entury between Constantine IV. and Malcolm, the general of the lawful
heir of the Scottish Crown, on the banks of the River Almond, and
decided towards its confluence to the sea, near Kirkliston. Accordingly,
from Mid-Calder, anciently called Calder-comitis, to Kirkliston, the
banks of the river are filled with the skeletons of human bodies, and
the remains of warlike weapons; and opposite to Carlowrie there is a
well-known stone near the margin of the river, called by the people
_Catt Stane_. The following inscription was legible on the stone in the
beginning of this (the eighteenth) century; and the note of the
inscription I received from the Rev. Mr. Charles Wilkie, minister of the
parish of Ecclesmachan, whose father, Mr. John Wilkie, minister of the
parish of Uphall, whilst in his younger days an inhabitant of
Kirkliston, had carefully transcribed:--

IN HOC TUM . JAC . CONSTAN . VIC . VICT."[133]

Lord Buchan adduces this alleged copy of the Cat-stane inscription as
valuable from having been taken early in the last century. The copy of
the inscription, though averred to be old, is, as we shall see in the
sequel, doubtlessly most inaccurate. And there exist accounts of the
inscription both older and infinitely more correct and trustworthy.

The oldest and most important notice of the Cat-stane and its
inscription that I know of is published in a work where few would expect
to find it--viz., in the _Mona Antiqua Restaurata_ of the Rev. Mr.
Rowlands. It is contained in a letter addressed to that gentleman by the
distinguished Welsh archaeologist, Edward Lhwyd. The date of Mr. Lhwyd's
letter is "Sligo, March 12th, 1699-1700." A short time previously he had
visited Scotland, and "collected a considerable number of inscriptions."
At that time the Cat-stane was a larger and much more imposing monument
than it is now, as shown in the following description of it. "One
monument," says he, "I met with within four miles of Edinburgh,
different from all I had seen elsewhere, and never observed by their
antiquaries. I take it to be the tomb of some Pictish king; though
situate by a river side, remote enough from any church. It is an area of
about seven yards diameter, raised a little above the rest of the
ground, and encompassed with large stones; all which stones are laid
length-wise, excepting one larger than ordinary, which is pitched on
end, and contains this inscription in the barbarous characters of the
fourth and fi