RHYMES ON PLACES. 61
earth to a considerable depth was laid over the millstone,
the spot cannot now be found.
Sir James Balfour, in his Geographical Notes (MSS.
Advocates' Library), speaks of Ardoch as ' a statione of the
Roman soldears, or Spanish stipendiars, under the command
of the proconsull Hostorius Scapula, in his march from the
River Bodotria (Forth) ag-ainst the Otholinians, quhen as
he thoug-ht to have surprised the Pictish king in his castell
of Baen-Artee.'
Glenlyon, in Perthshire, is remarkable for the great num-
ber of remains of aboriginal works scattered through it, in
the shape of circular castles built entirely of dry stones.
The common people believe these structures to have be-
longed to their mythic hero Fion, or Fingal, and have a
verse to that effect —
Bha da chaisteal dheug aig Fionn
Ann an Crom-glileann-nan clach.
That is, Fion had twelve castles in the Crooked Glen of
Stones (such being an old name for Glenlyon).
The common Highlanders have a very magnificent notion
of Fion's palace, which stood at Cruach Narachan, near
Loch Aik, in Argyleshire. Ailean Buidhe, a bard who lived
about a century ago, said of it —
Bha dusan tigh 's an talla ud, - '. v,
Anns gacli rt!m d& aingeal deug, ^ -»
'Sb'e 'n ciintas 'nam an garaidh, ^ ^<»'V^<V* ' " J^"^
Mu gach aingeal fear a's ceud. ^IvKA v< W «vA'^ iU >
Twelve halls were in that palace ; ^^ ^ l^Kx. C - ^
Twelve hearths in every hall ; >. } a. ^^*-'-*
The number of those who warmed themselves CJ\ '! i-*v ^^^ v-
round each hearth, a hundred and one men. ^ k "
COLLAGE. ^ /^,.,j > / ^ .
Grace and peace cam by Collace,
And by the doors o' Dron ;
But the caup and stoup o' Abernyte
Mak mony a merry man.
Collace is a village under the slope of famed Dunsinnan hill ; '^„^,x-'MM