[701] Archæological Journal, vol. vi. p. 71.
CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES.
The numerous relics which illustrate the arts and manners of the Medieval Period have already furnished English and foreign antiquaries with copious materials for large and valuable treatises on single selected departments, nor is the field of Scottish medieval art greatly less productive. It is not, however, designed in this closing chapter to do more than select a few characteristic examples of a very miscellaneous character, which are worthy of a passing glance in a treatise on Scottish Archæology, though they pertain to a branch of the subject which can only be satisfactorily dealt with in detached monographs. Of medieval personal ornaments it would be vain to attempt the most cursory enumeration in a closing chapter; but their value as elements of medieval history is altogether different from those of the primitive periods heretofore referred to. Whatever exhibits to us the artistic skill, the ingenuity, and the personal habits of a past age, cannot be without interest to the historian; but we manifestly stand in a very different position in relation to those accessories of history when dealing with comparatively recent and literate ages.
Gold Ring, Flodden Field.
One branch of medieval art—the fictile ware—naturally possesses peculiar attraction to the Archæologist, as the offspring of the primitive arts already minutely considered. So far as may be judged of Scottish medieval pottery from the few examples preserved, it does not greatly differ from contemporary English fictile ware. One curious specimen found in 1833 at Perclewan, in the parish of Dalrymple, Ayrshire, is described as "a pitcher of earthenware like that represented in prints in the hand of the woman of Samaria, at the well of Sychar."[702] It is glazed, as is most usual with medieval pottery, of a greenish colour, and is curiously decorated on the front with the face and hands of a man in relief. From the description it appears to bear a close resemblance to a fictile vessel found at the bottom of an old well, discovered under the foundation of houses in Cateaton Street, City, London, taken down in 1841.[703]
Several fine specimens of medieval pottery were dug up a few years since on the estate of Courthill, in the vicinity of Dalry, Ayrshire, and are now in the possession of the proprietor, Andrew Crawford, Esq. Nearly at the same time a remarkable antique sword was discovered at Courthill. The blade, which was of iron, was so greatly corroded that only a fragment of it could be removed; but the handle is of bronze, in the form of a dragon, and is described as characterized by considerable elegance.
