Transactions. 61 
ramparts and ditches as surrounds Birrens and certain other 
“camps ” in North Britain are certainly Roman, before accepting 
as unquestionably correct the popular and, it may be added, the 
very natural theory of their origin. Since Birrens ought, I believe, 
to be regarded as an advanced post intended to check the advance 
of the natives of the north in their repeated assaults on the 
southern wall, and subsequently as an integral part of its lines of 
defence, there is the more reason why all doubts on a point so 
interesting should, if possible, be cleared away. 
The precise locality where, the time when, and the circumstances 
under which, the Birrens’ sculptures were found, those once at 
Pennicuik excepted, have, unfortunately, not been noted. Sir 
John Clerk’s, however, were certainly met with to the west of the 
present mounds and ditches, and there is every reason to suppose 
that some of the antiquities in Pennant’s list were also discovered 
there. They may have been within or adjoining toa “civil 
settlement” attached to the station proper. In 1831 the writer of 
the account of Middlebie in the ‘‘ New Statistical Account of 
Scotland” has the following statement :—“ There was originally 
another camp adjoining to it (Birrens), which, being on the 
ground of a small proprietor, was dug up some years ago, and is 
now completely destroyed. In this last there were found many 
splendid specimens of Roman antiquity, particularly large stones, 
neatly cut and ornamented with inscriptions perfectly legible ; but 
most of them have been sold or given away, and none, I believe, 
exist in their native parish except one erected in the neighbour- 
ing garden of Mr Irving of Burnfoot.” There were also buildings 
within this space, one of them erected, though perhaps at a some- 
what recent date, to proteet Brigantia, if we may adopt Sir John 
Clerk’s suggestion. “I doubt not,” he says, “but some great 
men in England, who are lovers of antiquity, have so far 
reverenced the heathen religion as to have built a temple for the 
sake of this statue.” This opinion he qualifies somewhat 
in his Latin Dissertation, in which he speaks of the building 
that sheltered it as a templum seu delubrum Romanum, 
“Tt was built,” he tells us, “ of squared stone, and was 
thirty-six feet in length and about twelve in_ breadth. 
The situation was somewhat marshy, and lay outside 
the fortifications of the camp, as if it stood in need of no 
protection from man, being committed to the care of the gods of 
the Romans.” It would be interesting to find out if possible the 
