88 On Edin's Hall, by John TurnbulL 



true circle, tlie walls varying from 15 to 20 feet in thickness. 

 The foundation is composed of large flat stones, whicli project 

 from six inches to a foot beyond the face of the wall, so as to 

 form a scarsement as in modern buildings. The wall above this 

 scarsement now varies from 2 to 6 feet in height, and is perpen- 

 dicular. It is constructed of dry stone, that is, of stones without 

 clay, mortar, or any cementing material. The stones are whin or 

 greywacke obviously taken from the hill on which the building 

 stands. There is no quarry in the neighboiirhood from which 

 they could have been dug out ; and in all probability they were 

 gathered from the surface where plenty of similar stones still re- 

 main. They are angular and irregular in shape ; and it is 

 doubtful if there are any marks of dressing on them. The 

 largest blocks mostly occur on the outer face of the wall, and 

 measure from 2 to 3 feet in length, and are often of the same 

 height, but there are many of larger size than this. The outer 

 face is regular and smooth, and presents a very perfect specimen 

 of dry stone masonry. The stones are very carefully adjusted in 

 their places, the projecting part of one stone being fitted into the 

 hollow of the adjoining one ; necessary interstices being filled up 

 with smaller flat stones laid in courses. The interior face of the 

 wall is not nearly ^o carefully built ; the stones are smaller, not 

 so well fitted to each other, and not so smooth on the exposed 

 face, and the interstices are not "pinned" as on the outside. 

 The heart of the wall is composed of much smaller stones than 

 the faces, and apparently thrown in without any regular assort- 

 ment. The perfection of the dry stone masonry had attracted the 

 attention of the earlier observers, for Mr Murray, in 1764, says : 

 " It has no cement or mortar of any kind. The stones, however, 

 lie very close and compact, the interstices being exactly filled up 

 with small stones. Among the mass of ruins almost every stone 

 has some irregular figure cut out upon it, and not one of these 

 figures resembles another. I believe, for my part, that the 

 upper part of every stone has been cut to receive the convexities 

 and rugged surface of its fellow, and that this is the whole 

 mystery of the figures." It is almost unnecessary to say, that 

 there are no " figures cut out " upon any of the stones, and what 

 was meant is probably that the stones themselves are of very 

 irregular shapes, and these shapes the observer believed had 

 been artificially produced. In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical 



