98 JN'otes on the Catrail. By Miss Russell. 



it would have been of, as the object must have been to defend 

 the road up the open valley ; from the head of Ettrick, a good 

 moor road goes over Ettrick Pen into Dumfriesshire ; the valley 

 of the Tima leads towards Lockerbie ; and about two miles above 

 the Eamper Knowe, the road into Dumfriesshire by the lochs 

 turns off at Tushielaw. This road eventually crosses the short 

 length of river connecting the two lochs ; and in connection with 

 it, I am inclined to make "the Herman Law, or Hill of St Ger- 

 manus, above Chapelhope, the scene of the missionary saint's fam- 

 ous rout of the invading Picts and Saxons, just twenty years after 

 the Eomans left Britain. The road through the hills into An- 

 nandale supplies the essentially requisite feature for that inter- 

 esting story. And the Picts make a difficulty about any southern 

 locality. As no one has ever seen the Oatrail on the hills be- 

 tween Ettrick and Yarrow, I do not suppose it was ever made 

 on that high ground. The idea that the Catrail had been a con- 

 tinuous work may probably have originated with George Chal- 

 mers, who knew quite enough of history to know that the Cum- 

 brian frontier must have occurred somewhere near this, but no 

 more pretended to any personal knowledge of the works them- 

 selves, or the district, than in the case of any other of his Scotch 

 antiquities. He spent sixty years of a long life out of Scotland. 

 In the valley of the Yarrow the Catrail decidedly re-appears, 

 but not of any great size ; it was described to me by a proprietor 

 in the valley as being at the Catslack — " and whatever it was 

 meant for, part of it is now in use as a road." This seems to be 

 the part on the east side of the Yarrow ; but on the other side it 

 was lately traced for a mile and half or more, by Professor 

 Veitch and Dr. Eussell of Yarrow, ascending Minchmoor and 

 running north-east. Nearly at the spot where Pont gives the 

 name of Carfood, they detected three forts near each other, each 

 with its spring of water. The name might be the Gaelic Car- 

 fad, long fort ; while fod means earth or soil. The Blackgrain 

 Eig, mentioned by Gordon, is marked by the map on this line. 



But I consider the names the real relics of the Cymri on Minch- 

 moor. On the moor in the Yarrow valley retaining the name of 

 Annan Street, the road into Annandale, was found in 1807 the 

 stone with a rude inscription which is read as containing, in the 

 epitaph of his two sons, the name of Nudd Hael, or the generous, 

 Chief of the Dumnogeni. It is a matter of much local interest 

 at least, that Dr. J. A. Smith's paper, containing this reading of 



