ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY. 17 



legend of tlie Pennycuik family, derived by Scott himself from 

 William Clerk, of Eldin, the grandson of the Baron. On one occa- 

 sion, as he told, when visiting his grandfather at Dumcrieff, in 

 Dumfriesshire, the old Baronet carried some virtuosos to see a sup- 

 posed Roman camp, and on his exclaiming at a particular spot, 

 " This I take to have been the Prt'etorium," a herdsman who stood 

 by responded : " Prpetorium here, prsetorium there; I made it wi' a 

 flaughter spade." A brother of- his informant, afterwards famous on 

 the Scottish Bench as Lord Eldin, inherited another trait of the 

 scions of the Pennycuik House. Being skilled as an artist, he em- 

 ployed his ingenuity in the manufactiii'e of antique statues, which, 

 mutilated into a becoming aspect of genuineness, were in due time 

 dug up, to the great delight of the laird and the enrichment of his 

 museiim. 



The curious collection of Roman and other antiquities which 

 engaged the study of the older Scottish antiquary, and which Gordon 

 enriched with various contributions, including a fine votive altar 

 found at Barhill, on the Antonine Wall, a legionary tablet from the 

 Croehill Fort, and other gifts of like kind : is still preserved at 

 Pennycuik House, as in the days when the author of the Itineraiy 

 was welcomed there by the Baron, to whose taste its formation is 

 chiefly due. It was, indeed, when prosecuting my own researches 

 among its antique treasures, that the family traditions above referred 

 to, relative to the author of the Itinerarium Septentrionale, were 

 communicated to me by the late Baronet. But the old mansion 

 itself, which furnished the arena for discussions akin to those which 

 wrought such strife between the hovises of Knockwinnock and Monk- 

 barns, has long since disappearo'l. The present house, built by the 

 Baron's son and successor in 1761, in the classic style which Robert 

 Adam was then bringing into general favour, is chiefly interesting 

 for its great room, styled Osslans Hall, elaborately decorated by the 

 pencil of Runciman with frescoes illustative of the popular Gaelic 

 epic. Its builder extended to the poet Allan Ramsay a like hos- 

 pitable welcome with that which Gordon had received from his prede- 

 cessor ; and the romantic locality of Habbie's How, the scene of the 

 poet's Scottish pastoral, lies only a few miles to the south-west, 

 among tho Pentland Hills. 



There is no room for doubt that Scott had Gordon and his experi- 

 ences in view, and even bore in remembrance certain familiar inci- 

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