as to bind and connect them firmly together, instead of bringing down the wall, as would have inevitably happened without much care or fkill in the workmen. Nor could I help admiring the judgement displayed in making choice of a stone of this form for the purpose here intended; as this is perhaps at the same time more beautiful to look on, and possesses more strength, for the same bulk and weight, than any other form that could have been made choice of..

The outside of the wall was quite smooth and com- pact, without any appearance of windows, or any other apertures of any kind. The inside too was. pretty uniform, only here and there, we could per-ceive square holes in the wall, of no great depth, somewhat like pigeon-holes, at irregular heights.

I have been informed that there is in many of. these buildings a circular pafsage, about four feet wide, formed in the centre of the wall, that goes quite round the whole, on a level with the floor. I looked for it, but found no such thing in this place. At one place, however, we discovered a door entering. from within, and leading to a kind of stair-case that was carried up in the centre of the wall, and formed a communication between the top and bottom of the building, ascending upwards round it in a spiral form.

The steps of this stair, like all the other stones kere employed, discovered no marks of a tool, but seemed to have been chosen with great care of a proper form for this purpose. At a convenient height, over head, the stair-case was roofed with long flat stones, going quite acrofs the opening, and this roof

1

was carried up in a direction parallel with the stair itself, so as to be in all places of an equal height. It was likewise observable, that the stair was formed into flights of steps; at the top of each of which there was a landing-place, with an horizontal floor, about six feet in length; at the end of which another flight of steps began. One of these flights of steps was quite complete, with a landing-place at each end of it, and two others were found in an imperfect state; the lowermost being in part filled up with rubbish, and the highest reached the top of the wall that is now remaining before it ended. Whether these flights were regularly continued to the top, and.. whether they contained an equal number of steps or. not, it was impofsible for me to discover; but these remains show that the structure has been erected by a people not altogether uncivilized.

About twenty years ago, a gentleman in that neighbourhood, who is laird of the spot of ground on which this beautiful remnant of ancient grandeur. is placed, pulled down eight or ten feet from the top of these walls, for the sake of the stones, to build an habitation for its incurious owner. It may per haps be a doubt with some, whether the builders or the demolishers of these walls most justly deserve the name of a savage and uncivilized people? The f gure annexed represents the appearance it made at the time I saw it, very nearly.

By whatever people this has been erected, it must have been a work of great labour, as the collecting the materials alone, where no carriages could pafs must have been extremely difficult to accomplish. Is

must, therefore, have been in all probability a public national work, allotted for some very important purpose. But what use these buildings were appropriated to is difficult now to say with certainty.

There was a building called Arthur's Oven which stood upon the banks of the Carron, near Stirling, that was demolished not long ago. A drawing of it is preserved in Sibbald's "Scotia illustrata ;" from which it appears, that in its general form, and several other particulars, it much resembled the buildings of this clafs; and if it should be admitted as one of them, it would be an exceptionao the foregoing rule, and tend to invalidate the reasoning I have employed. But although in some particulars it did resemble these buildings, in other respects it was extremely different. Its size is the first observable particular in which it differed from them, as there is hardly one of them which has not been a great deal larger than it was. These buildings are always composed of rough stones, without any mark of a tool. It consisted entirely of hewn stones, squared and shaped by tools, so as exactly to fit the place where they were to be inserted. The walls of Arthur's Oven were thin, without any appearance, of a stair within them. In short, it bore evident marks of Roman art and architec-ture, and resembled Virgil's tomb near Naples, more than it did the structures we now treat of; on which account it has always been, with seeming justice, supposed a small temple, erected by the Romans when they occupied that station, and very different from. the ruder, but more magnificent structures of these northern nations.

This structure at Dun-Agglesag has no additional buildings of any kind adjoining to it, although I had occasion to observe, from many others, that it has been no uncommon thing to have several low buildings of the same kind, joining to the base of the larger one, and communicating with it from within, like cells. The most entire of this kind that I have seen is at Dun-robin, the seat of the countess of Sutherland. The late earl was at great pains to clear away the rubbish from this building, and secure it as much as pofsible from being farther demolifhed. Unfortunatély it is composed of much worse materials than that I have described.

The only particular relating to the situation of this kind of buildings that occurred to me as observable, was, that they were all situated very near where water could be obtained in abundance. The side of a lake or river is therefore a common position; and where another situation is chosen, it is always obser vable, that water, in considerable quantities, from a rivulet, or otherwise, can be obtained near. It seems, however, to have been a matter of indifference, whether that water was salt or fresh, stagnant or running; from whence it would seem probable, that water, in considerable quantities, must have been necefsary for some of the purposes for which they originally were intended.

In Caithness, as I have already hinted, the ruins of this kind of buildings are exceedingly numerous; but many of them are now such a perfect heap of rubbish, that they have much the same appearance with the cairns already mentioned, and might readily be confounded with them by a superficial observer.

The names in this case will be of some use to pre. vent mistakes, as every building of this kind seems to have been distinguished by the syllable dun prefixed to the word; so that whenever this is found to be the case, there is reason to suspect at least that it is not a cairn.

Dr Johnson, in his late tour to the Hebrides, was carried to see one of these buildings in the isle of Sky, which he seems to have surveyed rather in an hasty manner. He conjectures, that these structures havę been erected by the inhabitants, as places of security for their cattle, in case of a sudden inroad from their neighbours. A thousand circumstances, had he bestowed much attention upon the subject, might have pointed out to him the improbability of this conjecture. We fhall soon see that the inhabitants knew . much better in what manner to secure themselves or cattle from danger than they would have been here.

I have annexed, an elevation of the building DunAggiesag, by the help of which you will be able to form an idea of other buildings of this kind.

ELEVATION of the BUILDING at DUN-AGGLESAG in RossHIRE.