162 Mr. George Tate on Ancient Sculptured Rochs, ^'c. 



to notice the localities in other parts of Britain, where similar 

 inscribed stones have been discovered; for the more extended 

 the range of our observations, the sounder basis we shall 

 have for forming an opinion as to their age and meaning. 



As long ago as 1785 a drawing was made of an incised 

 slab, which covered a cist at Coilsfield in Ayrshire, in which 

 was an urn filled with incinerated bones. Of this drawing Dr. 

 Wilson gave a copy in 1851.* The principal figure on it is 

 the same as our common typical form ; six concentric circles 

 around a cup from which issues a groove ; but along Avith 

 this is a coiled or spiral figure of which we have no example 

 in Northumberland ; it is possible, however, that there may 

 be some error in the drawing. 



A few years prior to 1857, the inner surface of the covering 

 of a cist, Avhich contained bones and ashes, was found incised 

 with groups of concentric circles around cups, but without 

 the radial line, on Craigiehall estate.f Professor Simpson 

 has recently made an important discovery in connection with 

 this cist. " On the top of the hill he found an old British 

 city, defended on its sides with three walls or ramparts with 

 oblique gates, and in the interior, circular foundations, usually 

 indicating the site and form of the ancient dwellings of the 

 inhabitants." Diggings have exposed the rude cyclopean. 

 walls, the whole being similar in structure and arrangements 

 to the ancient British oppida at Greaves Ash and Yevering.J 



In the magnificent work on the sculptured stones in Scot- 

 land, by John Stuart, Secy., F.S.A., Edinburgh, there is a 

 plate of an inscribed stone having the typical forms of the 

 Northumberland sculptures. There are concentric circles, 

 as many as six, around a central hollow, and issuing from 

 the circles are two and three grooves. This stone was 

 turned up by the plough on the farm of High Auchinlary in 

 Kirkcudbrightshire ; on the same farm is a circle of six 

 standing stones. || 



The same work records that in Forfarshire, in an artificial 

 mound near to large pillars, apparently part of a stone circle, 

 a piece of sandstone, about 18 inches square was dug up, on 

 which were two concentric circles § ; and we have seen (page 

 146,) that a stone at Stonehaven, though not containing any 



* Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, 1st ed. p. 332. 



t Ibid p. 334. 



% Professor Simpson will give a detailed description of these discoveries. 



11 Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland, p. 38, plate cxxiii. 



§ Ibid p. xix. 



