untrue, and the Marquis in considerable force, the letter should be delivered to the Parliament, to the end that by their direction Montrose might be induced to lay down arms, according to his express order on that behalf.

The tenor of these secret instructions appears contradictory. According to the instructions given previous to the news of Montrose's defeat, the letter to Parliament was not to be delivered in the event of Montrose being able to hold his own, while the instructions given after his discomfiture were that it should be delivered on no account if the tidings of his defeat should prove to be true.

It is difficult to reconcile the two sets of instructions, but the letter now exhibited proves that Sir William Fleming disobeyed his ultimate orders, and, notwithstanding of the instructions to conceal the letter, on finding that Montrose was routed, it was produced to Parliament.

It seems to be matter of inquiry if Sir William Fleming, on finding Montrose utterly defeated, and subsequently condemned and executed, did not think it a matter of worldly prudence, in conjunction with His Majesty's supporters in Scotland, to disregard His Majesty's ultimate orders to produce the letter, and with the view of conciliating the party in power, disingenuously to disavow the authority given to Montrose. The following is a copy of the letter:

CHARLES R.-Instruction for Sr William Fleming, Knt.

As soone as you arrive in Scotland you shall carefully informe yo' selfe concerning the Report that is lately come hither of a fight betweene Lt G'rall David Lesley and the Marquis of Montrose, wherein (as it is said) the forces of the said Marquis were totally routed and defeated, and if you find the same to be true, or that he be not in the Kingdome of Scotland, then our pleasure is that you doe not deliver our Letter directed to the Parliam or Committee of Estates, but that you carefully conceale the same, and do not communicate it to any person whatsoever. But if upon enquiry you find that either there hath been no such fight, or that notwithstanding the same, the forces of the said Marquis of Montrose are still in a considerable body, you are then to deliver the said Letter to the Parliamt to the end that by their direction therein, the said Marquis of Montrose may be induced to lay downe armes immediatly, according to our expresse order in that beholfe. Given at Breda, the th day of May 1650.

The document is in the handwriting of an amanuensis, with the excep

tion of an interlineation, "or that he be not in the Kingdome of Scotland," which is holograph of the King.

III.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EARTH-HOUSE AT PITCUR, FÖRFARSHIRE. BY DAVID MACRITCHIE, F.S.A. Scor.

Although the existence of the large and important earth-house at Piteur has been known to this Society for many years, the Society's volumes of Proceedings contain as yet no representation of the place. It is for this reason that I now submit a brief description of this interesting structure, illustrated by a carefully-executed diagram of its ground plan,' with some sectional views.

It is situated in a field on the farm of Piteur, 24 miles south-east of Coupar-Angus, and it is locally known as 'The Cave.' Access to it may be obtained either by entering a gate on the east side of the public road opposite the ancient tower and modern farm-house of Piteur; or otherwise it may be approached from the south side of the farm-house of Leys of Hallyburton,' which is only a few hundred yards from The Cave. A protective post and-wire fence marks the spot; and that portion of the structure which is still roofed over is further safeguarded by having a locked door at its entrance (in the ground plan), the key of which is kept by the lodge keeper, at the main entrance to Hallyburton House. Visitors to the Cave' will therefore bear in mind that the first step is to obtain the key, if the original appearance of the building is to be properly understood; for the greater part of the earth house is a complete wreck, and only the roofed in portion remains unaltered since it was built. It will be seen from the ground plan (fig. 1) that this Piteur weem is longer and more varied than most of its congeners in Scotland. The

The orientation of the ground plan is obtained from the latest Ordnance Sur vey, for which I have to express my indebtedness to Captain Burnsfather of Beechwood, Coupar-Angus.

Fig. 1. Ground Plan and Sections of Earth-House at Pitcur, Forfarshire.

only one in my experience that was of as considerable a size was situated at Caolas, in North Uist; but that specimen was so utterly destroyed some years ago, for the sake of its stones, that one cannot say what its dimensions were. The Piteur house consists of one long subterranean gallery, slightly curved throughout most of its length, and bending abruptly in a hook shape at its western end. From this western end a short, broad gallery or room goes off, curving round the outside of the 'hook." The length of the main gallery, following the medial line, and measuring from the extreme of the entrance at either end, is about 190 feet; while the subsidiary room is 60 feet long. For most of its length, this subsidiary room is 10 feet wide, measuring at the floor level.

of this unusual width, it is reasonable to suppose that its roof was of timber; for although the walls slightly converge at the top, reducing the intervening space to 8 or 9 feet, the span is still so great that a flagged roof would scarcely have been practicable. To be sure, the walls might have been raised several courses higher, in the usual ‘Cyclopean arch,' and thus the interval to be bridged would become sufficiently narrowed at a height of say 12 feet. But there is no indication that the walls of any portion of this earth-house ever rose higher than the present level of their highest parts. Thus the inference is that this subsidiary room may have been roofed with timber.

The same deduction has been made with regard to the earth houses discovered on the estate of Mudhall, in the parish of Bendochy, 3 or 4 miles to the north-west of the one presently under consideration. "They appear to have been roofed with rafters of wood, covered with earth and turf,” says the Rev. Dr Marshall in the course of his description of them. He does not give his reasons for drawing this inference, but presumably they are based, as in the case of the side room at Piteur, upon the absence of any sign of roof stones. If the conclusion in either case is correct, it would accord with the statement made in the tenth century Saga of Thorgils (Orrabeen's Stepson), that the roof of a

› Hostora, Sernes in Porthshare, Edinburgh, 1880, p. 234.

certain underground house in Ireland "rested upon upward-hent balks,"1 or beams of wood; which pretty plainly implies that the roof itself was of wood. Then, again, there was an earth-house discovered in MidLothian, towards the end of last century, about a mile and a half south west of Borthwick Castle, which presumably was roofed with wood. When discovered, at anyrate, it had no traces of a stone roof. Thus, although the great majority of the souterrains of the British Islands appear to have been roofed with massive flag-stones, yet it would seem that timber roofs were employed in some instances, and probably this subsidiary room at Piteur was a case in point. That seems to be the most one can say upon the subject, for no vestige of a roof is visible at the present day, and the whole of this side room is open to the sky.

So also is the main gallery, except towards the eastern extremity, where a section of about 50 feet in length yet retains its roof of huge flag-stones intact (J to C in ground plan). It is this covered portion. that is inaccessible without the key of the door that has been placed at the doorway, for that is very properly kept locked;3 and as for access from the entrance J, that is rendered impossible, owing to the fact that the ground overhead is arable land, and the original entrance has been ploughed over until it has dwindled into a mere rabbit-hole. This covered section is unquestionably the most interesting and instructive of the whole building; for, as already stated, the other parts are more or less ruined and roofless. A few remaining flags lying in the unroofed part of the main gallery show, however, that it once possessed the usual stone roof throughout its entire length. This was rendered possible by the comparative narrowness of the main gallery, the width of which on the floor averages about 6 feet. The greater breadth of the subsidiary gallery will be realised by glancing at the cross section, a - in the plan.

1 Thorgils's Historie, translated by Professor B. Thorlacius, Copenhagen, 1809, pp. 70-72. (Flóamanna Saga.)

2 Pennant's Tour in Scotland, p. 453 of vol. iii., edition of 1799.

3 As mentioned above, the key is kept at the gatekeeper's lodge beside the entrance to Hallyburton, on the main road between Coupar-Angus and Piteur.