[593] Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 203.
[594] The account in the text differs as to the number of pieces, as well as in some other and more important points, from that given in the Archæologia, (vol. xxiv. p. 212.) Sir F. Madden, however, only describes those which were acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., to whom I owe these particulars, possesses eleven pieces, consisting of two kings, three queens, three bishops, one knight, and two warders. Ten of these he selected from the whole, previous to their possessor, Mr. Roderick Ririe, offering them to the Trustees. The remaining one was afterwards obtained from a person residing in Lewis. Sir F. Madden is also mistaken in speaking of their having been long subject to the action of salt-water. They were found at some distance from the shore; a sudden and very considerable inroad having been made by the sea. A minute of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, referring to the exhibition of these chessmen, 11th April 1831, describes them as "found buried fifteen feet under a bank of sand." Mr. Sharp has in his possession the original receipt given to Mr. Ririe by the jeweller in Edinburgh, with whom they were deposited, which describes them as "fifty-eight figures, thirty-four pieces, and a buckle of ivory or bone."
[595] The queen figure, of which a back view is given in the engraving in order to shew the peculiar form of the head-dress, holds in the left hand a horn similar to that which one of the queen figures now in the British Museum bears. In cutting this figure the carver has exposed the core of the tooth, and the side of the chair here seen is formed of another piece of ivory attached to it with pins of the same material. This is so neatly done that Mr. Sharp's attention was called to it for the first time when I was drawing the piece.
[596] Singer's Wayland Smith, p. lxxiii.
[597] "L'Empereur et Roy de France, Sainct Charlemagne, a donné, au Thresor de Sainct Denys un jeu d'eschets, avec le tablier, le tout d'yvoire."—Hist. Abbey of St. Denis, 1625.
[598] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 148.
[599] Stuart's Costume of the Clans, Introd. p. xxxiv.
[600] Archæologia, vol. xxiii. Plate XXVIII. p. 317.
[601] Glossary of Architecture, fifth edit. vol. ii. Plate LXXIII.
[602] Vide, in addition to figure shewn here, Archæol. vol. xxiv. Pl. XLVIII. figs. 3, 4.