The Celtic Magazine, Vol I, No. IV, February 1876 / A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History, Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and Material Interest of the Celt at Home and Abroad.

by Various

THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

No. IV. FEBRUARY 1876.

THE STATE OF THE OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY.

[Concluded.]

In prosecuting the geological and geographical confirmation of Ossian on which we have lately been engaged, the most convincing proofs and the greatest difficulties alike are to be found in the Frith of Clyde. The levels of the water in that frith penetrating far inland, by Paisley, Rutherglen, and Kilsyth, assumed unconsciously as matter of fact in the text of Ossian, are in such obvious harmony with every word of the poems which relate to that region, that the poems in question cannot otherwise be understood; and we therefore cannot help believing not only that the poems themselves are genuine, but that they represent a geological phenomenon hitherto unsuspected in the world—are, in fact, a revelation in science. On the other hand, the levels thus assumed are so very far beyond anything admitted by geologists within the era assigned, as to seem not only extravagant but incredible; and if they cannot be maintained, their assumption as a fact will destroy the credibility of the poems in which the assumption is made. As regards the authenticity of these poems, however, the assumption itself is conclusive; for the translator did not see it, and could therefore never have fabricated the poems in which it appears. Such poems must have been written by some eye-witness of the fact, who did not require to exaggerate; and the only question as regards reliability now to be settled, is whether he did exaggerate or no? Was the Clyde a sea to Rutherglen, as he seems to affirm? Was the Kelvin a fiord to Kilsyth, or nearly so, as he implies? Was the Leven an estuary to Loch Lomond, as we are bound to conclude? Was the Black Cart a marine canal to Ardrossan in the days of Agricola? If so, the Clyde must have been from 60 to 80 feet above its present level at the date supposed—and then, where was the Roman Wall? Traces of that wall upon the Clyde at a much lower level, it is said, still exist; and the old fortifications between Dunglass and Kilpatrick only 50 feet or thereby above the present level, put an end to the reliability, if not to the authenticity of Ossian. This is the difficulty now to be disposed of; and of which, in passing, we need only say, that if Macpherson had seen it he would certainly have avoided it; and therefore, that whoever was the author of the poems in which it occurs, Macpherson was not.

But it is with the difficulty itself we are now concerned, and not with the authorship. I. First then, suppose any statement, direct or indirect, had occurred in any Greek or Roman writer of the time—Cæsar, Tacitus, Dion Cassius, or Ptolemy—affirming, or even implying, such a level in the Clyde at the date in question, notwithstanding the Roman Wall, would the testimony of such authors have been rejected? If not, how would our geologists have disposed of it? or how would they have reconciled it with existing matters of fact? One can imagine the jealousy with which such texts would have been criticised; the assiduity with which every crevice on the coast would have been surveyed, not to contradict but to confirm them; and the fertility of invention with which theories would have been multiplied to harmonise them. Strange as it may appear, however, facts and statements amounting very nearly to this do occur, and have hitherto been overlooked, or purposely omitted in silence. The Roman Wall, for example, stops short with a town at Balmulzie on one side of the Kelvin, and begins again with another town at Simmerton, nearly a mile distant, on the opposite side of the Kelvin; but why should such a gap be there, if the Kelvin, which flows between, had not been something like a fiord at the moment? Again, it is distinctly affirmed by Herodian that the marshes of Clydesdale south of the Wall were constantly—end of the third, or beginning of the fourth century—emitting vapours which obscured the sky. But how could this be the case, if volcanic heat had not already been operating underneath, and the waters of the frith were then beginning to subside from their original higher levels?

On the other hand, not only do statements to the effect alleged occur frequently in Ossian, but whole poems are founded on the assumption of their truth, and cannot be understood without them. Why then are not these taken into account by our geologists as contemporaneous testimony, in the same way as similar statements, if they had occurred in Cæsar or in Tacitus, would have been? Because Ossian hitherto has been looked upon by men of science as a fable; as a witness utterly unfit to be produced in court, and no more to be cared for or quoted in an ordnance survey, or in a professor's chair, than the Arabian Nights' Entertainments are in a pulpit. By which very oversight or contempt, the most important revelations have been lost, and the most elaborate theories will soon be rendered useless. Ossian, in fact, is as much an authority as either Cæsar, or Tacitus, or Ptolemy; and in estimating the physical conditions of the world to which he refers, and which he describes, can no longer be either ignored or doubted. If his text seems to be at variance with existing facts, it must be more carefully studied; and if new theories are required to harmonise details they must be accepted or invented. We have had theories enough already, which have perished with the using; something more in harmony with facts, or that will better explain the facts, must now be forthcoming.

II. But the Roman Wall itself, which is supposed to be the greatest barrier in the way of our accepting Ossian, has actually a literature of its own, little understood, in his favour. The three forts farthest west, and on which so much reliance has been placed as indicating the levels of the Clyde when they were built and occupied, are those at Chapel Hill, near Old Kilpatrick, at Duntocher, and at Castlehill a little farther to the east; all under the ridge of the Kilpatrick Hills, and all—one of them very closely—overlooking the Clyde. But in excavating the remains of Roman architecture in these forts, stones have been found with symbolical sculptures upon them which are still in existence, or which have been accurately copied for public use. On one of the stones at Chapel Hill, farthest west, we have the figure of a wild boar in flight; on one at Duntocher we have another wild boar, on two more there we have sea-dogs or seals and winged horses; on two more at Castlehill we have another boar, and another seal, and an osprey or sea-eagle on the back of the seal; but beyond this to the eastward, although a boar still occurs, not another seal appears. How then is all this descriptive or symbolical sculpture, so plain and so significant, to be accounted for, if the Frith of Clyde had not then been a sea flowing up into the recesses of the land, as high almost as Duntocher and Castlehill? The wild boar is traceable throughout, for he inhabited the woods on the Kilpatrick range, as far eastward, perhaps, as Simmerton; and we find him eating acorns, even beyond that. On the other hand, no seal is represented at Chapel Hill, for the water there was too deep, and the banks too precipitous. It appears first at Duntocher, and again at Castlehill, because the sea flowed up into quiet bays and inlets there, where such amphibia could bask—of which, more hereafter; but it totally disappears beyond that, because the salt water ceased in the distance. The winged-horse, or pegasus, is more difficult to account for, and has greatly perplexed the learned antiquarians who have commented on him; but if the Roman Legionaries who built and occupied these western stations ever heard the Caledonian harp, or listened to a Celtic bard, or received an embassy, as we are expressly told they did, from men like Ossian as ambassadors—the difficulty requires no farther explanation. The Romans were neither blind nor senseless, and knew well enough how to represent the poetical genius of the country which they were attempting in vain to conquer, as well as the wild boars of its woods, and the sea-dogs in its estuaries; and have thus left behind them, in rude but significant sculpture, as true a picture as could be imagined of the men on the soil, and the beasts in the field, and the fish so-called in the sea, and the bird in the air—between Simmerton and Duntocher, in absolute conformity with the text of Ossian. Nor is there any possible reply to this by our antiquarian friends. The Roman Wall itself, to which they constantly appeal, supplies the evidence, and they are bound, without a murmur, to accept it.

III. But the levels of the Wall, it may be said, as now ascertainable by actual survey—what other sort of evidence do they afford? This question implies—(1) A range of observation from the Kelvin at Simmerton westward to Duntocher in the first place, and then to Chapel Hill between Old Kilpatrick and Dunglass. The intermediate forts on that line are separated by equal distances, nearly as follows:—From Simmerton to New Kilpatrick, 1¾ miles; from New Kilpatrick to Castlehill, 1¾ miles; from Castlehill to Duntocher, 1¾ miles; the lowest point in which range at Duntocher is from 155 to 200 feet above the level of the Clyde, leaving sufficient room, therefore, for the Wall above the highest level assumed in the text of Ossian. From Duntocher to Chapel Hill there is a distance of 2½ miles, with no trace whatever of the Wall between. Chapel Hill is considerably lower than Duntocher, undoubtedly; but why is there so great a gap there, and no trace of a wall in the interval? Either, because there never was a wall so close to the tide; or because the tide itself washed the wall away, having been built too close to its confines; or for some other more probable reason yet to be assigned. The fort at Chapel Hill itself, indeed, is the most indistinct of them all; and if a regular fort of any importance ever existed there, it must have suffered either partial inundation, or some other serious shock, unquestionably.