[Footnote 198: In his account of the kings of the Picts, Mr. Pinkerton (_Inquiry into History of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 293) calculates that the sovereign "Wradech Vechla" of the _Chronicon Pictorum_ reigned about A.D. 380. In support of his own philological views, Mr. Pinkerton alters the name of this Pictish king from "Wradech Vechla" to "Wradech _Vechta_." There is not, however, I believe, any real foundation whatever for this last reading, interesting as it might be, in our present inquiry, if true.] [Footnote 199: _The Saxons in England_, vol. i. p. 149.] [Footnote 200: Mr. Hardy, in the preface (p. 114, etc.) to the _Monumenta Historica Britannica_, maintains also, at much length, that the advent and reception of the Saxons by Vortigern was in A.D. 428, and not 449. He contests for an earlier Saxon invasion of Britain in A.D. 374. See also Lappenberg in his _History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings_, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.] [Footnote 201: Two miles higher up the river than the Cat-stane, four large monoliths still stand near Newbridge. They are much taller than the Cat-stane, but contain no marks or letters on their surfaces. Three of them are placed around a large barrow.] [Footnote 202: _History of Edinburgh_, p. 509.] [Footnote 203: _Transactions of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries_, vol. i. p. 308. Maitland, in his _History of Edinburgh_, p. 307, calls these cairns the "Cat-heaps."] [Footnote 204: _Caledonia_, vol. i. p. 86. The only references, however, which Mr. Chalmers gives to a "single stone" in Scotland, bearing the name of Cat-stane, all relate to this monument in Kirkliston parish:--"The tallest and most striking ancient monolith in the vicinity of Edinburgh is a massive unhewn flat obelisk, standing about ten feet high, in the parish of Colinton." Maitland (_History of Edinburgh_, p. 507), and Mr. Whyte (_Trans. of Scottish Antiquaries_, vol. i. p. 308) designate this monument the Caiy-stone. "Whether this (says Maitland) be a corruption of the Catstean I know not." The tall monolith is in the neighbourhood of the cairns called the Cat-stanes or Cat-heaps (see preceding note). Professor Walker, in an elaborate Statistical Account of the Parish of Colinton, published in 1808, in his _Essays on Natural History_ describes the Cat-heaps or cairns as having been each found, when removed, to cover a coffin made of _hewn_ stones. In the coffins were found mouldering human bones and fragments of old arms, including two bronze spear-heads. "When the turnpike road which passes near the above cairns was formed, for more than a mile the remains of dead bodies were everywhere thrown up." Most of them had been interred in stone coffins made of coarse slabs. To use the words of Professor Walker, "Not far from the three cairns is the so called 'Caiy-stone' of Maitland and Whyte. It has always, however (he maintains), been known among the people of the country by the name of the Ket-stane." It is of whinstone,