found near Newstead, Roocburghsliire. 123 



different kinds of ware (some of which I exhibit), and have 

 presented them to the museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. 

 Several silver and brass coins, of the Emperors Vespasian, 

 Trajan, and Hadrian, were also found, and the bones of vari- 

 ous animals. 



I shall not enter here into the more strictly antiquarian 

 details of the subject (which I have already, sometime ago, 

 fully described in another place — Soc. Ant. of Scot., May 

 1850), farther than to say, that the popular idea of these pits 

 having been wells, seems rather absurd, if we consider the 

 number of them clustered together, as well as their near 

 neighbourhood to the River Tweed. English archaeologists 

 call pits of this kind rubbish-holes, or dirt-pits, — the name 

 sufficiently pointing out their supposed use ; but it certainly 

 seems to me very strange, that the Romans should have 

 taken so much apparently unnecessary trouble for such a 

 purpose, as the land would surely not be so very valuable in 

 those ancient days, and the River Tweed runs at no great dis- 

 tance from them on the north, which would seem to afford 

 a simple means for carrying off anything of the kind. I am 

 inclined to the opinion, from considering all the circumstances 

 of the case, that these had been the burying-places of the 

 ancient Roman town, which I believe to have existed in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, and that in these pits were depo- 

 sited the inurned ashes gathered from the extinguished fu- 

 neral piles of the dead ; the remains of sacrificed animals 

 being then apparently laid over them as their most appro- 

 priate covering. However this may be, pits of a correspond- 

 ing kind have been discovered in various places in England ; 

 but, as far as I am aware, this is only the second time any- 

 thing at all resembling them has been noticed, or described, 

 as occurring in Scotland. A little to the east of these pits 

 a bed or stratum, of considerable size, and consisting appa- 

 rently of burnt earth, mixed with wood charcoal, was observ- 

 ed, and a little farther to the east, another of smaller size 

 was also come upon ; and in both of these, various pieces of 

 pottery, and the bones and teeth of animals, were discovered. 

 I regret my not being able to give a full and satisfactory 

 account of the various animal remains which these beds and 



