burgh, where the presence of a busy population, and the unsparing operations of the agriculturist, have done so much to obliterate the traces of older generations. But nearly all are of the same character, differing in nothing but relative size, and the varying outlines of their unhewn masses. They have outlived the traditions of their rearers, and no inscription preserves to us the long-forgotten name. We are not left, however, to look upon them as altogether dumb and meaningless memorials. The history of a people contemporaneous, it may be, with their builders, reminds us how even the unsculptured obelisk may keep alive records committed to its trust, and prove faithful to those for whom it was designed. "It came to pass," says Joshua, "when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake, saying: Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones; that when your children ask, in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? then ye shall answer them." Some of those rude memorials still remaining in the districts immediately surrounding the Scottish capital, suffice to show the enduring tenacity of popular tradition. The Hare Stane on the Borough Moor of Edinburgh, celebrated in the lay of Marmion as the support of Scotland's royal banner-

"The massive stone,

Which still in memory is shown,"

1

affords one example of this. Kemble regards da hára stán, so frequently mentioned in the boundaries of the Codex Diplomaticus, as signifying nothing more than the hoary or ancient stone. But an earlier writer, Mr. Wil liam Hamper, has elaborately elucidated the derivation of the name as applied in England, and the use of the HOAR STONES, the menhars, or bound stones, as stones of 1 Archeol. Journ, vol. xiv. p. 132. 2 Archwologia, vol. xxv. p. 24.

2

memorial, like "the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben," and other ancient landmarks of Bible story.1 As such the "Hare Stane" may be regarded with considerable probability as marking the western boundary of the ancient chase, claimed from time immemorial by the neighbouring capital; but if so, its name has long survived all popular recollection of the meaning which it bore. The same term, hare stanes, is applied to a circular group of stones near Kirkdean, in the parish of Kirkurd, Peeblesshire. It would appear, however, to have been more frequently used in Scotland in the most sacred sense of a memorial: judging from examples of its application as the designation of cairns, some of which, at least, and probably all, are sepulchral monuments. Among these are the Haer Cairns in the parish of Clunie; the Haer Cairns of Blairgowrie and Kinloch, Perthshire; the Hier Cairns of Monikie, Forfarshire ; the Herlaw, a gigantic cairn in the parish of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire; the more celebrated Harlaw of Aberdeenshire; the Harelaw at Lochore, Fifeshire; and another in the same county, near Burntisland, where were found underneath the cairn a cist containing a skeleton with a bronze spear-head lying beside it.

Not far from the Hare Stone on the Borough Moor of Edinburgh, formerly stood another monolith termed the Camus Stone, occupying the brow of the hill at Fairmilehead, about two hundred yards south of the present toll-house; but which, though it gave name to a neighbouring estate, and formed the march stone of its eastern bounds, was barbarously destroyed within memory of the present generation, to furnish materials for repairing the road! This name, whatever be its true derivation, is attached to numerous Scottish localities. In the example here referred to, as well as in the Camus Stone of Kintore,

1 Deut. xix. 14; Joshua xv. 6; xviii. 17; Prov. xxii. 28, etc.

Aberdeenshire, and in that near the village of Camustown, Forfarshire, vague traditions associated the stones with the name of a supposed Danish chief; but these are probably comparatively modern inventions. The name of Combust figures among the list of Pictish kings;1 but the meaning of the term is rather to be looked for in the correspondence of local peculiarities, as in Cambusbarron, Cambuslang, Cambusnethan, etc., where it is understood to indicate a promontory or bank enclosed by a crooked stream, from the Celtic, cam, crooked.2 These Cambus-stones have all probably served as landmarks, or hoar stones; though answering also, it may be presumed, at times, like Laban and Jacob's Pillar, as the memorial of some high contract between friendly or rival chiefs.

Other stones are associated with a variety of historical and legendary traditions, altogether modern when compared with the periods which our investigations aim at elucidating; though it must not be overlooked that the associations of a later age may frequently attach themselves to the memorials of earliest times. Such is the case, for example, with the "King's Stane" of Clackmannan, associated even in the days of Blind Harry, with a local tradition of the Bruce. According to the authority of an eminent Celtic antiquary, the name, Clack-mannan, is derived from a great stone which was there when the territory was called mannon, as the debateable ground on the confines of the Scots, Picts, Britons, and Saxons. Of the same class is the "Witch 1 Wyntoun's Cronyklis, book v. chap. vii. fol. 88.

2 Gael. cam, crooked; camus, a bay. The prefix cam, or crooked, enters into many Gaelic compounds and proper names. Dr. Reeves remarks (Life of St. Columba, p. 97), "The name camas is supposed to be compounded of cam-as, crooked stream; and in Ireland there are twelve townlands of the name. In Scotland it is sometimes called camus, as in Argyleshire, and sometimes cambus, as in Lanark and Perth."

3 Dr. Reeves, Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, p. 371.

Stane" near Cairnbeddie, Perthshire, associated with local traditions rendered world-famous by Shakspere's great drama; where, according to ancient belief, Macbeth met by night with two celebrated witches to advise on the fate of his kingdom. When Cairnbeddie Mound was opened, about thirty years since, a quantity of very small iron horse-shoes, with fragments of swords, and other weapons of the same metal, were found; so that it is doubtless the sepulchral memorial of some old and hard-fought battle-field, in which, perchance, the great usurper may have played his part. Another stone in the neighbouring parish of Meigle, a huge mass of unhewn trap, bears the name of " Macbeth's Stane;" and various local traditions with which his name is associated, add

to the probability of some true foundation for popular belief.

Grey memorial stones, of which all the associations of venerable tradition have perished with the generations that are gone, still survive in dumb forgetfulness, in many

a populous centre of the low country, as well as on the lonely highland moor. But it is needless to enumerate them. The accompanying illustration, Fig. 5, shows one such fine monolith, which stands in massive rudeness in the vicinity of Dunbar, amid scenes associated with Scottish warfare of many widely separated eras. In a neighbouring field a number of rude cists, containing sepulchral urns, were dug up in the early part of the present century; but no local tradition pretends to associate the Dunbar Stone with any definite deeds of olden times.' Proofs, however, of the use of the rude pillar-stone, as well as of the megalithic group, as land-marks, stones of memorial, or evidence of treaties and solemn engagements, occur at comparatively recent dates; though in most cases these are mere reappropriations of the monuments of ages beyond the memory of man. Their men tion is not uncommon in charters and deeds relative to the holding of courts and the boundaries of lands, as in the following, in the Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis:-"Thir are the boundis own my lord of Athollis syde, the stannande staine merkit like a horse-sho, and the dik passande fra the samme staine to the burg, and syne be zound the stripe beweste the smedy of Balmany." The Saxum Falconis, or "Hawk Stane," at St. Madoes, Perthshire, which stands on the marches of what is known to have been the ancient possession of the Hays of Errol, and still bounds the parishes of St. Madoes and Inchture, is referred to by Boece as existing in his day (1500), and as having been set up immediately after the defeat of the Danes in the battle of Lun carty, fought circa A.D. 990. The victory is ascribed, according to a well-known tradition, still commemorated in the armorial bearings of the Hays, to the timely interference of a Scottish peasant and his two sons :---" Sone 1 Notices of Stone Crosses, etc., by James Drummond, R.S.A., F.S.A. Scot.