Fragments of pottery, of a similar character to the most abundant class of early English medieval pottery, were dug up at a considerable depth, during the progress of excavations on the Castlehill of Edinburgh in 1849, for constructing a large reservoir, but they were unfortunately too much broken by the workmen to admit of any very definite idea being formed of their shape. The annexed woodcut is from an example in my own possession, which was dug up a few years since in the ancient tumular cemetery in the neighbourhood of North-Berwick Abbey, East-Lothian. It measures eleven and a quarter inches in height, and about five and a half inches in greatest diameter, and is covered, both externally and internally, with the usual greenish glaze, common on contemporary English pottery. Various similar specimens appear to have been discovered in the same locality, but in most cases only to be destroyed,—such coarse earthenware being naturally regarded as scarcely worth the trouble of removing. The example figured here represents a small but very curious specimen of Scottish fictile ware, in the collection at Penicuick House, of the precise age of which we have tolerably accurate evidence. It was found on one of the neighbouring farms in the year 1792, filled with coins of Alexander III., and of Edward I. and II. of England. It measures only three and three quarters inches in height; and is perforated at nearly uniform intervals with holes, as shewn in the engraving. It is of rude unglazed earthenware, and is unsymmetrical, as represented here.
Another class of relics found in considerable numbers at North-Berwick, as well as in various other districts, are small tobacco pipes, popularly known in Scotland by the names of Celtic or Elfin pipes, and in Ireland, where they are even more abundant, as Dane's pipes. The woodcut represents one of those found at North-Berwick, the size of the original. To what period these curious relics belong, I am at a loss to determine. The popular names attached to them manifestly point to an era long prior to that of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Maiden Queen, or of the royal author of "A Counterblast to Tobacco," and the objects along with which they have been discovered, would also seem occasionally to lead to similar conclusions, in which case we shall be forced to assume that the American weed was only introduced as a superior substitute for older narcotics. Hemp may in all probability have formed one of these. It is still largely used in the East for this purpose; but Mr. C. K. Sharpe informs me that even in his younger days it was common for the old wives of Annandale to smoke a dried white moss gathered on the neighbouring moors, which they declared to be much sweeter than tobacco, and to have been in use before the American weed was heard of. I leave the subject, however, for further investigation, only adding one or two examples of the circumstances under which these Elfin pipes have been found. The ancient cemetery at North-Berwick is in the vicinity of a small Romanesque building of the twelfth century, and close upon the sea shore. Within the last fifty years the sea has made great encroachments, carrying off a considerable ruin, and exposing the skeletons of the old tenants of the cemetery, along with many interesting relics of former generations, at almost every spring tide. Notices of similar discoveries of the Elfin pipe occur in several of the Scottish Statistical Accounts under various circumstances, but some of them certainly suggestive of their belonging to a remote era: e.g.—
"Many of the ancient British encampments appear in the parish [of Kirkmichael, Dumfriesshire.] Upon some of these being opened ashes have been found, likewise several broken querns or hand-mills, and in one of them, upon the farm of Gilrig, with a partition crossing it, and which seems to have been occupied during later times, there was dug out a sword having a basket-hilt, but so much covered with rust that it was impossible to form any accurate opinion respecting its antiquity. There was also seen a number of pipes of burnt clay, with heads somewhat smaller than that of the tobacco-pipe now in use, swelled at the middle and straiter at the top."[704] Again,
"Till lately, one of those remarkable monuments of antiquity, called standing stones, stood at Cairney Mount, (parish of Carluke, Lanarkshire,) but the hope of finding a hidden treasure induced some rude hand to destroy it. It is supposed to have stood at the side of a Roman road passing from Lanark across the bridge of the Mouse beneath Cartland Crags.... A celt or stone hatchet; Elfin-bolts, (flint and bone arrow-heads); Elfin pipes, (pipes with remarkably small bowls); numerous coins of the Edwards, and of later date, have been found in the neighbourhood."[705] An example is also noted of the discovery of a tobacco pipe in sinking a pit for coal at Misk, in Ayrshire, after digging through many feet of sand.[706]
Some of the Scottish and Irish Elfin pipes are even smaller than the example figured above, and seem still better adapted for the recreations of "the good people" to whom their origin is popularly ascribed. Others are ornamented with patterns in relief, and many of them, though not generally of the very smallest size, are stamped with figures or devices. One example in the possession of Mr. C. K. Sharpe, found at a depth of many feet on the Castlehill of Edinburgh, bears the impress of the initials
TB;
L
and of upwards of seventy specimens in the collection of Mr. Bell of Dungannon, some are stamped R D, and on others are the letters G Λ, C L,
o
oHo,