Sir Walter Scott remarked, with respect to the destruction of this 'great glory of the Roman remains in Scotland,' that, had not the worthy proprietor thought fit to demolish it(in 1743), it would have turned the heads of half the antiquaries in Scotland. Its demolition, however, for the purpose of constructing, with the best of its stones, a dam-head across the Carron, brought down upon the head of the Vandal the bitter wrath of not a few even beyond the pale of the Captain Grose school. Dr Stukely is said to have been so much enraged against the destroyer of the ancient work that he drew Sir Michael Bruce, the Gothic Knight, carrying off a lapful of stones, with the devil goading him along; while an engraving of the piece was also published by the Antiquarian Society of London in their repertory. But granting the interest that was naturally attached to this rare and rude relic of Roman architecture, it nevertheless seems to us that not only has far more research been given it than its importance merited, but that too venomous a spirit has been displayed towards the Knight for his so-called Vandalic act. To him, the walls of the O'on were walls, and nothing more. In his eyes they were vested with no peculiar interest; and his iconoclasm was pardonable thus far, that his tastes were narrow and purely utilitarian. No sympathy had Sir Michael with such memorials of the past, and he consequently failed either to recognise or respect its existence in others. Moreover, there was very little sentimentality about the Bruces of that day. The eldest son, for example, had joined the army, and as he left the parental roof, 'Andrew,' said the father, 'if I thought you'd turn your back upon man, I'd shoot you where you stand.' Then followed the mother's gentle, yet not less valour-inspiring counsel:- 'Never take an affront, Andrew, nor ever give one.' How like the heroic precept which the Spartan mothers were wont to give their sons as they set out for the battle-field, 'Either bring home your shield, my boy, or be brought home upon it!' It is somewhat remarkable that the very day after the demolition of the O'on, the dyke which it was employed to build or repair was swept away by a flood in the river: 'an instance,' as has been remarked, 'of retributive justice, which a Roman would unhesitatingly have ascribed to the wrath of its tutelary gods.'

Here it may be well to give an idea as to where the building stood. Gordon, in his 'Itinerarium Septentrionale,' published in 1727, says that 'Arthur's O'on', or Oven, is situated on the north side of the same isthmus which separates the Firths of Clyde and Forth in Stirlingshire, and in a straight line with these forts and castles already described, about 200 paces north of the river Carron, and a mile and a half north from Falkirk, where Lollius Urbicus's wall passes, and is likewise very near the termination of the aforementioned isthmus on the side of the Forth.' A few years ago, several members of the Society of Antiquaries endeavoured to find out the foundation of the building, but their labour was fruitless. Its site, however, was undoubtedly a few yards to the north-east of the Forge Row, at the corner of an enclosure, about fifty feet square, on the estate of Stenhouse. The ground is now used as a washing-green by the adjacent inhabitants. In olden times a road to Alloa and Airth passed by the back of the Forge Row and through the Stenhouse estate; and on the north-east side of that old road stood Arthur's O'on. It had a more elevated situation, too, than one, standing at this spot, would imagine. The building, we are informed, could be plainly seen from Kinneil, above Bo'ness, which is seven miles distant.

First, as to its form and dimensions. Some fifteen years ago we were shown a very tasteful sketch of the O'on as it appeared in 1743; and its formation, which consisted of regular courses of freestone, as there represented, was purely that of a beehive; in fact, not unlike the houses built by the Esquimaux with blocks of ice. Sir Robert Sibbald has given a good likeness of it in his 'History of Stirlingshire,' 1710. Gordon has given a better in his Itinerarium. It was a perfect dome, with a circular orifice at its apex; built in double courses of finely-hewn stones, laid on each other without mortar. Or, as Dr Stukely very justly says, its shape is not unlike the famous Pantheon at Rome, before the noble portico was added to it by Marcus Agrippa. Buchanan, in his Hist. Scot. Lib. 1, says, speaking of the hills Duni Paces on the river Carron, 'About two miles lower there is a round building, made without cement, but so composed of rough stones, that part of every upper one is, in a manner, locked within the lower, so that the whole work, mutually joined, supports itself by the weight of the stones from top to bottom, growing narrower, by degrees, from below towards the summit, where the fabric is open.' The stones, however, were not, as Buchanan had supposed, mortised into each other. Another, and thoroughly trustworthy, historian says, 'All of the stones were, with the greatest elegancy and exactness, without any manner of cement, laid smoothly, flatly, and horizontally above one another; nor could I find any appearance of such cramps of metal as others have described; and instead of a fair level, on which it stands, as is asserted, I found it on the declivity of a considerable rising ground supported by a basement of stones, projecting out from below the lowest course of the building, which has not been taken notice of by them; and was so far from being upon a level, that a great part of the basement, and four courses of the stones on the south side, are hid in the earth, because of the rising of the ground on which it is situated. Besides it has the marks of three or four steps, like stairs, which have formerly led from the ground to the gate or entrance of the building.'

While throwing aside the speculative theories of Hector Boece, we still get from his writings a few particulars regarding the structure, which are not unworthy of notice, he tells us, for example, that the figure of a Roman eagle had at one time been visible, chiselled upon the pavement, and that a huge stone altar stood in the interior, on which the 'Gentiles were wont to offer sacrifice;' while, in a subsequent portion of his history, he leads us to infer that many other insignia of the Romans formerly ornamented its walls. When Edward the First made special war on our Scottish antiquities, he was only induced to spare the 'temple beside Camelon', says Boece, after the inhabitants of the neighbourhood had already destroyed all the Roman sculptures, and inscriptions which existed upon it.

The O'on was small to have been so famous. The perpendicular height, from the bottom of the building to the top of the aperture, was 22 feet; the external circumference at the base, 88 feet; internal circumference, 61; external diameter at the base, 28 feet; internal diameter, 19 feet 6 inches; circumference of the aperture, 36 feet 1 inch; diameter of the aperture, 11 feet 6 inches; height of the door from its basis to the top of the arch, 9 feet; breadth of the door at the base, 6 feet 4 inches; height, from the ground to the top of the key-stone of the door, 10 feet 6 inches; breadth of the wall at the base, measuring at the door, 4 feet 3 inches; thickness of the wall where the arch springs, 3 feet 7 inches; and height of the basement on which the building stands, 4 feet 6 inches.

Now, as to the builders. Nemus, an old monkish writer, in his book concerning British affairs, Chap. 19, asserts that the O'on was made by the Emperor Carausius, and that the Carron had its name from him. Hector Boece tells us that it was built by Vespasian, in honour of Claudius, to whom he erected a statue, and another to the goddess of Victory; and that Aulus Platius died in the town of Camelon, which he calls Camelodunum, and that his ashes were buried, in a coffin, within the O'on Sir Robert Sibbald, in his work entitled 'Historical Enquiries,' holds that it was constructed by Septimus Severus. And, last of all, Dr Stukely believes that this little temple, as he calls it, was, as mentioned by Tacitus, built by Julius Agricola the first winter that he was in this part of Scotland As powerful evidence in favour of the latter theory, Stukely has well observed that time has left Agricola's very name on the place, seeing it goes frequently under the appellation of Julius's Hoff, or House; and if these initial letters J. A. M. P. M. P. T., given by Sir Robert Sibbald, were engraved on a stone in the building, it may not be considered altogether absurd that they should bear this reading:-Julius Agricola Magnae Pictatis Monumentumn Posuit Templum.

But what of its object? Its purpose is certainly not plain. Although none of the learned appear to have any hesitation in tracing the origin of the O'on to the era of the Roman occupation, the antiquarian world has been greatly divided in opinion as to the particular end which the building was intended to serve. Diodorus Siculus is supposed to have alluded to it when he tells us how the Hyperboreans, a people who had the sagacity to take up a comfortable residence at the back of the north wind, have a fine round Temple dedicated to the worship of Apollo. Stuart, in his Caledonia Romaana, is of opinion that the word 'O'on' may be no other than the Pictish term for a house or dwelling, as we find that the words Pict-Oon denoted the Picts' dwelling-place or settlement, and that the prefix 'Arthur' may be a corruption of some Attic word. Sir William Betham, the learned author of the 'Gaul and Cimbrii,' suggests that the name 'Arthur is probably derived from the old Gaelic words Art, a house, and Om, solitary-meaning a retired dwelling or hermitage.

Many of the views regarding this part of our subject are, unmistakably, violent and far-fetched. To descend to the plain and practical, one can see that the building might be called 'Oven' its shape; but in what way the name of the British Prince Arthur, famed in romance, could reasonably be applied to it, is somewhat perplexing. Barbour and Wynton, towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, and Thomas the Rhymer, a century earlier, alike freely allude to him. Here is a stanza from a ballad in which the Prince catalogues his conquests:

I drove the Saxons from the realme,
Who had oppressed this land;
And then I conquered, through manly feats,
All Scotlande with my hands.

Another verse deals more personally with the warrior. It may be crude in composition, but it is certainly very comprehensive:

King Arthur lives in merry Carleile,
And seemly is to see;
And hath with him Queen Genever-
That bride so bright of blee.

Mr Chalmers, in his notices of Arthur, says that the O'on was known by that name as early as the reign of Alexander III. In 1293, William Gourlay granted to the monks of Newbottle firmationem unius stagni ad opus molendini sui del Stanhus us quod juxta furnum Arthuri infra baroniam de Dunypas est Cart. 239. We also find that the Welsh poets assign a palace to Arthur among the Northern Britons at Pen-rynrioneth, corresponding to Dumbarton Castle, which, as appears from the Parliamentary record of David II in 1367, detailing the King's rents and profits in Dumbartonshire, was long before named Castrum Arthuri. The romantic fortress of Stirling was equally, during the middle ages, supposed to have been the festive scene of Arthur's round table, which, with its benches, is commemorated in turf below the walls. He and his naughty Queen are likewise traditionally celebrated near Meigle, and have been noticed by John Ballenden, in the additions to his translation of Boece's history.

Gordon supposes the name of the building to be derived from the Gaelic Ard nan Suainhe ie, the high place or temple of the standards; as Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, is Ard na Saidhe ie, the high place or temple of the arrow; and Arthur's Seir, between Ross and Murray, is Ard nan Seir, the height from which to launch ships. But, then, there are Ard and Arthur in Cymric or Welsh, from the same root as Arduus, Latin, which mean high, and also the Most High God; and as the Cymri, or Cambro-Britons, are considered to have possessed this part of the country about the year 600, the name, Arthur's is thought by some to be Cymric, signifying the O'on ie, the cupola or dome of the Most High. Buchanan believes the structure, Templum Termini, to have been a temple erected to the god Terminus. In that conclusion, however, he is unquestionably wrong. The Romans never built temples to that deity, which was simply a stone, or square post, set up in the ground as a landmark for travellers. Dr Stukely, with great modesty, observes, that it was probably dedicated to Romulus. Gordon, while agreeing with Stukely as to Julius Agricola having been the founder of the building, regards it in the light of a sacellum, or little chapel, in which the vexilla, or ensigns of the legion, were kept. That it was never designed for public worship, is plain from its dimensions. Gordon further remarks that it may have been also used as a mausoleum, or depository, for holding, within its hollow basement, the ashes of some illustrious Roman. In behalf of his views, he says, that an objection should be raised that the structure could not probably be appropriated for holding the insignia or standards, by reason of the opening at the top, which might admit the rain and snow, my answer would be, that building may have been made originally to support a canopy or covering for defending these standards and vexilla from the weather; and if I have imagined it a place for holding the insignia, I build my conjecture on the following grounds:-First, because sundry authors, who have written on Roman military affairs, inform us that near their hiberna, or winter encampments, such little sacella, or chapels, were built for holding the insignia. This account Sir Harry Saville, and Mr Greenway, the translators of Tacitus, have given us, and quoted Dio and Herodian as their authorities. 'The eagles,' say they, 'except in time of assemblies, stood in little chapels;' to which purpose Dio is cited, that in all Roman armies there is a little chapel, and in it stands a golden eagle, &c.

Some, again, imagine that they have the cloud of mystery, which hangs over the object of the O'on dispelled by the following passages in 'Ossian'- 'Dost thou behold that tomb? My eyes discern it not. There rests the noble Garmallon, who never fled from war.' Then, in another part of the 'War of Caros,' the grey-haired Lamor exclaims- 'My son! lead me to Garmallon's tomb ; it rises beside that rustling tree. The long grass is withered. I hear the breezes whistling there.'

So much for antiquarian speculation and zeal. The clash of conflict is heard on all sides. Further we will not go; for it is now impossible to determine what purpose this 'Hypaethre Temple' served, or to what deity it was dedicated. No doubt, at one time, it had within itself all that was necessary as an index to its character: stones studded with many a warlike device and graven line, calculated to preserve in remembrance the object of its erection. But all these were gone long before any of our noted antiquaries entered the field of inquiry. Notwithstanding all dubiety, however, when we know the history of the spot where the building stood, and of the rise of structural skill in Scotland, there can scarcely be a doubt that it was built by the Romans. Various remains of antiquity have been discovered near its site, such as the stones of Querns or handmills, made of a species of lava resembling that now obtained from the mill-stone quarries of Andernach on the Rhine; fragments of pottery, and the vestiges of what was supposed to have been a potter's kiln. Sibbald refers to the horns of 'great cows,' and to a patera dug up beside this Sacellum, as some proof of its having been a place of sacrifice, he likewise states that the traces of a broad ditch could, in his day, be seen on the northern side ; which makes it sufficiently probable that a regular valum and fosse had once surrounded the building.

We now know as much, perhaps, as ever shall be known of this interesting relic of the Roman rule. Nothing is left us of the O'on but the memory of its existence, and the green sloping bank where it stood. Demolished, too, for the repair of a petty dam-head. 'The pity of it, Iago; the pity of it.'