46 ROMAN STATIONS AND ROADS MOSTLY INLAND. return for a benevolence, gave honied words to the inhabitants of the gude Town. We are farther told, that Fordun gave the name of Tiber-more, to an extensive muir that lies west from the town of Perth; but, if Fordun had known any thing of Gaelic, it is likely he would not have given it that appellation. Tipper,* or Tibber-muir, the name by which it has always been distinguished, simply means, The well in the muir. The 9th and 10th Itinera of Richard, diverge at Orea, and we shall now endeavour to point out the stations upon the former, so far as it is included in the Map of the Basin of the Tay. In doing so, we are sorry to find that we differ entirely from General Roy, who carries this Iter along the coast all the way to Burgh-head. It seems not to have occurred to him, that the Romans, being neither a commercial nor a maritime people, and never engaging in sea affairs, but when it became necessary in the prosecution of their warlike designs, it was not their policy to place stations, or form roads, along the shore of the ocean. In Britain very few of their castra stativa are upon the coast; their Itinera are, for the most part, inland; and, in North Britain, invariably so. In the passage of rivers, the first ford above the tide-way seems to have been preferred; and, at a distance from the sea, their encampments and stations were generally placed, so as to command a ford, which was an object of peculiar importance in a country without bridges; and the more so, that the Romans did not, like the moderns, carry pontons along with them in their marches. While we think it necessary to make these observations, we are sensible that no writer has Gaelic Dictionary. done more to illustrate the antiquities of North Britain than General Roy; than whom there could not be a more candid inquirer, or one whose judgment was less liable to be warped by antiquarian zeal: therefore we cannot but reprobate the observation of Chalmers, that "his desire of novelty which forced him into a Caled. vol. i. p. 124. General Roy it was wrong tract." could not avail himself of the more recent discoveries made by Colonel Shand, Captain Henderson, and Colonel Imrie, of Roman roads and camps in the interior of the shires of Aberdeen and Banff, establishing the accuracy of Richard's delineation of the 9th Iter in that quarter; but, whatever it might be that induced the General to carry it along the coast, he never shews discourtesy to those who may happen to differ from him in opinion. Nothing, in the course of our inquiries, has struck us more forcibly than the want of bonhommie among those men of talents and learning who have treated of Scottish antiquities, and who are now, almost all, under the turf. From Orea, to the next station in the 9th Iter, ad Tavum, the distance is 19 Roman miles, nearly equal to 18 English. Leaving Derder's Ford, and passing the village of Rome, on the north side of the Tay, we take the old road from Perth to Dundee, by Kinfauns, Glencarse, Kilspindie, Flaw Craig, Rossie, &c. and, at the distance of 18 English miles, we come to the Roman camp of Cater Milley, situated half a mile north of Invergowrie, and about two miles west from Dundee. This camp is now effaced; but it existed in the middle of the last century, and is described by Maitland as being 600 feet square, fortified with a high rampart and spacious ditch. Hist. of Scot. vol. i. p. 215.-Stat. 48 CATER MILLEY SUPPOSED TO BE AD TAVUM. Acco. vol. xiii. p. 115. Cater Milley, Principal Playfair conjectures to be Quatuor Millia; referring either to the distance from some other station, or to the number of troops it contained. But there is not any vestige, or tradition of another camp being within four miles of this neighbourhood; and, though the area of this station be somewhat greater than that of Orea, and double of that of the permanent camp at Ardoch, it could not, upon the Polybian system, hold 4000 men. Whatever The may be the derivation of Cater Milley, there can be no doubt that this was the station, ad Tavum, near to, or upon the Tay. From a calculation made by General Roy, after comparing the dimensions of the different camps supposed to have been occupied by Agricola, during his last campaign in North Britain, he is of opinion, that the number of troops which the Roman commander sent on board the fleet, on returning from the territories of the Horestii, was about 4000. calculations appear to be accurate; and, being founded upon data with which the General was familiar, there is reason to believe the soldiers sent on board the fleet might amount to that number; and as it is probable they embarked here, this station may derive the name, from the temporary camp of these troops being pitched on the spot where the permanent camp was afterward placed. The advantages of the situation, though still considerable, were probably much more so in the first and second centuries. The physical changes hereabout have been great: the tradition, universally prevalent through this part of the country, seems to be borne out by evidence sufficient to warrant the conclusion, that the course of the Tay was formerly on the north side of the Carse, that fine river washing the skirts of the Sidla |