98 Ancient Monuments of Gorebridge District. [Sess. 



structed after they bad left ? It might have been, but hardly 

 likely. A Roman camp could not have been far off. These 

 dressed stones tell that tale, confirmed by other Roman relics 

 found in the neighbourhood. Close to this was the Roman 

 road from the south to the north. It came up Leader Water 

 from Newstead, near Melrose, on over Soutra Hill, and over 

 the ridge of Camphill to Inveresk. A camp must have been 

 near by ; and if so, Roman civilisation, with its domestic 

 arrangements, must have to some extent caught hold of the 

 natives. The standard of comfort was wonderfully high, far 

 removed from that associated with such a structure as this. 

 We know it was so, for at Inveresk the Roman remains 

 clearly tell that tale. Villas have been excavated, disclosing 

 articles of household use that speak not of comfort merely 

 but of luxury also. These disclose a standard of comfort 

 far beyond the condition of things suggested by this earth- 

 house. Was there no time, therefore, during the Roman 

 occupancy when it could have been built ? There have been 

 two such periods: one about the year 140 a.d., and the 

 other between the years 364-367 a.d. During these two 

 periods there was a great burst in of the native Celts north 

 of Antonine's Wall, which extended from the Clyde to the 

 Forth. They broke through the wall, and, possibly with the 

 assistance of their Celtic compatriots of the Roman province, 

 drove the Romans for a time out of the Lothians. May this 

 earth-house not have been constructed at one of these periods, 

 preferably the earlier ? Most certainly the Romans had been 

 in this neighbourhood. The stones with their chiselled faces 

 of Roman masonry are witnesses of that. A Roman camp 

 of no mere temporary character must have existed near by. 

 Other testimony has been discovered in the neighbourhood. 

 Some fifty years ago a bronze patella or small pan of Roman 

 workmanship was found close by, as also a penannular brooch 

 and a clasp or handle. A few miles off, at Currie, in Borth- 

 wick parish, were discovered a Roman bronze lamp and a 

 bronze eagle. About eighty years ago, near the village of 

 Carrington, there was picked up a bronze Roman stamp with 

 the Latin inscription Tulliae Tacitae. These have been lodged 

 in the Antiquarian Museum, and they all suggest one conclu- 

 sion — a Roman camp has been in the neighbourhood, and not 



