I 9 I 3 _I 9 I 4-] A ncient Monuments of Gorebridge District. 95 



often pointed out as relics of Eoman fortification. It is, how- 

 ever, really not Eoman in character. The remains are much 

 too slight for that. They seem to point to a turf wall which 

 formed an enclosure at a comparatively modern date. Still 

 there is often a germ of truth in tradition, and the germ 

 is here. On the same hill-top there are other walls, more 

 massive in character, and suggestive of greater antiquity and 

 means of defence. These, however, are not square, but cir- 

 cular; they are British, not Koman. They have features of 

 special interest. Within the outer wall of the rounded British 

 camp are two other smaller circular camps with enclosing ditch 

 and rampart. This is, I believe, unusual, and would seem 

 to indicate that they were facing a foe likely to prove very 

 resolute in attack, and so they had thrown up inner 

 defences that they might offer a particularly stubborn 

 resistance. 



At one time a Barrow existed in Newbattle parish. It 

 stood near the Abbey, was conical in form, 30 feet high by 

 90 feet in circumference at the base. It formed a prominent 

 and beautiful object in the Abbey grounds, surrounded at its 

 base with a circle of standing stones, and crowned on the 

 summit with a large fir-tree. On its removal to make way 

 for some additions to the Abbey there was discovered in it a 

 cist, nearly seven feet long, enclosing a human skeleton. At 

 one time there was in the Edinburgh Phrenological Museum 

 a remarkable skull, said to have been found in this Barrow 

 when it was opened in 1782. 



But the most frequent form of ancient burial-place was the 

 cairn. Throughout Scotland these cairns occur, and by prefix, 

 or termination, have given place-names to many a farm. The 

 term is Celtic in its origin, from the word Kaern, and signifies 

 a heap of stones. In the Highlands you find these cairns of 

 recent construction, and there is a proverbial Gaelic expression 

 among the Scottish Highlanders : " Curri mi clach er do 

 cuim" " I will add a stone to your cairn " — that is, " I will 

 honour your memory when you are gone." Cairns occur, 

 and have occurred, in our district. One was found last 

 summer on a terrace of Jeffrey's Course above Tweeddale Burn, 

 and another on Soutra Hill similar in character to many which 

 occur on the Lammermoors. Others have been found and 



VOL. VII. G 



