[196] Ibid., lib. ii. cap. xv.
[197] The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 341.
[198] In his account of the kings of the Picts, Mr. Pinkerton (Inquiry into History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 293) calculates that the sovereign "Wradech Vechla" of the Chronicon Pictorum reigned about A.D. 380. In support of his own philological views, Mr. Pinkerton alters the name of this Pictish king from "Wradech Vechla" to "Wradech Vechta." There is not, however, I believe, any real foundation whatever for this last reading, interesting as it might be, in our present inquiry, if true.
[199] The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 149.
[200] Mr. Hardy, in the preface (p. 114, etc.) to the Monumenta Historica Britannica, maintains also, at much length, that the advent and reception of the Saxons by Vortigern was in A.D. 428, and not 449. He contests for an earlier Saxon invasion of Britain in A.D. 374. See also Lappenberg in his History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.
[201] Two miles higher up the river than the Cat-stane, four large monoliths still stand near Newbridge. They are much taller than the Cat-stane, but contain no marks or letters on their surfaces. Three of them are placed around a large barrow.
[202] History of Edinburgh, p. 509.
[203] Transactions of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 308. Maitland, in his History of Edinburgh, p. 307, calls these cairns the "Cat-heaps."
[204] Caledonia, vol. i. p. 86. The only references, however, which Mr. Chalmers gives to a "single stone" in Scotland, bearing the name of Cat-stane, all relate to this monument in Kirkliston parish:—"The tallest and most striking ancient monolith in the vicinity of Edinburgh is a massive unhewn flat obelisk, standing about ten feet high, in the parish of Colinton." Maitland (History of Edinburgh, p. 507), and Mr. Whyte (Trans. of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 308) designate this monument the Caiy-stone. "Whether this (says Maitland) be a corruption of the Catstean I know not." The tall monolith is in the neighbourhood of the cairns called the Cat-stanes or Cat-heaps (see preceding note). Professor Walker, in an elaborate Statistical Account of the Parish of Colinton, published in 1808, in his Essays on Natural History describes the Cat-heaps or cairns as having been each found, when removed, to cover a coffin made of hewn stones. In the coffins were found mouldering human bones and fragments of old arms, including two bronze spear-heads. "When the turnpike road which passes near the above cairns was formed, for more than a mile the remains of dead bodies were everywhere thrown up." Most of them had been interred in stone coffins made of coarse slabs. To use the words of Professor Walker, "Not far from the three cairns is the so called 'Caiy-stone' of Maitland and Whyte. It has always, however (he maintains), been known among the people of the country by the name of the Ket-stane." It is of whinstone, and "appears not to have had the chisel, or any inscription upon it." "The craig (he adds) or steep rocky mountain which forms the northern extremity of the Pentland Hills, and makes a conspicuous figure at Edinburgh, hangs over this field of battle. It is called Caer-Ketan Craig. This name appears to be derived from the Ket-stane above described, and the fortified camp adjacent, which, in the old British, was termed a Caer." (P. 611.)
[205] See "Annales Cambriæ," in the Monumenta Hist. Britannica, p. 833.