ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY, 15 



and the Riglit Honourable Sir Thomas Gordon, Vice Admiral of 

 E-ussia, — are each selected for the special honour of dedication of an 

 engraved plate. But the Gordons of Aberdeenshire are too numerous 

 a clan to admit, on such grounds, of the assumption of relationship 

 between the author and those of his name who extended their 

 patronage to the work. For a time, at least, he was a citizen of 

 Aberdeen, and, as I was informed by the late Su- George Clerk of 

 Pennycuik, professionally engaged as a teacher of music. He was 

 indeed possessed of tastes and accomplishments of a varied range, 

 including more than one of the fine arts, and was even reputed to be 

 the composer of some favourite Scottish airs. He must have pre- 

 sented peculiar traits of character such as Scott would have delighted 

 to study, for he appears to have exhibited characteristics and habi- 

 tudes ordinarily reckoned incompatible. He led a roving life, 

 changed his profession repeatedly, devoted himself with unbounded 

 enthusiasm to one of the most unprofitable hobbies that can engross 

 the energies of a student, sought fame and fortune in the Old World 

 and the New in widely difiering occupations and pursuits, and yet 

 ended by giving the lie to the old proverb which says " A rolling 

 stone gathers no moss ;" for, as will be seen, he bequeathed to his 

 son and daughter a substantial estate hi his New "World home, along 

 with the more characteristic inheritance of certain broad acres in 

 Utopia ! 



In 1720, Dr. William Stukeley — famous among the English anti- 

 quaiies of that eighteenth century, — published his account of Arthur's 

 Oon, a singiilar, if not wholly unique structure on the banks of the 

 River Carron, near the town of Falkirk, in Stirlingshire ; or rather, 

 as Dr. Stukeley notes, " near Graham's Dike," or the Northern 

 Roman Wall. In that treatise he expresses his wonder that, among 

 the many good scholars of the Scottish nation, no one had been found 

 to collect and publish to the world the actual treasures of Roman 

 antiquity abounding in their midst, instead of continuing to compile 

 their ancient history " from invention and uncertain reports." This, 

 Gordon tells us in his preface, " was sufficient excitement for me to 

 proceed still more vigorously in collecting what I had begun ;" and 

 so, he was able to say, when his work was finished, " I confess I 

 have not spared any pains in tracing the footsteps of the Romans, and 

 in drawing and measuring all the figures in the following sheets from 

 the originals ; having made a pretty laborious progress through 



