gh. It is placed
within a hundred yards of the south bank of the Almond; nearly
half-a-mile below the Boathouse Bridge; and about three miles above the
entrance of the stream into the Firth of Forth, at the old Roman station
of Cramond, or Caer Amond. The monument is located in nearly the middle
of the base of a triangular fork of ground formed by the meeting of the
Gogar Water with the river Almond. The Gogar flows into the Almond about
six or seven hundred yards below the site of the Cat-stane.[129] The
ground on which the Cat-stane stands is the beginning of a ridge
slightly elevated above the general level of the neighbouring fields.
The stone itself consists of a massive unhewn block of the secondary
greenstone-trap of the district, many large boulders of which lie in the
bed of the neighbouring river. In form it is somewhat prismatic, or
irregularly triangular, with its angles very rounded. This large
monolith is nearly twelve feet in circumference, about four feet five
inches in width, and three feet three inches in thickness. Its height
above ground is about four feet and a half. The Honourable Mrs. Ramsay
of Barnton, upon whose son's property the monument stands, very kindly
granted liberty, last year, for an examination by digging beneath and
around the stone. The accompanying woodcut is a copy of a sketch, made
at the time, by my friend Mr. Drummond, of the stone as exposed when
pursuing this search around its exposed basis. We found the stone to be
a block seven feet three inches in total length, and nearly three feet
buried in the soil. It was placed upon a basis of stones, forming
apparently the remains of a built stone grave, which contained no
bones[130] or other relics, and that had very evidently been already
searched and harried. I shall indeed have immediately occasion to cite a
passage proving that a century and a half ago the present pillarstone
was surrounded, like some other ancient graves, by a circular range of
large flat-laid stones; and when this outer circle was removed,--if not
before,--the vicinity and base of the central pillar were very probably
dug into and disturbed.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.]

_Different Readings of the Inscription._

The inscription upon the stone is cut on the upper half of the eastern
and narrowest face of the triangular monolith. Various descriptions of
the legend have been given by different authors. The latest published
account of it is that given by Professor