lead 30,000 Caledonians into Fife, rude though the tribes were, they would hardly have followed him into a place from which they could not easily get out,—a cul de sac. With regard to the etymology of Grampius, it is very dubious; and the derivation proposed by Chalmers, from the Welsh Gran-pen, has not been considered satisfactory; in as much as "shelving and precipitous" would apply equally to the Grampians and to the Lomonds, and to fifty other ridges. That the historian could not mean the Lomonds by Mons Grampius, we might infer from the battle having been fought in the country of the Caledonians. These tribes are placed to the north and westward of the Grampians, by Ptolemy and Richard; and all ancient authority, history, and tradition, assign the same locality to these mountains which they have at present, and are silent as to any other having ever borne that appellation. The discovery, therefore, that Tacitus meant the Lomonds, comes too late; and being founded on vague etymology, appears to be altogether inadmissible. In hearing the essay read, we may have misunderstood the Colonel in some particulars, and on that account, may not have done justice to his views ; but of one thing we are satisfied, that no modification of his hypothesis will ever bring it within the shadow of probability that the site of the battle of Mons Grampius could be within the precincts of Fife. For this reason, we think it unnecessary to notice a dissertation on the same subject by the Rev. Mr Small, also read lately to the Antiquarian Society, except by observing, that neither the learned author, nor Colonel Miller, has any thing satisfactory to offer regarding the country of the Horestii, into which Agricola marched his army after encountering Galgacus.

It seems requisite that we should say something concerning the battle of Meralsford. According to tradition, this great battle was fought with the Danes, in the beginning of the eleventh century. In the days of Malcolm II. or of his successor Duncan, these terrible northmen landed to the eastward, and advanced through the vale of Eden, toward Strathearn, with the intention of plundering Forteviot, when they were met by the Scots at Meralsford, and defeated with great slaughter. A mile south of the town of Auchtermuchty, there is a village still called Daneshalt; and near it are the remains of a camp, consisting of five concentric circular trenches, nearly equidistant from one another. "The Danes," says Principal Playfair," who invaded the country, were here checked in their progress, defeated, and compelled to retreat." Des. of Scot. vol. i. p. 385. At a short distance, there is a place called Daneshill; and the pits full of skulls, discovered near Meralsford, seem also to confirm the tradition. The Romans, it is well known, never took the trouble of cutting the heads off their fallen enemies; but our savage ancestors being, with good reason, dreadfully exasperated at the repeated invasions of the barbarous northmen, were in the practice of chopping off the heads of those who fell in battle; and being of a religious disposition, instead of singing Te Deum after a victory, they built the skulls of the Pagans into the walls of their churches. So, at Gamrie, in Buchan, where the Danes were defeated, in the reign of Indulf, about the middle of the tenth century, near the vestiges of their camp, there is a place still called The Bloody Pits. A church was soon after erected near the scene of action, into the walls of which several of the skulls of the piratical northmen were

built; and there they still remain. Stat. Acco. vol. i. p. 469. So, also, at Mortlach, in Aberdeenshire, where the Danes were defeated, in the reign of Malcolm II., 1010, their skulls were built into the walls of the church, and remained till recent times. Stat. Acco. vol. xvii. p. 444. It is likely that the skulls of the northmen who fell at Meralsford, were deposited in pits, in order to be afterwards built into the walls of a church, to be erected near the spot, but which the ensuing civil commotions prevented from being carried into effect.

Of those who have treated of the campaigns of Agricola, the greatest deference is due to the opinion of General Roy, as being himself particularly skilful in judging of the places proper for the encampment of armies; and, from experience, acquainted with their movements in the field, he was well qualified to illustrate a subject to which he had devoted much attention. Though he does not fix upon the place where Agricola defeated Galgacus, he inclines to think it should be looked for near Fettercairn, or Monboddo, or perhaps to the eastward of these places, and nearer to Stonehaven. It is evident from this, that the General was satisfied the true place had not been discovered, at the time he wrote his Roman Antiquities of North Britain. Some antiquaries think this battle-field should be looked for still farther north, and somewhere in the shire of Aberdeen. Richard of Cirencester, who is supposed to have written in the beginning of the 14th century, and to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the Roman province of Vespasiana, leans to this opinion.

Tacitus says the battle was fought at Mons Grampius," ad Montem Grampium," which may be properly

translated The Grampian Mountains, it being common with the Romans to express a mountain range in the singular number; as, Mons Uxellum, a chain of hills in the south of Scotland, extending from Cheviot to Loch Ryan; another chain in the north, extending from Ben Wyvis to the Ord-head, bore the same name; and, Mons Oscellum, The Ochils, which stretch from the Bridge of Allan to Newburgh. These three ranges seem to have derived their names from the British word uchel, high. The Grampians form the greatest mountain range in Britain. They consist of groups of hills, and sometimes of double ranges, with numerous ramifications running out in all directions; but the general bearing is north-east and south-west, stretching from Ben Lomond to the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, a distance of upwards of 100 miles, and in breadth from 10 to 30.* The map of the Basin of the Tay contains a large portion of these mountains. There is no evidence that any particular height, in this lofty range, ever was distinguished by the name of Mons Grampius, or The Grampian Mountain. Buchanan calls Ben Lomond, Granz Ben, which seems akin to the Welsh Gran-pen, already mentioned; but he does not hint that it was the Mons Grampius of Tacitus, and there is no probability that Agricola fought at the foot of Ben Lomond. Camden, who wrote a short description of Scotland in the 16th century, thinks a particular mountain bore the name of Mons Grampius; but as he neither points it out, nor mentions the authority upon which he founds his opinion, no importance can be attached to his con

* Prin. Playfair includes, under the name of Grampians, the Highlands south of the Caledonian Canal, in breadth from 40 to 60 miles.

jecture. A mountain near the Moray Firth is called Mons Grampius by Richard of Cirencester; but he was mistaken in supposing that the Grampians extended to Kinnaird's Head: he must mean either Mormond, an isolated hill in Buchan, near to that promontory, or Knoc-hill* in Banffshire, a few miles south of Portsoy, both far beyond the Grampian Mountains. Mormond means great hill; or, it may be derived from mar or mer, the sea, being an important land-mark. As to the meaning or derivation of the word Grampians, since it is not Gaelic, and does not appear to be British, we can only hazard a conjecture. Gram is old Gothic for a warrior, and many of the Gothic kings have that appellation: the Celtic Graham, supposed to be derived from grumach, grim, seems to be from the same etymon, many roots being common to the Gothic and Celtic, and to other languages: it is, therefore, probable, that the word was Pictish, derived from the same root; and, in that case, the Grampians would mean the Mountains of the Warriors. In Norway, according to Torfæus, in early times, every independent leader was called Gram, and his soldiers Grams; " Gramus appellabatur, milites vero Grami." Hist. Nor. tom. i. p. 379.

From what has been stated, it is evident, that the particular place in the Grampian range where Galgacus was defeated, is left to conjecture, since it cannot be determined by the indefinite expression of the Roman historian.

We left Agricola in his winter quarters on the isthmus between the Firths of Forth and Clyde; and it may be proper, before accompanying him into Caledonia, that

Knoc hill is a pleonasm: knoc, in Gaelic, signifies a hill.