The sculptured figures cut in relief on the imposts and at the base of the doorway, are unhappily too much defaced to admit of a very distinct idea being now formed of their original appearance. Mr. Gough, who examined and made drawings of them eighty years since, when they may be presumed to have been somewhat more perfect, thus describes this ancient doorway: "On the west front are two arches, one within the other, in relief; on the point of the outermost is a crucifix, and between both, towards the middle, are figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John, the latter holding a cup with a lamb."[624] But it was unhappily too much the fashion with antiquaries of the last century, to see what they desired, and to make their drawings accordingly, so that little value can be attached to this precise description. One of the figures holds a pastoral staff, and the other may perhaps have borne a mitre. They were, not improbably, originally designed to represent St. Serf, St. Columba, or some other of the favourite primitive Scottish saints. The larger of the two measures one foot eleven inches in height, including the pedestal or block of stone on which it stands. The nondescript animals below no less effectually baffle any attempts at description. "If one of them," says Gough, "by his proboscis had not the appearance of an elephant, I should suppose them the supporters of the Scotch arms!" Pennant, undeterred by the proboscis,—which, indeed, even now looks more like a fish in the animal's mouth,—conceives them more probably to be the Caledonian bear and boar. The lapse of eighty years has not added to their distinctness, and little good can be hoped for from such random guessings. But the two upper blocks supply curious and unmistakable evidence of the fact, that the original design of the old sculptor has been abruptly brought to a close. Additional figures—not improbably ministering angels—have manifestly been intended to be introduced on either side of the crucified Redeemer, but from some cause—possibly yet ascertainable from the Irish annalists—the work of decoration has been arrested, and the unshapen blocks have been left to be fashioned by the tooth of time.
To these few examples of ecclesiastical buildings belonging to a period prior to the development of the architecture of Medieval Europe, I have little doubt that further research, particularly in the Hebrides and the neighbouring coasts of the mainland, may still supply some interesting additions. This volume has been delayed in the hope of being able to accomplish a tour sketched out for that purpose, but the plan must be executed at a future time, and most probably by other investigators, who possess all the requisites for its efficient accomplishment. It is exceedingly likely that some of the primitive oratories of the first centuries of Scottish Christianity still exist on the remote sites frequently chosen by the ascetic missionaries of the faith. Martin, for example, after describing the Eird Houses or Weems of the Western Isles, adds,—"There are several little stone-houses built above ground, capable only of one person, and round in form; one of them is to be seen in Portry, another at Linero, and at Culunock. They are called Tey-nin-druinich, i.e., Druid's House."[625] Again, the Old Account of the Parish of Orphir, in Orkney, furnishes the following description:—"In the churchyard are the remains of an ancient building, called the Girth House, to which great antiquity is ascribed. It is a rotundo eighteen feet in diameter, and twenty feet high, open at top; and on the east side is a vaulted concavity, where probably the altar stood, with a slit in the wall to admit the light; two-thirds of it have been taken down to repair the parish church. The walls are thick, and consist of stones, strongly cemented with lime. From its resemblance to the Pantheon, some have ascribed this building to the Romans; but in all probability it has been a chapel, dedicated by the piety of its founder to some favourite saint."[626] These seem, like the more celebrated Arthur's Oon, to answer in description to the small circular structures familiar to Irish antiquaries as bee-hive houses, and which are believed to have been the abodes of ancient ecclesiastics. Even on Arthur Seat, exposed to the restless populace of the neighbouring city, some remains of the simple cell of the Hermit of St. Anthony are still visible, and on the Island of Inchcolm, in the Frith of Forth, a rudely arched little vault, of uncertain age and sufficiently primitive construction, adjoining the ruined monastery over which the historian, Abbot Bowar, presided, is shewn as the cell of the good Hermit of St. Columba, where he entertained King Alexander I. for three days, when driven on the island by a tempest. The adjacent monastic buildings still include remains of various early dates, some of which will come under review in the following chapter; but an interesting memorial of the original monastery has been preserved on the chapter seal, which—like some of those of the metropolitan see figured with the primitive Cathedral of St. Rule—is engraved with a view of the ancient Abbey Church of Inchcolm. In style of art the seal bears considerable resemblance to those of St. Andrews. The church is represented consisting of nave and choir, with a central tower surmounted by a spire, and with plain round-headed windows in the choir. The only impressions yet discovered are very imperfect; but little doubt can be entertained that in these we have a representation of the original structure of the twelfth century, fully as accurate and trustworthy as we are enabled to ascertain the ancient seals of St. Andrews to have been. Thus does wax and parchment outlive the graven brass and the masonry which seemed to bid defiance to time.
FOOTNOTES:
[613] Laing's Ancient Scottish Seals, Nos. 1103, 1105, 1106.
[614] Hibbert's Shetland, p. 457.
[615] Hibbert's Shetland, p. 530.
[616] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, 8vo, pp. 242, 245.
[617] Sinclair's Statistical Account, vol. xix. p. 44.
[618] Itinerar. Septent., p. 164.