, Roman or British, wish a fairer bay to ride in than that on your right
hand? It is astonishing how blind we professed antiquaries sometimes
are! Sir Robert Sibbald, Saunders Gordon, General Roy, Dr.
Stokely,--why, it escaped all of them. I was unwilling to say a word
about it till I had secured the ground, for it belonged to auld Johnnie
Howie, a bonnet-laird* hard by, and many a communing we had before he
and I could agree. * A bonnet-laird signifies a petty proprietor,
wearing the dress, along with the habits of a yeoman. At length--I am
almost ashamed to say it--but I even brought my mind to give acre for
acre of my good corn-land for this barren spot. But then it was a
national concern; and when the scene of so celebrated an event became my
own, I was overpaid.--Whose patriotism would not grow warmer, as old
Johnson says, on the plains of Marathon? I began to trench the ground,
to see what might be discovered; and the third day, sir, we found a
stone, which I have transported to Monkbarns, in ord
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