efter ane counsal was set at Scone, in the quhilk Hay and his sonnis war maid nobil, and dotad, for thair singular virtew provin in this feild, with sindry landis to sustene thair estait. It is said that he askit fra the King certane landis liand betwixt Tay and Arole; and gat als mekil thairof as ane falcon flew of ane mannis hand, or scho lichtit. The falcon flew to ane toun four milis fra Dunde, called Rosse, and lichtit on ane stane, quhilk is yit callit The Falcon Stane; and sa he gat al the landis betwix Tay and Arole, six milis of lenth, and four of breid; quhilk landis ar yit inhabit be his posterite.' Here it will be seen that the "Hawk Stane," which still perpetuates historical traditions concerning the pagan Danes, is described as even then standing, the work of far older generations, appropriated by the peasant founders of a noble line to be a memorial of their patriotic deeds. "1 The sacredness which naturally attached to landmarks, in early times, and of which we have remarkable evidence in Old Testament references to them, was doubtless no less strongly felt in relation to all stones of memorial, the enduring parchments of an unlettered age. When their specific purpose had been forgotten, their sacredness survived; so that they seem to have been regarded, long after the close of pagan centuries, like the medieval altar, as the inviolable witness of any agreement. The following curious evidence of this feeling occurs in a deed in the possession of Mr. W. H. Fotheringham, dated at Kirkwall in 1438"Till all and synd lele folk in Cryste, to quhais knawledge yir pnt. wris. sal cum, Henry Randall, lawman of Orknay, John Naraldson, balze off Kirkwaw, Jamis off Lask, Greeting in Gode . . . make kend that we, the forsaide, bystude saw and onherde, and for witnesse wes tane, quhene yt John off Erwyne and Will. Bernardson swor on the Hirdmane Stein before owre 1 Bellenden's Boece, book xi. chap. viii. Lorde y Erle off Orknay and the gentiless off the cuntre, that thay bystude saw and onherde, and for witnesse wes tane quhene that Tho Sincler, ye son off quhiln Davy Syncler, callit in ye vestre in Sant Mawing Kirk, John of Kirkness," etc. In this comparatively recent transaction we have probably a very accurate illustration of the ceremonial which accompanied the erection of a hoarestone, or stone of memorial, whether as a landmark or the evidence of some solemn treaty. The document from which it is extracted has a further interest in connexion with early Scottish history. Its date is thirty years prior to the marriage of James III. of Scotland with Margaret of Denmark, when Orkney was first annexed to the Scottish Crown; yet it is written throughout in the language of Saxon Scotland. The Cat Stanes found in various parts of Scotland, apparently derive their name from the British Cad or the Gaelic Cath, signifying a battle, and therefore may be assumed to mark the scene of some ancient conflict. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Camus Stone near Edinburgh, formerly stood two very large conical cairns, styled the Cat-stanes, until demolished by the same irreverent utilitarians who had found covetable materials in the rude memorial stone. Underneath the cairns were cists containing human skeletons and various bronze and iron weapons. Two iron spear heads found in them are now preserved in the mansion of Mortonhall; and according to the description of other relics formerly possessed by a neighbouring farmer, they would appear to have also contained celts and other weapons of bronze. A few yards to the north-west of the site which these cairns occupied, there still stands the Kel or Caiy Stone, a mass of the red sandstone of the district, measuring above eleven feet in height. On digging in the neighbourhood of this primitive monument a quantity of human bones were found, irregularly interred, without cists or urns; and not far from it are still visible the rude earthworks of a British camp. Much more extensive intrenchments of an oval form existed in the immediate neighbourhood, prior to the construction of the new road, and are described by General Roy in tracing one of the Roman iters.' Another monolith stands within the Mortonhall grounds, at about half a mile distant from the site of the Cat-stanes, and two larger masses lying together in its vicinity are not improbably the remains of a ruined cromlech. Here, perchance, has been the battle-ground of ancient chiefs, contending, it may be, with some fierce invader, whose intruded arts startle us with evidences of an antiquity which seems primeval. The locality is peculiarly suited for the purpose. It is within a few miles of the sea, and though enclosed in an amphitheatre of hills, it is the highest ground in the immediate neighbourhood, and the very spot on which a retreating host might be expected to make a stand ere Roy's Military Antiquities, p. 103. 1 they finally betook themselves to the neighbouring fastnesses of the Pentland Hills. The rearing of stones of memorial on the scenes of victory is a custom of many early nations, and one so consonant to our natural instincts that it has not even now entirely fallen into disuse. The Bauta-stein of Norway and Denmark corresponds in its signification with the Cat-stane of Scotland, nor are there wanting examples of Scottish monoliths surrounded like the Danish ones with a pile of small stones at their base; such as the Clach Stein at Bible in Lewis, and the remarkable Clach an Druidean, or Stone of the Druids, in the same island, which stands above sixteen feet high. "The Gaelic people," says Chalmers, "did sometimes erect memorial stones; which, as they were always without inscription, might as well have not been set up.' But, independently of the fact that these monuments of the remote past have long since accomplished the original purpose of their erection, it is obvious that some of them can still furnish an intelligible response to those who ask, "What mean these stones?" Many, however, it is true, have waxed dumb in the lapse of ages, and hold a more mysterious silence than that which surrounded the long-guarded secrets of Egypt's memorial stones. Some are perhaps the last solitary columns which mark the site where once the "Druid circle" and its mystic avenue covered the plain. Remote and widely severed stones may thus be parts of the same systematic design: as is rendered sufficiently probable when we remember that that of Avebury numbered even in the days of Stukeley six hundred and fifty stones, though then by no means perfect; and that of Carnac in Brittany extends over an area of eight miles in length. So common are 1 Caledonia, vol. iii. p. 233. they still in Scotland that Chalmers, dispensing with his usual laborious accumulation of references, contents himself with this very comprehensive one: "See the Statistical Accounts everywhere!" Other monoliths are probably the TANIST STONES,' where the new chief or king was elected, and sworn to protect and lead his people. One at least, the most famous of Scottish Tanist Stones exists, and still mingles the primitive elements of our most ancient popular elective monarchy, with the gorgeous coronation services in Westminster Abbey. The celebrated Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, is that which, according to Scottish chroniclers, Gathelus, the Spanish King, a contemporary of Romulus, sent with his son when he invaded Ireland; and on equally trustworthy authority it is affirmed to have been the veritable pillow of the Patriarch Jacob, which he set up as a memorial stone, on the scene of his wondrous vision! "A gret stane this Kyng than had, As ewyne reck nand men may se, Broucht this Stane wytht-in Scotland, Fyrst quhen he come and wane that land. 1 Gael. Tanaiste, a thane or lord, the next heir to an estate. |