92 Transactions. 
redoubtable Picts and Scots of the fifth and sixth centuries were 
‘not disorganised hordes of savages, but that they had learned a 
great deal from the great Empire that had so long established 
itself in the southern half of the island, with which they had 
been at constant war, and against which they had finally main- 
tained their independence. 
I have in my own mind another explanation of this famous 
half road, half dyke, that crosses southern Scotland, though I do 
not think it has been much noticed by writers on the subject. 
The work, I fancy, dates from the latter end of the fifth century, 
or even a little later—that is, after the departure of the Romans ; 
and at that time, I believe, there are excellent grounds for 
stating that Saxon colonies had been established in the valleys 
of the Tweed and Teviot in anticipation of the more extensive 
invasion of the Angles both to the north and south of the wall, 
which took place nearly a century later. These Saxon colonies, 
I infer, from the allusions of the Roman writers themselves, had 
made a beginning of their occupation previous to the departure 
of the Romans from Britain, and that they sometimes were in 
conflict with the Picts of the north, and sometimes joined them 
in their attacks on the Roman defences and on the protected 
Britons. After the departure of the Romans, doubtless they 
extended their colonies as far as the dividing water-shed. I have 
never been able to understand the rapidity with which such districts 
as Dumfriesshire and West Lothian were apparently Saxonised, on 
the assumption that the Teutonic wave flowed out exclusively 
from the Anglian settlements in Northumbria. If, however, we 
take into account that there was an earlier Saxon occupation of 
the country to the north of the Cheviots, our difficulty on that 
point vanishes. And it seems to me also that a sufficient 
explanation is given of the defensive character of the military 
way which the northern Picts made through the Lowlands to 
reach the Romanised country. The Saxons were down in the 
valleys hewing down the forests and forming their wicks and 
crofts. The Picts had no wish to meddle with them, especially 
as they possessed little which was worth coveting. But they 
wanted a road across the country to get at their natural enemies, 
the Romans and Romanised Britons, and so they constructed 
their Catrail. 
This is not altogether a digression, for it will render more 
intelligible what follows. Dawston Rigg is one of two places 
