attacked in the vicinity of Loch Ore; but, Sir Walter offers nothing in support of his opinion.

This season Agricola, in order to secure A. D. 81. the country he had overrun, employed his army in building a chain of forts, on the isthmus between the Firths of Forth and Clyde: the enemy being driven, as it were, into another island. Here, says Tacitus, had it been compatible with the bravery of the army, or if the glory of the Roman name would have permitted it, there had been a boundary to their conquests in Britain. It is probable that, during this summer, Agricola pushed forward, and established posts at Keir, and at Ardoch, in order to facilitate his advance into Caledonia.

A. D. 82.

This year, says Tacitus, Agricola crossed the Firth with his army, himself passing in the first ship; and it would appear that he overran Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Galloway. The Firth to which the historian alludes, must have been the Firth of Clyde, which he probably crossed at Dunglas or Dumbarton; for, in many successful engagements, having subdued nations not before known to the Romans, he is said to have placed forts in that part of Britain which is opposite to Ireland. There is no probability that he marched to the Mull of Cantire, and no mark of the Roman arms has been found in the West Highlands; we conclude, therefore, that he placed his forts in the Rhynds of Galloway, the country of the Novantæ; and one of them is supposed to have been Rerigonium, now Stranraer, at the head of Loch Ryan. Tacitus informs us, that Agricola constructed these forts more with a view to future operations, than from any danger he immediately apprehended from that

quarter. Here it was that the Roman general received into his protection an Irish chief, or petty king, expelled by the civil dissensions of his country, and whom he retained, under the appearances of friendship, till a proper occasion. From him he no doubt learned all he wished to know concerning that island, and thence concluded, that a single legion, with a few auxiliaries, would be sufficient, not only to conquer, but even to keep it. Such an acquisition, from its situation between Britain and Spain, and the communication that might likewise be kept up between it and Gaul, would be of the utmost consequence, as well for connecting these distant members of the empire, as for securing Britain itself, when thus on every side the Roman power was seen established, and all national liberty banished, as it were, out of sight. This political wisdom was truly Roman. Ever with moderation in their mouths, they boasted that their practice was to spare the vanquished, and subdue the proud,--

"Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos ;"

while they made kings themselves subservient to their purposes, in trampling on the liberties of mankind.

From the information thus received by Agricola, which induced him to conclude, as Tacitus says he had often heard him declare, "sæpe ex eo audivi," that a single legion, with a few auxiliaries, would suffice not only to conquer, but to keep Ireland, it seems reasonable to suppose that the island was then but thinly peopled, and, of course, that it had not been long inhabited. What is related of the very ancient colonization of Ireland is mere fiction-the invention of late years.

Of the pretended early civilization of the inhabitants not a trace remains, and no evidence can be found; on the contrary, they appear to have been always rude. Constantly subject to civil broil, and frequently exposed to foreign invasion, they submitted to the English arms under Henry II., the first of the Plantagenets, 1172; and, since that period, their progress in civilization has been slow.

Agricola, having conquered the West of Scotland, would naturally return to the isthmus between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, where his army would probably winter in the newly erected forts, and every preparation would be made to advance into Caledonia early in the next spring. Strathearn and Strathmore were undoubtedly the scenes of his operations during his two last campaigns; but antiquaries are exceedingly divided in opinion as to the situations of the camps he pitched, and the places where he fought, and, particularly, as to the field of the famous battle with Galgacus.* When the Roman camps at Ardoch first attracted attention, the rising ground to the northward was considered the scene of this celebrated battle. Among the last writers who entertain this idea is Chalmers, in his Caledonia, who is decidedly of opinion that Agricola crossed the Ochils by Glendevon, and, deploying from Gleneagles, attacked Galgacus upon the muir of Orchil. After condemning, without ceremony, those who have different sentiments, he says, "There is a thread of sophistry, which, as it runs through the reasoning of all those writers on this point, it is time to cut, for the sake of truth;" and he records it as his deliberate

* Vide Appendix, A.

judgment, that the muir of Orchil was the place. As Chalmers is an author of some celebrity, and one whose industry has done much to illustrate the antiquities of Scotland, we shall here observe, that, if Agricola advanced into Strathearn by Glendevon, instead of turning the Ochils by Strathallan, it might perhaps be questioned, if he would have merited the character of an able general; and Galgacus, with little knowledge of the art of war, could hardly have failed to see the propriety of attacking the Romans on their march through the defiles of the mountains, rather than of waiting for them on the muir of Orchil,—a position which has no peculiar advantages, and, in military phrase, cannot even be called strong ground. Two large heaps of stones on this muir have been considered sepulchral cairns, and probably they are so; but it is not unlikely, they are also Druidical; and, at any rate, they do not indicate a great battle-field, which is usually marked with numerous cairns.

Gordon, in Itin. Sept., thinks himself fortunate in finding, that Dealgin-Ross, near Comrie, exactly suited the circumstances mentioned by Tacitus; but, of the camps in Strathmore, he knew nothing. Some fix upon the neighbourhood of Blairgowrie; others, upon Battle Dykes, north of Forfar; while the Rev. Principal Playfair, of St Andrews, is of opinion, it was decided near Keithic, north of Brechin, where all the seven circumstances mentioned, and which, he thinks, must determine the question, correspond with the situation. But, unluckily, there are none of the other places proposed, to which the seven circumstances would not almost equally apply; and, what is also unfortunate, it seems clear that great battles have been fought near

most of the places mentioned; and the names of these places, whether in Gaelic or in Saxon, refer to battlefields. The late Colonel Shand, of the artillery, suggested the neighbourhood of the Roman camp at Finteach, in the gorge of Glenalmond; Fortingal, in Glenlyon, has also been propounded. Maitland, who first traced Roman roads and encampments north of the Tay, on discovering the camp at Rae Dykes, north of Stonehaven, pointed out Urie Hill, as the true place; and many have adopted his opinion. Hist. of Scot. pub. 1757.

A few years ago, the Rev. Mr Small, Edenshead, on finding traces of a great battle in the vicinity of his residence, near Strathmiglo, in the north-west of Fife, concluded that to be the identical place where Agricola encountered Galgacus. Providence, says the learned author, seems at length to have removed the veil which so long concealed the true situation of this famous battle. The Roman general, marching from Loch Ore by the east end of Loch Leven, crossed the efflux of the stream, and turning the West Lomond, found the Caledonians posted on a gentle acclivity to the southward of Balcanquhal, on the skirts of the Ochils. Here a large cairn marks the place where Galgacus sustained the first onset of the Romans; and, having beat them back near to the base of the West Lomond, another cairn marks the slaughter at this place. Galgacus drove the Romans before him to the eastward for a couple of miles, between the Miglo, or Eden Water, and the Lomonds. Near Meralsford the Romans wheeled, and, falling upon the Caledonians, in disorder from the too eager pursuit, made dreadful havoc in the neighbourhood of the ford, where several cairns, and two or three