FOOTNOTES:
[472] Archæol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 43.
[473] Lindsay, Plate XXI. No. 6.
[474] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. iii. p. 561.
[475] Minutes S.A. Scot., January 23, 1832.
[476] Minutes S.A. Scot., May 19, 1834.
[477] Pennant's Tour, vol. ii. Plate xliv.
[478] New Statistical Account, vol. iv. p. 249.
[479] Archæologia, vol. iii. p. 39.
[480] Ure's Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 159.
[481] Archæologia, vol. x. Pl. XL
[482] Ure's Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 212.
[484] Scot. Mag. 1772, p. 581.
[485] Collect. de Reb. Hibern. No. XIII. p. 71, Pl. XIII.
CHAPTER V.
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS.
It has been already noticed that silver appears to have been a metal very little known in Britain, or the north of Europe, prior to the changes which we associate with the introduction of iron; nor is it difficult, as we have seen, to account for this. The rarity of iron during the primitive periods arises chiefly from the occurrence of the ore in a form least resembling metal, and requiring the most laborious and difficult processes to reduce it to a state fit for use; while the absence of silver is no less satisfactorily accounted for from the mining operations requisite for reaching the argentiferous veins, which were only possible when the introduction of the more useful metals had supplied an abundance of the requisite tools. One class of the earliest silver ornaments, however, retains the same primitive and indefinite style of decoration which has already been described as occurring on the pottery, and also on some of the bronze and gold ornaments found in the tumuli. A very valuable series of examples of this type are figured in the Archæological Journal, in illustration of an account by Mr. Hawkins of the discovery of a number of armlets, and various other silver relics, at Cuerdale, near Preston, along with Anglo-Saxon, Cufic, and other coins.
In the month of November 1830, some labourers engaged in digging for stones, in a field near Quendale, Orkney, came upon the remains of an old building, and, in digging among the rubbish, they found a decayed horn, which appeared to have been wrapped up in a piece of cloth, but the whole crumbled to pieces on exposure to the air. On the outside of the horn were what were at first supposed to be metal hoops, but which proved to be six silver bracelets. They were penannular, and tapered nearly to a point at the ends. The largest of them were square, and ornamented with a kind of herring-bone pattern; the remainder were round. The weight of the heaviest was nearly six ounces, that of the least one ounce, and one which weighed nearly one and a-half ounce, had silver wire coiled round it. Within the horn were pieces of other bracelets, and a quantity of Anglo-Saxon silver coins, including those of Ethered, Athelstan, Edwg, Eadgar, and Ethelred; and alongside were also discovered several broken stone basins. A few of the coins were preserved, but the armillæ, and the remainder of the hoard, were disposed of to a goldsmith in Lerwick, and melted down. Slight sketches of the armillæ, and a deposition taken before the sheriff-substitute of Zetland by the discoverers, are deposited in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Barry describes another hoard extremely similar to this, found at Caldale near Kirkwall. Two horns were discovered by a man while digging peats: they contained about three hundred silver coins of Canute the Great, and near them lay "several pieces of fine silver, in the form of crescents or fibulæ, differing from one another a good deal, both in figure and dimensions. Some of them were flat, others angled; some round, some nearly met at the ends; others were wider at the extremities; one resembled in shape the staple of a door, and another a loop for hanging clothes upon."[486] A portion of the coins alone escaped the usual fate of British relics of the precious metals. A silver armilla, of the same type as those discovered at Cuerdale, was found, in the year 1756, in a cist, along with a quantity of burnt human bones, underneath a large cairn at Blackerne, Kirkcudbrightshire, when the stones composing the cairn were taken to inclose a plantation. It is now in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. A silver bracelet, of a rarer and more artistic design, was found at Brough Head, Morayshire, by labourers engaged in digging the foundation for a new house, and is figured of the full size in the Archæologia Scotica.[487] The woodcut represents another remarkable Scottish relic, a massive silver chain, found in the year 1808, near Inverness, in the course of the excavations for the Caledonian Canal. It now forms one of the most valued treasures of the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. It weighs a little more than ninety-three ounces, and each link is open, and only bent together, so that it may perhaps be assumed with considerable probability, that it was designed to be used in barter, being in fact silver ring money. There are thirty-three links in all, each of them measuring one and nine-tenths inches in diameter, and about two-fifths of an inch in thickness, excepting two at one extremity, and one at the other, each of which are two and one-fifth inches in diameter. With this exception the links appear to be of uniform size, and would probably be found to correspond in weight. An additional link, which was in an imperfect state, was destroyed by the original discoverers, in an attempt to ascertain the nature of the metal. Another silver chain is described in the New Statistical Account, which was found within the area of an intrenched camp, about two miles above Greenlaw, Berwickshire, at the confluence of the Blackadder and Faungrass rivers.
Silver Chain, Caledonian Canal
Reference has already been made to the discovery of nine lunar ornaments of silver, on opening one of the great tumuli, or Knowes of Brogar, at Stennis, in Orkney. Notices of fibulæ, and other relics of the same metal, are to be found scattered through the Statistical Accounts, but mostly described in such vague terms as to render them of little avail to the archæologist. The information is usually added that they were immediately concealed or destroyed. A rude chain, now in my own possession, was found during the present season in the Isle of Skye; two of the links are of silver, and the third of bronze. It corresponds to relics composed of fragments of rings broken in pieces for the purpose of exchange, with which both British and Scandinavian antiquaries are familiar. They are not uncommonly linked together, as in the example now referred to.
The bronze relics of this period are much more abundant, and here it is that we, for the first time, come in contact with examples bearing undoubted traces of Scandinavian art, though these belong more correctly to the succeeding era, and will be treated of in detail, among objects of the primitive Christian Period of Scotland. The distinguishing characteristic of the ornamentation of the last Pagan era, as has already been remarked, is its definiteness and positive development of a peculiar style, along with the imitation of natural forms. A very great similarity, however, is traceable in the ornamentation of the whole northern races of Europe throughout a very considerable period; and in numerous cases it is only by a careful discrimination of details, or from some well-defined objects peculiar to certain districts or countries, that we are able to assign a specific epoch or nationality to discoveries. The interlaced ornament, or "runic knotwork," as it is customary to call it, is not unfrequently referred to as of Scandinavian origin; but of this there is not the slightest evidence.[488] It was familiar to the Greeks and Romans, and in its classic forms is known to architects by the term Guilloche, borrowed from the French. A beautiful and early example of its use occurs on the torus of the Ionic columns of the Erectheum at Athens. It pertains, in like manner, to Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Irish and Scottish Celtic art, and more or less to that of all the Northern races of the last Pagan era; while it forms a no less characteristic ornament of early Christian art. In Scotland especially it is the commonest decoration of a very remarkable class of monuments, more particularly referred to hereafter, but of which it is sufficient meanwhile to say that they do not occur, so far as I am aware, in any part of the Hebrides, or in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where the Scandinavian influence was longest predominant in Scotland, and its relics are still most frequently found. The suggestive source of the beautiful interlaced patterns may be very naturally traced, as in the ornamentation of the earlier pottery, to the knitting and netting of the primitive industrial arts; nor is it at all necessary to assume that it was introduced from Greece to the north of Europe, though it is found, to a certain extent, common to both. But, indeed, many of the earlier decorations of the Scandinavian Bronze Period are also to be found in use by the Romans. The annular ornaments figured in the Guide to Northern Archæology occur on almost every Anglo-Roman patella; the spiral and double spiral ornaments are both frequently met with on mosaics; and an urn, shewn in the same work, is surrounded with one of the simplest varieties of the frette, a still more familiar classic pattern.[489] The only essentially characteristic ornaments of the arts of the northern European races are the serpentine and dragon patterns. In so far as these are not the obvious creations of fancy, they are clearly traceable to an eastern source, the traditions of which, it will be seen, are even more obvious in monuments of Scottish than of Scandinavian art.
So much has been already said in reference to the legitimate conclusions deducible from the various relics of primitive art, that it will now suffice to indicate a few of the objects most characteristic of this period. One of the most familiar of these is the snake bracelet. Examples of it have been very frequently found in Scotland, and several very fine ones are preserved in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. The annexed woodcut represents one of these, weighing thirty-one ounces. It was found at Pitalpin, near Dundee, in 1732, and bears considerable resemblance to another, and still more beautiful one, found, about the year 1823, among the sand-hills of Culbin, near the estuary of the river Findhorn, Morayshire. The circumstances attending the discovery of the latter are thus narrated by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in a communication which accompanied a drawing of it exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland:—"Some of the sand-hills of Culbin are a hundred feet in perpendicular height; but the material composing them being an extremely comminuted granite sand, is so loose and light, that, except in a dead calm, it is in eternal motion, so that parts of the original soil are laid entirely bare. Though flints are not included in the mineralogical list of this country, yet there is one small spot among the sand-hills where flinty fragments are often picked up; and as elf-bolts, or flint arrow-heads, have been not unfrequently found on this spot, it is supposed that a manufactory of those rude aboriginal weapons may have once existed there. The finder having accidentally lost his gun-flint, went to the spot to look for a flint to replace it, and in searching about he discovered the antique."[490] The weight of the bracelet is two pounds nine ounces avoirdupois, and the form of the snake-heads, with which both ends terminate, seems to indicate that they have been originally jewelled. It can hardly be supposed that either of the above beautiful, but ponderous ornaments, were designed to be worn on the wrist. Such a weight would cumber the sword-arm of the most athletic hero; and this is still further confirmed by the form of the example found at Pitalpin, the inner edges of which are so sharp that they would not only gall the arm, but would even be apt to wound it on any violent action. Such ponderous bracelets were, in all probability, honorary gifts or votive offerings, though there is also reason to believe that they may have been regarded in the same light as the Scandinavian sacramental rings previously referred to. A very remarkable passage in illustration of this occurs in the Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 876, where it is recorded that when the Danes made peace with Alfred, at Wareham in Wessex, they gave him the noblest amongst them as hostages, and swore oaths to him upon the holy bracelet. (Halza Beage.)[491] Examples, however, of bronze snake bracelets of lighter weight, and evidently designed to be worn, are of more frequent occurrence. In 1833 there were exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, two bronze bracelets in the shape of serpents, found in the district of Bunrannoch, Perthshire, on the northern declivity of the mountain Schehallion. The one weighed one pound two ounces, the other, one pound fourteen and a-half ounces avoirdupois, and they are described as similar to the armilla found at Findhorn.[492] Another example in the Society's Museum, covered with verd antique, is a light and beautiful bracelet, of the same type, weighing only ten ounces.
Among the earliest definite forms of Northern art, the serpent or dragon is the most common subject adopted for direct imitation, or as a suggestive basis for the play of fancy, by the primitive artist. The woodcut represents a singular bronze ornament in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, the history of which is uncertain, though its style of workmanship completely accords with that of other well-known native relics. It is figured about one-third the size of the original. The protuberances on the snake-formed bracelets and other relics, evidently designed originally to represent the scales of the serpent, appear to have latterly become a conventional ornament, and are to be found on bronze relics unaccompanied by any more defined features of the snake or dragon. The annexed woodcut represents a very curious bronze relic in the Scottish Museum, whereon the triple snakelike form and scales are represented, but without the head or any more distinct characteristic of the reptile. It measures five inches in its greatest diameter, exclusive of the projecting scale-like ornaments. The exact locality where it was found has not been noted; but another example in the same collection, a little smaller in size, is believed to have been dug up in Argyleshire. It measures externally four and four-fifths inches in greatest diameter. Its most probable use is as a decoration of the arm, or possibly as a neck ornament; but it is quite inflexible, and if worn on the neck must have been permanently affixed to the inheritor of this cumbrous badge of honour. The larger of the two, which is figured here, weighs fully two pounds avoirdupois.
D. McInnes. Delt.
W. Douglas. Sculpt.
BRONZE BEADED TORC, (Lochar Moss.)
and
BROOCH OF LORN.
Of the commoner forms of torcs, head-rings, armlets, and other personal ornaments of this period, examples are not rare in Scotland, though the want of any efficient system for securing them from destruction, when of the precious metals, or of being buried in private collections and almost as effectually lost for nearly all useful purposes, renders it difficult to obtain accurate accounts of the great majority of discoveries. Some of the simpler bronze torcs and head-rings have already been described among the relics of the Archaic Period. But one of the most beautiful neck ornaments ever found in Scotland is a beaded torc discovered by a labourer while cutting turf in Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, about two miles to the north of Cumlongan Castle; and exhibited by Mr. Thomas Gray of Liverpool at the York Meeting of the Archæological Institute. It is engraved on Plate III., along with the bronze vessel in which it was inclosed. The beads, which measure rather more than an inch in diameter, are boldly ribbed and grooved longitudinally. Between every two ribbed beads there is a small flat one formed like the wheel of a pulley, or the vertebral bone of a fish. The portion which must have passed round the nape of the neck is flat and smooth on the inner edge, but chased on the upper side in an elegant incised pattern corresponding to the ornamentation already described as characteristic of this period, and bearing some resemblance to that on the beautiful bronze diadem found at Stitchel in Roxburghshire, figured on a subsequent page. The beads are disconnected, having apparently been strung upon a metal wire, as was the case in another example found in the neighbourhood of Worcester. A waved ornament chased along the outer edge of the solid piece seems to have been designed in imitation of a cord; the last tradition, as it were, of the string with which the older necklace of shale or jet was secured. Altogether this example of the class of neck ornaments to which Mr. Birch has assigned the appropriate name of Beaded Torcs, furnishes an exceedingly interesting illustration of the development of imitative design, in contradistinction to the more simple and archaic funicular torc, which, though continued in use down to a late period, pertains to the epoch of primitive art.
Various other personal ornaments have been discovered in Scotland, manifestly belonging to this later era when artistic design had been fully developed, and its works were characterized by a well-defined style. Of one of the most remarkable of these a drawing has fortunately been preserved, made to illustrate a communication to the Scottish Society of Antiquaries in 1787, though the original, it is to be feared, must no longer be sought for. The cairn in which the relic was found is thus described: "At Cluinmore, near Blair-Atholl, there is a beautiful green cairn, called Sithain-na-Cluana, i.e., the Fairy Hill of Clune. It is about twenty paces high obliquely, and about one hundred and twenty paces in circumference. Upon the top of it there are the two side stones of the altar still remaining, upon which there are engraven some hieroglyphics, so much defaced that they are not readable unless the stones were turned over and narrowly examined."[493] A rough square outline is marked, "the urn, now open, 1½ ft. long;" and following it is the sketch, of which the annexed woodcut is an exact copy, of the same size. It is described as the "Large bronze ring found in the cairn of Clunemore." Rings of a similar character to this, though differing greatly in their details, have been frequently found in Denmark, and various fine examples are preserved in the valuable collection at Copenhagen. But the most remarkable feature of this very curious relic is the hooded snake's head which terminates one of the ends, the other having been most probably finished in like manner. It appears to have almost exactly corresponded to those on the large snake bracelet found near Findhorn, and like it seems to have been jewelled. Objects of this class are named by the Danish antiquaries, Rings for the Hair. A comparison of this example, with one engraved in Mr. Thom's edition of Mr. Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities, (p. 34,) will best illustrate their general resemblance, and the very marked difference of their details. Whether we assume it to have been designed as an ornament for the head or the neck, the Clunemore ring, with its singular snake-head finials, could not fail to prove a very striking article of personal adornment. Besides these hair-rings, the Danish tumuli furnish numerous gold and bronze bands, diadem and coronet shaped ornaments, and other head-dresses, nothing similar to which are known in this country. Various examples of these are engraved both by Lord Ellesmere and Mr. Worsaae, including a very remarkable one figured in the Primeval Antiquities, which was found a few years since in the neighbourhood of Haderslev, and has an inscription engraved on the inner side, in Runic characters, supposed to denote the name of the original possessor. Other rings which occur among Scandinavian sepulchral deposits are classified by Danish antiquaries among articles supposed to have been connected with Pagan worship. These include several varieties of penannular rings not greatly differing in general form from the British gold relics already described under that name. But besides these there are others of a much larger size, one of which, figured by Mr. Worsaae, is described as "a large ring or girdle of massive gold mixed with silver, which is rivetted together in the middle of the front, and is conceived to have been the ornament of an idol; for it can scarcely be supposed that any human being could have constantly worn such a ring."[494]
Ring for Hair. Cairn of Clunemore.
Head-Ring. Roxburghshire.
The woodcut represents an exceedingly beautiful bronze relic, apparently of the class of head rings, in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which was discovered in the year 1747, about seven feet below the surface, when digging for a well, at the east end of the village of Stitchel, in the county of Roxburgh. It bears a resemblance in some respects to relics of the same class in the Christiansborg Palace, yet nothing exactly similar to it has yet been found among Scandinavian relics; while some of its ornamental details closely correspond to those which characterize the British horse furniture and other native relics of this period. One of its most remarkable peculiarities is, that it opens and shuts by means of a hinge, being clasped when closed by a pin which passes through a double catch at the line intersecting the ornament; and so perfect is it that it can still be opened and secured with ease. It is probable that this also should rank among the ornaments of the head, though it differs in some important respects from any other object of the same class. The oval which it forms is not only too small to encircle the head, but it will be observed from the engraving that its greatest length is from side to side, the internal measurements being five and nine-tenth inches by five and one-tenth inches.
Montfaucon, Vallancey, and other continental and Irish antiquaries, have traced the original of the lunar head-ornaments to the well-known head-dress so common in Egyptian sculpture, and, following out their favourite Druidical theories, have assumed them to be the special badge of the Druid priests.[495] There are not wanting, however, traces of ancient customs among the races of Northern Europe which would lead us rather to assign them as a part of female adornment, as Mr. Birch has already done to the analogous gorgets, so nearly resembling them in form.[496] The maiden coronet, or tire for the hair, in use among the northern races of Europe, and its correspondence to the snood or cockernonie of Scottish maidens, are very happily illustrated in Mr. Robert Jamieson's notes to "Child Axelvold."[497] One of the most touching passages of the old northern ballad derives its chief beauty from the allusion to the ancient usage of the maiden head-dress,—
"Lang stuid she, the proud Elinè,
Nor answer'd ever a word;
Her cheeks sae richly-red afore,
Grew haw as ony eard.
She doffed her studded stemmiger,
And will of rede she stuid:
'I bure nae bairn, sae help me God,
But and our Lady gude!'"
To tyne her snood is still a sufficiently intelligible phrase in Scotland for the loss which forfeits the privileges of a maiden, without admitting to those of a matron. The Greek poets also abound with allusions to the nuptial ceremony of taking off the bride's coronet,[498] and the Jews still preserve a similar usage; so that in this, as in so many other northern customs, we recover additional traditions of the Asiatic origin of the Teutonic races.