OS1/25/66/108

Continued entries/extra info

[page] 108

[continued from previous page] mercer of Aldie about 50 years ago for the erection of the present one stood on what had been for ages reckoned the Site of an old British Temple which when Holinshed wrote his history 1571 was believed to have been built by the son of Regan Second daughter of Lear who governed Britain long before the birth of our Saviour and dedicated by him to Mars. The belief of this rests on the authority of Geoffrey who wrote his history in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in the reign of Henry I. In connection with this tradition it may not be out of place to state that the workmen when they had about three feet below the level of the Street to find a proper foundation for the present building discovered two parallel arches. Under each of these they found an apartment 26 feet long and 14 broad. The walls were 3½ feet thick and strongly cemented. In the one there was a door to the South and in the other one to the North. In digging sometime since in the grounds of Mudhall about 14 miles from Perth in the parish of Bendochy, Several similar subterraneous buildings were discovered which when cleared of the ashes and earth with which they were filled were found to be about 40 feet long and 6 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Such buildings answer to the descriptions which Tacitus gives of those of the Germas De Mar. German. C. [Circa] 16 See Dr. Easton's Stat. Acct.[Statistical Account] of Kirriemuir p.177 for similar appearances in that parish."