This last discovery attracted the attention of Dr. John Alexander Smith, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, to the site. Four years later he contributed to the Archaeologia Scotica1 a paper entitled Notices of Various Discoveries of Roman Remains at the Red Abbeystead near the Village of Newstead, Roxburghshire.[1] From this paper we learn that, in the course of draining operations, foundations of ancient buildings had been dug into in the Red Abbeystead and in the fields adjoining it on the west. No detailed description of these foundations could, however, be given owing to the accidental and irregular manner in which they had from time to time been laid bare. 'The stones used in these buildings were principally of red sandstone, and have been removed in considerable quantity for economical purposes for many years past.' Some thirty years before the date of Dr. Smith's paper, the tenant of the field adjoining the Red Abbeystead on the west, besides digging into such foundations, had come upon a portion of a regularly paved roadway about twenty feet broad running nearly north and south across the field. He had it entirely removed, and in the course of clearing it away there was found a sculptured stone bearing the figure of a wild boar-symbol, perhaps, of the Twentieth Legion-carved in high relief.[2]
The operations connected with the cutting of the railway in the winter of 1846 are thus described, the depth below the surface at which Roman remains began to appear being about three feet. 'First a cluster of well-like holes were opened up in a space about thirty yards square. Five or six of these were large-sized pits; two being regularly built round the sides with stones which, with the exception of some pieces of the red sandstone, were waterworn stones apparently from the river's bed. They were about twenty feet in depth and two to three feet in diameter. The other pits were simply dug out of the ground. Of these, one was about eighteen feet deep, two about fifteen feet, and four to five feet in diameter; another, a little apart, was ten or twelve feet in depth and three to four feet in diameter. Among these large pits were fifteen or sixteen small pits, each about three feet deep and three feet in diameter, which were plastered over the sides and bottoms with a lining of whitish clay some five or six inches thick.' The skeleton of a man, which is said to have been erect or nearly so, was discovered a little to the
1 Archaeologia Scotica, vol. iv. p. 422.
2 This stone is now in the possession of Mr. A. T. Simson, Eildon Grove, Melrose.
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