hesis to support or
subvert by this opinion. And the best palaeographer of our own
times--Professor Westwood--is quite of the same idea as to the mere age
of the inscription, as drawn from its palaeography and formula, an idea
in which he is joined by an antiquary who has worked much with ancient
lettering--viz. Professor Stephens of Copenhagen."

Although it is to be regretted that the contemplated remarks were not
completed, it may be doubted if the question admitted of much further
illustration; and, however unlikely the conclusion may be that the
inscription on the Catstane, VETTA F[ILIUS] VICTI, is a contemporary
commemoration of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa, it may not be
easy to suggest a solution of the question free from difficulties as
puzzling. At all events the palaeographic features of the inscription
seem plainly to associate it with a class of rude post-Roman monuments,
of which we have a good many examples in different parts of the kingdom;
and it may be remarked that Mr. Skene, who has made this period of our
history a special study, after investigating, with his usual acumen, the
evidence which exists to show that the Frisians had formed settlements
in Scotland at a period anterior to that usually assigned for the
arrival of the Saxons in England, has established the fact of the early
settlement on our northern coasts of a people called by the general name
of Saxons, but in reality an offshoot from the Frisians, whose principal
seat was on the shores of the Firth of Forth, and on the whole thinks it
not impossible that the Catstane may be the tomb of their first leader
Vitta, son of Vecta, the traditionary grandfather of Hengist and
Horsa.[3]

Besides the papers now printed, Sir James Simpson contributed many
shorter essays and reviews of books to magazines and newspapers. He also
prepared a memorandum, printed in the second volume of the "Sculptured
Stones of Scotland," of a reading of the inscription on a sculptured
cross at St. Vigeans in Forfarshire.[4] At the time of the final
adjustment of this paper Sir James was an invalid, and confined to his
bed, and I well remember the extreme, almost fastidious, care bestowed
by him on the proof-sheet, in the course of my frequent visits to his
bedroom.

It sometimes happened also that a subject originally treated in a paper
by Sir James Simpson required a volume to exhaust it. Thus, in the
spring of 1864, he read to a meeting of the Society of A