public stations, when he had the honor to be employed, has ever done
his utmost to preserve it, and shall always continue so to do."

* * * * *

PICTS' HOUSES.

(Vol. viii., p. 264.)

The mention there made of the recent discovery of one of these subterranean
vaults or passages in Aberdeenshire, induces me to ask a question in regard
to two subterranean passages which have lately been discovered in
Berwickshire, and which so far differ from all others that I have heard or
read of, that whereas all of them seem to have been built at the sides with
large flat stones, and roofed with similar ones, and then covered with
earth, those which I am about to mention are both hewn out of the solid
rock. They are both situated in the Lammermoor range of hills. Those
persons who have seen them are at a loss to know for what {393} purpose
they could have been excavated, unless for the purpose of sepulture in the
times of the aborigines, or of very early inhabitants of Britain, as they
in many respects resemble those stone graves which are mentioned in
Worsaae's _Description of the Primaeval Antiquities of Denmark_, translated
and applied to the illustration of similar remains in England by Mr. Thoms.

One of these cavities is situated on a remote pasture farm, among the hills
belonging to the Earl of Lauderdale, called Braidshawrigg; and was
discovered by a shepherd very near his own house, within less than a
quarter of a mile up a small stream which runs past it, and on the opposite
side of the water, a few yards up the steep hill. The shepherd had observed
for some time that one of his dogs was in the habit of going into what he
supposed to be a rabbit hole at this place, and when he was missing and
called, he generally came out of this hole. At last, curiosity led his
master to take a spade and dig into it; and he soon found that, after
digging down into the soil to the rock, the cavity became larger, and had
evidently been the work of human hands. Information was given to Lord
Lauderdale, and the rubbish was cleared away. It (the rubbish) did not
extend far in, and after that the passage was clear. The excavation
consists of a passage cut nearly north and south (the entrance being to the
south) through various strata of solid rocks, partly grauwacke, (or what is
there called _whinstone_), and partly grey slate: the strata lying east and
west, and nearly vertical. The whole length of it i