[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.
