Daniel Wilson in his work on
_Scottish Archaeology_. He disposes of the stone and its inscription in
the two following short sentences:--"A few miles to the westward of this
is the oft-noted Catt Stane in Kirkliston parish, on which the painful
antiquary may yet decipher the imperfect and rudely-lettered
inscription--the work, most probably, of much younger hands than those
that reared the mass of dark whinstone on which it is cut--IN [H]OC
TVMVLO IACET VETTA.. VICTR.. About sixty yards to the west of the
Cat-stane a large tumulus formerly stood, which was opened in 1824, and
found to contain several complete skeletons; but nearly all traces of it
have now disappeared."[131]

In the tenth volume of the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, collected
by Sir John Sinclair, and published in 1794, the Rev. Mr. John
Muckarsie, in giving an account of the parish of Kirkliston, alludes in
a note to the "Cat-stane standing on the farm of that name in this
parish." In describing it he observes "The form is an irregular prism,
with the following inscription on the south-east face, deeply cut in the
stone, in a most uncouth manner:--

IN OC T
VMVLO IACI
VETTA D
VICTA

We are informed," continues Mr. Muckarsie, "by Buchanan and other
historians, that there was a bloody battle fought near this place, on
the banks of the Almond, in the year 995, between Kennethus, natural
brother and commander of the forces of Malcolm II., King of Scotland,
and Constantine, the usurper of that crown, wherein both the generals
were killed. About two miles higher up the river, on the Bathgate road,
is a circular mound of earth (of great antiquity, surrounded with large
unpolished stones, at a considerable distance from each other, evidently
intended in memory of some remarkable event). The whole intermediate
space, from the human bones dug up, and graves of unpolished stones
discovered below the surface, seems to have been the scene of many
battles."[132]

In the discourse which the Earl of Buchan gave in 1780 to a meeting
called together for the establishment of the present Society of Scottish
Antiquaries, his Lordship took occasion to allude to the Cat-stane when
wishing to point out how monuments, rude as they are, "lead us to
correct the uncertain accounts which have been handed down by the
monkish writers." "Accounts, for example, have (he observes) been given
of various conflicts which took place towards the close of the tenth
c