The Mediaeval Archaeology of Scotland is confessedly sadly deficient in
_written_ documents. From the decline of Roman records and rule, onward
through the next six or eight centuries, we have very few, or almost no
written data to guide us in Scottish historical or antiquarian
inquiries. Nor have we any numismatic evidence whatever to appeal to. In
consequence of this literary dearth, the roughest lapidary inscriptions,
belonging to these dark periods of our history, come to be invested with
an interest much beyond their mere intrinsic value. The very want of
other contemporaneous lettered documents and data imparts importance to
the rudest legends cut on our ancient lettered stones. For even brief
and meagre tombstone inscriptions rise into matters of historical
significance, when all the other literary chronicles and annals of the
men and of the times to which these inscriptions belong have, in the
lapse of ages, been destroyed and lost.
It is needless to dwell here on the well-known fact, that in England and
Scotland there have been left by the Roman soldiers and colonists who
occupied our island during the first four centuries of the Christian
era, great numbers of inscribed stones. British antiquarian and
topographical works abound with descriptions and drawings of these Roman
lapidary writings. But of late years another class or series of
lapidary records has been particularly attracting the attention of
British antiquaries,--viz., inscribed stones of a late Roman or
post-Roman period. The inscriptions on this latter class of stones are
almost always, if not always, sepulchral. The characteristically rude
letters in which they are written consist--in the earliest stones--of
debased Roman capitals; and--in the latest--of the uncial or minuscule
forms of letters which are used in the oldest English and Irish
manuscripts. Some stones show an intermixture of both alphabetical
characters. These "Romano-British" inscribed stones, as they have been
usually termed, have hitherto been found principally in Wales, in
Cornwall, and in West Devon. In the different parts of the Welsh
Principality, nearly one hundred, I believe, have already been
discovered. In Scotland, which is so extremely rich in ancient
sculptured stones, very few inscribed stones are as yet known; but if a
due and diligent search be instituted, others, no doubt, will betimes be
brought to light.
An inscribed Scottish stone of the class I allude to is situated in the
county of Edinburgh, and has been long known under the name of the
Cat-stane or Battle-stone. Of its analogy with the earliest class of
Romano-British inscribed stones found in Wales, I was not fully aware
till I had an opportunity of examining last year, at the meeting of the
Cambrian Archaeological Society, a valuable collection of rubbings and
drawings of these Welsh stones, brought forward by that excellent
antiquary, Mr. Longueville Jones; and afterwards, _in situ_, one or two
of the stones themselves. I venture, in the following remarks, to direct
the attention of the Society to the Cat-stane, partly in consequence of
this belief in its analogy with the earliest Welsh inscribed stones;
partly, also, in order to adduce an old and almost unknown description
of the Cat-stane, made in the last years of the seventeenth century, by
a gentleman who was perhaps the greatest antiquary of his day; and
partly because I have a new conjecture to offer as to the historical
personage commemorated in the inscription, and, consequently, as to the
probable age of the inscription itself.
_Site and Description of the Stone._
The Cat-stane stands in the parish of Kirkliston, on the farm of
Briggs,[128] in a field on the north side of the road to Linlithgow, and
between the sixth and seventh milestone from Edinburgh. It is placed
within a hundred yards of the south bank of the Almond; nearly
half-a-mile below the Boathouse Bridge; and about three miles above the
entrance of the stream into the Firth of Forth, at the old Roman station
of Cramond, or Caer Amond. The monument is located in nearly the middle
of the base of a triangular fork of ground formed by the meeting of the
Gogar Water with the river Almond. The Gogar flows into the Almond about
six or seven hundred yards below the site of the Cat-stane.[129] The
ground on which the Cat-stane stands is the beginning of a ridge
slightly elevated above the general level of the neighbouring fields.
The stone itself consists of a massive unhewn block of the secondary
greenstone-trap of the district, many large boulders of which lie in the
bed of the neighbouring river. In form it is somewhat prismatic, or
irregularly triangular, with its angles very rounded. This large
monolith is nearly twelve feet in circumference, about four feet five
inches in width, and three feet three inches in thickness. Its height
above ground is about four feet and a half. The Honourable Mrs. Ramsay
of Barnton, upon whose son's property the monument stands, very kindly
granted liberty, last year, for an examination by digging beneath and
around the stone. The accompanying woodcut is a copy of a sketch, made
at the time, by my friend Mr. Drummond, of the stone as exposed when
pursuing this search around its exposed basis. We found the stone to be
a block seven feet three inches in total length, and nearly three feet
buried in the soil. It was placed upon a basis of stones, forming
apparently the remains of a built stone grave, which contained no
bones[130] or other relics, and that had very evidently been already
searched and harried. I shall indeed have immediately occasion to cite a
passage proving that a century and a half ago the present pillarstone
was surrounded, like some other ancient graves, by a circular range of
large flat-laid stones; and when this outer circle was removed,--if not
before,--the vicinity and base of the central pillar were very probably
dug into and disturbed.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
_Different Readings of the Inscription._
The inscription upon the stone is cut on the upper half of the eastern
and narrowest face of the triangular monolith. Various descriptions of
the legend have been given by different authors. The latest published
account of it is that given by Professor Daniel Wilson in his work on
_Scottish Archaeology_. He disposes of the stone and its inscription in
the two following short sentences:--"A few miles to the westward of this
is the oft-noted Catt Stane in Kirkliston parish, on which the painful
antiquary may yet decipher the imperfect and rudely-lettered
inscription--the work, most probably, of much younger hands than those
that reared the mass of dark whinstone on which it is cut--IN [H]OC
TVMVLO IACET VETTA.. VICTR.. About sixty yards to the west of the
Cat-stane a large tumulus formerly stood, which was opened in 1824, and
found to contain several complete skeletons; but nearly all traces of it
have now disappeared."[131]
In the tenth volume of the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, collected
by Sir John Sinclair, and published in 1794, the Rev. Mr. John
Muckarsie, in giving an account of the parish of Kirkliston, alludes in
a note to the "Cat-stane standing on the farm of that name in this
parish." In describing it he observes "The form is an irregular prism,
with the following inscription on the south-east face, deeply cut in the
stone, in a most uncouth manner:--
IN OC T
VMVLO IACI
VETTA D
VICTA
We are informed," continues Mr. Muckarsie, "by Buchanan and other
historians, that there was a bloody battle fought near this place, on
the banks of the Almond, in the year 995, between Kennethus, natural
brother and commander of the forces of Malcolm II., King of Scotland,
and Constantine, the usurper of that crown, wherein both the generals
were killed. About two miles higher up the river, on the Bathgate road,
is a circular mound of earth (of great antiquity, surrounded with large
unpolished stones, at a considerable distance from each other, evidently
intended in memory of some remarkable event). The whole intermediate
space, from the human bones dug up, and graves of unpolished stones
discovered below the surface, seems to have been the scene of many
battles."[132]
In the discourse which the Earl of Buchan gave in 1780 to a meeting
called together for the establishment of the present Society of Scottish
Antiquaries, his Lordship took occasion to allude to the Cat-stane when
wishing to point out how monuments, rude as they are, "lead us to
correct the uncertain accounts which have been handed down by the
monkish writers." "Accounts, for example, have (he observes) been given
of various conflicts which took place towards the close of the tenth
century between Constantine IV. and Malcolm, the general of the lawful
heir of the Scottish Crown, on the banks of the River Almond, and
decided towards its confluence to the sea, near Kirkliston. Accordingly,
from Mid-Calder, anciently called Calder-comitis, to Kirkliston, the
banks of the river are filled with the skeletons of human bodies, and
the remains of warlike weapons; and opposite to Carlowrie there is a
well-known stone near the margin of the river, called by the people
_Catt Stane_. The following inscription was legible on the stone in the
beginning of this (the eighteenth) century; and the note of the
inscription I received from the Rev. Mr. Charles Wilkie, minister of the
parish of Ecclesmachan, whose father, Mr. John Wilkie, minister of the
parish of Uphall, whilst in his younger days an inhabitant of
Kirkliston, had carefully transcribed:--