366 MISCELLANEA. 



(Trans. Tyncside Nat. Field Club, 1863, Vol. YI., p. 21), the 

 Kev. W. Green well expresses the opinion "that theii' import is 

 religious ; tlieir connection with burial, always a most sacred 

 rite, and closely joined to the religion of all races, points most 

 distinctly to a sacred purj^ose, but what the mysteiy is which 

 they dimly shadow may remain for ever unknown, at present it 

 is completely hidden from all enquiry." 



Mr. Tate had in his Presidential Address to the Berwickshire 

 Club, September, 18.53, Vol. III., pp. 129, 130, combated the 

 ixlea that these circles were plans of ancient camps, and proposed 

 a different view. *' I cannot," says Mr. Tate, ''regard them as 

 the amusements of an idle soldiery, nor as plans of camps, nor 

 as exercises of incipient engineers ; for their wide distribution, 

 and, notwithstanding differences in detail, their family resem- 

 blance prove that they had a common origin, and indicate a sym- 

 bolic meaning representing some popular thought ; and though I 

 cannot spell the rude lettering, I fancy, since they are associated 

 with the last remains of Celtic heroes and sages, they tell of the 

 faith and hope of the abonginal inhabitants of Britain." This 

 view, which as far as I am able to ascertain, has been accepted 

 by most writers on the subject is more fully expressed in the 

 following carefully-selected extracts, which will give a correct 

 idea of the theories which have been hitherto proposed to account 

 for the origin of these so-called inscribed rocks under the head- 

 ings: (1) Who formed them? (2) By what kind of tool were 

 the inscriptions made? (3) What mean these sculptures? The 

 answers to these three questions are given in the words of the 

 lute Mr. George Tate, of Alnwick. 



(1.) "The opinion has been maintained that these sculptures 

 were the work of Roman soldiers, who, after driving the native 

 population out of their camps, occupied them, and caused the 

 emblems of their own religion, relating to Mithraic rites, to be 

 carved on the rocks in the district around. But such rude in- 

 scriptions possess none of the characters of Roman workmanship. 

 The invariable association of these inscriptions with ancient 

 British forts, oppida, villages, and sepulchres, is evidence of all 

 having been the work of the people who dwelt in these villages, 



