These spurious chalices of modern date have led us somewhat beyond the legitimate bounds of the subject, though they cannot be considered quite undeserving of a passing notice. Only one other early Scottish relic remains to be noted,—a small brass box, closely resembling several which have been found at various times in England, and have been supposed to be pyxes, intended to hold the chrism, or by some as designed only for containing pigments or unguents. Two similar boxes discovered at Lewis are engraved in the Archæologia, and described as small bronze pyxes;[700] and another found at Lincoln is figured in the Archæological Journal.[701] The remarkably close resemblance of these to the Scottish example manifestly points to some common purpose for the whole; and the latter is of special value as supplying the means which are wanting in the others of making some approximation to the precise age to which they belong. It was found about the year 1818, near Dalquharran Castle, in the parish of Daily, Ayrshire, filled with coins of David II. of Scotland, Edwards I. and II. of England, and two counterfeit sterlings of the Counts of Flanders and Porcieu. It is now in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries.
Few as are the examples of Scottish ecclesiastical relics which we can now refer to, they are more than we might reasonably anticipate in a country where the fanes and altars of the medieval church have lain in ruins for so many centuries, and even the existence of a single ruined church pertaining to its primitive Christian era may be still liable to dispute. Though such remains are of less esteem as sources of information relative to the periods to which they belong than the objects of earlier eras, they will not be regarded by the intelligent historian as altogether devoid of value in relation to the peculiar arts and customs or the degree of civilisation of ages, concerning which much obscurity has still to be removed.
FOOTNOTES:
[664] A pretty large list of Scottish monumental effigies might still be made. Descriptions of monuments furnished to me by the Rev. J. H. Hughes, and George Seton, Esq., include nearly sixty, many of which contain two recumbent figures, and to these considerable additions might be made, while many more empty niches suffice to shew where others once have lain.
[665] Memorials of Edin. vol. ii. p. 169.
[666] Archæologia Scotica, vol. i. p. 260.
[667] Graham's Monuments of Iona, p. 19. Plate XXXIII.
[668] Transactions Cambridge Camden Soc. vol. i. p. 177.
[669] Akerman's Archæological Index. Plate XIX. fig. 6.
[670] Archæol. Scotica, vol. iv. p. 122.