of castrametation." 

 It was, in truth, the vade oiiecum of all Roman antiquaries of that 

 eighteenth century ; and, though long since superseded and displaced, 

 it embodies results of honest research which can never wholly lose 

 their worth. 



In his preface, Gordon tells us he " chiefly intended to illustrate 

 the Roman actions in Scotland," and the work has as its central 

 idea " Julius Agricola's march into Caledonia." In dealing with the 

 Danes,- -who, in the estimation of historians and antiquaries of that 

 age, divided with the Romans the exclusive share in all historical 

 remains, — he limits himself, in like manner, to " An account of the 

 Danish invasions on Scotland, and of the monuments erected there 

 on the different defeats of that people." He expressly designates his 

 elaborate and learned folio as " this present essay on the antiquities 

 of Scotland, my native country ;" and purposes by its publication to 

 relieve the Scottish nation from the charge of negligence " in collecting 

 and publishing to the world their treasures of the Roman antiquities." 

 As a publication, however, it issued from the English press. The 

 title-page — -which, after the fashion of eighteenth century folios, 

 includes an elaborate summary of contents and a long Latin motto, — 



