Biggar and the House of Fleming

CHAPTER II.
§upp£S£d Traces of the Uraids and Itomans
at Biggar.
HE religion of the ancient inhabitants of the Biffsur
G&°
district is suj)posed to have been Druidism. It
has, no doubt, been stoutly asserted by several
authors that the practice of this system of religion
in Great Britain was confined to the southern parts of the
island, and they demand a proof to the contrary. Now, it
must be admitted that no direct proof of the kind can be
given. No ancient author has made any statement on the
subject ; and the Druids themselves left no writings, as it was
one of their tenets that no record of their opinions and trans-
actions should be kept. Csesar, indeed, states that the
Druidical system was in operation in South Britain, a region
which he had himself visited ; but this does not prove that it
did not prevail in other parts of the country, which he never
saw. However this may be, it becomes us to notice several
remains of antiquity in the parish of Biggar and its neigh-
bourhood, which have been generally set down as Druidical.
On the Shields Hill, in the parish of Biggar, several upright
stones are still standing, which have been considered to bo
part of a Druidical temple. Here the Druids, with their flow-
ing robes, their white surplices, their long beards, and their rods
of office, may have expounded their religious opinions, and
offered up human victims in sacrifice. At the west end of the
town of Biggar is the Moat, or Moathill, which in Saxon
signifies the meeting-hill. It is of a circular form, and mea-
sures 100 feet in height on the west side, 477 feet in circum-
ference at the base, and 225 feet at the top. The top of it
is quite flat, and the sides are planted with trees. It com-