FOOTNOTES:
[510] A Eolcha Albain Uile, translated from the Codex Stowensis, No. XLI. Collect. de Reb. Albanicis, Iona Club, p. 71. Albanus, from the Celtic god, Alw—Gaelic, Aluin, bright, beautiful; Alw-ion, Αλουίων, Albion, i.e., the island of Alw; Britus, Pryd, Prydain, i.e., Pryd, god of Britain. Welsh Archæologia, vol. i. p. 72. Meyer on the Celtic Dialects. Report, 1847, Brit. Assoc. Advancement of Science, p. 301. Bryt or Pryd, the god of the Britons, the Prydyn ap Ædd Mawr of the Welsh Triads.
[511] Skene's Highlanders of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 19, 23.
[512] Eumenius, Ritson's Caledonians, vol. i. p. 71.
[513] Ritson's Caledonians, vol. i. p. 120.
[514] Dr. Latham in treating of the Κέλται, sets down under the head of Phenomena of the System: "the Druids; the bards; the monumental remains of the character of Stonehenge—Máenhír, long stones;" and under the head of their Antiquities: "Coins, images, tumuli, and their contents."—Nat. Hist. of Man, p. 530. But this is a sweeping system of generalization, which takes for granted various points still open to question, if not already disproved. The derivation suggested, (ante, p. [68],) for the term Cromlech, if the correct one, seems to indicate that the true origin and character of these sepulchral memorials were as little known to the ancient Celtæ as to the "Druidical" antiquaries of last century.
[516] Adomnan, b. 2, c. 33; Skene's Highlanders, vol. i. p. 40.
[517] "As far as regards the Irish tradition of the Fena having arrived from Spain and Africa, to deny it all foundation in history would be inconsistent with what we ourselves have said of the route of the western Celts. I do not hesitate to detect in this tradition a reference either to that migration or to one anterior, which seems to have led likewise by the African coast to Spain, as well as to this country, a nation of Scytho-Celtic (Finno-Celtic) race, including the ancient Iberi and the still extant Basque, nation."—Dr. C. Meyer, Report of the British Association for Advancement of Science, 1847. It is scarcely necessary to add, however, that the Celtic character of the Basque, as assumed here, is now generally disallowed.
[518] "The Celtic Scuta denotes a vagabond, a restless wanderer, one perpetually roving about. This word is the original of the Greek Σκυθα, Scytha, a Scythian; applied to the Scythians with a view to the restless roving disposition of the people. Analogous to this idea, the Persians called the same people Σακαι, Herod. l. 7, cap. 74. Ὁιδε Περσαι παντας τους Σκυθας καλεουσι Σακας. Sacæ. The Persian Sack is plainly a cognate of the Hebrew Shakak, discurrere, discursitare, &c. In confirmation of this etymon, it may be observed that the Scots borderers used to call themselves Scuytes and Skytes, as we learn from Camden. The Saxon-Scots readily adopted this name, being ignorant of its original import; but the Highlanders have always deemed it a term of reproach, and consequently retain their original denomination, Albanich."—Abridged from notes to "The Gaberlunzie," by Callander of Craigforth, 1782. Vide also "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities," Glossary, v. Scouts, p. 520; and "Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary," v. Scouth.
In connexion with this, it is of importance to note the observations of Major Rawlinson in reference to the indications of the aboriginal races of Asia afforded by the Cuneatic inscriptions. He conceives that the Sacæ or Cymri frequently mentioned on the inscriptions at Khorsabad, and who appear to have been generally introduced into the Assyrian empire about the thirteenth century before Christ, were probably of Scythian origin. He, however, thinks it impossible to identify this tribe immediately with the Gaelic Cymri. It appears more probable that, under the name of Cymri, the Assyrians included all the Nomade tribes with whom they were acquainted, without respect to ethnological family; but he suggests that the Celtæ subsequently applied this generic name specifically to themselves, as among the Moguls of the present day a particular tribe have taken the name of "Eluth" or "Ilyat," which properly denotes a mere Nomadic population. The other tribes with which the Assyrians were chiefly brought in contact, were the Shetta or Khyta in Syria, and the Ludi in Lower Babylonia. The former tribe are well known from the inscriptions of Egypt, and the latter were probably the same people who are mentioned in Ezekiel under the name of "Lud," in connexion with "Phut" and "Elam." These tribes of Khita and Luda were both undoubtedly of Semitic origin.
We may confidently anticipate that these researches into the races and languages of the central region of Asia, from whence we believe the human family to have been gradually diffused over remoter countries, until the first colonists reached our own western island, will yet furnish much of the precise information we require relative to the earliest Asiatic migrations of the Celtæ, and the degree of civilisation possessed by them when they began the north-western movement that finally led them to the remotest countries of Europe, bordering on the Atlantic.
[519] Beda, l. 3, c. 4. Ritson, vol. ii. p. 308.
[520] Vita Niniani, Ritson, vol. ii. p. 144.
[521] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 387.
[522] Dicuil's work was discovered at Paris, and published there in 1807 and 1814.—Antiquities of Ireland and Denmark. Worsaae, p. 17.
[523] Bannatyne Miscellany, voL iii. pp. 73, 74, (in the press,) translated by Dean Guild. 1554.
[524] Adomnan, vol. ii. p. 43; Smith's Life of Columba, p. 55.
[525] Ynglinga Saga, Coll. de Rebus Albanicis, p. 65.
CHAPTER II.
SCULPTURED STANDING STONES.
The progress of our inquiry into the peculiar characteristics of Scottish Archæology brings under consideration one of the most interesting, yet most puzzling classes of monuments of early native art. While England has her Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical remains exhibiting more or less distinct traces of the transition by which the debased Roman passed into the pure Romanesque or Norman style, Scotland, along with Ireland, possesses examples of an early native style of ecclesiastical architecture and of Christian monuments, belonging to the same undefined period prior to the Norman invasion of England.
Of the Sculptured Standing Stones of Scotland, including these primitive Christian monuments, a few of the best known examples have been repeatedly engraved, but generally on so small a scale, and with so little attention to accuracy of detail, that they have failed to secure that interest among British archæologists which their great number and the very beautiful and singular character of their sculptures merit. The reproach of leaving these remarkable national monuments unillustrated has, however, been to a great extent removed by the publication of Mr. Patrick Chalmers' magnificent work on the Ancient Monuments of the County of Angus,[526] which furnishes an extensive series of examples of the various sculptured stones long ascribed to a Danish origin, but now nearly all recognised as peculiar to Scotland. Attempts to decorate Scottish sepulchral memorials by means of sculptured ornaments appear to have been made from an early period. Several curious examples have already been noted of stone cists, otherwise entirely unhewn, the covers of which have been rudely ornamented with incised patterns similar to those which are seen on the gigantic chambered cairn of New Grange, near Drogheda. But greater interest perhaps attaches to another though more simply decorated Scottish cist pertaining apparently to a much later period than the cairn of New Grange, or the incised cists which have been classed with that remarkable primitive sepulchre. On a rising ground about half a mile to the east of the town of Alloa, called the Hawkhill, is the large upright block of sandstone sculptured with a cross which is represented in the annexed engraving. It measures ten and a quarter feet in height, though little more than seven feet are now visible above ground. A similar cross is cut on both sides of the stone, as is not uncommon with such simple memorials. During the progress of agricultural operations in the immediate vicinity of this ancient cross, in the spring of 1829, Mr. Robert Bald, C.E., an intelligent Scottish antiquary, obtained permission from the Earl of Mar to make some excavations around it, when, at about nine feet north from the monumental stone, a rude cist was found, constructed of unhewn sandstone, measuring only three feet in length, and at each end of the cover, on the under side, a simple cross was cut. The lines which formed the crosses were not rudely executed, but straight and uniform, and evidently finished with care, though the slab itself was unusually rude and amorphous. The cist lay east and west, and contained nothing but human bones greatly decayed. Drawings of the cross and cist, and a plan of the ground, executed by Mr. Bald, are in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. Here we possess a singularly interesting example of the union of Christian and Pagan sepulchral rites: the cist laid east and west, according to the early Christian custom, yet constructed of the old circumscribed dimensions, and of the rude but durable materials in use for ages before the new faith had superseded the aboriginal Pagan creeds.
Dunnichen Stone
To this same transition-period there can now be little hesitation in assigning that remarkable class of Scottish sculptured stones, decorated most frequently on the one side with the figure of the cross, and on the other with a few mystic symbols of constant recurrence which still remain an enigma to British Antiquaries, and to most others a subject of perfect indifference or contempt; though had they been discovered on the banks of the Tigris or the Nile they would have been thought worthy of the united efforts of European scholars for their solution. Some of these monuments most probably belong to Pagan times, as they contain only the mysterious symbols, unaccompanied by the emblem of the Christian faith, and are usually of ruder execution, and cut on unhewn stones. Of this class are the Standing Stones at Kinellar and Newton, Aberdeenshire;[527] and those of Aberlemno,[528] and Kirktown of Dunnichen, in Angusshire.[529] Theorists who have deemed it indispensable to assign to these singular monuments an antiquity long prior to the Christian era have supposed that the cross has been superadded to the older Pagan sculptures. No traces of any such hybrid union are now discoverable, but, on the contrary, where we find the Christian and Pagan symbols combined, they are almost invariably accompanied with elaborately interlaced patterns and figures of dragons, serpents, and nondescript monsters, bearing a close and unmistakable resemblance to the decorations of some of the most ancient Irish manuscripts, nearly corresponding to the era of the introduction of Christianity into Scotland. Several of the beautiful initials from the Book of Kells, an Irish MS. of the sixth century, as engraved in Mr. Westwood's Palæographia, bear a close resemblance to the style of ornament of these sculptures; while the interlaced knotwork on the case of the shrine of St. Maidoc, which Dr. Petrie conceives cannot be later than the eighth century, though less distinctly characteristic, and by no means peculiar to Ireland, very nearly corresponds in its details to the ornamentation frequently introduced on these Scottish monuments. Others, such as the Aberlemno and one of the Meigle crosses, are decorated with raised pellets or nail-heads, manifestly derived from the ornamental studs of the old British buckler, also to be found elsewhere; as on one of the Manx sanctuary crosses to be seen about a mile from St. Maughold's Church, in the Isle of Man. The arrangements of the figures in some of the Scottish monuments of this period, as in the celebrated Forres column, are also strikingly suggestive of intimate intercourse between Scotland and Ireland at the period of their erection, from their correspondence to such works as the beautiful crosses at Monasterboice. In this case, however, the Irish are evidently the later works, and are, indeed, assigned by Dr. Petrie to the early part of the tenth century.
The locality in which these remarkable monuments are found is also worthy of notice. No example occurs within the ancient limits of Dalriada, or on the western coast in the vicinity of Ireland, nor has any one been discovered south of the Forth, though met with both at Largo and St. Andrews, or north of the ancient southern limits of the Norse kingdom, if we except one now erected in the pleasure-grounds of Dunrobin Castle. Yet it is within the same limited range of country, extending along our eastern coast, that the only examples of primitive ecclesiastical architecture occur undoubtedly pertaining to the Scottish Celtic Church prior to its remodelling in the eleventh century.
No sculptured memorials of the singular class so abundant in Scotland, have been discovered in Ireland, any more than in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, though so long ascribed to a Scandinavian origin. They are manifestly native monuments, though betraying the same traces of the influence of early Irish art, or at least indications of a period when the peculiar style of their ornamentation was common both to Scotland and Ireland, with which we are familiar in the works of the closing Pagan era. Only one known period of Scottish history answers to these requirements, and seems to point out the ruder class of sculptured standing stones as the monuments of the Pagan Picts, and the more elaborate ones, accompanied with the symbol of the Christian faith, as belonging to that period which has been slightly sketched in a preceding chapter, when Christianity was introduced to the Scottish Picts at the very time in which we possess numerous proofs of the most intimate intercourse between the two countries. What we chiefly want at present for the elucidation of Scottish Archæology is not theories but facts; yet such historical coincidences, though doubtless open to challenge, are not unworthy of note, and cannot justly be ranked along with the vague theoretical speculations, destitute of any foundation but the fancy of their originators, which have discovered in these Scottish sculptures Egyptian, Phœnician, Braminical, or Druidical symbols, as it chanced to suit the favourite theory of the hour.
The Dunnichen Stone affords a good example of the most frequent symbolic figures: the Z shaped symbol, sometimes, as in this case, intersecting two circles decorated within with foliated lines, and united most frequently by two reversed curves, or occasionally intertwined with a serpent. Along with these, there is also often introduced a crescent-shaped device—the favourite emblem of Druidical theorists—intersected by a V figure, more or less floriated, as on St. Orland's Stone at Cossins,[530] the Aberlemno Cross,[531] and many others. Ingenious theorists have recognised in these the initial Z, L, S, of Zodiacus, Sol, and Luna, and the key to a whole system of mystical enigmas! Another figure which occurs on the Dunnichen Stone has been discovered to be the Atf, or high cap of the Egyptian Osiris surmounted by a lotus! The same combination of symbols, however, is engraved on one of the remarkable silver relics found at Norrie's Law, Fifeshire, as shewn here the same size as the original. From this there can be no doubt that it represents an animal's, probably a dog's, head; and this is equally apparent on one of the crosses in the churchyard of Meigle, and also on what is called "King Malcolm's grave-stone" at Glammis, where the same figure accompanies the two-handed mirror. A writer in the Archæological Journal mentions having met with an almost precisely similar ornament to one of these symbols on Gnostic gems and coins bearing cabalistic inscriptions; and "hence he is led to think that the carvings on the reverse sides of these stones may have been intended to refer to the perpetual conflict between the Cross on the one hand, and false doctrines and worldly pursuits on the other. The Gnostic emblem being intended as an indication of the former of these principles, counteracting and opposing the spreading of the doctrines of the Cross, and the scenes of the chase (so frequently accompanying these sculptured emblems) as indicating the latter."[532] Such abstruse and recondite ideas, however, seem altogether irreconcilable with the age to which the monuments must be assigned, while they leave the main point still unsolved, as to how these symbols do indicate false doctrines or a Pagan faith. Two objects of domestic use, the mirror and comb, frequently accompany the more mysterious figures, and after being assumed by earlier antiquaries as the indications of a female monument, have more recently been traced to the supposed emblems of Christian martyrdom found sculptured on the tombs of the Roman catacombs. Dr. Maitland, however, has successfully combated this mode of explaining what were often no more than the implements of a trade or profession. Above the figures of a mirror, comb, and pair of shears, on one of the primitive Roman tombs, are the simple words VENERIÆ IN PACE, To Veneria in peace,[533]—indications apparently solely of the sex, or possibly of the occupation of the deceased. That these symbols were used in Scotland for the same purpose at a much later period, is proved by the sculptures on some medieval tombs, and in particular on that of the prioress Anna at Iona, who, though a religious, looks no martyr on her tomb. It is engraved by Pennant, (vol. ii. Pl. XXIV. fig. 2,) and more minutely, though in a greatly more imperfect state, in Mr. H. D. Graham's admirable illustrations of the Antiquities of Iona, (Pl. XLV.) Two angels arrange the pillow of the good prioress, a lady neither of spare nor youthful figure; while on either side of her are her little lap-dogs, each with a riband and bell to its neck, and over all the mirror and comb: possibly designed on this, as well as on the Roman lady's tomb, to indicate the virginity or celibacy of the dead. Besides these figures of most frequent occurrence, however, others are also occasionally found curiously referrible to an eastern origin, and, in particular, a symbolic elephant, as on Martin's Stone at Ballutheron, on one of the crosses in the churchyard of Meigle,[534] and on the Maiden Stone on Bennochie, Aberdeenshire, where it accompanies the comb and mirror, from which the monument has probably derived its name.[535] The peculiar character of these singular representations of the elephant is well worthy of study from the evidence they afford of the existence of eastern traditions at the period of their execution. It is impossible to mistake the object intended by the design, while at the same time it is obvious that the artist can never have seen an elephant. What should be the feet are curled up into scrolls, and the trunk is occasionally thrown in a straight line over the back, whereas horses and other animals with which he is familiar are executed with great spirit and truth. Fabulous and monstrous figures also accompany these, such as the centaur occasionally bearing the cross in its hands, and what appears in some to be a branch of mistletoe, as on the reverse of another of the singular crosses in the churchyard at Meigle. On a stone near Glammis a man with a crocodile's head is introduced; on one of the Meigle crosses, among sundry other nondescript animals, is the capricornus or sea-goat; and on the inscribed cross of St. Vigeans a grotesque hybrid, half-bird half-beast, stalks among the fantastic animals and intertwining snakes which decorate its border.
A most lively fancy is apparent in many of these designs; but others are possessed of a much higher value as illustrations of the manners, customs, dresses, weapons, musical instruments, &c., in use at the period when these monuments were erected. Thus in the very curious piece of sculpture figured in the annexed engraving, we have a representation of the use of the bow and arrow, and of a car drawn by two horses. It is now preserved at Meigle along with others, the supposed relics of the tomb of the frail Guanora, Arthur's queen, who, according to Hector Boece, was made captive by the Picts, after the defeat and death of Modred on the banks of the Humber, and passed the remainder of her life in captivity within the strong fortress of Dunbarré or Barry Hill. Thus strangely do we find the romantic tales of the old troubadours, once familiar through medieval Europe, located by popular tradition in the district of Strathmore. Mr. Chalmers conceives that scarcely a doubt can be entertained of the reference to the monument at Meigle ascribed to Queen Guanora, and of which the engraving represents one of the most curious portions, in the following note, under the year 1569, in the Extracta e Cronicis Scotiæ:—"At Newtylde[536] thair is ane stane, callit be sum the Thane Stane, iii eln of heicht, v quarteris braid, ane quarter thik and mair, with ane cors at the heid of it, and ane goddes next that in ane cairt, and twa hors drawand hir, and horsmen under that, and fuitmen and dogges, halkis and serpentis: on the west side of it, ane cors curiouslie grauit; bot all is maid of ane auld fassane of schap. It is allegit that the Thane of Glammis set thir tua stanis quhen that cuntrey wes all ane greit forrest." This description is of great value, not only as preserving a tradition associated with the stone at a period very near the time of Boece, yet differing entirely from his romantic tale of Queen Guanora, but much more so, in that it conveys a tolerably definite idea of what the monument actually was in the sixteenth century.
Meigle Stone Car.
The traditions associated with these singular monuments, whether gathered directly from vague local traditions, or culled from the marvellous pages of the monkish chroniclers, are equally contradictory and valueless, as throwing any light on their origin, whether associated with King Arthur and his ravished Queen, or, like the remarkable Forres obelisk, popularly called King Sueno's Stone, believed to commemorate the final defeat and ejection of the Norsemen from the Scottish mainland. This beautiful monument, which measures twenty three feet in height, has been repeatedly engraved;—by Gordon, on a sufficiently large scale, but with little attempt at accuracy of detail, and more carefully by Cordiner in his Scottish Antiquities.
Daniel Wilson Delt.
William Douglas Sculpt.
ST ANDREWS' SARCOPHAGUS
There can be no question that many of those sculptured monuments are designed to commemorate particular events, though they have long since proved faithless to their trust. Most of such, however, would probably be of less interest to us than the minute and varied information which we are still able to deduce from the primitive historic memorials. We see in them the warrior on horseback and on foot, armed with sword, spear, battle-axe, and dirk, and bearing his circular buckler on his arm,—a much larger shield than that previously described among the later relics of the Pagan era, and, indeed, closely resembling the Highland target, which continued in use in Scotland till the final extinction of the patriarchal system and hereditary customs of the Highland clans, after their last struggle on Culloden Moor. Nor are the sculptures less minute in their illustrations of domestic habits and social arts. In Plates II. and VI. of Mr. Chalmers' valuable work, we have representations of ancient chairs, and figures apparently of priests and monks. In the former, also, and in Plate XIII., are a harp and harper, the latter executed with much spirit, though now greatly defaced; while hunting and hawking scenes frequently occur, accompanied with very graphic representations of the beasts of chase. There is, moreover, a peculiar style running throughout the whole of these sculptures, and a certain action and contour in the figures and animals, which mark them with as distinctive a character as belongs to any medieval or modern school of art. The engraving on Plate IV. represents one of the most elaborate of these Pictish hunting scenes, fully answering to the description of the old Scottish chronicler, of "horsemen, fuitmen, and dogges, halkis and serpentis." It occurs on what is believed to have formed part of a stone coffin, which was dug up in the immediate vicinity of St. Andrew's cathedral, and is now preserved in St. Mary's College there. Along with this slab, which measures five and three-fourths feet long, by two and one-fourth feet broad, there was found what appears to have formed one end, and part of the other, of the same sarcophagus or monument. Both are covered with intricate knotwork, and in the more perfect of the two there are four compartments, two of which are occupied each with a pair of apes, and the others with globes, each encircled with two serpents. Not the least curious feature of this elaborate design is the introduction of well executed apes and other animals, which we would have supposed entirely unknown to the ancient sculptor. Besides these the ram, the horse and hawk, the fawn, the greyhound pursuing the fox in the thicket, and the tiger or leopard, as the fierce assailant of the horseman seems to be, are all executed with great fidelity and spirit. In addition to these there is a nondescript monster, a sort of winged griffin, preying upon a prostrate ass. But by far the most valuable portions of this curious design are the human figures, with their variety of character and costume. Here manifestly is the Patrician, with his long locks and flowing robes, and his richly decorated dirk at his side, while the plebeian huntsman betrays his humble rank, not only in his homely dress and accoutrements, but even in the lean and half-bred cur which forms his companion in the chase. But the engraving will furnish a much more satisfactory idea of these curious details than any description could convey. The most common decoration of this remarkable class of native Scottish monuments, apart from the symbols and sculptured figures so frequently introduced, is the interlaced knotwork which appears to have been so favourite a device of Celtic art. It occurs on the sculptures, the jewelry, the manuscripts, and the decorated shrines and book-cases of early Irish Christian art, and has been perpetuated almost to our own day on the weapons and personal ornaments of the Scottish Highlanders. The annexed illustration represents a very characteristic example of the common Highland brooch, from the original in the collection of C. K. Sharp, Esq. It is of brass, rudely engraved, evidently with the imperfect tools of the native mountaineer. The tongue is of copper, and the brooch measures four and one-tenth inches in diameter. Amid its decorations will be recognised the triple knot, the supposed emblem of the Trinity, along with other interlaced patterns, such as occur in the bosses of sepulchral and monumental crosses of the seventh and eighth centuries. Precisely the same ornaments may be seen on the Highland targets, preserved among the memorials of the field of Culloden; while other combinations of this favourite pattern formed the universal decoration on the handle of the Highland dirk, from the earliest known examples to those belonging to the same fatal field, on which the unbroken Celtic traditions of Scotland were involved in the fortunes of the fated Stuart race.
Celtic Dirks.
Only two of the ancient sculptured standing stones peculiar to Scotland are accompanied with inscriptions. One of them, discovered about thirty years since, on demolishing the ancient Church of Fordoun, in the Mearns, was then apparently undecipherable,[537] and has since become illegible; the other is on a beautiful though mutilated cross in the churchyard of St. Vigeans. That of St. Vigeans is in the common Celtic character familiar to us on early Irish monuments, and on the oldest tombs at Iona, and therefore in so far adds confirmation to the idea advanced as to the probable era of these sculptures. But it is imperfect and perhaps too mutilated to admit of intelligible translation, though sufficient remains in the first words, Aꞅoil en, to shew that it is of the usual character of Scottish and Irish Celtic monumental inscriptions.
"Mr. Petrie," says Mr. Chalmers, "is of opinion, from a portion of it which he has deciphered, that the monument is Pictish, and he expresses a hope that he will be able to explain the inscription." But as the legible fragment seems to consist of only three words and part of a fourth, no very valuable information can be looked for from its fractional remainder.
One other peculiar and indeed altogether unique inscription occurs on a rude unhewn standing stone of granite in the vicinity of the Maiden Stone, with its mysterious symbols, at Newton, in Garioch, Aberdeenshire. The column measures fully six feet in height, and about two feet in greatest breadth. On its upper part is the inscription, extending to six lines, in large and sufficiently distinct, but entirely novel and unintelligible characters. It has been more than once engraved, and repeatedly submitted to eminent antiquaries, but still remains undeciphered. General Vallancey, the well-known Irish antiquary, professed to read the two first words of it. What indeed would he not have undertaken to decipher? These he rendered Gylf Gomarra, Prince Gomarra, apparently from some slight or fancied resemblance of the characters to the corresponding Roman letters, but his G and F are manifestly the same, and the whole still remains an enigma. The side of the same stone, however, bears another inscription, also shewn in part in the annexed engraving, which appears to have escaped the notice of earlier observers, though introduced as a mere ornament in the representation inserted in the Transactions of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. It has recently been pronounced by Irish antiquaries an Ogham inscription, and as such, is an object of considerable interest, no other example of the use of that simple and extremely primitive character, which the older antiquaries of Ireland have made the subject of so many extravagant theories, having been discovered in Scotland. It does not necessarily follow that the two inscriptions belong to the same period, though found on one stone; but both are as yet equally dumb and irresponsive oracles.
Various early inscriptions in the same old Celtic character as that engraved on the St. Vigeans' Cross are still to be found in Scotland, and particularly in the Western Isles, where it had doubtless been in general use, prior to the adoption of the later Church letters common to medieval Europe. Of this class are two stones at Iona, adorned with simple crosses, one of which has been made the subject of some very fruitless speculation. "No one of the inscriptions in Iona," says Mr. H. D. Graham, "has been so much written about as this, and antiquarians do not agree as to its signification. It is in the old Gaelic character, and has been usually interpreted into Donull fada Chasach—The cross of Donald Longshanks."[538] An older decipherer reads it, "Cormac Ulphada hic est situs," indicative of the sepulchre of Cormac Barbatus, one of the kings of Ireland, buried there A.D. 213; and a third assigns it as the memorial of a king of France, who according to equally credible tradition found his last resting-place in the sacred isle. Mr. Graham has accordingly designated it in his Illustrations of the Monuments of Iona, "the disputed inscription," though finding for it a new reading, which assigns it to a Macdonald of the Glengary line, A.D. 1461. The inscription reads: Oꞃ̄ ꝺo mail Ꝼaꞇaꞃic, or with the first word extended:
OROƖꞆ ꝹO MⱭƖɭ ꝻⱭꞆⱭRƖC
A Prayer for the servant of Patrick.
Its modest memorial is sufficiently indefinite, yet it may be assumed with much probability to mark the tomb of Bishop Patrick, whose demise is thus recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters, under A.D. 1174: "Maol Patrick O'Banan, Bishop of Conor and Dal Araidhe, a venerable man, full of sanctity, meekness, and purity of heart, died happily in Hy of Columkille, at a good old age."[539]
Bishop Patrick's Tomb, Iona.
Another rude and unsquared slab, with a slightly ornamented cross, bears the still simpler inscription: Oꞃ̄ ɑꞃ ɑꞃmɩn ϵoᵹɑɩn, armin, or more commonly armunn, being a brave man or chief. Extended it reads:
OROƖꞆ ⱭR ⱭRMƖN ϵOꝽⱭƖN
A Prayer for the Chief Eogain or Ewen.
Eogan or Eoganan, of the Albanic Duan, commenced his reign over the Dalriads in A.D. 801, and subsequently wrested from the Southern Picts the territories conquered by Angus MacFergus, and governed for a time by princes of his line.[540] The name is not uncommon among the early western chiefs; and the Lord of Argyle at the period of Haco's invasion in 1263, as appears from various early charters, was Eugene or Ewen, son of Duncan, a descendant of the great Somerled.
Various other stones, with crosses cut upon them, evidently of the same date as those thus inscribed, lie scattered among the remarkable tombs of the Relig Oran, or St. Oran's Burial Ground,—that sacred spot, the resting-place of saints, and kings, and old island chiefs, so deeply interesting to every Scottish heart,—but these are the only examples of this early class on which inscriptions are now decipherable. Many of the tombs of a later date are ornamented with figures and floriated patterns in relief, characterized by singular beauty and great variety of design. The style of ornamentation on some of them is peculiar to the Western Isles and the neighbouring Scottish mainland: but such ample justice has been done to them in the recent beautiful series of views of the "Antiquities of Iona," by Mr. H. D. Graham, that it is unnecessary to resort to the less intelligible process of verbal description. The intermingling of foliage, scroll-work, chain-work, geometric patterns, and knotwork, with animals, figures, and sacred or warlike implements, is characterized by a profuseness and variety of design such as the sepulchral monuments of scarcely any other single locality or age can equal. The greater number of them, however, belong to a later period than that now under consideration, but on this very account, as well as for other reasons, we must dissent from the conclusions as to the origin of their style of art, advanced by the Rev. J. S. Howison, in his valuable papers on the Antiquities of Argyleshire. The well-ascertained dates of some of the most remarkable of these monuments fix their era from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. The accompanying illustration supplies a characteristic example, in the mutilated cross of Lauchlan M'Fingon, the father of Abbot John of Iona, who died A.D. 1500, and had a more important tomb, adorned with his recumbent figure in full canonicals, within the cathedral, though his name figures on the cross in St. Oran's Chapel, erected as we may presume by himself. It is a valuable illustration for our present purpose, as the inscription and date are still perfectly legible: ✠ Hec: est: Crux: Laeclanni: Maic: Fingone: et: eius: filii: Johannis: abbatis: de: Hy: facta anno: domini: Mo: CCCCo: LXXXo IXo. The lymphad, which figures as one of the herald's quarterings of the Mackinnons, is indeed believed to have been derived from the Northmen, but in the form it assumes on this and other Iona sculptures, it bears as little resemblance to the long-oared war galley so frequently engraved on native Scandinavian monuments and relics as the accompanying ornaments do to any known device of Northern origin. The late era to which some of the most characteristic of these sculptures belong, should alone suffice to disprove the idea "that the Scandinavians were the authors of this particular kind of art exhibited by the stone crosses, as also by the sepulchral monuments of Argyleshire;"[541] but no such monuments are now to be found in any of the Scandinavian kingdoms, and since the style must have arisen somewhere, it is surely not more difficult to conceive of it originating in Scotland than in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. In so far as it is derived, its suggestive originals appear to have been much more Irish than Scandinavian. Its peculiar individuality, however, arises from the same cause as the very singular characteristics of Irish ecclesiology. Both Scotland and Ireland stood more apart than any other of the kingdoms of Christendom from the Crusades and other great movements which conferred so remarkable a homogeneity on medieval Europe. The earlier arts were consequently left there to develop new forms and modifications long after they had been elsewhere entirely superseded by the later styles of medieval art. At the period to which the beautiful monuments of Argyleshire are referrible that district stood singularly isolated, sharing only very partially even in the influences of Scottish art, and still less in its social progress, while at the same time the peculiar sanctity indissolubly associated with its ancient shrines kept alive the spirit in which these originated. Scarcely any circumstances can be conceived more favourable for the development of a new style of art; and hence not only the peculiarity but the endless variety discoverable on the monuments of Argyleshire, and especially in the Relig Oran of Iona. A Scotsman may be pardoned even for some excess of zeal in advancing his claims for sole hereditary right to that historic ground, and the moss-grown sculptures with which it is paved, where
"You never tread upon them but you set
Your feet upon some reverend history."
Iona Cross.