OS1/14/22/27

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 27

[Battle between Picts and Scots]

The only battle of which anything like an account has reached the present time is understood
to have occurred in the year 834 which has been already adverted to. At a particular spot
in the field of battle which was spread over the plain at the north side of the Law there is
a large stone called the King's Cross which according to tradition by means of a hole in it
held the King's Standard but whether Pictish or Scotch, tradition has forgotten to treasure up
among her stores of gossip. However from the distance between the stone and the summit of the
Law and from its position near to the supposed site of the encampment as well as from the
Circumstance of Alpin hurrying from the Castle on the Law after the battle was begun and of
course carrying his banner with him it is to be inferred that it is to the Standard of the royal
Pict the finger of ancient tradition is directed. This relic to which pilgrimages were made in
former times is not devoid of interest yet, as in the year 1832 it was dignified as being named
in the Reform act as indicating a particular point in the Parliamentary boundary of Dundee. It is
built in a dry stone fence which bounds the old road to Strathmartine at or near to a point where
the three parishes of Dundee Liff and Strathmartine meet and is carried over the top of a pretty
Considerable tumulus on which the relic stands. The hole for the reception of the staff of the
Standard is ten inches by eight and eight deep dimensions Capacious enough so as length
and breadth is Concerned to have received a tolerable flagstaff whether ancient or modern even
that of the banner of his imperial majesty of Brobdignag. The tumulus is supposed to have been
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