Stanley, although a couple of miles out of the way, should certainly be visited; and where the road approaches closely to the Tay, the party should, once

more,

"The proconsul, understanding by his spies that his legion was in danger, advanced to their relief. Early in the morning, animated by his presence, they gave a shout, returned to the charge, and repulsed the Caledonians, who fled north to their fastnesses in disorder.

"Enraged at this insult, the Roman soldiers besought Agricola to lead them against the Caledonians; he marched accordingly into Caledonia. Some vestiges of a castellum remain to this day

near to Ardoch. From this place there is a military road, which leads by Methven, and goes a little above Bertha.

"While Agricola was in those parts, assembling his army to give battle to Galcacus, who, at the head of thirty thousand Caledonians, waited his approach at the foot of the Grampian mountains, about thirteen English miles north from Bertha, Tacitus informs us, that he met with a heavy stroke in the death of his only son, an infant, which greatly afflicted him. Afterwards

he

burying-places. That these were repositories of the dead, has been confirmed of late by Mr Sandeman's improvements. On levelling severals of them which lay within the new inclosures, human bones were found, particularly upon a rising ground sepa rated by a small vale from another rising ground, called Turnagain hillock, where, it is said, the flying Scots returned to the charge. There were six or seven tumuli on the top of this ground, which, in 1770, were levelled by Mr Sandeman; it appeared evidently that the earth had been artificially thrown up to cover dead bodies laid together. About three hundred yards eastward, there was a large tumulus removed, as it stood on the new highroad; here were found skeletons almost entire, not above two feet and a half below the surface, the earth above them was a light gravel. In this place some rough stones were laid together in form of a coffin, in which were found human bones mingled

more, betake themselves to their feet. A foot-path leads along the bank of the river, which not yet having assumed the solemn majesty which characterises it

in

he led the army to the foot of the Grampians, where a bloody battle was fought for a considerable time. Victory sometimes hovering over Agricola, sometimes over Galgacus, the Romans fighting for glory, the Caledonians for life and liberty, until many of their chiefs fell, at last they gave way, and retired in disorder through the mountains, and left Agricola master of the feld.

"Aulus Atticus, captain of a cohort, was a gentleman of rank and merit; whether fired with the thirst of glory, or driven by the impetuosity of his horse, it is uncertain, he rushed in among the Caledonians, and fell, lamented by Agricola and the army.

"The particular spot where this battle was fought is not certáinly known; some say that it is at Comrie, others at Fortingal; at both these places there remain the vestiges of camps; others affirm, with more probability, that the battle was fought two miles west from Blairgowry, where are are to be seen

with the bones and teeth of horses. In summer 1771, Dr Boswell, physician at Edinburgh, was at Luncarty, and saw a tumu las removed. He examined the human bones, and carried to Edinburgh a jaw-bone almost full of fresh teeth. About seven hundred yards south, near the bank of Tay, stand eight tumuli, in a direct line from east to west. In the front of these stands a large tumulus next to the river at a little distance is a large unpolished stone, where the Danish general is said to be buried, and seems to be placed in the middle of the Danish camp. There is to be seen on the land-side, the remains of a long oval rampart of earth. At the east end of these eight tumuli stand some cothouses, which to this day are called Denmark. Near to this place, in a field cultivated by Mr Sandeman, was dug up the handle and part of the blade of a sword, which was sent to the Earl of Kinnoul. At the side of the rising ground first mention

in more level lands, dashes over its rocky course with boisterous and foaming rapidity. The banks on either hand are perpendicular and bare; or sloping and warmly

a very great number of cairns, or tumuli, where there is an oblong square surrounded by a ditch, which, they say, was the Roman vallum; others affirm, that this was a deer-park made by Mr Blair of Glasclune. Among all these assertions and uncertainties, we have small hopes of coming at the truth. The great-. est probability leans towards Blairgowry.

"The foot of the Grampians was the ne plus ultra of the Romans. Agricola returned, and soon after was recalled by Domitian.

"It is not improbable that the large plated urn found at Bertha, might be the repository of the ashes of Agricola's son; and that the urn in which we saw the lachrymatory might contain the ashes of Atticus, who would be interred with military honours.

"Those urns under consideration were but a short way from the Roman military road, which (according to tradition) leads to a bridge over Tay, about a quarter of a mile above Bertha. The ruins of this bridge are seen at low water in the summer-season. Very large and long square oak-planks lie sunk in the river on the

ed, near to the vale which separates it from Turn-again hillock, is a small rising ground, surrounded on the top with a fossé, which, probably, was a guard-place for a small detached party. It was but of late years that a boy, searching for honey below one of the tumuli at the west end, having seen a ground-bee enter there, he drew out a human scull full of honey-combs. The discoveries above-mentioned are owing to Mr Sandeman's improvements of grounds which lay uncultivated for centuries. Buchanan informs us, upon what authority we know not, that Kenneth ordered Hay to enter Perth in triumph, with the yoke wherewith he fought, surrounded by the victorious army, where the King raised him from the Plebeian rank to that of the noble, with the gift of a considerable territory to support his dignity. From him spring the illustrious Hays of Errol, Tweedale, Kinnoul, &c.

warmly clothed with trees, in changeful and frequently abrupt succession. With such features, we need not say that the views on this walk are picturesque in the highest degree, and occasionally sublime. The latter character particularly distinguishes the Thistle Brig, where the irresistible weight of waters appear to have compelled a passage through a high wall of rock, that seems, from the ruins on both sides, to have stretched across the channel. At Stanley there is an extensive cotton-spinning work. On each side, the steep banks of the river circularly receding, form a

little

the spot. Some of them were lately dug up and raised, but one particularly large plank has been attempted in vain. On the straight road from this bridge to Blairgowry, near the conflux of Isla river and Tay, is the vestige of an encampment, where a bridge was thrown over Isla. It is a problematical question among antiquarians, whether this at Bertha was a wood bridge erected on stone pillars by the Romans, or by the ancient Cale. donian Kings, as a communication betwixt Bertha and Scone, which stands on the opposite bank of the river. Dr M'Pherson, in the seventeenth of his Critical Dissertations, affirms from ocular demonstration, that many of the tumuli, or cairns, which are frequent all over the Highlands, have a stone coffin and an urn of a yellow colour, half-full of ashes and burnt bones, in the middle of the coffin; therefore the urns found at Bertha may be Caledo nian, and not Roman.

"To this it may be answered, that the Caledonian urns are found in stone coffins below cairns, but those at Bertha are eighteen feet below the surface of the earth, wihout any coffin or cairn, and which seems to be decisive; one of the urns at Bertha was plated, another contained a lachrymatory, which was un. known among the Caledonians, and peculiar to the Romans. I am far from dogmatizing on such doubtful anecdotes, as are some of those I have named and submitted to the public."

DS

little amphitheatre, adorned by the finest trees, em. bosomed among which is a pleasant residence which formerly belonged to the family of Athol.

Here we should take our leave, yet we would wil lingly accompany our visitors on another walk before they return to the highway. The Lin of Campsie is only a mile and a half above Stanley; the scenery is a continuation of that which we have admired from Luncarty; and, at the end of the excursion, we shall see the whole body of the Tay precipitated through a chasm in a rock not ten feet wide *.

Returned to Stanley, we pay our parting respects. Twelve miles from Perth, our friends will pass under Birnam Hill, and see where Birnam Wood was. Let them expect to be gratified-to be delighted to be enraptured at Dunkeld; for they will not be disappointed.

MEMO

*This is the general appearance of the fall in summer. winter, or when the river is high, the waters, bursting over the huge rocky impediment, form a variety of foaming cataracts.

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