Pont 32 : The east central lowlands (Stirling, Falkirk, Kilsyth)
- Robert Gordon made substantial additions to this map. The grid drawn in red
ink covers in the main the area mapped by Pont. This grid was probably
drawn by Gordon as an aid to copying the map.
- There are two notes in Gordon's hand. One, in Strath Blane, south east of Loch Lomond, says:
-
The Moss. heir
M.G. Buchanan was born
-
This is a reference to George Buchanan (1506-1582) the renowned Scottish poet
and historian.
- Gordon's second and longer note, just west of Cumbernauld (lower centre), says:
-
this part joyneth not w[ith] [th]e rest
of [th]e Lennox but outthruch to it
be annextion it is cald [th]e
parochin of [th]e Leinyie
- There is a neat archaeological note in Latin northeast of Glasgow. It says:
-
Vestigia valli Romanorum quod
videtur Agricolam aut Adrianum
Primum posuisse
Which translates as:
-
'the remains of the Roman fortification which
it seems Agricola or Hadrian
first built'
- The dotted line running west-east across the map represents the line
of the Roman Antonine Wall. This turf wall across the Clyde-Forth isthmus
was begun by the Roman governor Lollius Urbicus in about the year 142AD
in an attempt to separate the 'barbarians' from the Roman occupied lands
to the south. The line may have been added by Gordon. Many stretches
of ditch and/or rampart are still visible, including that in the grounds
of Callendar House, Falkirk, which is shown by Pont.
- Pont 16 and Pont 17 overlap the western margin of this sheet,
and Pont 34 the southern margin. Pont's map of Linlithgowshire (Pont <36>(4))includes
part of the far east, south of the Forth.
- The following manuscript maps by Robert Gordon include at least
part of Pont 32: 2, 6, 48, 49, 50, and 51.
- Joan Blaeu's map of Sterlinensis (1654) was strongly based on information contained in Pont 32. His Levinia is also relevant.
Maps by Blaeu
and Gordon
can be accessed via
the National Library of Scotland's Digital Library.
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