26 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. II.—B. S. 
of the Remains associated with these Sculptures,’ 
illustrated by lithograms. This is one of the most com¬ 
prehensive, as it is one of the most valuable, accounts as 
yet written on these incised stones, the first specimens 
of which were brought to light nearly half a century 
ago, by Mr. J. C. Langlands, near the great camp on 
Old Bewick Hill, in North Northumberland, and addi¬ 
tions to which have been made, in various other parts, 
by other zealous antiquarians, including the author of 
the just-mentioned publication. These inscriptions 
are held to be of great antiquity, and to have been 
the work of tribes who occupied the British islands 
long before the Roman invasion. The notion that 
they originated with the Roman soldiers, trying to 
pass away the dull hours of camp life, being entirely 
opposed to the fact that no Roman characters of any 
kind occur among them, and that they are found 
in parts of these islands never trodden by the foot of 
the Roman conqueror. The geographical distribu¬ 
tion of these rocks is interesting. In Northumber¬ 
land, where they abound, they do not occur on the 
Cheviots or their flanks; and this has been held to 
be a negative proof that these inscriptions were made 
by a people ignorant of the use of metallic tools, who 
could not produce any impression on the porphyry of 
the Cheviots by their stone tools, when they easily 
effected it on the sandstone of the Northumbrian 
moorlands. In all, fifty-three sculptured stones have 
been observed in Northumberland, on which three 
hundred and fifty figures are inscribed. All of them 
are more or less connected with ancient British re- 
