ful Saxon invaders. It was natural that these provincial Britons should endeavour to make use of the same means of defence, of which they had an example in the wall of Severus. The imperfect execution of the Catrail plainly snews their inferiority of skill, while its length, and the degree of labour bestowed in its excavation, indicates their sense of its importance. The rampart is the most curious remnant of antiquity which can be distinctly traced to the same period. The ditch and rampart are of irregular dimensions, but in breadth, generally, from 20 to 24 feet, supported by many hillforts, and corresponding entrenchments, indicating the whole to have been the work of a people possessing some remains of that military skill of which the Romans had set the example. Herret's Dyke, in Berwickshire, appears to have been a more early work of the same kind; and it is probable that the Britons fell back to the Catrail, as the Romans did from the wall of Antoninus to that of Severus. The Catrail is happily situated for the protection of the mountainous country, as it just commences where the valley of Tweed becomes narrow and difficult of access, and skirts the mountains as it runs southward. Contrary to defences of the same sort, it was erected to save the mountaineers from the continued inroads of the inhabitants of the plains, whereas fortifications have usually been erected in the plains, to protect the lowcountry from the mountaineers.

VOL. III.

PICTISH ANTIQUITIES.

UNDER this head we shall describe some remarkable objects, which must be referred to a very remote and unknown antiquity, but do not come under the two preceding heads.

PICTS' HOUSE AT QUANTERNESS.

This curious remnant of antiquity is placed about a mile west from the roadstead of Kirkwall, in the Orkney islands. It is situated on a gentle declivity on the brow of a hill, with a view of the bay of Firth. It bears the external form of a truncated cone, the height of which is about fourteen feet, and the circumference, at the base, three hundred and eighty-four feet. It stands alone, and at a little distance from the shore, which is not generally the case with buildings of this description. Internally, it consists of several cells or apartments, the principal one of which is in the centre, twenty-one feet six inches long, six feet six inches broad, and eleven feet six inches high, built without any cement, with large flat stones, the one immediately above projecting over that below, so as gradually to contract the space within, as the

building rises, till the opposite walls meet at tne top, where they are bound together with large stones laid across, to serve, as it were, for keystones. Six other apartments, of an exactly similar form, constructed with the same sort of materials, and united in the same manner, but of little more than half the dimensions, communicate with this in the centre, each by a passage, about two feet square, on a level with the floor, and the whole may be considered as connected together by a passage, of nearly the same extent from without, which leads into this chief apartment.

So far as can now be discovered, there does not appear ever to have been, in any part of the building, either chink or hole for the admission of light or air; and from this it may be inferred, that the building was not intended for the abode of men. The contents found in it were earth at the bottom, which, as deep as it could be dug, was of a dark colour, of a greasy feel, and of a fetid odour, plentifully intermingled with bones, some of which were almost entirely consumed, and others had, in defiance of time, remained so entire, as to shew, that they were the bones of men, birds, and of some domestic animals. They exhibited no marks of burning, nor were any ashes to be seen in any part of the building. In one of the apartments was a human skeleton, lying in a prone attitude; in the others, the bones were separated, and divided into small fragments.

The following are the dimensions of the dif ferent apartments:—

This passage was too much filled bish to be accurately measured.

2 0

up with rub

The passages from the great room to the six surrounding rooms, were about the same breadth and height as this passage.

This building neither seems adapted for a human habitation nor for a storehouse. The apartments, which are small, and contract as they ascend, are too small for a person to stand erect, except in the very middle. They must have been damp and uncomfortable, from the thickness of the walls, and the want of circulation of air. It has been supposed, that this building, like many others in Orkney and Shetland, may have been a place for occasional shelter to watchmen, who were on guard against surprise of an enemy, and as a depôt for military arms, and other valuable commodities. Many such buildings are found in Norway and Sweden, and they are most frequent in those parts of Scotland which were visited or occupied by the northern nations. We may, then, attribute to them a northern origin, or suppose that the Picts and Norwegians learnt the construction of them from a common source.

FORTS IN GLENELG.

These celebrated edifices, are thus described by Mr. Pennant :—

The first is placed about two miles from the mouth of the valley; the more entire side appears of a most elegant taper form: the present height is thirty feet six inches; but, in 1722, some Goth purloined from the top seven feet and a half, under pretence of applying the materials to certain public buildings. By the appearance of some ruins, that now lie at the base, and which have fallen off since that time, I believe three feet more may be added to the height, which will make the whole about forty-one.

The whole is built with dry walls, but the courses are most beautifully disposed. On one side is a breach, at least one quarter of the circumference. The diameter within is thirtythree feet and a half, taken at a distance of ten feet from the bottom: the wall in that part is seven feet four inches thick, but is formed thinner and thinner till it reaches the top, whose breadth I forgot to cause to be measured. This inside wall is quite perpendicular, so that the inner diameter must have been equal from top to bottom; but the exterior wall slopes, increasing in thickness, till it reaches the ground. In the thickness of the wall were two galleries, one at the lower part, about six feet two inches high, and two feet five at the bottom, narrowing to the top, flagged, and also covered with great flat stones.-This gallery ran quite round, and that horizontally, but was divided into