In PERTHSHIRE. 277 



man, that pafies between the mofs and the river Teith. The 

 veftiges of this laft road have been traced, from about four 

 miles north weft of the bridge of Dript, where formerly there 

 was a ford, acrofs the river, fouth-eaft by Torwood and Lar- 

 bert, to Camelon on the wall. This road is laid about a foot 

 deep with gravel, under which, in fome places, is alfo a layer of 

 ftones, and it appears to have been about twenty feet wide, 

 though, by the land having been under tillage, its breadth can- 

 not be exactly afcertained. The direction of it, after it croffes 

 the Forth at Dript, is in a line that points north-weft to the pafs 

 of Leny, the chief avenue to the Highlands on this fide, and 

 through which the military road to Fort William is now ac- 

 tually conducted. It is therefore confidered, with great probabi- 

 lity, as having been originally defigned for the ufe of the troops 

 employed to repel the incurfions made by the Caledonians, from 

 the mountains, into the Roman province. At the fame time, it 

 may have been connected with the other roads that ftretched more 

 directly toward the north, by Dumblane and the well known fta- 

 tion of Ardoch. It can fcarcely be doubted, that it alfo com- 

 municated with the road in the mofs, and that this laft is to be 

 reckoned a part of the military works of the Romans. 



On the whole, therefore, the conclufions to which we are 

 thus neceflfarily led appear to be thefe : That before the time 

 of Agricola, the firft of the Roman Generals who attempted 

 to fecure the northern frontier of the province by a regular 

 chain of pofts *, the greater part of the level country on the 

 banks of the Forth was occupied by extenfive forefts : That 

 about this period, or foon afterwards, a great part of thofe fo- 

 refts, 



* The chain of pofts between the Forth and Clyde is mentioned by Tacitus, 

 Vit. Agric. cap. 23. as the work of Agricola's fourth campaign, which coincides 

 with the year 81 of our sera. See Horseley's Britan. Book i. cbap.$. It was 

 about fifty years afterwards that the wall of Antoninus was built, nearly in the 

 fame line. The age of the mofs cannot therefore be eftimated at much lefs than 

 1700 years, 



