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.
FOOTNOTES:
[526] The Ancient Sculptured Monuments of the County of Angus, including those at Meigle in Perthshire, and one at Fordoun in Mearns, by Patrick Chalmers, of Auldbar, Esq. Bannatyne Club.
[527] Archæol. Scot. vol. ii. Pl. VI. fig. 3; Pl. IX. fig. 3.
[528] Sculptured Mon. of Angus, Pl. VI. fig. 3.