Scotland.
The early pottery of Scotland appears, as a general rule, to bear a close analogy to that of England both in form, in intention of use, and in ornamentation. The cinerary urns, the food and other vessels, and the immolation urns, all bear a marked resemblance to those of the sister country, and lead one to the inference that the same feelings, habits, and customs obtained in the one nation as the other. A cinerary urn found on the Hill of Tuack is of identical shape and pattern of ornament with the one engraved on Fig. [15] of Vol. I., while others bear an equally strong resemblance to others already engraved. To Professor Wilson the antiquarian world is indebted for much valuable information concerning the early pottery of Scotland, and to his important and standard work, the “Pre-Historic Annals of Scotland,”[71] it owes most of the knowledge it possesses of this, and other important branches of national history. “It is altogether impossible,” says the learned Professor, “within the limited amount of accurately observed facts with which the Scottish archæologist has to deal, to picture and classify into distinct periods the pottery found in the ancient tumuli and cairns. Many of the fictilia are so devoid of art as to furnish no other sign of advancement in their constructors from the most primitive state of barbarism, than such as is indicated by the piety which provided a funeral pyre for their dead, and even so rude a vase, wherein their ashes might be inurned.... The rudimentary form of the true cinerary urn is that of the common flower-pot, still retained as the easiest and simplest into which the plastic clay can be modelled.... From this simple shape was gradually developed the varying forms both of sepulchral and domestic pottery found deposited with the dead; inurning the sacred ashes and the costly tributes of affectionate reverence, or placed in the grave with offerings of food and drink designed to sustain the deceased on his final journey to the world of spirits.” Fig. [740] is of this form and is almost identical with the English example Fig. [15], Vol. I. It is from the Hill of Tuack, near Kintore, in Aberdeenshire, and was found in the usual inverted position close to one of the monoliths of the stone circle at the place. Another of the same form, Fig. [741], ornamented with impressed dots and incised herringbone pattern, was dug up in 1855 on the farm of Belhelvie, in Fifeshire. It was 4 feet 6 inches in circumference at the mouth, and when perfect must have been about 2 feet in height. When found it was, as is commonly the case, inverted, as shown in the engraving, and was imperfect. Another fine example is engraved on Fig. [742]. It measures thirteen and a half inches in height, and was dug up at the Ha’ Hill of Montblairy, in Banffshire. It bears a marked resemblance to many English examples, both in general form and in ornamentation; it bears encircling lines of herringbone or zigzag ornament.
Fig. 740.—From the Hill of Tuack, near Kintore.
Fig. 741.—From Belhelvie, Fifeshire.
Fig. 742.—From the Ha’ Hill, Montblairy.
Figs. 743 to 745.—From Banchory, and Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh.
Figs. 746 and 747.—From Memsie and Rathbo.
Figs. [743 to 745] are of different form, the two larger being probably food vessels, and the latter an “immolation urn.” The first two were found in a cist on a farm at Banchory, in Kincardineshire, along with an interment by inhumation, and the latter at Arthur’s Seat, in Edinburgh. In the next engravings, Figs. [746 and 747], the larger vessel was found in a tumulus at Memsie, in Aberdeenshire, and the smaller at Rathbo, near Edinburgh. Figs. [748 to 750] are three interesting vessels from Lesmurdie, in Banffshire, now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The largest is eight inches in height, and the smallest five inches. Fig. [751] was found in one of a group of cists, under a large cairn, at Sheal Loch, in the parish of Borthwick, near Edinburgh. It is made of fine baked clay, burned to an unusually hard and durable consistency, and measures four and a half inches in height by about six and a half in diameter. Five perforated projections are disposed at nearly equal distances around it, and the interior of the vessel bears evident marks of fire. Fig. [752] is from the Montrose Museum and was found in that burgh some years back. The other three, Figs. [753 to 755], are “immolation urns,” as I have before termed them, which are respectively from Old Penrith, from Dunbar, and from Ronaldshay in Orkney.
Figs. 748 to 750.—From Lesmurdie.
Fig. 751.—From Sheal Loch.
Fig. 752.—From Montrose.
During Scoto-Roman times, pottery, there can be no reasonable doubt, was made in Scotland, and many examples that have been brought to light are evidently native manufacture; there are, however, no marked peculiarities belonging to them. Of a later period, “the last pagan period in Scotland,” according to Professor Wilson, some remarkable glazed urns were found, one at East Langton, the other in Aberdeenshire. They were found in stone cists by the sides of skeletons, and were “of rough grey ware, ornamented externally with parallel grooves running round them, and internally covered with a green glaze.” They appear originally to have had “two projecting ears opposite each other, which fitted into corresponding double ones attached to a lid, by which the vessel, when found, was closely covered; and the whole of the projections were perforated to admit a pin which completed the fastening.” (See Figs. [757], [758].)
Figs. 753 to 755.—From Dunbar, Old Penrith, and Ronaldshay.
Fig. 756.—From Penicuik.
Fig. 757.—From East Langton.
Fig. 758.—From Aberdeenshire.
As of the primitive so of the mediæval pottery of Scotland; it differs but little from that of England, and indeed, except in a few instances, cannot be distinguished from it. Pitchers of the usual form, perforated jugs, bowls, dishes and platters—all were pretty nearly identical with those of English make, and but few seats of manufacture existed. The wares were of the commonest and coarsest kind. As in Ireland wood was more generally used than anything else for such utensils.
Of mediæval pottery Figs. [756 to 759] are characteristic examples. The first of these is a pitcher found in 1792, filled with coins of Alexander II. of Scotland and Edward I. and Edward II. of England, near Penicuick House, where it is preserved. It measures three and three-quarter inches in height, and is perforated at tolerably uniform distances. It is of coarse unglazed earthenware. Fig. [759] is a mediæval pitcher found near North Berwick Abbey, in East Lothian; it bears a marked resemblance to some engraved in Vol. I.
Fig. 759.
That china was attempted to be made in Scotland in the middle of last century is evident from the following paragraph from the London Chronicle of 1755: “Yesterday four persons, well-skilled in the making of British china, were engaged for Scotland, where a new porcelain manufacture is going to be established, in the manner of that now carried on at Chelsea, Stratford, and Bow.” But nothing is known as to the locality of the proposed works.