river.]

[Footnote 129: In this strategic angular fork or tongue of ground,
formed by the confluence of these two rivers, Queen Mary and her suite
were, according to Mr. Robert Chambers, caught when she was carried off
by Bothwell on the 24th of April 1567. (See his interesting remarks "On
the Locality of the Abduction of Queen Mary" in the _Proceedings of the
Society of Scottish Antiquaries_, vol. ii. p. 331.)]

[Footnote 130: The comparative rapidity or slowness with which bones are
decomposed and disappear in different soils, is sometimes a question of
importance to the antiquary. We all know that they preserve for many
long centuries in dry soils and dry positions. In moist ground, such as
that on which the Cat-stane stands, they melt away far more speedily. On
another part of Mrs. Ramsay's property, namely in the policy, and within
two hundred yards of the mansion-house of Barnton, I opened, several
years ago, with Mr. Morritt of Rokeby, the grave of a woman who had
died--as the tombstone on the spot told us--during the last Scottish
plague in the year 1648. The only remains of sepulture which we found
were some fragments of the wooden coffin, and the enamel crowns of a few
teeth. All other parts of the body and skeleton had entirely
disappeared. The chemical qualities of the ground, and consequently of
its water, will of course modify the rapidity of such results.]

[Footnote 131: _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, p. 96.]

[Footnote 132: _Statistical Account of Scotland_, collected by Sir John
Sinclair, vol. x. pp. 68, 75.]

[Footnote 133: The _Scots Magazine_ for 1780, p. 697. See also Smellie's
_Account of the Institution and Progress of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland_ (1782), p. 8.]

[Footnote 134: Rowlands' _Mona Antiqua Restaurata_, second edition, p.
313. The inscription is printed in italics by Rowland. I have printed
this and some of the following readings in small Roman capitals, in
order to assimilate them all the more with each other.]

[Footnote 135: _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xxii. p. 790.]

[Footnote 136: _Historical Inquiries concerning the Roman Monuments and
Antiquities in Scotland_, p. 50.]

[Footnote 137: _The History of Edinburgh_, p. 508.]

[Footnote 138: _Tour in Scotland_ in 1772, Part ii. p. 237. When
describing his ride from Kirkliston to Edinburgh, he observes: "On the
right hand, at a small distance from our road are some rude stones. On
one called the _Cat-ste