FOOTNOTES:
[454] Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture, p. 164.
[455] Vol. i. pp. 87-96.
[456] Roy's Military Antiquities, Plate VIII.
[457] A still more striking proof of such acquired skill is furnished by the existence of a similar moat and rampart in the north of Ireland, of which an account is given by Dr. Stuart in his Historical Memoirs of Armagh.
[458] Plate XLVII. It is also engraved in King's Munimenta Antiqua, Plates I. and II.; and in Pennant's Tour, vol. iii. Plate XVI.
[459] Roy, Plate XLVIII.
[460] "I remarked that at Dun Mac Sniochain the materials of the hill itself were not vitrifiable, but that a very fusible rock was present at a short distance, or scattered in fragments about the plain. The same is true here, (Dunadeer); and in both cases the forts are not erected out of the materials nearest at hand, which are infusible, but collected with considerable labour from a distance. It is hence evident that the builders of these works were aware of the qualities of these various rocks; and it is equally evident that they chose the fusible in preference to the infusible, although with a considerable increase of labour. The obvious conclusion is that they designed from the beginning to vitrify their walls."—Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, vol. i. p. 292.
[461] Experiments on Whinstone and Lava, by Sir J. Hall, Bart. Trans. Royal Soc. Edin. vol. v. p. 45; Series of Experiments on the Action of Heat, vol. vi. p. 71.
[462] I know of only one example yet noted out of Scotland, but it is a very remarkable one, and has been thought to confirm the idea of designed vitrification. (Vide Account of the Pierres Brulées, or Camp of Peran, a French primitive fort in the Commune of Clédran. Journal of Archæol. Association, vol. ii. p. 278.) The researches of Mr. Squier and Dr. Davis among the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley, reveal various examples of partial vitrification, tending to confirm the more consistent idea of accidental and varying origin.—Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. i. pp. 12, 17, 28, 36.
[463] Vide Jamieson, voce Beltane, for a curious collection of notices of various dates, illustrative of this ancient Scottish festival.
[464] Archæol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 297.
[465] Sir Walter Scott takes the Scandinavian origin of these structures for granted, while Dr. Macculloch, who delights to overturn the assumptions of every other antiquary, jumps to the far more extraordinary conclusion, that "there seems little reason to doubt the Picts and Scandinavians were radically one and the same people." The latter author then produces "perfect and incontrovertible proof of their real origin," by referring to certain examples said to be still visible in Norway. To this it is a very satisfactory reply that Mr. Worsaae, the distinguished Danish antiquary, has expressed his opinion that nothing at all resembling them is to be found in any of the Scandinavian countries; and Professor Munch of the University of Christiania, one of the most learned northern archæologists, completely confirms this, and assures me, after a personal inspection of several, that he is convinced they are of native origin, and peculiar to Scotland. There can be little doubt that Dr. Macculloch's "incontrovertible proofs" are derived, without acknowledgment, from the very dubious authority of the Rev. George Barry, D.D., of Shapinshay. Compare Macculloch, vol. ii. p. 257, and Barry's Orkney, p. 97.
[466] Pennant's Tour, vol. ii. p. 391.
[467] Itiner. Septent. p. 166.
[468] Highlands and Western Islands, vol. ii. p. 250.
[469] Pennant's Tour, vol. ii. p. 391.
[470] Cordiner's Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland.
CHAPTER IV.
WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, AND POTTERY.
The state of isolation, with all its attendant influences, must now be considered finally at a close. The effects of European civilisation rapidly modified the primitive native arts; and during this era, to which the name of Iron Period is applied, that strange mingling of races was chiefly effected which has resulted in our singular British nationality, in our peculiar virtues and our equally peculiar deficiencies. The Roman influence also failed not, even while indirectly operating, greatly to accelerate the development of the new era. Long before the invasion of Julius Cæsar, or the Roman working of lead and iron mines in England, the increasing demands for iron in the south of Europe could not fail to add somewhat also to the supplies of the north; nor is it improbable that the impetus communicated to the European workers in metals during the protracted struggles of the Punic wars, and the civil commotions which followed on the final supremacy of Rome, mainly contributed to furnish the native Britons with the arms by means of which they withstood both Julius Cæsar and Agricola.
Whatever effect the long occupation of England as a Roman province may have had on the native mythology and sepulchral rites, we have no reason to think that any change was produced on those of Scotland. Relics of the Roman period have been found in tumuli and cairns alongside of the rude British cinerary urn, the bronze spear, and even the stone celt; nor was it till the introduction of Christianity that the Scottish circumscribed cist was entirely abandoned for a sepulchre of ampler proportions. Sepulchral pottery is found alongside of relics of all periods, from the rudest primeval era to that of the general adoption of Christianity; but even where it is accompanied with Roman relics it betrays no indications of any familiarity with the artistic design or manufacturing processes of the Roman potter. The transition is at once from the primitive pottery apparently to that introduced by the Anglo-Saxons. On warlike implements, however, it is probable that the collision with the Roman legions exercised an important influence, though it is now difficult to ascertain its precise character or extent. The state of decomposition in which iron relics are usually found frequently renders it impossible to discriminate between those of Pagan and medieval eras. A few Scottish examples which have been noted from time to time, will, however, supply the means of forming some conclusions relative to the arts of this period.
Lieutenant-Colonel Miller in his "Inquiry respecting the Site of the Battle of Mons Grampius," thus describes some of the antiquities of the locality, which he conceives, with considerable probability, to be relics of native art contemporary with the Roman invasion of North Britain in the second century:—"At a point near Gateside a vast cairn stood until about forty-two years ago, and there the last stand of the Caledonians in a body seems to have been made. Upon removing this cairn many bones were found, and great quantities of iron. Many of the pieces were very small, so as to be called knives and forks by the workmen. Others again were very large; too much so, one might almost suppose, from the account I have had of them, even for the enormes gladios of the Caledonians. None of them have unfortunately been preserved, as they were probably completely oxidized, and reckoned of no value. Great numbers of beads were also found in the cairn, and distributed about the country at the time as curiosities. A few of these are still preserved, and serve to convey rather a favourable idea of the state of the arts at the time. Some of them were of a long elliptical form, and made of jet; others were made of a bluish glass, and shaded with spiral or circular lines; while others were white, enamelled with red and blue spots, the colours of which are as vivid as ever."[472] The same writer describes a great variety of stone and bronze relics found under a variety of circumstances throughout that district of Fifeshire. Many of these, however, must have belonged to very different periods, and most probably also to different races that succeeded each other in the occupation of the fertile region of country lying between the estuaries of the Forth and Tay, though all are pressed by him into the service, in order to add to the accumulated evidence by which he seeks to assign a precise site to the famed battle-field of Agricola and Galgacus. On the 22d November 1849, some farm-servants engaged in draining a field at East Langton, in the parish of Kirknewton, Mid-Lothian, found a skeleton about three and a half feet below the surface. The body lay south-west by north-east, imbedded in moss about three inches thick. Near the feet were found an iron knife, and a dagger with the remains of a wooden handle and a square gold plate and knob on the end of the haft, both greatly corroded and adhering together from the rust. There were also found in the same grave a wooden comb, broken and very much decayed, and a rude bodkin of bone measuring three and a quarter inches long, which had doubtless been employed in fastening the dress of the deceased. The knife is perforated with three holes, by which a handle must have been attached to it, but it is too much corroded to afford any correct idea of its original form. Near to these lay a wooden vessel and an earthen urn coated with green glaze, and rudely ornamented with a waved pattern; both of which were broken by the carelessness of the workmen. The accompanying woodcut represents the dagger and bone pin, the former of which measures with the handle thirteen and a quarter inches long. Nearly at the same time a quantity of billon pennies of James II., of the Edinburgh Mint,[473] were discovered in the field where this interesting sepulchral deposit was found. But it had been in cultivation upwards of fifty years, and there is no reason to think that any connexion was traceable between the two discoveries.
Iron Dagger and Pin, East Langton
The glazed pottery accompanying the iron weapons at East Langton is a characteristic feature of the sepulchral deposits of the last Pagan period in Scotland, and is perhaps one of the earliest indications of Anglo-Saxon influence. During the progress of the railway works for constructing a branch line of the North British Railway to North-Berwick, in 1848, two stone cists were discovered on the Abbey Farm, both of them measuring a little more than four feet in length, and each containing a human skeleton. In one of them was found an iron sword and dagger, both so much corroded as to break and crumble to pieces in the careless hands of the railway navies. At the side of the skeletons, in both cists, were urns of rough grey ware, ornamented externally with parallel grooves running round them, and internally covered with a green glaze. The woodcut represents one of these rescued in a partially dilapidated state from the railway excavators, and now in the possession of Andrew Richardson, Esq. It measures fully six inches in height, and it will be seen bears a singularly close resemblance to another urn of somewhat smaller dimensions, found in Aberdeenshire, and described below.
In 1791, four urns were discovered under a large stone near Drumglow Hill, Kincardineshire, and some others in a neighbouring cairn, of which the sole description given is that they were made of very coarse materials, and the outside glazed and ornamented with dotted lines.[474] In 1832, Lieutenant-Colonel Miller presented to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries "a finely formed barbed arrow-head of flint, and a fragment of what is supposed by the donor to have been a glazed sepulchral vase, found at Merlsford, at the foot of the Lomond Hill, Fifeshire."[475] This specimen is too imperfect to furnish any idea of the form of the vase, though it affords additional evidence of the introduction of this characteristic change in the primitive Scottish pottery at an early period.
The Old Statistical Account of the parish of Rathen contains a description of three cairns at Memsie, on the eastern coast of Aberdeenshire, which, it is remarked, "were very large, till of late, that great quantities of the stones have been taken away from two of them. The remains of human bones were lately found in one of them." The renewed invasion of one of these cairns about the year 1824 led to the discovery of the small urn here engraved. It measures four and a quarter inches in height, three inches in diameter at the bottom, and four at the top. Externally it is rough and destitute of any ornament, except the six parallel grooves which appear in the woodcut. Within it is entirely coated with a dark green glaze. Unfortunately, however, its most remarkable features no longer exist. Mr. John Gordon of Cairnbulg remarks in a letter with which he accompanied the donation of the urn to the Society in 1827,—"The urn has 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. The lid was unfortunately broken in opening the urn. It was made of the same materials, and fitted into the mouth which was formed for its reception." Part of the rim has also been broken away, but enough remains to shew, that above each projecting ear is an opening into which the lid had fitted as an additional security. No mention is made of anything having been found within the urn thus carefully secured, but beside it lay a sword, unfortunately no longer known to exist. It is described as "one-edged; the hilt of brass, the blade iron, seventeen inches and a quarter long, one inch and a quarter broad at the guard, from whence it tapers to the point; when found it was enclosed in a wooden scabbard." It appears to have borne considerable resemblance to an iron sword found by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in a tumulus opened by him at King's Barrow, in the Vale of Warminster, "which had a handle of oakwood. The blade was about eighteen inches long, two inches wide, and single-edged."
In the year 1800, Mr. Robert Dalyell presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a sword fractured in several pieces, portions of a helmet, battle-axe, and spear, all of iron, found under a cairn on his estate of Hunthills, Roxburghshire. But the whole are too much corroded to convey any very distinct idea of their original forms, though they add additional evidence in proof of the continued use of the sepulchral cairn, after the full development of the Teutonic era, with its characteristic implements of iron. In 1834 Professor Traill exhibited at a meeting of the Scottish Antiquaries the fragments of an iron sword, apparently that of a man of distinction, found along with the boss of a shield, at a place called Swenedrow, in Rowsey, Orkney. In the same place many fragments of ancient armour have been discovered; and the Professor believed the sword to have belonged to one of the Norwegian jarls.[476] Pennant engraves another ancient sword discovered in the island of Islay;[477] nor are such discoveries rare, though they have seldom obtained the minute attention they merit. A remarkable discovery of arms and other iron relics was made in the month of August 1834, at Fendoch Camp, an intrenchment on the river Almond, about five miles north-east of Crieff, in Perthshire. It is commonly described as a Roman camp, and the urns found in numerous cairns which surrounded it are no less unhesitatingly assigned to the legionary invaders. A drawing which I possess of one of the urns found inverted within a cist under one of the cairns, leaves no room to doubt that these sepulchral mounds, at least, are of British origin, and probably of a date long prior to the era of Roman invasion. On the occasion above referred to, while a labourer was digging across the eastern rampart of Fendoch Camp, he discovered at some depth below the surface three iron pots or kettles, the largest of which broke in pieces while he was in the act of raising it from the ground. The other two measured ten inches in diameter by four and a half in depth, and eight and a half inches in diameter by three inches in depth. They were each composed of a series of concentric circles rivetted together, the larger one having a straight handle twenty-one inches in length. Along with these were also found three heads of spears or javelins seven inches in length, a portion of a sword-blade eighteen and a half inches in length, three pairs of bits, two pairs of shears eleven inches long, the blades alone measuring four inches, a sort of spoon or ladle ten inches in extreme length of handle and bowl, a beautiful hinge of yellowish metal four inches long, carved and plated with silver, in excellent preservation, besides various other implements. The most of these interesting relics were carefully packed in the largest kettle, and a flat stone placed on its mouth. This curious hoard was purchased by my friend, Mr. John Buchanan of Glasgow, under whose zealous care they might have been deemed secure of a safe asylum, but the weighty box in which they were packed tempted some covetous knave, and our only poor consolation for their loss is to picture the mortification of the thief when he unlocked his treasure and found only a chest full of rusty iron!
But this unhappily is no solitary example of the destruction of ancient Scottish relics. "Vast quantities of arms," says the author of the Statistical Account of the parish of Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, writing in 1834, "were lately found in a field on the farm of Corrieknows, near the burgh of Annan. The farmer who found them had them all, but a brass battle-axe, converted into husbandry utensils."[478] From inquiries since made, I find that the brass battle-axe was a bronze celt, so that, if we may assume, as seems most probable, that the iron weapons belonged to the same era, we have here most interesting examples of the weapons of the Teutonic Period. The farmer describes the swords as about two feet in length, edged on the one side to the handle, and on the other for the half length of the blade. Beside them lay some long spear-heads, nearly all broken, and more injured by rust than the swords. In the same field he also found a number of horse-shoes, some of which were an entire circle, and others curiously turned in at the heel. On the farm of Broom, in the same parish, there is a field called Bruce's Acres, where King Robert is said to have been defeated by the English; but the singular form of the horses' shoes found at Corrieknows adds additional evidence of these relics belonging to an earlier period. In the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries there are horse-shoes from the field of Bannockburn and from that of Nisbetmuir, Berwickshire, fought 24th June 1355, after the captivity of King David Bruce. They are chiefly remarkable for their very diminutive size, and in no way correspond to those described above. Antique horse-shoes of a different form have repeatedly been found in the neighbourhood of Carlinwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire, a prolific source of valuable archæological relics. The ancient name of Castle Douglas, on the margin of the loch, is Causeway End, from its position in relation to an ancient causeway constructed through the marsh, and believed to be a part of one of the great Roman roads. About this place most of the ancient horse-shoes have been discovered. One of them in the collection of Mr. Joseph Train is described by him as consisting of a solid piece of iron, not made to go round the edge of the hoof, but to cover the whole. On the inside, especially towards the heel, it is hollowed so as not to press upon the soft part of the foot. Though much worn in front this cumbrous lump of iron still weighs about six pounds, so that four of them must have formed no slight impediment to a horse. To what period these equestrian furnishings should be assigned it is not easy to determine. No relic yet discovered along with the remains of horses, so frequently found in the later tumuli, suggests the idea of the early Britons having shod the horses which they attached to their war-chariots. Montfaucon, however, describes a small iron horse-shoe which was discovered in 1653, in the tomb of Childeric, founder of the French monarchy, whose horse had been interred along with him, A.D. 481. The Rev. Samuel Pegge, in an ingenious paper "On the Shoeing of Horses among the Ancients,"[479] conceives that the custom was introduced into England by William the Conqueror; but it seems exceedingly improbable that either the Anglo-Romans or the Anglo-Saxons should have remained ignorant of a device which some allusions of Homer would lead us to suppose was not unknown even to the Greeks of the Bronze Period.
Ure describes and engraves in his History of the Parish of East Kilbride,[480] a very interesting discovery made at Castlemilk in 1792, of a helmet, gorget, dagger, and other iron relics, along with which were two bronze vessels, one of them of peculiar form, and also the remains of a leaden vase; but these it is probable were medieval antiquities. No doubt, however, can be entertained of the era of another iron relic described by him, but of which unfortunately no engraving exists. Some workmen engaged in demolishing a cairn in the same parish found in it a large urn filled with human bones, and close by it an iron implement designated "an old spade of a clumsy shape," but which was more probably an ancient bill or battle-axe. Mr. Robert Riddell describes two such weapons, figured in the Archæologia.[481] They were found in a moss near Terregles, Dumfriesshire, and measure each two and a half feet long, and above two inches thick at the back, though greatly corroded with rust. The Kilbride discoverers, on finding the urn, had confidently anticipated that its contents would prove a golden treasure, which they magnanimously resolved should be equitably divided. Having gulped down their mortification as best they might on finding their whole treasure dwindle to an old iron bill, "it was at length unanimously agreed that it should not be sold; it might, for anything they knew, be uncommonly ominous, especially as it was iron, and taken out of a grave which was generally believed to be haunted." So the desired division of the spoil was at length secured by having the curious relic converted into tackets or hobnails for their shoes![482]
The general character of the older Scottish superstitions in regard to iron, of which we have here some indications, more frequently refer to it rather as a charm against spells and malign influences of all sorts, entirely corresponding in this respect with the popular creed of Norway at the present day. In describing the "Adder Stone," Ure remarks, "It is thought by superstitious people to possess many wonderful properties. It is used as a charm to insure prosperity, and to prevent the malicious attacks of evil spirits. In this case, it must be closely kept in an iron box to secure it from the fairies, who are supposed to have an utter abhorrence at iron." This may be compared with another canon of northern folk-lore, referred to in a former chapter,[483] in relation to the flint arrow-head or elf-bolt. The inferences suggested by both are the same, pointing to an epoch when iron, as a novel introduction, could in no way be associated with the Elves and Gnomes, old as the primitive stone weapons of the aborigines. Pennant, however, describes a curious charm against witchcraft, in use in the Hebrides, where the milk of enchanted kine is boiled along with both flints and untempered steel—the bane and the antidote—which was held to give the operator complete power over the enchanter. We are still familiar with the rustic faith in the efficiency of the iron horse-shoe affixed to the stable-door as a certain protection against all supernatural evil influences.
A remarkable class of urns, so far as I yet know peculiar to Scotland, appears to belong for the most part to the Iron Period. They vary in form, but all agree in the singular characteristic of being open at both ends. One of these was discovered within the area of a stone circle at Barrach, Aberdeenshire, by a peasant digging for stones. It lay under a flat stone, with another placed below it, and was found to be filled with human bones.[484] Others are described in the old Statistical Reports as resembling chimney cans. But the most minute account of this singular class of sepulchral urns is furnished by Ure, to whose indefatigable researches within the limited district of which he has treated we owe so many valuable reminiscences of bygone discoveries. "In the bottom of a very small cairn on the lands of East Rogerton, the property of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton, were found five urns not of the ordinary shape. They were about eighteen inches high; six wide at the one end and four at the other. Both ends were open. They were said by the workmen to be glazed, and ornamented with flowers; and narrower in the middle than at either end. They stood upon smooth stones distant from each other about three-quarters of a yard, and placed in a circular form. The top of each urn was covered with a thin piece of stone. They were all totally destroyed by the rustic labourers." Such is the lamentable yet ever-recurring history of our national antiquities. Vallancey has engraved a very beautiful bronze vase, dug up in 1769, near the church of Fahan, county of Donegal. The handles are horses' heads, very closely corresponding to the usual artistic style of this period; and the vase has the same remarkable peculiarity as the class of Scottish urns referred to, in being open at both ends.[485]
The iron relics of the Teutonic Period by no means yield the same amount of information as we have been able to derive from the older weapons and implements of bronze, chiefly owing to the extreme susceptibility of the newer metal to oxidation under nearly all the circumstances in which both classes of antiquities are discovered. This want, however, we shall find abundantly supplied from other sources, including the contemporary works in bronze. Among the most characteristic remains of the defensive armour of this period frequently met with, the umbones of shields occupy a prominent place. The larger ones are of sufficient size to admit the hand, and resemble in this, as well as in other respects, those frequently met with in England. They suffice to shew that the shield was not worn on the arm like the Roman clypeus, but held by a bar crossing the centre of the projecting boss, the hollow of which received and protected the hand. In this it closely corresponded to the bronze buckler of the previous period, which probably continued to be used contemporarily with it. An example of an iron umbo found in Morayshire is figured on a subsequent page. Another, referred to in a brief summary given in the Nenia Britannica, of relics found at Westray, Orkney, is described as "a very small iron vessel like a head-piece, only four and a half inches in the hollow, bruised apparently by a sword or an axe." In the Scottish Museum is a small iron boss, found at Corbiehall, near Carstairs, Lanarkshire, which is only slightly raised in the centre. The locality where it was discovered has furnished many Roman remains, among which it most probably ought to be classed. In general form it closely resembles an exceedingly beautiful boss of a Roman shield in the same collection, made of bronze, and decorated in relief with a crowned female figure seated, holding Victory in her hand, and surrounded with the spoils of war.
A rarer and more remarkable object pertaining to this period is the iron sword, inclosed in its bronze sheath, several very fine examples of which have been found at different times. One of these occurred in the very valuable collection of antiquities discovered at Stanwich, now deposited in the British Museum. Another similar example, found on a moor near Flasby, parish Gargrave, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was exhibited during the meeting of the Archæological Institute at York in 1846. In both of these the iron blade of the sword was still inclosed in the sheath. The annexed illustration is copied from a very perfect bronze scabbard closely resembling the two found in England, now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It appears from an inscription roughly scratched on it to have been found on the Mortonhall estate, at the foot of the Pentland Hills, in the immediate vicinity of the Scottish capital. The blade of this sword must have measured twenty-two and a half inches in length by one inch in breadth,—an exceedingly small and light weapon compared with the enormes gladii which Tacitus describes the Caledonians as using. It appears to have been a straight two-edged weapon, with a sharp point, and was perhaps designedly adapted for more convenient and ready use by the charioteer than the more ponderous sword generally borne by the native Britons. The different examples which have been heretofore noted are furnished with the same large bronze loop which is shewn in the woodcut, attached to the middle of the scabbard, the precise use of which is not quite apparent. The style of ornament entirely corresponds to that employed in decorating the personal ornaments and the horse-furniture of this period, and supplies evidence of a remarkable change from the undefined ornamentation of the Archaic works in bronze.