28 ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY. 



How often have I led thy sportive choir, . 

 With tuneless pipe beside the murmuring Loire ! 

 Where shading elms along the margin grew, 

 And freshen'd from the wave the zephyr flew ; 

 And haplj'^, tho' my harsh touch, falt'ring still, 

 But mock'd all tune and marr'd the dancer's skill, 

 Yet would the village praise my wondrous power, 

 And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour, 

 Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days 

 Have led their children thro' the mirthful maze ; 

 And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, 

 Has frisk'd beneath the burden of three-score. 



Without the geniality of the author of "The Traveller," G-ordon 

 must have had some of his wayward propensities. Chalmers says 

 that he "resided many years in Italy, and visited most parts- of that 

 country." Of this Italian sojourn — in whatever capacity it may 

 have been carried out, — the known fruits are his lives of Pope 

 Alexander YI. and Ceesar Borgia, and his " Complete History of 

 Ancient Amphitheatres, more particularly regarding the architecture 

 of these buildings, and in particular that of Yerona," translated from 

 the Italian of the Marquis Scipio Maffei. But both his literary and 

 professional labours must have been pursued in a singularly erratic 

 fashion. He seems to have forsaken the Muses for a time after his 

 return from his continental wanderings, and is i-eported to have ac- 

 quired much of his minute knowledge of Romano-Scotic antiquities 

 while engaged as a surveyor of the route for the projected canal be- 

 tween the Forth and the Clyde, which follows the same course as 

 the line of Agricola's forts and the later wall of Antonine. 



In 1732 Gordon issued proposals for engraving, by subscription, 

 a complete view of the Roman "Walls in Britain, as they really ap- 

 pear on the ground ; their height, thickness, number of courses in 

 the stonewall, inscriptions, altars, and all else ; "their whole number 

 again delineated from their originals, according to exact mensuration, 

 with a scale, and correction of former publications." Had he re- 

 ceived adequate encouragement, he would doubtless have anticipated 

 Horsley, Hodgson, Stuart, and Bruce, in many of their industrious 

 researches. But he had already remarked of the illustrations of his 

 Itinerarium : " Had my encouragement from the public been more 

 considerable, they might have been executed with more expense, 

 though not with greater truth and exactness." Horsley's Britannia 

 Bomana was, moreover, ready for the press ; the Scottish antiquary 



