of the
list of the Scottish and Pictish kings, extracted by Sir Robert Sibbald
from the now lost register of the Priory of St. Andrews,[158] seems also
to place the death of King Constantine at the mouth of the Almond, if we
interpret aright the entry in it of "interfectus in Rathveramoen" as
meaning "Rath Inver Amoen,"--the rath or earth-fortress at the mouth
of the Amoen.[159]

Even, however, were it allowed that the battle in which Constantine
perished was fought upon the Almond, and not upon the Avon, on the
stream of the former name in the Lothians and not in Perthshire, at the
mouth and not at the source of the river, there still, after all,
remains no evidence whatever that the Cat-stane was raised in
commemoration of the fall of the Scottish king; whilst there is abundant
evidence to the contrary. The very word "Inver," in the last of the
designations which I have adduced, is strongly against this idea. For
the term "Inver," when applied to a locality on a stream, almost
invariably means the mouth of it,[160] and not a site on its
course--such as the Cat-stane occupies--three miles above its
confluence. Nor is there any probability that an inscribed monument
would be raised in honour of a king who, like Constantine, fell in a
civil war,--who was the last of his own branch of the royal house that
reigned,--and was distinguished, as the ancient chroniclers tell us, by
the contemptuous appellation of _Calvus_. There is great reason, indeed,
to believe that the idea of the Cat-stane being connected with the fall
of Constantine is comparatively modern in its origin. Oral tradition
sometimes creates written history; but, on the other hand, written
history sometimes creates oral tradition. And in the present instance a
knowledge of the statements of our ancient historians in all probability
gave rise to such attempts as that of Mr. Wilkie--to find, namely, a
direct record of Constantine in the Cat-stane inscription. But when we
compare the inscription itself, as read a century and a half ago by
Lhwyd and Sibbald, and as capable of being still read at the present
day, with the edition of it as given by Lord Buchan, it is impossible
not to conclude that the idea of connecting the legend with the name of
Constantine is totally without foundation. For, besides minor errors in
punctuation and letterings, such as the total omission in Lord Buchan's
copy of the inscription of the three last letters VLO of "TVMVLO," the
chan