Notes on the Catrail. By Miss Russell. 99 



the inscription, must have been printed almost simultaneoTisly 

 with the "Four Ancient Books of Wales," in which Mr Skene 

 places the cousins of Rhydderch Hael, of whom Nudd was one, 

 in this district. Yarrow being named. The two seem to have 

 been entirely independent. The Dumnogeni would be Ptolemy's 

 Scotch Damnonii, and certainly Oymri. Secondly, one of the 

 hills behind Yarrow church is actually called the Welshie Law ; 

 this might be a family name, but it seems significant here. 

 Thirdly, the same thing applies to Wallace's Trench : — the name 

 may be that of the Guardian of Scotland, or anybody else, but it 

 is what the Oymri are called throughout Saxon history, or nearly 

 so. I do not know the lower end of Wallace's Trench, but the 

 object of the upper part seems evident enough; to defend, or 

 partly intercept, the road coming along the ridge from the east- 

 ward, at the point where the old high road crossing Minchmoor 

 from the Tweed at Traquair, turns steeply down to the Yarrow. 

 It is a long earthen wall, about five feet high in parts, running 

 up the hill. Near the top of the ridge is a wide gap or opening, 

 defended by a separate piece of wall to the westward ; the upper 

 part of the wall, which has been broken down, but not cut away, 

 where the track goes over it, stops abruptly at the top of the 

 hill ; but I do not know that any one would notice who had not 

 happened to get into it, that the north side of the ridge here is 

 a deep bog. It is a mere suggestion, but it is possible that 

 when Gordon says of the Catrail somewhere hereabouts, that it 

 "mounts the hill called Henhillhope, and is very distinct for a 

 quarter of a mile," he refers to Wallace's Trench. AU the 

 known portions of the Catrail run, roughly, north and south. I 

 have no doubt the name of Wanders Knowe, for the top of 

 Lewinshope Eig, opposite Wallace's Trench, records some former 

 tradition of the name of Gwenever ; she seems remembered as 

 the Queen Wanders of Meigle in Perthshire. [Since the above 

 was written, I find on inspecting Wallace's Trench from below, 

 that is from the south, that it is considerably shorter and higher 

 than I was aware of. It is a very respectable earth work still, 

 but there are only two distinct divisions ; both the roads along 

 the hiU must have passed through the gap between the two. I 

 find the Minchmoor causeway is said to be a Eoman road.] 



The only other bit of earthwork I have ever been able to see 

 on Minchmoor is a low wall, perhaps two feet high, at Penman- 

 score "the head of the great wood" where the road from the 



