Eminent Men.- The parish of Larbert can boast of the following men.

Robert Bruce of Kinnaird, whose memory must be ever dear to the Church of Scotland, for his bold and uncompromising defence of Presbyterianism against the encroachments of Popery, and forced Episcopal usurpation. Having made himself obnoxious to the Court, he was compelled to flee to England. He was afterwards banished to the country, and, residing at Kinnaird, he became the unpaid minister of Larbert parish, where his ministration was highly prized. He was esteemed over Scotland as a preacher of the truth, and after a life spent in the service of God, he expired at Kinnaird about the year 1632, aged seventy-two years. The tomb-stone placed over his grave, and inscribed to his memory, still exists in Larbert church-yard.

A descendant of this eminent minister of the church was James Bruce of Kinnaird, celebrated for his travels in Abyssinia.⁶ He was in that country in 1769, and remained there four years. He is acknowledged to have been the first European who, in recent times, visited the source of the Abyssinian Nile.⁷

Mr Bruce, in his Travels, informed the public of lands known only by name. Many of the details were long considered to be the fruit of the author's invention ; but the testimony of subsequent travellers has proved the truth of Mr Bruce's assertions. He was born in 1730, and died at Kinnaird in 1794, at the age of sixty- four.

In the earlier part of his life, Mr Bruce was a wine-merchant in London, and married the daughter of a wine-merchant there. This lady died a few years after the marriage. After this, Mr Bruce was Consul at Algiers. He received about L. 10,000 from Government, as a compensation for the expense and time he had bestowed on his travels in Abyssinia. He was sufficiently careful of his fortune, and left it in good order. He kept his colliery in his own bands for some years, and superintended the management of it, and erected a large steam-engine for pumping the water from the workings.

Mr Bruce having lived a considerable time in the countries situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, became acquainted with a number of the languages spoken in these countries, and knew several, so as to speak them,-Arabic, and its derivative, Abyssinian, otherwise known by the names of Ethiopic and Amharic,⁸ Coptic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Latin, Greek. Some of these languages Mr Bruce probably spoke with tolerable fluency. It is very rare that any one ever acquires the use of a foreign language, so as to speak it like a native. In order to have a chance of succeeding in this, he must begin in his infancy to speak the language with natives, and must live with the natives iii the country where the language is universally spoken. But if be continues this course long, the result is, that, in acquiring the idioms and correct articulation of the foreign sounds, be has forgotten and lost a good deal of his own mother tongue.⁹

The line of Mr Bruce's travels did not lie in countries where he would have acquired a knowledge of languages of the Gothic class, such as German, nor of those of the Slavonic class, as Servian, Polish or Russian ; nor of Persian and the Indian tongues.

Mr Bruce used to relate, that when be was presented to the Pope Ganganelli, Clement XIV., his Holiness said, fortunate is the sovereign who has a subject like Mr Bruce, able to speak thirteen languages. Of these thirteen languages, however, it is probable there might, be some of which Mr Bruce knew only a few words.

Mr Bruce lived in a respectable and hospitable style at Kinnaird. He repaired, improved, and modernized a little his old mansion- house, and built a room adjoining to it, in which he disposed his I books and oriental manuscripts on one side, and on the other
side, a collection of curiosities, consisting of corals, shells, and some showy minerals. Some rifles, Turkish sabres, and other arms from the Levant; red feather cloaks and helmets from Otaheite' some fragments of Egyptian antiquities ; some small antique bronzes, and Greek and Roman coins collected by Mr Bruce in the countries which border the Mediterranean.

He had the panels of the base of the book-cases ornamented with figures, painted in the style of the Herculaneum fresco figures by David Allan of Edinburgh, a meritorious artist of that time.

In this room was also seen a great old astronomical quadrant of brass, of two to three feet radius, a camel's load of itself, which Mr Bruce had carried with him over hill and dale to Abyssinia. A very clumsy instrument, when compared to the more portable modern mercurial horizon and sextant used by travellers for finding
the latitude.
The portfolios in this room contained the works of an Italian draftsman whom Mr Bruce took with him in his travels. These works consisted of architectural drawings of the Roman triumphal arch at Tripoli, and of aqueducts and other ancient buildings, near the site of Carthage, on the north coast of Africa, and unpublished botanical drawings of Abyssinian plants. ¹⁰

Mr Bruce was a keen sportsman, and used to go in the season to a place thirty miles off in the Highlands, on Loch Lubnaig, called Ard Whillary, the shooting and fishing belonging to which he rented

In an inclosure of a few acres at Kinnaird, he had some fallow- deer, and would show his skill as a marksman, by bringing down a fat buck with his rifle, when he intended to give a venison feast.

He had a pair of swans to ornament his pond, and the neighbours said he was wont to pass off his geese for swans too.

He was undoubtedly a wonderful boaster, and had no inclination to follow the precept of the moralist, " Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory.¹¹ Mr Bruce, on the contrary, was always striving to appear great and mighty, and claiming the palm due to superior ability.

With such a disposition to put himself forward, he necessarily excited the envy and malice of many

Walcot, known by the name of Peter Pindar, published a satirical epistle to Mr Bruce. Mr Bruce used to speak of this, and said that a relation of his in London, who bore him some ill-will, had employed Walcot to write the satirical verses, and that the poet would not have published them of his own accord. Mr Bruce thus consoled himself with the opinion that the production was not proprio motu of Peter Pindar.

Mr Bruce was a tall stout man. In his youth, he was handsome; in the latter part of his life, he was corpulent and red-faced.

His manly appearance, and his bold and commanding manner, were suited to procure him the respect of the people amongst whom he travelled.

The uncle of Mr Bruce's wife was a native of this part of the country, and had acquired a large fortune of about half a million, as Commissary of the army in the German campaigns of the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II. in 1745, 1747, and 1757. The fortune and activity of this gentleman gave him considerable power and influence in the country. He and his connections were Whigs. But Mr Bruce was of a contrary persuasion in politics; he saw Government in a different point of view, and was adverse to the destructive revolutionary system of Robespierre, the Duke of Orleans, surnamed Egalite', and other malignant and sanguinary men who co-operated with them. This system had begun to work, and to be actively propagated in Europe not long before Mr Bruce's death. Mr Bruce was candidate for the place of Convenor of the Commissioners of Supply of the County of Stirling; a place of honour, not of emolument. His opponent was a gentleman of the Whig party, who, if I recollect right, was elected.

A few years before his death, Mr Bruce's eye-sight became a little defective, so that he could not easily read by candle- light in the evening, and he said he had the intention of learning to play on some musical instrument, for the purpose of being able to pass his evenings with less exertion to his eyes.

One evening at Kinnaird, he fell down the stair, whilst he was handing a lady to her carriage. He remained in a state of insensibility ever after the fall, and died in the course of the next four- and-twenty hours. The fall was attributed to an apoplectic attack. He thus died in 1794, at the age of about 64, having lived a year longer than that period of seven times nine years, celebrated by the Platonists and old, medical writers as the grand climacteric year. He was spared the pain of living to advanced old age, and had the good fortune to arrive at the end of life, before the time when disease and infirmities usually come on.

Mr Bruce was twice married, and by his second marriage to a daughter of Thomas Dundas of Fingask, he left a son and a daughter; and a descendant of his son continues to own the estate of Kinnaird, in this parish.

2. Major-General Thomas Dundas of Fingask, commanded the 80th or Edinburgh Volunteers during the American war, and was the personal friend of Marquis Cornwallis, under whom he served. General Dundas resigned the Lieutenant-governorship of Guernsey, to command a division in Sir Charles Grey's expedition against the French West India islands, having borne a most distinguished part in the capture of all the islands which were taken. General Dundas expired of a malignant fever, while in command of the Island of Guadaloupe. A monument was placed over his remains by the officers and soldiers of his division, which haying been destroyed by the French General Victor Hugues, was restored by the garrison, when the island again fell into the hands of Great Britain. A cenotaph, by Bacon, was erected to the memory of General Dundas, by the British Parliament, in St Paul's Cathedral.

3. The following is an account of some of the persons engaged in the first establishment of the Carron Iron-works the iron manufactory for smelting iron from the ironstone was established at Carron, in this parish, in the year 1760, by a company under the firm of Roebucks, Garbet, and Cadells. The original partners were, John Roebuck, Doctor of Medicine of Sheffield, and afterwards of Birmingham, and his .two brothers, Thomas and Ebenezer Roebuck ; Samuel Garbet, merchant, of Birmingham; William Cadell, Senior, merchant at Cockenzie, in East Lothian; William Cadell, Junior; and John Cadell.¹²

Dr John Roebuck and Samuel Garbet were men of activity and enterprise. They were acquainted with chemistry; and, before the Carron Company was formed, they had established a manufactory of sulphuric acid, otherwise called oil of vitriol, at Prestonpans, in East Lothian. Dr Roebuck was a partner of Mr Watt, in Mr Watt's first patent taken out in 1769, for the improvement of the steam-engine. Dr Roebuck had two-thirds of the patent. But the patent did not turn) out a profitable concern during their co-
partnership.

Some years after the works had been in activity, the celebrated engineer, Smeaton, was employed to reconstruct the blowing machines, and other parts of the machinery. He also formed the dam-dike across the Carron at Larbert, constructed on the principles of an arch, with the convex side directed up the river. By means of this dam, the water of the river is retained, and passes in a leyd,¹³ or water-course, of a mile in length, to a reservoir of 30 acres at the works. From this reservoir the water falls upon the different water-levels which work the blowing machines, the boring-mill, the forge-hammer, &c. The wheels are overshot. The fall 24 feet.

The Carron Company had formerly another reservoir of the water of the Carron, at Dunipace. This is now abandoned, the ground having been wanted for other purposes. More recently, viz. about 1836, the proprietors of water-wheels on the Carron, at their joint expense, formed a reservoir in the upper part of the river, on the Kilsyth ridge of hills, about ten miles west by north of Larbert. This reservoir is for the purpose of retain- mg the water in times of flood, and for giving it out, in times of drought.

William Cadell, Junior, was the manager of the Carron Iron- works at their first foundation, and for some years after. He conducted the management with great industry and attention. After he had retired from the management, the works were managed by Charles Gascoigne.

Charles Gascoigne was the son-in-law of Samuel Garbet, one of the partners above-mentioned. Before he came to Carron Charles Gascoigne was a drysalter, i. e. a wholesale dealer in drugs and chemical preparations in London. He was a man of good abilities, and was active in promoting the improvement of the works; but the establishment had not then become profitable, as it afterwards did.

Whilst Mr Gascoigne was manager of the Carron Iron-works, an offer was made him to enter into the service of the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, who wanted to have iron-works erected in her dominions, for the purpose of making cast-iron guns, cast- iron shot, and shells. This offer was made through the medium of the late Admiral Greig, a native of Inverkeithing, and at that time a distinguished admiral in the Russian service. When a man is tolerably at ease in his circumstances, he does not readily renounce his country, and become the liege-subject, the bondman of another sovereign. He would think it degrading and dishonourable to take such a step. But Mr Gascoigne was in difficulties--he was not even with the world--his affairs were embarrassed and insolvent. Being thus disagreeably situated in his native country, Mr Gascoigne was in a fit disposition to quit it, and seize the opportunity presented to him of trying whether fortune would be more favourable to his projects in the dominions of the Czarina He was a man of the world, able and enterprising; consequently, he accepted the offer, and went to Russia, taking with him, although contrary to law, several skilful workmen from Carron, who were able to erect and conduct the different parts and branches of an iron-work. By these means, he erected iron-works for the Russian Government at Petrozavodsky,¹⁴ and afterwards for smelting iron by pit coal at a place near the Black Sea, and the country of the Don Cossack. Charles Gascoigne was Knight of the order of St Wladimir and had the rank of General in the Russian service. He died possessed of about L. 30,000,which he had made in Russia, but his heirs or creditors in this country did not realize nearly so great a sum, by reason of the fall in the exchange value of the ruble, and other circumstances. These iron-smelting-works and iron cannon-foundries of the Russian government are now, 1838, managed by Mr Wilson, who went out with Mr Gascoigne, and who has the rank of General in the Russian service.

Charles Baird, Knight of the Russian order of St Vladimir, who also went from Carron to Russia along with Mr Gascoigne, established and continues to carry on a large work for the manufacture of muskets, steam-engines, and other iron goods at Cronstadt, near Petersburg. Joseph Stainton, a native of Cumberland, who had been for several years employed in the counting house of the Carron Company, was appointed manager of the Carron Iron-works when Charles Gascoigne had left them. By a steady application to business and a scrupulous exactness in the execution of orders, as well as by attention to the quality of articles made at the works, he brought the affairs of the company into the thriving condition in which they now are.

Land-owners.-The heritors of the parish are,-

1. Mrs Cumming Bruce;

2. Colonel Dundas;

3. Sir Michael Bruce, Bart.;

4. Mr S. Stirling;

5. Carron Company;

6. Sir Gilbert Stirling, Bart;

7. Mrs Robertson;

8. Mr Forbes;

9. Mr W. A. Cadell.

The two families of Bruce are descended from the family of Bruce of Airth, from which they were portioned off in the sixteenth century. The representative of the family of Bruce of Airth and Elphinston of Airth is Mt Dundas of Blair, near Culross,

Colonel Dundas represents the family of Dundas of Fingask, which long held large property in Perthshire. The holdings of the different estates or tenements of land which the parish contains are as follows

Kinnaird.-The owner is the superior.

Quarol.-Erskine of Cardross is the superior of a part; the owner of Quarol is the superior or another part.

Woodside.-The owner is the superior.

Stenhouse.-The owner of the estate of Callendar is the superior. From this, it appears that Stenhouse formerly was a part of the estate of Callendar.

Larbert-The Duke of Hamilton is the superior,-Larbert having been at one time a part of the estates of the Hamilton family. Kinneil, including Larbert, was erected into a barony called the barony of Kinneil.

Broomage.-Lord Errol is supposed to be the superior. See the valuation roll of the county of Stirling; published in I83l

Some of these estates have been transmitted by sale during the last 100 years: a few have not been so transmitted.

Kinnaird.-Not transmitted by sale.

Quarol.-Sold about 1755 by Elphinston of Quarol.

Stenhouse-About one-half transmitted by feu about 1760 to the Carron Company ; the remainder not transmitted by sale.

Woodside.-Sold three times since 1780, viz. about 1780 and after that; 1st, by Sir G. Dunbar or his heirs ; 2d, by Mr Strachan; 3d, by Mr Russell.

Larbert-Sold twice since 1790, viz. about 1790 and after that; viz. 1st, by Mr Robert Chalmers; 2d, by Sir James Riddell.

Broomage.-In 1775 was undivided, and the joint property of three owners. It was at that time divided into three parts equal in value. Each of these parts has since been sold.

Parochial Registers.-The register has been regularly kept since the year 1699; but although it is continuous, it is neither voluminous nor remarkable for its regularity.

Modern Buildings.-The church was begun in the year 1818, and was completed in about two years. The exterior is in the light or Elizabethan Gothic, after a plan, by Mr Hamilton of Glasgow. This edifice forms an interesting object, from the Stirling road. The materials for building are abundant near the west end of the parish, and the stone is of good quality, though it is frequently porous, and by reason of its porous structure it absorbs the rain water to which it is exposed, so that the walls of a house built with it, are apt to be damp.

Antiquities-Arthur's Oon.-A remarkable Roman building, called Arthur's Oon, i. e. Arthur's Oven, stood on a bank sloping to the south or south by east, about 300 feet to the north of the point where is Pow the north-west corner of the Carron Iron-works. There is a piece of ground of the extent of about 50 feet square, which-has a well sunk in it, and is used as a washing green by the inhabitants of the adjacent houses. On this piece of ground, Arthur's Oon stood. The footpath passing up the slope was long known by the name of the Oon-path. The building was called Oven from its shape. But it does not appear in what way the name of the British Prince Arthur, famed in romance, could reasonably be applied to it. The name is therefore supposed by Gordon (Ititierarium Septentrionale, 1726,) to be derived from the Gaelic Ard nan suainhe, i. e. the high place or temple of the standards. As Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, is derived from Ard nan saidhe, the hill of the arrow, other authors say that Arthur's Seat signifies the lofty seat, and Arthur's Seir between Ross and Moray is Ard nan seir, the height to launch ships from. The latter part of Gordon's derivation of Arthur's Oon, viz. snainhe, is improbable. Ard and Arthur in Cymric or Welsh, from the same root as Arduas, Latin, signify high, and also the Most High God. Arthur's Oon, therefore, may signify the oon, i. e. the cupola or dome of the Most High God. The Cymri or Cambro-Britons are considered to have possessed this part of the country as far as the valium of Antoninus about the year 600. The name Arthur's Oon, therefore, may be Cymric.

This building, considered to be the most entire Roman building in Britain, was demolished in 1743. All the stones were carried away, and employed in repairing a dam across the Carron for an adjacent meal mill. The dam was afterwards washed away by the river, and some of the stones probably now lie buried in the mud of the Carron. The curious will regret that the owner of Stenhouse and of Stenhouse Mill was so destitute of all regard for antiquity. He certainly was no dilettante, neither real nor pretended. He was not one of the admirers of the beautiful and of the rare in the material world, but a country gentleman who had other things to mind, and never moved much out of the parish where he was born, and died there an octogenarian. Notwithstanding all this, the building might have escaped demolition, had he not been poor, possessed a numerous family of children, his income small, and a considerable part of it derived from the mill. These circumstances moved him to employ the stones, and turn them to profit in repairing his dam; so that he pulled down this interesting fabric, which had stood fifteen centuries, and took the stones, that he might avoid the expense of quarrying stones from the sandstone rock, only two or three miles distant.

There is an accurate drawing of Arthur's Oon in Camden's Britannia, 1607. A drawing of it, made in 1720, by Mr Jelf, who was employed in the Ordnance Department in Scotland, is published in Dr Stukeley's description of Arthur's Oon. JeIf was acquainted with architecture, and examined the building in an architectural point of view. Gordon's drawing of Arthur's Oon, from which the accompanying figure is taken, is published in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, 1726,. It appears to be the most accurate drawing of the building that has been published. He compared his measurements with those of JeIf, and found them to agree within a few inches, except in the external diameter, which differed one foot. The principal dimensions were, the interior diameter, 20 feet; the external diameter, 28 feet; the perpendicular height, 22 feet. JeIf was informed that the building had an iron door, and at the round opening of the cupola an iron curb, in form of a hoop. These had been taken away, several years before he saw the building.

Two stone shelves ran round the interior. The arch of the door was well turned. Mr Jelf's drawing in 1720, and Dr Stukeley's description, represent and state that the arch stones fell handsomely with a square face into the courses. This is contradicted by Gordon's drawing in 1725, which represents the extrados of the arch stones of the door as semicircular. Gordon's is probably the true representation, as he had Jelf's drawing before him, when he examined the building.

The beds of the stones forming the cupola were horizontal as represented in the accompanying section, and as Dr Stukeley states in his description. This was contrary to the principles of a vaulted cupola, in which the beds should not be horizontal, but portions of conical surfaces, having their apex in the centre of the cupola.

The building was of hewn sandstone in regular courses. Each stone generally was about 4 feet long, 1 foot thick, and 1 foot 10 inches broad. In the middle of the upper surface of each stone was a hole, which was considered to have served for receiving a lewis, by means of which the stone was raised and laid in its place.

There was no inscription on the building, which might have recorded the purpose for which the building, was erected.¹⁶ Neither is there any Roman building similar in size and form, by a comparison with which, the use of Arthur's Oon might be judged of There are certainly several Roman temples of a round form, with a hemispherical cupula; but these temples are large, and decorated with architectural ornaments, whilst Arthur's Oon was small and altogether without ornament

In the absence of sufficient proof with respect to the use of the building, and the precise time when it was erected, conjectures have been various, and the several authors who have spoken of the building have given different opinions.

Nennius, a monk, who lived about the year 810, in his history of British affairs, which, like the works of other authors of that period, contains many fictitious, false, and erroneous statements, contradicted by historians of credit, describes Arthur's Oon, and states, without adducing any proof; that it was built by Carausius, who assumed the dignity of Emperor in Britain in 284, held out against Maximian, the adopted son of Dioclesian, and ruled for seven years.

It does not appear that Arthur's Oon is mentioned by John Fordun, who lived about 1340, and was the first who wrote a general history of Scotland.

Johannes Major, in his history of Scotland, ignorantly asserts that Arthur's Oon was built by Julius Ceasar, although it is known from Ceasar's Commentaries, and from other historians, that Julius Ceasar never extended his power to this part of the country. Johannes Major states, that in his time the building was called Julius's Hof, i.e. Julius's House (hofe, Anglosaxon; houf, Scotch, a court, a house). Perhaps it is this word hof which afterwards passed into ofn, oven, and oon.
Hector Boece, in his History of Scotland, which he published in 1526, asserts, without any good grounds, that Arthur's Oon was built by Vespasian, and that it was the tomb of Aulus Plautius.

Buchanan in his History of Scotland, which he published in 1582, describes Arthur's Oon in his florid style, but rather inaccurately, and represents it erroneously, as similar to the conical buildings in Glenelg, opposite to the Isle of Skye. But these buildings, which have a form something like the tower at Martello, in Corsica, are altogether different from Arthur's Oon. They are of unhewn stone, and differ from Arthur's Oon in every other respect, and are considered to be Danish.
Buchanan in 1582, and Camden, in his Britannia in 1610, sup pose that Arthur's Oon was a temple dedicated to Terminus. But no such temples of Terminus have been found amongst the remains of the Romans ; and it does not appear from the writings of Roman authors, that the Romans had any temples dedicated to Terminus. Dr Stukeley, in his description of Arthur's Oon (27 pages, 4to, 1720), will have it to be a temple dedicated to Romulus.

Dio Cassius relates, that in the Roman camps there was a small temple, in which the Roman eagle and the military standards were adored. Gordon (in his Itinerarium Septentrionale, 1726), supposes that Arthur's Oon was one of these temples, and that it was built about the year 75 of the Christian era by Julius Agricola, who was Prefect in Britain in the latter part of the reign of Vespasian, and was the first Roman general who ever entered Scotland with a Roman army. Tacitus, in his Life of Agricola, relates that Agricola fortified this part of the country, namely, the isthmus between Forth and Clyde, by a line of garrisoned forts; "Nam Glota (Clyda) et Bodotria (Votria, Vortia) ..... . augusto terrarum spatio dividuntur quod turn priesidus firmabatur." This praetentura, or frontier line of forts, was, it is supposed, about a mile to the north of the line on which the Wall of Antoninus, called Graeme's Dike, was afterwards constructed.

Gordon, moreover, conjectures, that Arthur's Oon may have been a tomb as well as a camp-temple. The size and form of the building agree well enough with the conjecture of its being a tomb; but there is no well authenticated account that any urn or sepulchral chest was ever found in it, to confirm that conjecture.

Another period to which the building of Arthur's Oon might be ascribed, is about the year 144, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, the adopted son of Adrian, when Lollius Urbicus, the emperor's lieutenant, formed the vallum called Graeme's dike from the Frith of Forth to the Frith of Clyde. Arthur's Oon is situated not far from this vallum, being about two miles north of it. It may, there fore, be conjectured, that Arthur's Oon might be built about the time of the construction of the vallum. There is, however, no direct nor satisfying solution of the question to what period of the Roman dominion in Britain the building belongs. It is probably not of so late a date as 310, when Constantine reigned. About 100 years after which, namely in 407, the Roman dominion in Britain came to an end, in the reign of Honorius, two years before the sacking of Rome by Alaric. During the next thirty years, troops were occasionally sent by the Romans to assist the provincial Britons against the attacks of the Scots and Picts. But at last this aid ceased, and no further assistance could be obtained in 444, in the reign of Theodosius the younger, the Romans being then too seriously engaged in war with Attila, who had overrun a great part of Europe. The provincial Britons thus left unprotected by the Romans, in 449, brought over the Saxons to defend them.

Roman Mill-stones and fragments of Pottery.-About the year 1800, the labourers in digging and draining a piece of ground consisting of peat moss, about 1000 feet north-east of the site of Arthur's Oon, found three or four mill-stones, about eighteen inches in diameter. One of these which I saw, consisted of a dark coloured lava, like the lava of the mill-stones of the great mill-stone quarries of Andernach on the Rhine. A similar mill-stone, consisting of the same lava, was found in 1835, lying on a stone which contained the epitaph of a Roman soldier, at the Mumrills, a place where there was a station on the vallum of Antonin us, about four miles east of the site of Arthur's Oon.

Along with the three or four mill-stones at the mossy piece of ground, 1000 feet distant from the site of Arthur's Oon, the labourers also found, according to the account I received from one of them, fragments of pottery, and the remains of a fabric which they considered to be a potter's kiln; also a paved road, and two iron rims of wheels.

Torwood Head.-On the highest point of the Torwood are some narrow low vaults, probably the remains of a castle or signal tower of the middle-ages, but of what precise period is unknown.

Old Mansion-houses.-The mansion-house of Stenhouse was built in 1622, and has that date inscribed on it. Its ground plan consists of the two adjacent sides of a rectangle being in the shape of the letter L. In the internal angle is a round staircase, and there are turrets at the upper part of the five external angles of the building. This form of building was much in use in Scotland, about the period from 1580 to 1650, and there are in different parts of Scotland, a great many country mansion-houses of a similar form built during that period.

The mansion-house of Torwood Head, (in the parish of Dunipace,) now ruinous, is built upon a similar plan to that of Stenhouse. It is larger and probably older. On the mansion-house of Woodside are inscribed the initials of Rollo of Woodside, with a date of about 1700, if I recollect right. At that time, the number of mansion-houses in the parish was four. They were situated at Kinnaird, Quarol, Stenhouse, and Woodside. The present owners of Kinnaird and Stenhouse hold them by inheritance from the owners who then possessed them. The rest of the lands which the parish contains, have passed into the hands of other families by sale.

Square Towers. - At the periods which preceded 1550 or 1500, the residences of the land-owners or country chiefs were not of the nature of country mansion-houses, which could not have suited the disturbed political state of the country. They were not the dwellings of people in a state of peace, but were small for tresses constructed for defending the inhabitants from the attacks of their neighbours. The residence of a Scotch chief about 1300 or 1350, was prepared for defence. The state of the country rendered this necessary. The chief would try sometimes to re pair or better his fortune, as the hero of the Odyssey proposed to do, by carrying off his neighbour's cattle,¹⁷ and the residence of the chief was formed into a kind of military position, and fortified for defence against the attacks of his neighbours, who were also plunderers. This station or stronghold of the Scotch chieftain consisted of a square tower, which could only contain a small garrison, and adjacent to the tower were probably a number of huts, in which the family, the dependents, and followers of the chief had their dwellings.

There are some vestiges consisting of fragments of walls of such fortalices, on the lower part of the southern slope of the Kilsyth hills, about ten miles west of Larbert, viz. at Colieum and at Kilsyth, and on the Campsie hills, which are a part of the same ridge. One of these square towers, called Plaine- mill tower, still exists, about four miles north of Larbert. The tower, which is placed upon a sandstone rock very little raised above the adjacent flattish country, is solidly built of stone, with thick walls. The corner stones and window jambs and sills well squared. The dimensions of the interior are not more than about 18 feet by 14. There was a ground-floor and two upper floors. The ground-floor, vaulted and without windows, perhaps a loop hole or two. There are the remains of a building adjacent to the tower, which was
a mansion-house, built at a period somewhat more recent, and was no doubt the residence of the owner of the estate of Plaine. Such a tower would scarcely be large enough for a garrison of twenty men.

These small quadrangular towers or fortalices, (fortolitium, in Latin of the middle-age, a small fort); several of which exist in different parts of Scotland, were built, perhaps, after the model of the great square towers erected by William the Conqueror, about 1070, such as the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Richmond, in Yorkshire, Rochester Castle, the Tower of London, Hedingham Castle in Essex.¹⁸ The ornamental parts of these great towers are in the round arched Byzantine style, as are also the two great ab bey churches built by William at Caen, in Normandy. Of a less ancient period is Borthwick Castle in Midlothian, a quadrangular tower of considerable size, built in 1430. It contains a large hall, the ceiling of which is a pointed-arched vault. A charter is preserved, in which the King grants permission (ad castrum edificandum) to build the castle. By means of this charter, the period in which Borthwick Castle was built is ascertained.