The HIGHLANDS of SCOTLAND. 29 



both conftruCted folely of turf *. But they were defended by 

 caftella, placed at intervals of various diftance, according to 

 the nature of the ground. The wall of Antoninus ran acrofs 

 from Dumbarton on Clyde to Cramond on the frith of Forth, 

 and was probably in the precife line of the caftella built by 

 Agricola. It was at this period, and under the command 

 of Lollius Urbicus, the lieutenant of Antoninus, that the 

 Romans made their farthefl advances into the ifland of Britain. 

 After the erection of this new vallum, which had probably 

 been reared in the idea, that the country to the north of it was 

 hardly worth fecuring, Urbicus marched to the northward, 

 and finding, beyond his expectation, that the country, efpeci- 

 allv along the fea-coaft, was open and fertile, he appears to have 

 profecuted his conquefts as far north as Invernefs. For this 

 fact, we want indeed the authority of any Roman hiftorian ; 

 but the Geography of Ptolemy, and the late difcovered iti- 

 nerary of Richard of Cirencefter, prove, beyond all doubt, 

 that there were Roman ftations in the neighbourhood of Inver- 

 nefs ', and there is no other Roman general, but Urbicus, who, 

 to the days of Ptolemy, can be fuppofed to have pafTed the 

 limits of Agricola's conquefts j*. The moft northerly Roman 

 ftation, according to Ptolemy, is the -nri^rov n»rvnSm t or caftra 

 alata, which, in the itinerary of Richard, is termed Ptorotone. 

 This, I think, there is every reafon to believe to have been that 

 fortified promontory, now called the Burgh of Moray %. At 



any 



* Julius Capitolinus, in his life of Antoninus Pius, mentions, that this Emperor 

 excluded the barbarians from the Province, " alio muro cefpitio," which proves that the 

 former, vi"z» that of Adrian, was of the fame materials. 



f Whitaker's Hiftory of Manchefter, book L chap. 3. § 1. 



% Its fhape correfponds entirely to the name of an encampment with wings. Such is 

 the aftual form of the promontory 5 and although both Stukeley and Horsley place 

 the ftation of Ptorotone at Invernefs itfelf, it will be obferved, this is nothing more than 

 conjefture. The itinerary of Richard gives no authority for that precife fituation ; 



for 



