that fide of the hill which has the eafieft flope; and on the outfide of thefe ditches there are every where dry ftone ruins; which makes it evident to me, that these outer fences have been to fecure their cattle. Where they had not room on the level above, they were obliged to cut a level place below, as the cattle could not hand upon the flope. The full name of this remarkable fortified hill is Knockfarrilnaphian, which, I am told by gentlemen killed in the Gallic language, is Fingal's place on Knockfarril, this being the name of the hill. The tradition of the common people concerning this place, is, that it was the habitation of giants; and that the chief of thefe giants was Ree Phian M'Coul, which, I am told, means King Fingal, the fon of Coul. The next vitrified fort I will point out to you is on the hill of Craig-Phadrick, immediately above the houfe of Muirtoun, two miles weft of Inverness. There is one thing here, peculiar only to this ruin, which I have not yet feen on any other fortified hill; viz. There are here distinct ruins of two vitrified walls, quite round the inclofed area, and three at the entrance on the caft end: but it is common in other places of this kind to have additional works at the entry. The inner wall here appears to have been very high and strong; but, on the contrary, the outer wall feems to me never to have been of any great height. It is founded on the bare, folid rock, about fix or eight paces from the inner wall; goes quite round, but what remains of it is fo low, that I cannot think it was defigned for defence, unless it was to fecure their cattle, which I imagine it was intended for, as I do not remember to have feen any dry stone ruins here. I faw a good deal of this outer wall, feeming to me entire, sticking to the firm, bare rock, where it was first run, not above four or five feet high, but it must have been fomewhat higher. I cannot help looking upon what remains entire of this low vitrified wall as the greateft curiofity of any ruins in Europe. This is a fpecimen in little of the vitrified walls, not fallen to total ruin, which may help to give an idea of what fort of structures they were, that have produced fuch vaft, though undistinguishable ruins. About twelve or fourteen miles from Inverness there are other two of thefe fortified hills, called CastleFinlay, two miles north-east, and Dun-Evan, two miles fouth-west of the caftle of Calder, in the shire of Nairn. I have feen a fall vitrified ruin, three miles from Fort Auguftus, which I think is called Tor-dun Caftle; and a much more confiderable one, on the weft fide of Gleneves, in Lochaber, about three miles fouth fide the garrifon of Fort-William. The forts I have already enumerated are fituated in the Highlands and North. I will now beg leave to lead you at once as far fouth as the caftle hill of Finaven. The vitrified ruins at Finaven are about a fhort mile weft fide the kirk of Aberlemny, about half a mile north fide the public road, half L half way between Brechin and Forfar, in the fhire of Angus. Be The area within walls here is the longest I have yet feen, being about a hundred and fifty paces long, and thirty-fix broad. fore I faw this place, I was very curious to know if there were any of these extraordinary ruins fouth fide the Grampians. This one fatisfied me in that point. I make no doubt of many more being found, if I had time to fearch for them. Now I am anxious to know if there be any of them on the fouth fide the Forth, and in other parts of the ifland. The following hints may affift those whofe curiofity may lead them to fearch for thefe antiquities. - Many of the fortified hills are about the height of Arthur's feat, near Edinburgh; fome of them a little higher, and fome lower. The vitrified ruins often appear at a diftance, crowning the head of the hill, like fome fort of an inclofure which one cannot underftand the meaning of The fortified hills are generally very steep on one or more of the fides. If a great heap of large ftones are feen near the head of fuch a hill, or going round any part of the fides of it, they fhould examine the fummit with great care and accuracy; for in fome places the vitrified ruins are nearly all grown over with heath and grafs, and often appear, at firft fight, like the ruins of fome earth or fod buildings, which, perhaps, is one reafon why these extraordinary ruins were not difcovered fooner. With regard to the conftruction of thefe vitrified walls, it must be obferved, in the first place, that, the rock of all the fortified hills I have yet feen is more or lefs of that coagulated kind, commonly called the plum-pudding rock. The rock on the head of Knockfarril, and half way down, is fo ftrong a fpecics of it, that it appears like a vaft ftrata of water-rounded ftones and gravel, like the fea beach, cemented together with lime, and fome iron. This fort of tone is eafily run down with a ftrong fire; and I have obferved in other places, where the rock was lefs of this kind, and had not much lime in the compofition of the tone, that the vitrification feemed not to be fo well done, as the ruins in fuch places appear like calcined ftones and afhes, with here and there a fragment fticking together, to make me fure it is the ruins of a vitrified building. Mr. Watt, engineer, whofe defcription of Craig Patrick is annexed to our author's account, obferves, that the rock of which the mountain confifts is of a granite fpecies,-but not an uniform ftone. It is compofed principally of round water-worn pieces of a red granite, mixed with pieces of a tone which I call granulated quartz, which are generally of a grayish colour; and alfo with pieces of the common quartz. The whole is cemented together, and the interftices filled up by a coarse fand of the red granite. The materials of which, upon examination, he found the walls to be compofed, greatly refemble, he fays, the cinders or clinkers produced in a lime-kiln, being, in fome parts, a vitrified fpongy mafs, with a gloffy furface; and, in L 4 other other places, when it has been broke into for a fmall depth, you may fee calcined, though unvitrified, matters mixed in large pieces among the spongy. flag. It is eviIt is evidently the native rock, vitrified: and the granite parts feem to be the only ones which have come into fufion, and have formed the flag. That a very strong fire would melt the ftones, is a fact of which the rudest nations might have fre quent experience; but ftill it is dif. ficult to conceive how they could erect fuch vaft buildings, run, and compacted together, by the force of fire. I am inclined to imagine that they railed two parallel dykes of earth, or fods, in the direction or courfe of their intended wall or building; and left a space between them, juft wide enough for the wall. I fuppofe these two parallel dykes the groove or mould in which they were to run their wall. This groove between the two dykes I fuppofe they packed full of fuel, on which they would lay a proper quantity of the materials to be vitrified. There is no doubt but a hot fire would melt down the flones, efpecially if they were of the plum-pudding kind, and not too large. And the frame of earth would keep the materials, when in fufion, from running without the breadth of their intended wall. This being the foundation, I fuppofe they have added new fires, and more materials, and raifed their mould of earth by degrees, till they brought the whole to the intended height, and then have removed the earth from both fides the vitrified wall. I ne I am confident, from the appearance of the ruins, that the materials were run down by the fire in fome fuch method as this. In all the fections of the larger and fmaller fragments of the vitrified ruins I have feen, I never faw the leaft appearance of a stone being laid in any particular way. ver faw a large ftone in any fragment of these ruins; nor any stone, nor piece of a stone, that was not affected by the fire, and fome part of it vitrified; and all the bits of stone that appear in thefe fragments, appear juft as we would fuppofe they would fall down in the fire, when the materials were in a state of fufion. The ingenious Dr. Jofeph Black, profeffor of chymistry, in the Uniyerfity of Edinburgh, in a letter to the author, thinks it very probable that they were executed in fome fuch manner as is here imagined. He adds, there are in most parts of Scotland different. kinds of ftone, which can, without much difficulty, be melted or foftened by fire, to fuch a degree as to make them cohere together. Such is the gray stone, called whin ftone, which, for fome time paft, has been carried to London to pave the ftreets. Such alfo is the granite, or moor-ftone, which is applied to the fame ufe, and pieces of which are plainly visible in fome fpecimens of thefe vitrified walls, which I received from my friends.-There are alfo many lime-ftones, which, in confequence of their containing certain proportions of fand and clay, are very fufible: and there is no doubt, that fand-ftone, and pudden-stone, when they happen to contain cer tain proportions of iron, mixed with the fand and gravel of which they are compofed, muft have the fame quality.A pudden-ftone compofed of pieces of granite muft neceffarily have it. There is abundance of one or other of these kinds of ftone in many parts of Scotland; and as the whole country was anciently a foreft, and the greater part of it overgrown with wood, it is eafy to underftand how thofe who erected thefe works go the materials neceffary for their purposes. Further Remarks on the fuppofed ancient Poems, afcriled to Rowlie. IN a . Na former volume (19th) we gave our readers an account of the difcovery faid to have been made by one Chatterton, of fome ancient poems in the church of St. Mary of Radcliffe, near Briftol, and afcribed by him to Thomas Rowlie, a monk of that city. In this age of literary forgeries it is not to be wondered, that the fufpicious circumstances under which thefe poems made their first appearance fhould have created many doubts with regard to their authenticity. There were not, however, wanting many perfons, and, amongst thofe men of confiderable note as antiquarians, who imagined they faw in thefe productions indubitable proofs of their antiquity Critics of another clafs, judging from the ftyle, thoughts, and verfifica tion of thofe compofitions, did not hefitate to pronounce them fpurious. The opinion of Mr. Warton, whofe knowledge, as an antiquarian, and judgment, as a man of tafte, are,univerfally acknow ledged, muft neceffarily be decifive. I am of opinion, he fays, (Hiftof Eng. Poet. Vol. 2. p. 153.) that none of these pieces are genuine. The Execution of Sir Charles Baudwin is now allowed to be modern, even by thofe who maintain all the other poems to be ancient. The Ode to Ella, and the Epistle to Lydgate, with his Anfwer, were written on one piece of parchment; and, as pretended, in Rowlie's own hand. This was fhewn to an ingenious critic and intelligent antiquary of my acquain tance, who affures me, that the writing was a grofs and palpableforgery It was not even fkilfully counterfeited. The form of the letters, although artfully contrived to wear an antiquated appearance, differed very effentially from every one of our early alphabets. Nor were the characters uniform and confiftent: part of the fame manufcript exhibiting fome letters fhaped according to the prefent round hand, while others were traced in imitation of the ancient court and text hands The parchment was old; and that it might look still older, was ftained on the outfide with ochre, which was cafily rub. bed off with a linen cloth. Care had alfo been evidently taken to tinture the ink with a yellow caft. To communicate a ftronger stamp of rude antiquity, the Ode was written like profe: no diftinction, or termination, being made between the feveral verfes. Lydgate's Anfwer, which makes a part of this manufcript, and is written by the fame hand, I have already proved to be a manifeft impofition. This parchment has fince been unfortunately loft. I have myself carefully examined the original manu manufcript, as it is called, of the little piece, intitled, Account of W. Cannynge's Feast. It is like wife on parchment, and, I am forry to fay, that the writing betrays all the fufpicious fignatures which were obferved in that of the Ode to Ella. I have repeatedly and diligently compared it with three or four authentic manufcripts of the time of Edward the Fourth, to all which I have found it to tally unlike. Among other smaller veftiges of forgery, which cannot be fo eafily defcribed and explain ed here, at the bottom are added in ink two coats of arms, containing empalements of Cannynge and of his friends or relations, with family-names, apparently delineated by the fame pen which wrote the verfes. Even the ftyle and draw ing of the armorial bearings difcover the hand of a modern herald. This, I believe, is the only pretended original of the poetry of Rowlie now remaining. As to internal arguments, an unnatural affectation of ancient fpelling and of obfolete words, not belonging to the period affigned to the poems, ftrikes us at first fight. Of thefe old words, combinations are frequently formed, which never yet exifted in the unpolished ftate of the English language: and fometimes the antiquated diction is moft inartificially mifapplied, by an improper contexture with the prefent modes of fpeech. The attentive reader will alfo difcern, that our poet fometimes forgets his affumed character, and does not always act his part with confiftency: for the chorus, or interlude, of the damfel who drowns herfelf, which I have cited at length from the Tragedy of Ella, is much more un intelligible, and free from couth expreffions, than the general phrafeology of these compofitions. In the Battle of Haftings, faid to be tranflated from the Saxon, Stonehenge is called a Druidical temple. The battle of Hastings was fought in the year 1066. We will grant the Saxon original to have been written foon afterwards: about which time, no other notion prevailed concerning this miraculous monument, than the fuppofition which had been delivered down by long and conftant tradition, that it was erected in memory of Hengift's massacre. This was the established and uniform opinion of the Welsh and Armorican bards, who most probably received it from the Saxon minstrels: and that this was the popular be lief at the time of the battle of Haftings, appears from the evidence of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote his history not more than eighty years after that memorable event. And in this doctrine Robert of Gloucester and all the monkifh chroniclers agree. That the Druids conftructed this ftupendous pile for a place of worfhip, was a difcovery referved for the fagacity of a wifer age, and the laborious difcuffion of modern antiquaries. In the Epiftle to Lydgate, prefixed to the Tragedy, our poet condemns the abfurdity and impropriety of the religious dra mas, and recommends fome great story of human manners, as most fuitable for theatrical reprefenta tion. But this idea is the refult of that tafte and difcrimination which could only belong to a more advanced period of fociety. But, above all, the caft of thought, the complexion of the fentirents, |