The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

Perthshire Bell.

At no very remote date several of these ancient consecrated bells were to be found in Scotland, and evidence of the most satisfactory kind proves the former existence of others dedicated to primitive Scottish saints, nor is it at all improbable that some of these may still be preserved. The accompanying engraving represents one example manifestly of the earliest and most primitive form. It was obtained some years ago in Perthshire, and now forms one of the many valuable Scottish relics in the collection of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq.; but unfortunately no clue exists to its original dedication or the local associations of its early history. This primitive bell measures four and a quarter inches in height, including the handle, and three and three-quarters, by one and three-quarters inches, at the mouth. It is fashioned out of a single plate of sheet-iron; and the ring which forms the handle externally projects internally, so as to form a loop, from which the clapper was suspended.

Though no representations of these singular relics of the Celtic church have been introduced on the sculptured crosses, they are figured on various early Scottish seals. The bell of St. Kentigern, the great apostle of Strathclyde, was an object of devout veneration at Glasgow for many centuries; and after forming a prominent feature in the armorial bearings of the archiepiscopal see, still figures in the modern city's arms. There has even been thought to be sufficient evidence to justify the belief of the original bell having escaped the indiscriminate destruction of sacred relics at the Reformation, from an entry in the accounts of the city treasurer for the year 1578, of a charge of two shillings "for ane tong to Sanct Mungowe's bell."[678] But it may be doubted if this could be the original bell of the western saint, which is figured on the ancient seal of the community of the city, used in the reign of Robert I., and also on the contemporary chapter seal, and described by Father Innes as on the burgh seal attached to a charter, now lost, of the year 1293.[679] On the former of these its form is very distinctly shewn, completely corresponding to the earliest square portable bells with looped handles. Its introduction on these seals attests the great reverence with which it was regarded; and various references both in the Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, and in the Liber Collegii Nostre Domine, Glasguensis, MDXLIX, to the Campana Beati Kentegerni, abundantly confirm the evidence of its sanctity. It is also repeatedly referred to in the Aberdeen Breviary, as in the anthem appointed for the day of the apostle of Strathclyde:—

Visitat alma pii vite septenta loca Petri
Presul campana cui seruit in ethere sacra.

An author of the seventeenth century affirms that the venerable relic survived even in the reign of Charles I.;[680] nor is there anything inconceivable in this, when so many others of the same kind are still preserved. But it is not at all probable that the bell on which the citizens of Glasgow, in 1587, expended two shillings in repair was of so unpractical a form as their old burgh seal proves the original campana of their patron saint to have been. More probably it was a large bell in the tower of St. Mungo's Cathedral, for the repair of which the specified sum might then prove amply sufficient, as appears from a somewhat earlier entry in the same Burgh Records: "Decimo Maii, 1577, to George Burell, for ane tag to þe towng of þe hie kirk bell, xx^d."[681] From the inscription on the present great bell of the cathedral it appears that it was presented by Marcus Knox, a wealthy citizen, in 1594, the old one, after repeated repairs, having at length, it may be presumed, entirely given way. The woodcut represents another of these ancient Celtic relics, which, though preserved along with other memorials of Ireland's saints, in the valuable collection of Mr. Bell of Dungannon, pertains to one of the primitive apostles of his own native land, the celebrated Scottish missionary bishop, St. Ninian or St. Ringan. The Clog-rinny, or bell of St. Ninian, is rude enough to have been contemporary with the Candida Casa of Whithern in Galloway, and to have summoned to the preaching of the missionary bishop the first of the tribes of North Briton converted to the worship of the true God.[682]

The honour attached to the custody of the most sacred relics occasioned in various cases the creation of special offices, with emoluments and lands pertaining to their holders, and the transference of these to lay impropriators on the overthrow of the ancient ecclesiastical system, has led to the preservation of some few of the relics of primitive Scottish saints, even to our own day. But for the rude shock of civil war which, in the last century, involved so many of our oldest nobility in the ruined fortunes of the fated Stuart race, more of these might still have been in existence. Both the "Sacra Campana Sancti Kessogii," and the "Sacra Campana Sancti Lolani," were included among the feudal investitures of the earldom of Perth—a sufficiently significant proof of the value ascribed to them. They are referred to so recently as the year 1675.[683] Less reverential motives probably led to the preservation of the Clagan, or Little Bell of St. Barry, a favourite old Celtic saint who gives name to the district of Argyleshire where he is said to have ministered. This relic, which remained till the close of last century in the possession of the principal heritor of Kilberry parish, was somewhat larger, and probably of less hoar antiquity, than the primitive ecclesiastical memorials previously described. "The bell of St. Barry's Chapel," says the compiler of the Old Account of the Parish of South Knapdale, "is still in preservation at Kilberry Castle, and has been long prostituted to the ignoble purpose of summoning the servants of that family to their meals. It is inscribed with the saint's name in the Latin language and Saxon character, but unfortunately without date."[684] I learn on inquiry, from J. Campbell, Esq., the present proprietor of Kilberry Castle, that the ancient bell of St. Barry no longer exists. In a letter with which he has favoured me, he remarks,—"I have heard my father say that it fell down and cracked. The metal was recast into another bell, which is here now. I have heard him mention the inscription, but do not believe there was any copy of it kept." A remarkable stone cross, with the figure of our Saviour upon it, and numerous sculptured and incised tombstones, still remain around the site of the ancient chapel of St. Barry, the ruins of which were only demolished a few years ago. An inscription upon it bore that it had been plundered and burnt by Captain Pooley, an English rover, in 1513.[685]

More minute information relative to the preservation of another of the ancient Scottish saints' bells, as the evidence of hereditary right to the privileges attached to its custodier, is supplied by "The Airlie Papers," printed in the Spalding Miscellany. One of these is a formal resignation of the Bell of St. Meddan, by Michael Dauid, its hereditary curator, to Sir John Ogilvy; and the transference of it by him to his wife Margaret, Countess of Moray, of date 27th June 1447. It is followed by "the instrument of sessyn of the bell," dated twenty-one days later, from which we discover the substantial advantages pertaining to the custody of this relic. The Countess was thereby put in possession of a house or toft near the church of Luntrethin, which pertained to the bell, of which it formed both the title and evidence of tenure. "The instrument of sessyn" further describes the formal process of investiture, the Countess having been shut into the house by herself, after receiving the feudal symbols of resignation of the property by the delivery to her of earth and stone.[686]

The Aberdeen Breviary commemorates another Scottish bell, pertaining to St. Ternan, the apostle of the Picts, and presented to him by Pope Gregory the Great. It was preserved, with other relics of the saint, at the church which was erected over his tomb at Banchory, Aberdeenshire; and legal deeds of the fifteenth century are extant to shew the importance attached to the custody "of the bell of Sanct Ternan, callit the Ronecht,"[687]—a name most probably derived from the Gaelic Ronnaich, a poet, rannach, a songster, in allusion to its melodious sounds, though such is by no means a usual characteristic of these primitive bells, their clogarnach or tinkling being anything but musical. The Old Account of the Parish of Killin, in Perthshire, furnishes the description of the bell of another favourite Celtic saint—that of St. Fillan, who flourished in the middle of the seventh century—not only preserved, but had in reverence for its miraculous powers, almost to the close of the eighteenth century:—