IV. SCOTO-SCANDINAVIAN RELICS…

IV. SCOTO-SCANDINAVIAN RELICS

From the slight historical sketch introduced in a preceding chapter, we perceive that the plundering expeditions of the Norse Vikings, and the establishment of Norwegian dominion by Harold in the Northern and Western Isles, were rapidly superseded by the establishment of an independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdom, which diminished the direct intercourse with Scandinavia Proper, and led to some interfusion of the Celtic and Scandinavian races. To this period, therefore, we must look for the introduction of pure Scandinavian antiquities into Scotland, and also for the production of those native relics which bear manifest traces of the influence of Scandinavian art. In the Western Isles especially, where the expatriated Vikings of Norway fixed their head-quarters, and in Man, and the Orkney and Shetland Isles, where the first independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdoms were established, we may naturally look for many traces of Scandinavian arts.

To this period belongs the very characteristic and beautiful ornament, usually designated the shell-shaped brooch, and which is equally familiar to Scandinavian and British antiquaries. In Scotland especially, many beautiful examples have been found: several of them are preserved in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, and from these the following is selected as surpassing in beauty of design and intricacy of ornament, any other example of which I am aware. It consists, as usual, of a convex plate of metal, with an ornamental border, surmounted by another convex plate of greater depth, highly ornamented with embossed and perforated designs, the effect of which appears to have been further heightened by the lower plate being gilded so as to shew through the open work. In this example the gilding still remains tolerably perfect. On the under side are the projecting plates still retaining a fragment of the corroded iron pin, where it has turned on a hinge, and at the opposite end the bronze catch into which it clasped. The under side of the brooch appears to have been lined with coarse linen, the texture of which is still clearly defined on the coating of verd antique with which it is now covered. But its peculiar features consist of an elevated central ornament resembling a crown, and four intricately chased projections terminating in horses' heads. It was found in September 1786, along with another brooch of the same kind, lying beside a skeleton, under a flat stone, very near the surface, above the ruins of a Pictish house or burgh, in Caithness. It measures nearly four and a half inches in length, by three inches in breadth, and two and two-fifth inches in height to the top of the crown. Like many others of the same type, it appears to have been jewelled. In several examples of these brooches which I have compared, the lower convex plates so nearly resemble each other, as to suggest the probability of their having been cast in the same mould, while the upper plates entirely differ.

These oval brooches are most frequently found in pairs, and may be presumed to have been worn on the front of the shoulders or breast, as shewn in a curious piece of sculpture, evidently of nearly the same period, which is built into the church wall of Invergowrie. It is engraved in Mr. Chalmers of Auldbar's "Ancient Sculptured Monuments of Angus," (Pl. XXII.) and represents, apparently, three dignitaries, probably priests, as two of them hold books in their hands. The two outer figures are adorned with large brooches on their shoulders, while the central, and perhaps more important figure, is without them, but wears instead a circular ornament on the lower front of his garment. Along with the pairs of oval brooches is frequently found a third, flat and sometimes trefoiled. One of these, referred to more particularly on a subsequent page, found along with a pair of oval brooches, in a barrow on the Island of Westray, in 1839, was first observed on the exposure of the skeleton, apparently laid on the abdomen, while the others were beside the ribs, as if worn on the breast. Another example from the Island of Sangay is figured in the Vetusta Monumenta, (vol. ii. Pl. XX.) A beautiful pair, made of a white-coloured metal, found under peculiar circumstances in a tumulus in Yorkshire, and another from the neighbourhood of Bedale, are figured in the Archæological Journal.[558] Various other specimens are preserved, both in public and private collections, but none of those that I have seen appear to equal in elaborateness or beauty of design, the Caithness brooch figured above.

By far the most remarkable relic associated with the period of Scandinavian invasion yet discovered in Scotland, is the beautiful Runic brooch, engraved on Plate I., which forms the frontispiece to this volume. It was found in the autumn of 1830, on the estate of Robert Hunter, Esq. of Hunterston, in the parish of West Kilbride, Ayrshire, within about an hundred yards of the sea, by two workmen who had commenced to quarry for stones. It lay quite close to the surface, at the foot of a steep cliff, called the "Hawking Craig," where the falcon still breeds,--a part of the Goldenberry hill, which bounds the extreme western point of Ayrshire. Between the Hawking Craig and the sea is a level piece of ground, where local tradition affirms that a skirmish took place, shortly before the celebrated battle of Largs, fought A.D. 1263,[559] when the fleet of King Haco was shattered by a tempest, and the Norse foe, already dispirited and greatly reduced in numbers, was totally routed, and finally driven from the Scottish mainland. In further confirmation of the local tradition Mr. Hunter adds,--"On the opposite side of the Hawking Craig, where the brooch was found, I discovered, in making a fence, some graves, composed merely of six rough stones, but with nothing inside but some charcoal, the bones being quite decayed. A short distance from this, at the foot of the hill, is the flat piece of ground assigned as the scene of the skirmish, in confirmation of which I discovered some graves there. A short way from this was a large cairn or tumulus of stones, wherein were found coins, &c.; but I just recollect, as a boy, the stones having been carted away: I found also an urn of unbaked clay, half filled with bones partially burned." It might admit of doubt if the Norsemen were likely to tarry on an enemy's coast, after so decisive a defeat, long enough to construct the cist and cinerary urn, and to rear the funeral pile, though we know that they were permitted to land, after the battle of Largs, in order to bury their dead. But we may dispense with the argument in this case, as we have not the slightest reason to imagine that the cinerary urn was in use, either by Scots or Norwegians, of the thirteenth century. In truth, the whole theory by which the remarkable relic now referred to is sought to be connected with the important historical event of the reign of Alexander III., is destitute of any satisfactory foundation. The locality is far removed from Largs, and not the slightest value can be attached to any local tradition of Norwegian skirmishes or battles. A reference to the old and new statistical accounts of the various parishes, along both the Ayrshire and Argyleshire coasts, will suffice to shew that the battle of King Haco has proved as infallible a source of explanation for the discovery of cists, tumuli, cairns, and sepulchral relics of every kind, as if it were a well authenticated fact that no one had died, from the days of Noah to our own, but at the battle of Largs!

Sturla, the Norse skald, has celebrated the gorgeous armament of Haco in the famous Raven's Ode, and disguises the extent of his monarch's defeat with the skill of a courtly bard; but in vain. King Haco gathered together the shattered remnant of his fleet, and bore away for Orkney, where he died, not many weeks after, of a broken heart. The old Norse skald thus refers to his earlier success, while the fleet was gathering along the Scottish shores, in sight of the Ayrshire coast:--"Our fierce veterans, feeders of wolves, hastened their fatal course through the mountains. In the fell battle mingling, Aleinn the Dauntless wreaked vengeance on the expiring foe. But now our sovereign encountered the horrid powers of enchantment. A tempest, magic-raised, blew upon our warriors ambitious of conquest, and against the floating habitations of the brave. The roaring billows dashed shielded companies on the Scottish strand."

In one of the skirmishes which preceded the fatal encounter fought on Tuesday the 2d of October 1263, the beautiful brooch engraved on Plate I. is assumed to have been lost. Both the character of its inscription and the style of its ornament suggest the probability of its pertaining to a much earlier period; and even Danish antiquaries, while not unwilling to authenticate its Scandinavian origin, have sought for it a date one hundred and thirty-three years prior to the defeat of King Haco, and the final abandonment of the Scottish mainland by the Norwegian invader. The brooch is of silver, richly wrought with gold filigree work, and measures four inches and nine-tenths in greatest diameter. It is also set with amber, and is in a nearly perfect condition. The only injury it has received, with the exception of the point of the acus being broken off, is in some of the amber settings, occasioned either by the action of the weather, to which it was exposed from lying so near the surface, or possibly from the frequent burning of the whins which abound along the cliff where it was found. But the most remarkable feature of this beautiful personal ornament is an inscription engraved in large Runic characters on its under side.

Shortly after the discovery of this interesting relic, it was exhibited to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and Mr. T. G. Repp, a native of Iceland, familiar with Runic literature, read the inscription thus:--

Maloritha á dalk this; Dólk Osfriđo; which he thus translated: Maloritha possidet hanc fibulam; Fibula Osfridie. At the same time drawings of the brooch were made, and a cast in sulphur was taken from the inscription, which is now deposited in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. This valuable historic relic, which is here for the first time presented to British archæologists, has attracted considerable attention among Danish antiquaries. It was made the subject of a learned communication by Finn Magnusen, in the Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie for 1846, (pp. 323-599,) but it admits of doubt if he has been more successful in the correct rendering of this than of the well-known Runamo or Ruthwell inscriptions, though he is equally precise in assigning to our Ayrshire brooch a definite date and owner, as in identifying Offa, and the other historical characters of whom mention is made, according to certain readings of the Ruthwell Runes.

The inscription on the brooch is traced in large Runic characters, of which an exact fac-simile is introduced in the frontispiece, and differs essentially from any readings hitherto given of it by Danish antiquaries. Professor Magnusen's version, furnished by the late Mr. Donald Gregory, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, was probably only a copy of that made by Mr. Repp, though he reads the second name ᚮᛍᚠᚱᛁᛐᚭ, and contrives to elicit a vast deal more significance from the brief legend than its former translator dreamt of. He renders the first part--MALFRIÞA A DALK ÞIS; and translates it, Malfritha is the owner of this brooch. In this Malfritha he ingeniously discovers the Norwegian Queen Malford, a Russian princess who lived about A.D. 1130, while he finds in the Osfrido of the latter part of his version, Astrith the wife of King Svenir. A passage, moreover, in the Saga of King Haco, wherein the monarch complains of having been despoiled in infancy of all his inheritance save a brooch and a ring, completed the coveted cycle of historical identification, and here accordingly we have the brooch of King Haco, and an undoubted memorial of the Battle of Largs! A glance at the fac-simile of the inscription will shew how much imagination had to do even with the literal elements of this unparalleled discovery. In adapting the first name to his historical romance, Professor Magnusen reads ᚮ as F, not only without any authority, but even while recognising the regular ᚠ, or Runic F, in the second name--a needless liberty as will appear. The word ᚦᛁᛍ is no less a creation of the fancy. The mark which appears to have been construed into the terminating circle of the ᛍ, and to have given some show of probability to the others, being only the head of one of the silver rivets, which chances there to protrude in the middle of a line.

Meanwhile let us glance at the safer guidance which pure archæological evidence supplies. In addition to the inscription, I have introduced in the drawing, portions of the ornamental borders running along the outer and inner edges of the brooch. The Irish antiquary especially will recognise in these the familiar interlaced patterns to be found on nearly every native ecclesiastical and personal ornament pertaining to the early Christian period prior to the first appearance of the Northern Vikings, and with these the entire design and ornamentation correspond. But for the inscription, in fact, no one would have dreamt of assigning to the brooch a foreign origin; yet it does not seem to have ever occurred to the Scottish antiquaries to whom it was submitted, that the inscription might also be native, and equally Celtic with the workmanship. It will be seen that a rude chevron pattern is engraved on the back of the brooch, cut in the same style as the inscription, evidently the work of very different, and no doubt later hands, than those of the original jeweller. The whole reasoning, both of Scottish and Danish antiquaries in relation to this interesting relic, has heretofore proceeded on the assumption that a Runic inscription must have a direct Scandinavian origin: a conclusion by no means necessarily resulting from the use of Runes in Scotland at the date assigned to this one, after alliances and intermarriages had long existed between the Scandinavian and Celtic races of Scotland.

The Runic monuments of the Isle of Man present some remarkable features, manifestly pointing them out as the product of a Scandinavian colony in close alliance with a native Celtic population, and possessed both of a language and style of art resulting from the intercourse of these diverse races. The Manx Runic alphabet appears also to have some literal peculiarities altogether singular, though probably once common to the Hebrides and Northern Isles, and found also, as might have been anticipated, on the Hunterston brooch. To these features of the Manx alphabet, my attention was called by Professor P. A. Munch of Christiania, during the visit of that distinguished Northern scholar to this country in 1849; by whom, indeed, they were for the first time detected, when inspecting a series of casts of the Manx inscriptions in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. In these ᚮ is sometimes used as B, so that the first name on the brooch reads Malbritha. From the incidents already narrated relative to the Scandinavian acquirement of possessions on the Scottish mainland, both by conquest and marriage, it cannot be doubted that, in so far as the Celtic race had any literary acquirements, they must have been familiarized both with the Northern language and Runes. It need not, therefore, surprise us to find in the owner of the Hunterston brooch not a Norwegian queen but a Scottish chief of the same name as the Celtic Maormor, Melbrigda Tönn, slain by Sigurd, the Orkney jarl, when he invaded the north of Scotland A.D. 894. The name, indeed, is familiar to the student of early Scottish history, and its first syllable is one of the commonest Celtic prefixes, as in the Mail Pataric on the Iona tomb, and even in the royal name of Malcolm, Maol Columb, the servant of Columba, as Maol Brigda signifies the servant of St. Bridget. In all cases it is a male prefix, the Gaelic maol meaning bald as well as subordinate, and being undoubtedly employed in its latter acceptation with reference to the tonsure. It is accordingly frequently met with in the names of ecclesiastics, as in the Pictish chronicle, A.D. 965, "Maelbrigd episcopus pausavit," and again repeatedly in an early Irish MS. copy of the Gospels, preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum,--n, 1802; as, for example, at the end of the Gospel of St. John, the colophon, "Or. do Maelbrigte h-Ua Maeluanaig, qui scripsit hunc librum."

Here, therefore, we have a probable key to the language of the whole inscription, nor can it be regarded as an extravagant idea that a Celt should write his native language in an alphabet already familiar to him. The characters on the brooch, it will be seen, include various Binderuner or compound Runes, which add to the difficulty of translation. Making allowance for these, the following version has this merit at least, compared with previous ones, that it does not select merely such letters as will conform to a preconceived theory, but takes the whole in natural order. In the latter part of the inscription the second letter is a compound Rune, consisting of ᛅᚭ, or perhaps of ᛁᛅᚭ, the next of ᛚᛉ, and the fourth of ᛆᚭ--a construction entirely in accordance with the usual mode of interpreting the Binderuner, which were in common use at the very period of the most intimate Celtic and Scandinavian intercourse. The whole will thus read:

The additional marks are mostly irregular lines, with no distinctive character, and executed with so little care, that it is not improbable they have been introduced merely to occupy the remaining space with a uniform texture. What is decipherable reads in good Scottish Celtic: Malbritha a daimiheh i dæol Maolfridi; i.e., Malbritha his friend in recompense to Maolfridi: a is the possessive pronoun his; daimheach, a friend or relative; i or h-i, the old Celtic preposition in; and dìol, a reward for service done. It must be borne in remembrance that the spelling of the Scottish Gaelic is entirely modern. It is the sound therefore that is chiefly to be looked to, but the variations even in the spelling are not important. No Scandinavian scholar can examine the fac-simile of the inscription, and question the fact that the concluding portion actually contains the masculine name which Professor Magnusen was at such needless pains to try and educe from that of Malbritha. The chief value, however, to the Scottish antiquary of the reading now given, arises from no identification of these old Celtic friends, but from its establishing the fact--in itself so probable--that they did actually employ the Scoto-Scandinavian Runes in writing their own native language.

The annexed woodcut represents an exceedingly beautiful Scottish brooch, the size of the original, now in the collection of John Bell, Esq. of Dungannon. Like the Hunterston brooch, it is of silver, set with amber, and with the pattern wrought in gold. The resemblance of the two, both in style of ornament and in some of the details, can hardly fail to be admitted. This very fine specimen was found in the immediate vicinity of the celebrated mounds of Dunipace, Stirlingshire, the subject of antiquarian speculation from the days of Buchanan to our own. Another very fine large silver brooch, jewelled and plated with gold, formerly in the celebrated collection of Major Sirr, and now in that of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., has the acus exactly corresponding in its form and peculiar construction to that of the Hunterston brooch, while its other details are such as Scottish and Irish antiquaries are familiar with on the native gold and silver work of Celtic Christian art prior to the eleventh century. In point of workmanship and style of art, therefore, we have no reason to ascribe to our Runic brooch a foreign origin. Other evidence equally exposes the fallacy of assuming a necessary connexion between the discovery of Runes on our western coast and the fatal expedition of King Haco.

Directly opposite to the Ayrshire coast, and within sight of the Bay of Largs, a small island protects the entrance to Lamlash Bay, in the Isle of Arran, the well-known anchorage where Haco mustered his shattered fleet after his overthrow. In the Norwegian account of the expedition, after the narration of the fatal storm and conflict, it is stated, "The king sailed past Kumbrey (Cumbray) to Melansay, where he lay some nights."[560] This Melans ey, or isle, there can be little doubt is Holy Island, in the Bay of Lamlash, which contains the cave assigned by immemorial tradition as the residence of St. Molio or St. Maoliosa, a disciple of Columba, and a favourite Celtic saint. The island corresponds in geological structure to the southern district of Arran, presenting along the shore the common red sandstone strata, overflowed by a great mass of claystone and claystone porphyry, which towers above it in rugged and picturesque cliffs, fringed by the dwarf oak and birch, to a height of about a thousand feet. The cave of St. Molio is little more than a waterworn recess in the sandstone rock at an elevation of about thirty feet from the present level of the sea. On the shore below, a circular well is pointed out as St. Molio's Bath, and a large block of sandstone cut perfectly flat on the top, and surrounded with a series of artificial recesses or seats, bears the name of the Saint's Chair. Such relics are by no means rare in Scotland. They appear to have been singularly characteristic of Celtic hagiology. The Bath of St. Cuthbert was once a favourite resort in Strathtay; that of St. Woloc exists in Strathdeveron; and that of St. Fillan remains in the strath of Perthshire which still bears his name. St. Kentigern also had once his "bath," "bed," and "chair," near the Molendinar Burn. The Stone Chair of St. Marnan is still at Aberchirder; that of St. Fillan was recently preserved at the Mill of Killin; while another of these singular Celtic relics, placed at a commanding point, near Achtereachan, Glencoe, where a bend of the glen enables it to command both views, bears the name of Cathair Malvina, or the Chair of Malvina, one of Ossian's heroines.

The roof and sides of the cave of St. Molio, on Holy Island, are covered with rude marks and inscriptions of many different periods, among which may be discerned the following Runic inscription, cut with great regularity, in characters of about an inch and a half in length.

The reading is sufficiently simple and unmistakable. Nikulos ahane raist. The first, ᚿᛁᚴᚢᛚᚮᛌ, is manifestly a proper name. No such word as ᛆᚼᛅᚿᛂ is known in the Icelandic or ancient Norse tongue, unless it be simply a Hane: of Hane, the name of a place. We may therefore, perhaps, without impropriety, look for it in the native Celtic, where abhadh, pronounced very nearly in accordance with the spelling of ahane, signifies a hollow or abode. The last word, ᚱᛅᛁᛌᛐ, is of common occurrence in Runic inscriptions, the preterite of rísta, to engrave. In the present example, therefore, we shall not probably err in reading the inscription Nicholas engraved, or cut, this cave.

According to established custom with all relics found in the neighbourhood of the estuary of the Clyde, possessing the slightest affinity to those of ancient Scandinavia, this Runic inscription will no doubt be ascribed to the followers of King Haco in the thirteenth century. But independently of the improbability of the defeated Norsemen employing themselves in inscribing such a retreat, the simplicity of the Runes favours the probability of its pertaining to an earlier period. It is not altogether impossible, however, that even now, after the lapse of at least six centuries, we may be able from the brief Runes of St. Molio's Cave, to identify the anchorite who dwelt in this rude retreat. From the initial ✠, the inscription appears to be the work of an ecclesiastic; and in the Chronicon Manniæ, after recording the death of Bishop Michael, the elevation of his successor Nicholas, a native of Argyle, is thus noted: Huic successit Nicolaus Archadiensis genere, qui jacet in monasterio Benchorensi.[561] He appears to have succeeded to the see about the year 1193, and to have held it for about fourteen years.[562] The coincidence both of name and place of nativity certainly give probability to the supposition that the recluse of Holy Island in the bay of Lamlash, and the old Manx bishop, may have been one; at the same time it must be observed that such attempts at identification rest on an extremely uncertain basis, and have been the fruitful source of error.

The traces of the use of Runic characters are still abundant in the Isle of Man, and undoubtedly belong to the period of the general adoption of Christianity there, though it is not possible to assign to them a precise date. But the above are not the only Runes inscribed on St. Molio's cave. The whole surrounding surface of the rock is covered with crosses, evidently the marks of pious but illiterate pilgrims, who thus recorded their visit to the Holy Isle. Among these, however, are also traceable initials, monograms, and other more perfect evidences of the former concourse of pilgrims to the sacred spot. The annexed fac-simile of a group of them shews the curious character of these primitive holographs; but among them the experienced eye will at once discern the Runic characters, not regularly and boldly cut as in the former inscription, but irregularly scratched, as with the hasty hand of the wayfaring pilgrim. It is hardly necessary now too curiously to investigate the primitive record, though the letters are for the most part sufficiently distinct and well defined. The ᚳ, or k, is not a Scandinavian but an Anglo-Saxon Rune: a mixture by no means improbable by a Celtic inscriber. The whole probably imply no more than the proper name Akiethir, though it does not present, as in the former case, one familiar to our ears. Possibly like some other Runic inscriptions, it reads from right to left, in which case we should perhaps recognise it as a female name, Ritheika.

The rounded Roman characters, from which the medieval church-lettering ultimately sprung, were in use in the North more than a century prior to the era of King Haco, though they had not entirely superseded the Runes. But before this took place the Runic alphabet had been augmented by various new characters, and the Binderuner, or compound Runes, were in general use, especially in proper names, many of which are united into a single monogram. Both of the inscriptions in St. Molio's Cave are free from the later abridged mode of writing, and would therefore seem more probably ascribable to an older date than the thirteenth century, or indeed the not greatly earlier era of Bishop Nicholas of Man.

In this conclusion Scandinavian scholars will probably concur, though they may perhaps detect in other undecipherable groups of markings on the same cave the characteristic Binderuner of a later date. It can hardly be expected that they will unhesitatingly concur in another idea, advanced I believe for the first time, that the Celtic population of Scotland were as familiar with the Northern Runes as the natives of the kingdom of Northumbria are proved to have been with the Anglo-Saxon Runes, in which the most remarkable Scottish Runic monument--the Cross of Ruthwell--is inscribed. Of this, however, we are not entirely without some direct indications. The earliest, if not indeed the only medieval Scottish document which contains any allusion to the Pictish race, is a charter of confirmation of the lands of Burgie, in the reign of Alexander II., which occurs in the Chartulary of Moray. In describing the marches of the lands of Burgie, as fixed by perambulation, it refers to the various landmarks as follows: "Scilicet a magna quercu in Malevin quam predictus comes Malcolumo primo fecit cruce signari usque ad Rune Pictorum, et inde usque ad Tubernacrumkel, et inde per sicum usque ad Tubernafein, et inde usque ad Runetwethel, et inde per rivulam qui currit per meresiam usque ad vadum quod dicitur Blakeford, quod est inter Burgyn et Ulern."[563] To this interesting and curious charter another parchment is attached, which professes to furnish an explanation of the local names. They contain, it will be observed, an admixture of Celtic and Saxon terminology, sufficiently characteristic of the previous history of the locality; and the explanatory parchment is chiefly valuable as shewing how effectually the intrusion of the later race had adulterated or effaced the native traditions. The following is the explanatory translation:--"Rune[s] Pictorum, the carne of the Pethis, or the Pecht's fieldis. Tubernacrumkel, ane well with ane thrawine mowth, or ane cassin well, or ane crwik in it." It is sufficiently obvious that the explanations are given with uncertainty and doubt, and there can be little hesitation in translating the first name, not as the Pictish fields, but as the Pictish Runes, referring, as may be assumed, to an inscribed Celtic monument which had of old marked one of the Burgie marches; though in the reign of Alexander II., and long prior to the Battle of Largs, the very meaning of the term had been forgotten in Scotland. No attempt is made in the Burgie parchment to explain the name Runetwethel, but its correspondence to that of Ruthwell, the site of the celebrated Runic monument in Dumfriesshire, is perhaps not unworthy of notice.[564] The form of the northern Runes, as of the eastern Cuneatic characters, is manifestly traceable to a people whose literature was confined to graven records, chiefly on stone. Many of the medieval mason's marks are not only similar in general form, but some of them are identical with the following characters of the Runic alphabets:--ᚺᛋᛟᚻᚩᛖᛞᛘᚷᛗᛦ While this correspondence may be sufficiently explained by the simplicity of such combinations of lines, and their ready execution by the mason's pen, the absence of rounded forms, such as predominate in the Roman alphabet, adds another proof that the origin of medieval architecture, and perhaps also of Free Masonry, is traceable to the northern countries of Europe. The medieval mason's marks may undoubtedly be assumed with equal probability to retain the traces of the obsolete Runes, as the Bomœrker (literally house-marks) employed by the peasantry in certain districts of Sweden and Norway as signatures, or marks on personal property, in which the northern antiquaries recognise surviving elements of the Runic alphabet. In more recent times the term Runic has been used in this country in the vaguest and most uncertain fashion, occasionally without any very definite meaning appearing to be attached to it, and not infrequently as synonymous with Danish or Scandinavian.

These indications of the use of Runes by the native Celtic population of Scotland, are--like many other ideas advanced in this elementary treatise on our national antiquities--offered suggestively, and liable to the correction which further discoveries may suggest. The Celtic character of the name on the Hunterston brooch, the equally familiar one, in its Greek form, of that in the cave of St. Molio--peculiarly characteristic of the native Christian ascetics prior to the eleventh century,--and the Runic characters mingling with the initials and pilgrims' marks of the Holy Isle, are all suggestive of the same idea; and this it will be seen receives further confirmation from other Runic inscriptions. But whatever conclusion be finally adopted as to the precise rendering of the Hunterston inscription, or the inferences to be drawn from the various Runic memorials found in Scotland, it will be universally acknowledged that the brooch on which the former occurs is a relic of no ordinary interest or value. Though it may not admit of comparison with the celebrated golden horns, it surpasses, I believe, any other inscribed Runic relic hitherto discovered in Denmark or Sweden. A gold head ring found a few years since at Starup, in the neighbourhood of Haderslev, with Runic letters upon it, is engraved in Mr. Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. The inscription is simply the word luþro, traced on the inner side of the ring, and assumed as probably denoting the name of the owner, which in this case also is supposed to be that of a man.[565]

While the Isle of Man still retains many interesting traces of Scandinavian influence, in its memorial crosses graven with inscriptions in the Northern Runes, it is surprising how very partial are the indications of the same influence in the older northern jarldom. Only two imperfect Runic inscriptions have been observed in Shetland, and are described by Dr. Hibbert from drawings by Mr. Low.[566] One of them on a slab or grave-stone at Crosskirk, in Northmavine, is too much mutilated to render any attempt at restoration or decipherment of its meaning possible. The other was fixed in the wall of the Parish Church of Sandness, where it probably still remains; but, if there be no error in Dr. Hibbert's engraving of it, it only adds another to the frequent examples in Scotland of the term Runic being applied to designate any strange or incomprehensible device on a sepulchral monument. In Orkney no Runic monument is known to exist, though it cannot be doubted that many such must have been erected during the earlier years of the independent occupation of the Northern Islands by the Norwegian Jarls. Some of these, it is not impossible, may even yet be brought to light; though the continuous presence of a busy population during the intervening centuries affords too satisfactory means of accounting for their destruction to render such discoveries very probable at this late date. The annexed illustration of a later and more complicated Runic inscription than any known British example, is the remarkable memorial stone found in 1824 on the Island of Kingiktorsoak, Greenland, under the parallel of 73°, proving the zeal with which the old Scandinavian colonists pushed their adventurous course even to the extreme north of the inhospitable region of Greenland. It is introduced here chiefly to shew the complicated and much more intricate character of Scandinavian inscriptions of a later and well ascertained period; the era of the colonisation of Greenland being sufficiently established as a historical fact. Mr. C. C. Rafn finds in the concluding Runes the date 1135. During the recent repairs executed on St. Magnus Cathedral at Kirkwall, some singularly interesting discoveries were made connected with the period of its earliest Scandinavian bishops. A tomb was opened accidentally in the choir of the cathedral, which from the inscription accompanying it appears to have been the place to which the remains of William, according to Torfæus, first resident Bishop of Orkney, were translated, after the elongation of the cathedral, towards the close of the twelfth century. Along with the bones were interred a leaden plate inscribed in the common Church letters of the period:--~H. Requiescit. Williamus. Senex. felicis. memorie~. On the reverse of the plate are the words, ~pmus epis~. Further excavations in the east end of the choir, and close to the presumed site of the high altar, led to the discovery of two curious pieces of sculpture, in bas relief, representing ST. OLAF and ST. MAGNUS. These, however, as well as the tomb of Bishop Tulloch, with crosier, paten, and chalice inclosed, and other discoveries made at the same period, belong to a later era than that of Runic literature, and are only referred to now as suggesting the possibility of still earlier relics of the Scandinavian period of Orcadian history being yet brought to light, while the first of them shews that the Runic character had fallen into disuse soon after the introduction of Christianity in the north.

It is to the Manx monuments, however, that we must turn for the most distinct and abundant traces of Scandinavian influence, though modified both by the arts and the faith of the older Celtic population. The Runic inscriptions are conjoined with the sacred emblem of the Christian faith, and are associated with ornamental accompaniments, some of which are sufficiently common on the sculptured memorials of the Scottish mainland and isles, though never found on contemporary native monuments of Scandinavia. The close resemblance of a peculiar trefoil ornament on the upper part of one of these crosses at Kirk Michael, to the device on the reverse of the coins of Aulaf, King of Northumbria, has been pointed out;[567] but it is impossible to limit to a single country or to a very narrow period much of the common ornamentation vulgarly called Runic knotwork. It may be traced on manuscripts, monuments, and relics of Scoto-Irish, Pictish, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman origin, from the sixth to the twelfth century. It is, however, frequently found with other accompaniments of a more precise character, and this in the case of the Manx crosses of Kirk Andreas and Kirk Michael, approaches more nearly to the style of the singular sculptured standing stones of Scotland than to any other monuments of the north of Europe. Here, therefore, sheltered by the isolation of this island, and by the veneration or by the superstition of its inhabitants, examples have been preserved of the style of Scoto-Norwegian monuments of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which must once have abounded in the Scottish Northern and Western Isles, and on those parts of the mainland longest subject to Scandinavian rule. "The fear of sacrilege evinced by the Manx peasants is very great. The ruined chapels are still venerated, and a Manx formula of cursing is,--May a stone of the church be found in a corner of your house."[568] That the monuments of this period should have disappeared cannot surprise us, when we reflect on the very few memorials we now possess of that important era of Scottish ecclesiastical history which intervenes between the building of the white-walled cathedral of St. Ninian at Whithern, about the year 412, and the founding of the Abbey of Dunfermline in the eleventh century. I am fortunate in having obtained the assistance of Professor P. A. Munch--whose name will, I believe, be sufficient authority among northern scholars--in translating such of the Manx monuments as are referred to here. Previous transcriptions made by copyists unfamiliar with the Runic characters, or ignorant of the language in which they are inscribed, have added much uncertainty and obscurity to the subject, and produced so many various readings as to bring the whole inquiry into disrepute.[569]

At Kirk Andreas, near Ramsey, at Kirk Michael, Kirk Bride, Kirk Maughold, and Balsalla, are various of these interesting memorials of the Scandinavian era, supplying us with examples of the art and evidences of the faith of the period, and even furnishing some curious personal information regarding the men of that time. Not the least interesting of these minute records is that supplied by the inscription on one of the Kirk Michael crosses, already referred to:--

Rendered literally, according to the equivalent for each Runic character, it is:--Mail orikti sunr aþakans smiþ raisti krus þana fur salu sini sin oruguin gauts girþi þana auk ala i maun. And in pure Norse it reads:--Mailorikti (Mailbrigdi) sunr Aþakans smiđar reisti kross þenna fyrir sálu sinni sins öruggs vinar Gauts's gerđi þenna ok alla i Mön; i.e., Mailbrikti, son of Athacan the smith, raised this cross for his soul, and that of his faithful friend Gaut, who made this [cross] and all [the crosses] in Man. The name of the faithful Gaut, the old Manx sculptor, occurs on other inscriptions, as on a mutilated fragment at Kirk Andreas:--

Literally, þana uf ufaig fauþur sin in gautr girthi sunr ... rnar g ... orthog. (N. N. reisti kross) þenna of Ufeig föđur sinn, en Gautr gerđi, sunr Bjarnar g.... N. N. raised this cross over Ufeig his father, but Gaut made [it] the son of Björn.... Another of the Kirk Michael crosses, which has been more frequently and diversely translated than any British Runic inscription, consists of an upright square slab, with a cross cut on both sides, according to the usual style of the Scottish memorial stones, and decorated with a variety of sculptured figures and animals, representing a stag hunt. One of the edges is ornamented with interlaced work, as shewn in the annexed illustration, and along the opposite edge is the legend, surmounted with a small incised figure of a warrior in simple costume, with his arms extended, holding a spear in his right hand, and bearing a round shield on the left arm. The letters are sharply cut, and the author of "Ecclesiological Notes on the Isle of Man" refers to this as the most perfect Runic inscription in the three kingdoms:--

Its literal rendering is:--Auolfir sunr þurulfs hins rauþa risti krus þana aft friþu muþur sina; betraying like the others the variations of a provincial dialect, or a foreign use of the old Norse tongue. More correctly it is:--Eyolfr sunr þórolfs hins rauđa reisti kross þenna eft Friđu móđur sína; i.e., Eyolf, the son of Thorolf the Red, raised this cross after (or in memory of) Frida his mother. This exceedingly simple memorial of affection, contrasting in its brevity so strikingly with the inflated extravagancies of modern monumental inscriptions, affords a good example of the most usual style of the Manx Runic legends. One cross at Kirk Andreas is raised by Sandulfr suarte, or Sandulf the Black, in memory of his sons and wife; while on another imperfect fragment of a cross may still be traced the words:--Oskitil uilti i trigu aiþsuara sinn; i.e., Oskitil betrayed in truce his sworn friend. The precise object of this unusual memorial cannot now be guessed at with any degree of certainty, though the fragment preserves sufficient that is peculiar to excite our regret at its recovery in so imperfect and dubious a state. Another mutilated cross at Kirk Michael is interesting as an additional example of a Runic inscription containing names essentially Celtic in character. Part of the inscription is so much defaced by the weather as to baffle any attempt at a consistent rendering of its meaning, but of the portion copied below no doubt can be entertained. It is presented here in fac-simile, as an illustration of the style of engraving of the Manx inscriptions, though it differs in the use of ᛋᛏ for the more common Runic characters introduced on the other crosses as equivalent to the s and t.

The inscription literally reads:--Mal-lymkun raisti krus thana eftir Mal-muru fustra sun; i.e., Mallymcun raised this cross, after Malmor his foster-son. The frequent allusions in Runic inscriptions to the foster-father, brother, or son, shews the singular estimation in which such peculiar ties of adopted relationship were held by the northern races at that early date, as they have continued to be even to our own day among the Scottish Highlanders. But the most thoroughly Scandinavian in character of all the Manx Runic crosses is the beautiful one which stands in the churchyard at Kirk Braddan. I am not aware if crosses of this form are found in Denmark or Norway, but in nearly all the principal details, especially on the shaft, it differs entirely from the other Manx crosses, and corresponds to those on Scandinavian relics of the Iron Period. It has been broken in two, and otherwise mutilated; but the two principal pieces have been clasped together with iron bands, so that a good idea can still be formed of it in its perfect state. The shaft is decorated with the common dragon ornaments, intricately intertwined over its whole surface; thus greatly differing in style from the Runic crosses wrought by the skilful hands of Gaut, as well as from the contemporary standing stones of the Scottish mainland. This, therefore, we may be justified in assuming, is the work of some Norwegian artist, whose style was derived from his own fatherland, though in some degree modified by the favourite models of Celtic art which have influenced the form of other Christian monuments in the island. It is probably one of the latest of all the Runic memorials in Man, while at the same time it presents the Scandinavian characters accompanying a style of art to some extent derived from the same foreign source. It can hardly indeed admit of doubt, that in some at least of the Manx monuments we must recognise the adaptation of the Norse literature and dialect to native memorials. The cross cut in relief on the flat slab, with the subordinate accompaniments illustrative of feats of war or the chase, appear to be peculiarly characteristic of primitive Pictish art; while the perforated head with interlaced ornamentation, such as that which is here associated with the old dragon pattern and other Pagan devices of Scandinavia, is more directly traceable to the early Christian arts of Celtic Ireland. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland possesses a complete cast of this beautiful cross, taken when the iron clamps were removed for the purpose of being renewed, and which thus supplies a portion of the Runic inscription which can no longer be seen. It is as follows:--

Literally,--þurlior neaki risti krus þana aft fiak sun sin bruþur sun eaors. Orthogr.: Thorliótr neaki reisti kross þenna eft Fiak sun sinn, bróđurson Eaors; i.e., Thorlior Neaki raised this cross after Fiak his son, the nephew (brother's son) of Eaor. In addition to this the following marks occur on the under side of the head of the cross, and have been variously figured in the different editions of Camden, and elsewhere. The Runic ᚢ appears to be used in its literal sense, and the remainder may be assumed as rude attempts at Roman characters, in which case I think there can be little hesitation in reading it as the sacred name IHESVS--a curious example of the transition from the use of Runes to Roman characters.

It has already been noted that the term Runic is used in Scotland in the vaguest sense, being frequently understood as synonymous with Scandinavian. In the account of St. Madoes' Parish, Perthshire, for example, we read: "In the churchyard there is a very beautiful specimen of that class of monuments called Runic, from their imagined Norse or Danish origin." It may be perhaps assumed that another stone in the parish of Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire, has no better claims to rank among the Runic monuments of Scotland, notwithstanding that the older Statist applies the name in reference to its inscription. It is thus described in the Old Statistical Account of the parish, along with a large moat which occupies a steep rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea: "Near to this moat stands a thin stone, nearly perpendicular, five feet three inches high, engraved on both sides with the rude figure of a cross, accompanied with several ornamental strokes, which some antiquaries suppose to be Runic inscriptions."[570] But one other remarkable Runic monument remains to be considered, surpassing in extent and importance any of those yet described, and rendered not the less interesting from the very curious literary controversy to which it has given rise. This is the celebrated cross of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, inscribed not in Northern but Anglo-Saxon Runes. Like the few English examples yet discovered, it is in the Northumbrian dialect of Anglo-Saxon, and therefore is traceable, not to that northern intrusion of the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic races which we have hitherto considered, and by which the old Celtic race of Scotland has been so greatly modified, but to the influx of a Teutonic race from the south, by which the Celtic occupants of the Scottish Lowlands and the whole Northumbrian kingdom, were ultimately superseded. Nevertheless the cross of Ruthwell may be referred to here without any great risk of confusion, along with those inscribed in the old Norse dialect; notwithstanding the justice of Mr. J. M. Kemble's remarks, that "the characters of the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders, are not less distinct from those of the Goths, High and Low Germans, and Anglo-Saxons, than the languages of the several nations which they represented."[571] The Ruthwell cross is unquestionably by far the most important Runic monument in Britain, and has excited an attention fully equal to the great interest justly pertaining to it. A beautiful engraving of this ancient monument in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Scotica, accompanied with careful fac-similes of its inscriptions, renders any minute description of it superfluous.

Setting aside certain old and sufficiently vague local traditions recorded in the first Statistical Account of the Parish of Ruthwell, we obtain the earliest authentic notice of it only in the seventeenth century, at which time it appears to have still remained in the parish church, uninjured by any of those earlier ebullitions of misdirected popular zeal to which so many Scottish relics of Christian art fell a prey. When, however, the struggle between Charles I. and his people was rapidly hastening to a crisis, and religious differences were forced by many concurrent influences into violent collision, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which met at St. Andrews in the month of July 1642, passed an order decreeing the demolition of the Ruthwell cross as a monument of idolatry. The order met with a less hearty and thorough-going execution than might have been anticipated from the spirit prevailing at a period when the whole course of public events had tended to inflame men's minds to the uttermost. The column, however, was thrown down and broken in several pieces; but it still lay in the church, and was examined there by Pennant so recently as 1772. Soon after this, however, it was cast out into the churchyard, where its exposure to weather, and its liability to careless and wanton mutilation, threatened at length most effectually to accomplish the object of the St. Andrews Assembly's Order of 1642, when fortunately the Rev. Dr. Duncan was presented to the parish. Soon afterwards he had the fragments of the venerable memorial pieced together, and re-erected within the friendly shelter of the manse garden,--a monument to his own good taste, with which his name will be associated by thousands who know not the large-hearted benevolence and piety with which he adorned the sacred office which he filled.

Not content, however, with merely restoring the venerable memorial, Dr. Duncan executed careful drawings of it, from which the engravings in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Scotica were made. These are accompanied with a history from his pen, and an accurate translation of the Latin inscription, which is cut in Roman characters on the back and front of the cross. With the Runic inscription, which occupies the remaining sides of the monument, Dr. Duncan attempted no more than to furnish the Scottish antiquaries with an accurate copy, leaving those who deemed themselves able for the task to encounter its difficulties, and render an intelligible version of its meaning. This was accordingly undertaken by Mr. Thorleif G. Repp, a learned northern scholar, and a native of Iceland, then resident in Edinburgh, who, reading the letters correctly enough, proceeded to weave them into imaginary words and sentences, by means of which he makes out the inscription to record "a gift for the expiation of an injury, of a cristpason or baptismal fount, of eleven pounds weight, made by the authority of the Therfusian fathers, for the devastation of the fields." Other portions of the inscription were made to supply the name of the devastated locality, "The dale of Ashlafr," a place as little heard of before as were its holy conservators, the Monks of Therfuse! Dr. Duncan remarks, in furnishing an abstract of Mr. Repp's rendering of the Ruthwell Runes,--"It is obvious that, in future inquiries on this subject, it will be of considerable importance to fix the locality of Ashlafardhal and Therfuse!" The accurate drawings of Dr. Duncan, however, published as they were to the learned world by the Scottish Antiquaries, had at length supplied the most important desiderata towards the elucidation of the old Anglo-Saxon memorial. Professor Finn Magnusen was the first to avail himself of the new elements for the satisfactory investigation of this venerable Teutonic relic, and published, in Danish, in the "Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1836-37," and nearly at the same time in English, in the "Report addressed by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries to its British and American Members," a revised version of the Ruthwell inscription, in which, while confirming the somewhat startling opinion of Mr. Repp, that it was in a language consisting both of Anglo-Saxon and old Northern words, he arrives at very different, but still more precise conclusions. The learned Dane, however, had obtained, as he conceived, a source of information which not even the zealous incumbent of Ruthwell parish had access to.

"Fortunately," says he, "we are in possession of what must be admitted to be an important document in the case before us, a document the existence of which was unknown as well to Mr. Repp as, to the best of our belief, to all others now living, that have devoted attention to the monument in question. Dr. Duncan observes that the capital of the column, which in the delineations he gives of it shews no characters or traces of such, had, however, formerly inscriptions, now quite illegible. The greater part of them, meanwhile, are found on a delineation of the two broader sides of the said capital, which together with the two Runic sides of the whole column, (consequently more of it than has been given by Hickes or Gordon,) is to be seen on a large folio copperplate engraving, now the property of me, Finn Magnusen. It was given to me some years ago by my much-lamented friend and predecessor, Professor Thorkelin, who, however, his memory being impaired by age, could not remember anything more about it than that it represented a column in Scotland, and that he had obtained it, he knew not how or of whom, during his travels in Britain."[572]

This rare and indeed seemingly unique print Professor Magnusen accordingly designates the "Thorkelin Engraving." Its age he conceives must be about 150 years, or perhaps still older. "Be this as it may," he adds, "it serves to throw a new and most important light--in fact, the most important yet obtained--on the design and purpose of the column, inasmuch as it has preserved the initial words of its inscription, setting forth that one Ofa, a descendant of Voda, had caused it to be cut," &c. Accordingly, setting aside the humbler attempts of Mr. Repp, the Danish professor substitutes a marriage for the devastation of his predecessor, discovers four important historical personages in the record, nearly fixes the precise year A.D. 650 for the handfasting, and altogether furnishes an entirely new chapter of Anglo-Saxon history, based almost entirely on this Thorkelin print! Some able northern scholars, more familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature than Professor Magnusen, adopted the very summary process of dealing with the new element thus unexpectedly brought to bear on the inquiry, by doubting the authenticity, if not even the existence, of this unique print. Of its existence, however, there can be no doubt, since, instead of being the rarity which Professor Magnusen imagined, it is to be found in every archæological library in the kingdom, being none other (as I think will no longer be doubted) than one of two etchings, executed by the well-known Scottish antiquary, Mr. Adam de Cardonnel, and forming Plates LIV. and LV. of the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii., published in 1789. These are accompanied by a description furnished by R. G., (Roger Gale,) and to it the following postscript has subsequently been added, which it will be seen supplies the account Professor Magnusen failed to obtain from his aged friend: "Since this account was read before the Society [of Antiquaries of London,] the drawing has been shewn to Mr. Professor Thorkelin, who has been investigating all such monuments of his countrymen in this kingdom, but he has not returned any opinion." These engravings of the Ruthwell inscription appear to have excited little interest, probably on account of their being accompanied by no critical analysis or attempt at translation. They would seem to have escaped the notice of Mr. J. M. Kemble, otherwise he would have found there all that the drawings of Dr. Duncan supply, with, indeed, some slight additions; for it chances oddly enough that the old Scottish Antiquary has copied the Anglo-Saxon Runes--about which it may reasonably be doubted if he knew anything--a great deal more correctly than the Latin inscription in familiar Roman characters, some of which he has contrived to render totally unintelligible. It was probably a result of this carelessness, that in arranging a broken fragment of the top of the cross, along with the lower stem, he misplaced the parts, wedding the imperfect upper fragments of the Latin, to the remainder of the Anglo-Saxon inscription. The offspring of this misalliance was the Ofa, Voden's kinsman, of Professor Magnusen, whose double genealogy is given with amusing precision, "according to the Younger Edda!" The slightest glance at Cardonnel's etchings will shew that the learned Dane, in attempting to decipher this supposed invaluable addition, was only torturing ill-copied Roman characters into convenient Northern or Anglo-Saxon Runes.

In 1838, Mr. John M. Kemble, an English Anglo-Saxon scholar, undertook to unwind this ravelled skein, and in an able paper "On Anglo-Saxon Runes,"[573] pointed out the valuelessness of any amount of knowledge of the Scandinavian languages as a means for deciphering Anglo-Saxon inscriptions. Following out his own views he accordingly produced a translation differing, toto cœlo, from either of those already referred to, but which commends itself in some degree even to the mere English student, who detects in the old Anglo-Saxon the radicals of his native tongue; as in the original of Mr. Repp's Cristpason:--KRIST WAES ON RODI,--Christ was on the Rood or Cross. Combating with the difficulties arising solely from the mutilated and fragmentary state of what Mr. Kemble so justly styles "this noble monument of Anglo-Saxon antiquity," he demonstrates the rhythmic character of the construction, deducing from this the strongest proof of the accuracy of his reading. Still should the reader, who is thus compelled to consider two learned versions of this inscription as no better than the Antiquary's Agricola dicavit libens lubens, hesitate about accepting the third as less open to challenge, his scepticism could not perhaps be greatly blamed. A remarkable chance, however, threw in the way of the intelligent Anglo-Saxon scholar an altogether indisputable confirmation of the general accuracy of the conclusions he had arrived at. A comparison of the various steps in this process of elucidation furnishes one of the most singular modern contributions to the curiosities of literature. A few years ago a MS. volume consisting chiefly of Anglo-Saxon homilies, was discovered at Vercelli, in the Milanese, but which also contained, intermingled with the prose, some Anglo-Saxon religious poems. One of these, entitled a "Dream of the Holy Rood," extends to 310 lines, and in this are found the whole of the fragmentary lines previously translated by Mr. Kemble, along with the context which fills up the numerous lacunæ of the time-worn inscription on the Ruthwell cross. No confirmation of the accuracy of conclusions previously published could well be more gratifying or satisfactory than this; independently of which the beauty of the Anglo-Saxon poem suffices to convey a singularly vivid idea of the civilisation existing at the period--probably not later than the ninth century--when it was engraved on the venerable Scottish monument which has anew excited the veneration of the modern descendants of its old Anglo-Saxon builders, and, with some portion of its former beauty renewed by the piety of modern hands, is restored to the occupation of its ancient site. Of the high civilisation of this period, however, the student of Anglo-Saxon history can need no new proof when he bears in mind, as Mr. Kemble has remarked, "that before the close of the eighth century Northumberland was more advanced in civilisation than any other portion of Teutonic Europe."

The "Dream of the Holy Rood" represents the sleeping Christian suddenly startled by the vision of the Cross, the instrument of man's salvation, which appears in the sky attended with angels, and manifesting, by various changes, its sympathy in the passion and the glory of the Redeemer. At length the Cross itself addresses the sleeper, and describes its feelings on being made the instrument of the suffering of the Son of God. It is from this beautiful part of the poem that the verses have been selected for inscription on the Ruthwell cross. The following extracts, in which the fragments still legible on the old monument are printed in italics, will help the reader to form some idea of the refinement of the period when the cross was erected, and may also suffice to shew how little need there is to seek in Scandinavian, or other foreign sources, for the taste or skill manifested in the works of early native art. The Cross thus speaks in person:--

'Twas many a year ago, I yet remember it, That I was hewn down At the wood's end, Stirred from out my dream. Strong foes took me there, They made me for a spectacle, They bade me uplift their outcasts: There men bore me upon their shoulders until they set me down upon a hill, There foes enough fastened me. There saw I the Lord of mankind hasten with mighty power, because he would mount on me. There then I dared not, against the Lord's command, bow down or burst asunder; There I saw tremble the extent of the earth. I had power all his foes to fell, but yet I stood fast. Then the young hero prepared himself, That was Almighty God, Strong and firm of mood he mounted the lofty cross, courageously in sight of many, when he willed to redeem mankind. I trembled when the hero embraced me, yet dared I not bow down to earth, fall to the bosom of the ground, but I was compelled to stand fast. A cross was I reared. I raised the powerful king, the lord of the heavens; I dared not fall down. They pierced me with dark nails, on me are the wounds visible!

* * * * *

They reviled us both together. I was all stained with blood poured from the man's side.

* * * * *

The shadow went forth, wan under the welkin: All creation wept; they mourned the fall of their king. Christ was on the cross, yet thither hastening, unto the noble one. All that beheld I, With sorrow I was overwhelmed.

* * * * *

The warriors left me there Standing defiled with gore; I was all wounded with shafts. They laid him down limb-weary, They stood at the corpse's head; They beheld the Lord of heaven, and he rested himself there awhile, weary after his mighty contest.

This curious poem is marked by what Mr. Kemble has pronounced to betray evidence of modern handling, and is perhaps the amplification by a later Anglo-Saxon poet,--it may be of the simpler address originally graven on the Ruthwell cross. Of the general identity between the poem and the inscription, however, not the slightest doubt can exist; and we therefore no longer depend on any future discovery for supplying the deficiencies of the Runic legend, though we can only guess as to the full extent to which it was carried in its original form. "It always seemed probable," says Mr. Kemble in concluding his observations on the old Scottish monument, "that much of the inscription was missing, and the comparison instituted above renders this certain. The passages which remain are too fragmentary ever to have constituted a substantive whole, without very considerable additions, which there is no longer room for upon the cross in its present form. Buried perhaps beneath the soil of the churchyard, or worked into the walls of neighbouring habitations, the supplementary fragments may yet be reserved for a late resurrection. Should they ever again meet the eyes of men they will add little to our knowledge; still we should rejoice to find them once again resuming their old place in the pillar, and helping to reconstruct in its original form the most beautiful as well as the most interesting relic of Teutonic antiquity."[574]

It would be vain to speculate now on the probability of the former existence of such monuments in other localities, when it is considered that in the great majority of cases scarcely a relic remains even of the ancient parish churches of Scotland, built after the final establishment of a Saxon population in the low country. One other Runic monument, however, is known to have existed in the same district down to a very, recent period. Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp of Hoddam, informs me that in the ancient church of Hoddam, a sculptured stone, which was built into the wall, bore an inscription of some length, in Runic characters. Of this he made a copy before the final demolition of the ruined church in 1815, but he has since sought for the transcript in vain. The original, it is to be feared, no longer exists; but among various sculptured fragments rescued from the ruins, and now in Mr. Sharp's collection, are portions of the shaft of a cross, divided into compartments with sculptured figures in relief, bearing a very considerable resemblance to the style of decoration on the Ruthwell cross, with the addition in one compartment of the favourite interlaced knotwork of Scottish and Irish sculptors. That the venerable ecclesiastical edifice included in its masonry relics of still earlier date, has already been shewn by the rescue of a Roman altar from its ruined walls, dedicated by a cohort of German auxiliaries to imperial Jove.[575]

Other remarkable Anglo-Saxon memorials have been discovered within the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, as well as beyond its southern limits. One of the most interesting of these is a square font, at Bridekirk, in Cumberland. It is covered on each of its four sides with singular sculptures, in some of which a resemblance may be traced to the decorations of the Scottish standing stones. On the east side a curious group represents the baptism of our Saviour, who stands in a square font with a nimbus encircling his head, and over him is the dove perched on a tree. On the south side is a Runic inscription interwoven among ornaments, which still remains to be satisfactorily explained.[576] Mr. Rolfe of Sandwick has in his possession the silver hilt of a sword found in an Anglo-Saxon barrow, and inscribed in Runic characters.[577] A few other examples of the use of the Anglo-Saxon Runes in England have been discovered from time to time,[578] and receive the attention justly due to objects of such high interest, now that English archæologists have learned that it is to themselves and not to Scandinavian scholars that they must look for the elucidation of the literature of their own Anglo-Saxon progenitors.

In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which were so long occupied as a Norse jarldom, the relics of Scandinavian art are, as might be expected, more abundant than in any other part of the country. The woodcut represents a bronze pin about one-fourth of the natural size, which was found in a tumulus at Sandwick, in Orkney. Another nearly similar to this, preserved in the local museum at Kirkwall, is said to have been found in a cist containing a human skeleton, and sticking in the skull, as if it had been the instrument of death. Other examples of similar pins with rings attached to them have been discovered at various times in the Orkney Islands. But not only have such relics been met with singly from time to time, but occasionally whole groups of graves have been exposed containing Scandinavian weapons and personal ornaments, and in some cases at least appearing to indicate the site of a battle-field in which many of the Northern warriors have fallen. Wallace describes, in his Account of the Islands of Orkney, the discovery of graves in the Links of Tranaby in Westray, "in one of which was seen a man lying with his sword on the one hand and a Danish axe on the other, and others that have had dogs, combs, and knives buried with them." In the spring of 1849 the shifting of the sands during the continuance of high easterly winds brought to light a remarkable group of graves on the Links of Pier-o-waal at Westray. A partial notice of this interesting discovery was communicated by Mr. T. Crofton Croker to the Journal of the Archæological Association,[579] accompanied with illustrations engraved from various of the articles found deposited with the dead. The following details are chiefly supplied from notes by Mr. William Rendall, surgeon, who repaired to the Links of Pier-o-waal on learning of the discovery of the graves, and wrote down these observations as they fell under his notice.[580] Though in some cases less ample than might be desired, they supply an exceedingly interesting series of data in illustration of the sepulchral relics of Orkney belonging to the latest Pagan era.

The following group of graves was found near the sea-shore, on the Links of Pier-o-waal, Orkney, on a line running north and south.

No. 1. This grave appeared to have been previously disturbed. Sufficient traces of the skeleton were found to indicate that the body had lain north and south, rather inclining to the right side, with the face towards the sea. Only half of the skull remained, and from its appearance it might have been cleft when interred. A small iron hatchet lay before the body. Half of a helmet was also discovered, and small pieces of iron were scattered around, apparently indicating that the occupant of the grave had been buried in armour.

No. 2 contained part of a human skeleton along with that of a horse. The horse lay on its belly, with its head towards the sea, and directly north-east, with its hinder parts towards the south-west. The horse's head, which was quite entire and of rather a small size, was resting on the nose. On removing it, an iron-bit with one of the bridle-rings attached, was found between its jaws. The remains of the human skeleton were lying immediately in front of the horse's head, with the feet towards the north, and the thigh bones crossed. No skull could be found. On the right side of the skeleton lay a buckle and a piece of bone which had been attached to metal. A piece of iron, either a small sword or a spear-head, and considerable remains of iron rust, shewed that in this case also the deceased warrior had been laid to rest accompanied with the panoply of war. Part of the skeleton of a dog was discovered in the same grave.--No. 3 also contained portions both of a human skeleton and of a horse. The position of the former could not be ascertained. Beside it lay a small dagger, and other remains of iron weapons or armour were found in fragments in the grave. No. 4 contained a skeleton, lying north and south, on its right side, and with the knees drawn up towards the abdomen. No remains of armour were found.

This interesting group of early graves appears to have been entirely distinct from those alluded to in Mr. T. Crofton Croker's account. The second group, to which he refers, is described by Mr. Kendall as having been discovered surrounding a tumulus, or mound of sand and small stones, at a considerable distance from the sea, in a line running north-west from the former site of graves.

No. 1 was found on the south-west side of the mound. It contained a large male skeleton nearly entire, lying north and south, with the head to the north, and having large stones set round it in a square form: doubtless the usual rude cist so generally adopted in the Pagan sepulture of the north of Europe. After carefully removing the sand, the skeleton was discovered lying inclined towards the left side, with the knees drawn up, and the arms crossing over the breast. About two inches from the top of the head was found a cup-like piece of iron, described by Mr. Rendall as "evidently the part of a helmet." Notwithstanding its position, however, it was more probably the umbone of a shield, of which other remains were discovered in the cist, consisting of pieces of wood, with fragments of the iron covering still adhering to them. On the left side of the skeleton lay an iron sword, measuring about four feet in length; a large sharpening stone, a comb, and several glass beads, were also found in the grave.

No. 2. On the north side of the mound a second grave was opened, which contained a small skeleton, lying north and south, and supposed by Mr. Rendall to have been a female. In this and following examples the position differed from that previously described in having the head to the south. No fragments of iron or indications of rust suggested the former presence of arms or armour, but on the breast lay a pair of the large oval or shell-shaped brooches, already described; and lower down, right over the region of the stomach, was found another ornament of the class of trefoil-shaped clasps, described by Mr. Worsaae, in his "Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," as occasionally found in connexion with the oval brooches.[581]--No. 3. A third grave, opened on the north side of the mound, disclosed a small skeleton lying between two rows of stones. This appears to have been the grave most minutely described and illustrated in Mr. T. Crofton Croker's communication to the Journal of the Archæological Society.[582]

It also contained a pair of the large oval brooches, one of which is here figured one-fourth the original size. Two long combs, decorated on each side with ornamental carvings, were found, one of them above each shoulder. The teeth of the combs were fastened between two plates of bone, rivetted together with copper nails. A small bronze pin or bodkin was likewise picked up among the interesting contents of this cist. In this case also the skeleton is believed by Mr. Rendall to have been that of a female: an opinion which coincides with the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Worsaae,[583] though the very large size of the brooches seems more suited for the personal decorations of the chieftain or the priest.

No. 4 was another cist on the north side of the mound, but it had been previously disturbed, and contained only portions of a human skeleton.--No. 5 was opened on the north-east side of the mound. It inclosed part of a small skeleton, which Mr. Rendall pronounces to be "evidently that of a female." This also contained a pair of oval brooches, an ornamental pin or bodkin, and a pair of combs. The woodcut represents one of the combs, which was presented to Mr. Croker. It is much to be regretted that the valuable series of Scoto-Scandinavian relics, thus brought to light by the disturbance of this tumular cemetery, have already been dispersed in many private hands, so as to be irrecoverably lost. Their value would have been greatly augmented as the illustrations of an important period in our national history, could the entire collection have been kept together, and deposited in some accessible public museum.[584]

One of the bronze pins found in the above graves is figured in the Journal of the Archæological Association. Like others previously noticed it has a ring at the head, though it is otherwise much ruder than the example found at Sandwick. It is engraved here about two-thirds of the size of the original, which was thickly encrusted with verd antique when discovered. It is described in the notes furnished to Mr. Croker as "a sharp-pointed metal instrument, hardly a span in length, having a circular ring of the same metal for a head. It was found lying on the abdomen. This was the skeleton of an aged person, of the ordinary size. It was nearly entire. This grave was both covered and surrounded by large flat stones."

Such are some of the traces of Scandinavian influence which the Scottish archæologist meets with in the course of his researches. They all belong to a comparatively recent period; and of the beautiful class of personal ornaments, the oval brooches, which are so frequently found, Mr. Worsaae remarks, "that they are positively to be referred to the last period of Paganism we know with complete certainty, because they are frequently found in graves in Iceland, which country was first peopled by Pagan Norwegians at the close of the ninth century." Long before that date, however, Christianity had reached the Scottish shores; and though impeded, and even frequently eradicated from districts where it had taken deep root, chiefly by the malign influence of these Pagan Northmen, we have no reason to think it was ever entirely extinct. Hence we are abundantly justified in claiming a native origin for the Pagan arts of Scotland, and in referring all Scandinavian influence to a late period and a very limited locality.

One other singular class of Northern relics of which analogous types have been found in Scotland, remains to be noticed. These consist of a curious variety of vessels, presumed to have been designed for holding liquors, but invariably made in the form of some animal or monstrous hybrid. They differ entirely from any class of antiquities hitherto noticed, and more nearly resemble ancient Indian bronzes than any of the relics of early Northern art. The annexed figure represents one of these, in the collection of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., and found by him among a hoard of long-forgotten family heirlooms, in a vault of his paternal mansion of Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire. Of its previous history nothing is known. It is made of bronze. The principal figure is a lion, without a tail, measuring fourteen inches in length, and nearly fourteen inches in greatest height. On the back is perched a nondescript animal, half greyhound, half fish, apparently intended for a handle to the whole, while from the breast projects a stag's head with large antlers. This has a perforation in the back of the neck, as if for the insertion of a stop-cock, and it appears probable was designed for running off the liquid contained within the singular vessel to which it is attached. A small square lid on the top of the lion's head, opening with a hinge, supplies the requisite aperture for filling it with whatever liquor it was designed to hold. A similar relic, possessed by Sir John Maxwell, Bart., was dug up a few years since on the Pollock estate, and another in the collection of the late E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., was also in the form of a lion. The conclusion which the appearance of the whole of these relics would suggest to an observer unfamiliar with Northern antiquities, would certainly be that they were the products of ancient Indian rather than of Scandinavian art. The following account, however, derived from Kluver's Norwegian Antiquities,[585] will shew that they are well known not only in Norway and Denmark, but even in Iceland--that interesting Northern stronghold of the later relics of Scandinavian art.

"On the farm of Vaaden, about five miles south-west from Drontheim, there was found some years ago in a field, and at no great distance from the surface, an animal form with beak and wings. In its beak it carries a man wearing a kirtle and closed helmet, booted and spurred. The figure, which is of brass composition, weighs five and one-half pounds. It is hollow internally. There is an aperture on the neck of the animal, which has been provided with a lid, and another aperture in the back of the helmet worn by the mailed figure which it carries in its beak. Another animal figure has been preserved from time immemorial, at Moldè, a small sea-port a little to the south of Drontheim. It resembles a unicorn, and has an aperture in the neck, to which obviously a lid had been attached. From the handle along the back, which represents a serpent, and the circumstance of the horn in the forehead being hollow, it may reasonably be conjectured to have been used as a liquor decanter. A third figure of a similar description, which is said to have been found under ground at Helgeland--a province situated to the northward of Drontheim--represents a knight mounted on a piebald horse in complete armour, wearing a coat of ring-mail, a square helmet with vizor down, and carrying a drawn sword in his hand. In this figure likewise there is an aperture in the upper part of the helmet, and another in the forehead of the horse."

The whole of these singular groups are figured in Kluver's work, and it will be seen that they closely correspond to the Scottish example from Hoddam Castle. The costume of the knights in two of them shews that they cannot be assigned to an earlier date than the latter part of the thirteenth century. They are all nearly of the same proportions, measuring about ten inches in length, and six inches in height, exclusive of the mailed knight mounted on the horse in the figure last described. Another curious specimen of the same class of antiquities, in which the principal figure is a lion, has been preserved for ages in the church of St. Olaf, at Vatnsfjord, in Iceland, and is described by Professor Sjöborg, who conceives it to have been used as a lamp. It is also referred to by Professor Finn Magnusen in the following remarks on those figured by Kluver:--"These curious liquor decanters--of which various specimens exist in Denmark and other countries--are of a very remarkable formation. The two first seem to bespeak an origin in the heathen mythology. Assuming that even in the middle ages or at a later period they were used in the rites of the Catholic Church, as in the instance of a like vessel, known by the name of the Thorlacian, presented to the church at Vatnsfjord, still it is by no means certain that such was their original purpose. Many articles, such as tapestries, cups, vases, candlesticks, &c., were used as household commodities before they were diverted to ecclesiastical purposes. In the same way these liquor decanters, which neither bear the forms nor devices of Christian art, have probably been originally adapted to another use." It will be readily admitted that these relics present little appearance of having been designed as any of the sacred vessels of the medieval church; nevertheless little doubt can be entertained that they were so used in the north, and perhaps at an early period throughout Christendom, as part of the furniture of the altar. Professor Munch, who examined the example figured above, in the collection of Mr. Sharp, during his recent visit to this country, observes in a letter written since his return to Norway: "Notwithstanding their fantastic shapes, of some four-footed beast, they were used upon the altar as vessels containing the water which the officiating Diaconus poured upon the hands of the priest before his touching the host at the elevation. I understand from Mr. Thomsen, who learned it from a Frenchman educated at Smyrna, that such vessels are still used for the same purpose in the Roman Catholic chapels in the Levant. It is therefore probable that those found in Norway have either been brought from Byzantium, or made after Byzantine models."

The ecclesiastical character of these singular relics would therefore seem to be more certainly established than their Scandinavian origin, though it may still be doubted whether they were primarily designed for any sacred purpose. It is, however, sufficient for our present object to trace the analogy discernible between the Scottish relic figured above and those Scandinavian antiquities discovered in the native country of the old Northmen, or preserved in their ancient seat of colonization on the verge of the Arctic Circle. In the latter instance, at least, we find them devoted to the uses of the church and placed alongside of its most sacred furniture; while to all appearance they seem to be more adapted to social purposes, which, among the northern nations especially, are most allied to excess.

These objects of Northern antiquity, however, form a class by themselves, and bear no analogy to the prevailing types of the last Pagan period, either in the Scandinavian countries or in Britain. However clearly the facts above referred to shew that they pertain to the antiquities of Norway and Denmark, they cannot be assigned to the same era of Northern art, which produced the beautiful oval brooches and other contemporary relics. They seem rather to point to a later period of intercourse with the East, when the Cufic coins, which are familiar to Northern antiquaries, were introduced. The oldest of these date as early as the year 79 of the Hegira, or A.D. 698, but they have been found of A.D. 1010, and may be presumed to have reached the north of Europe at a somewhat later period than the last of these dates.

Beautiful as some of the relics of Scandinavian art found in Scotland are, they can hardly be considered equal to contemporary examples of native workmanship, such as the very fine early Scottish brooch found in the vicinity of the mounds of Dunipace, and figured on a previous page. Compared with the Caithness oval brooch, selected as the very best of its class, it will, I think, be generally acknowledged as exhibiting both a more defined and a higher style of art. But independently of the beauty of this native relic, nothing is more remarkable than the striking contrast which it presents in form, and style of ornament, to any known class of Scandinavian personal ornaments, while, like most of the later native examples, it bears a close affinity to the contemporary productions of Irish art. The woodcut shews the ornamental interlaced knotwork on the upper portion of the acus, which, in the complete view of the brooch, is concealed by the central ornament.[586] In its imperfect state it is sufficiently apparent that this had been of the same disproportionate length as is frequently found in Irish examples, otherwise greatly varying in form. This is particularly the case with the ring fibulæ, generally of silver. One of these, found in county Antrim, and engraved in the Archæological Journal, measures above six and one-fourth inches long,[587] while a larger and still more beautiful one, in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, is nearly fourteen inches in length. This singular feature in the brooches of the early Christian Period both of Scotland and Ireland, most probably had its origin in some peculiar fashion of the Celtic dress, superseded in the former country during the vital changes which affected it in the eleventh century. The annexed woodcut shews another beautiful Scottish brooch, also from the collection of Mr. John Bell of Dungannon. It is of less costly material than the Dunipace brooch, being made of bronze, but, like it, it has been jewelled, and is otherwise little inferior in point of workmanship. It was found accidentally amongst old brass, in a brazier's shop in Glasgow, and is engraved here the full size of the original.

The brooch has always been a favourite Celtic ornament, and is indeed almost indispensable to the Highland costume. It is worn universally by the Scottish Highlanders, both male and female; and in many Highland families, of various ranks, favourite brooches have been preserved through many generations, as heirlooms which no pecuniary inducement would tempt their humblest owner to part with. The most celebrated of these is the brooch of Lorn, dropt by Robert the Bruce after the defeat of his followers at Methven, when he was compelled to abandon his mantle and the brooch which fastened it, to rid himself of an assailant who held it in his dying grasp. This interesting historic memorial is still preserved by the lineal descendant of the Macdougals of Lorn.[588] Another remarkable relic of the same class is the Glenlyon brooch, which has been preserved in the family of the Campbells of Glenlyon for many generations. It is circular, and of silver, richly jewelled. An ornamental bar, also jewelled, crosses the centre, and two tongues meet on this from opposite sides. It is engraved on Plate II. from careful drawings made from the original. On the lower side are the names of the three Kings of Cologne, a favourite inscription on medieval amulets, thus,--

Pennant has engraved this ancient Scottish brooch, but the figure conveys a very partial idea of the rude magnificence of the original, which measures five and a half inches in circumference.[589]

With these native personal ornaments, introduced here for the purpose of comparison and contrast with those traceable to a Scandinavian source, may also be noticed the silver brooches, of various forms, which are frequently found in Scotland, and are also not unfamiliar to English antiquaries. They are invariably inscribed with some sacred formula or charm, the most common one being IESUS NAZARENUS. One example, in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, is a small octagonal fibula, without ornament, which is said to have been discovered in excavating the tomb of King Robert the Bruce, at Dunfermline, in 1818. It is inscribed,--~Iesus. Nazarenus Rex. Iudeorum~. Another of the same form, but larger, and of superior workmanship, recently found among the ruins of Eilan Donan Castle, on Loch Duich, the ancient stronghold of the M'Kenzies, bears the abbreviated inscription, ~Iesus. Nazar~. Scottish examples of the same class might be greatly multiplied, but the most of them belong to a considerably later period than that to which we now refer.

FOOTNOTES:

[558] Archæological Journal, vol. v. p. 220; vol. vi. p. 74.

[559] MS. Letter from R. Hunter, Esq., 4th April 1850.

[560] Haco's Expedition, Rev. J. Johnston, 1782, p. 109.

[561] Chronicon Manniæ, Antiquitates Celto-Normanicæ. Copen. 1786, p. 44.

[562] Ibid. pp. 24, 25.

[563] Regist. Episc. Moraviensis, p. 456.

[564] It is not impossible that the latter name may have originally referred to the Runes on its beautiful monument. The probability, however, is lessened by the earlier forms of the name, as Ryval and Ruthwald. The reader of chartularies cannot have overlooked the endless variations of local names.

[565] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 55.

[566] Hibbert's Shetland, pp. 531, 547.

[567] Journal of Archæol. Asso. vol. i. p. 48.

[568] Ecclesiastical Notes of the Isle of Man, &c., p. 46.

[569] Camden's Britannia; Gibson's Ed. p. 1458; Gough's Ed. vol. iv. p. 510; Archæol. Scot. vol. ii. pp. 490, 505; Archæol. Journal, vol. ii. p. 75; Ecclesiol. Notes, p. 24, &c.

[570] Sinclair's Statistical Account, vol. xiii. p. 350. A local correspondent informs me that the inscription is now quite illegible.

[571] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 327.

[572] Report of R. S. of Northern Antiquaries to Brit, and Amer. Mems., 1836, pp. 88,89.

[573] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 327.

[574] Archæologia, vol. xxx. p. 38.

[575] Ante, p. 400.

[576] Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 131, Plate IX; vol. xiv p. 113; vol xix. p. 379.

[577] Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 321.

[578] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 346.

[579] Journ. Archæol. Assoc., vol. ii. p. 328.

[580] I am indebted for these to Lieutenant Thomas, R.N., to whom the notes were supplied by Mr. Rendall.

[581] A drawing of this interesting relic, which I had an opportunity of examining, was unfortunately lost, along with a valuable series of notes and sketches made by Lieutenant Thomas, R.N., during his residence in the Orkneys, as the officer in command of the Admiralty Survey. I have since failed in an attempt to obtain access to the original.

[582] Mr. Rendall's own notes are followed in the text, with only such additional information as the notes and sketches of Lieutenant Thomas have supplied. They differ considerably from the description given in the Archæological Journal. In this grave, for example, Mr. Rendall remarks, "no remains of iron were found." It appears probable, therefore, that some confusion exists in the previous account. I may add, the brooches are described as represented, one-half the original size, in the Journal. They are in reality only one-half the diameter,--an error of frequent occurrence in describing the figures of objects of antiquity in archæological works.

[583] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 53.

[584] After repeatedly writing, I have, in most cases, failed in obtaining any reply to my inquiries respecting these relics. They have probably already experienced the usual fate of private collections of objects of national antiquity: and have been thrown aside and forgotten or lost so soon as the novelty of first possession was over.

[585] Norste Mindesmarter. Christiania, 1823, pp. 46-48, Plate II. figs. a, b, c.

[586] Ante, p. 530.

[587] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 70.

[588] Sir Walter Scott, in his Notes to the "Lord of the Isles," remarks that the brooch of Lorn "was long preserved in the family of Macdougal, and was lost in a fire which consumed their temporary residence." This though true in fact conveys an erroneous impression. The brooch was indeed lost under the circumstances referred to, but being recovered from the ruins, it passed into other hands, and was only restored to the representative of the Macdougals by General Campbell of Lochnell, at the Argyleshire county meeting in 1825.--MS. letter, John Macdougal of Macdougal, Esq., Captain R.N., to E. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., March 1828. The engraving on Plate III. (ante, p. 49) is from a drawing taken from the original, which was forwarded for that purpose by Captain Macdougal. Pennant engraves a fine early copy of it, executed, as he conceived from the workmanship, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It differs very considerably from the original brooch in the minuter details.--Pennant's Tour, vol. iii. p. 14.

[589] Pennant's Tour, vol. i. p. 104, Plate XIII.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

V. AMUSEMENTS

In the earliest and rudest states of society, war and the chase become at once the business of life, and, with the needful preparations of weapons and other requisites, suffice to supply each day with its full complement of labour and pastime. A very slight rise, however, in the social scale, creates the desire for some artificial means of filling up the leisure hours of life; and the modes adopted for this purpose often form no uncertain criterion of the age in which they originate. We accordingly find traces of the existence of games both of chance and skill from a very remote period. Reference has already been made to spherical and truncated stones, measuring from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, which are frequently found in tumuli. For the former the name of Bead-stones is proposed, and as they are generally perforated, their use as personal ornaments has been assumed as probable, notwithstanding their cumbrous size, and the unattractive appearance of many of them. But as they are also very frequently flat on one side, there is greater probability of the original purpose of the latter class, at least, having been for table-stones (Anglo-Saxon, tæfelstan) or draughtsmen, in which case the perforation might serve to string them together, for carrying about. In Ireland, and still more frequently in Norway, draughtsmen are found alongside of the weapons and other relics buried with the warrior. They are made generally of bone, of a conical or hemispherical shape, and with a hole in the bottom, designed, as is presumed, to admit of their use on shipboard. With these it is supposed the northmen beguiled the tedium of their long voyages; and the estimation in which they are held is implied in their deposition among the most favourite relics of the dead. We learn from Tacitus that the Germans were so passionately addicted to gambling, that they staked not only their property but their personal liberty. The Romans were themselves scarcely less given to such excesses. Among the many interesting relics restored to light from the ruins of Pompeii, not the least valuable as illustrations of the manners of the first century in Southern Italy, are the cogged dice of the old Roman gamblers. But besides these games which mingled the incentive and the excitement of chance and skill, there appears also to have been in use, from a very early period, others of the simpler class, still favourites among our rustic population, such as bowling, nine-pins, and the like; which, under the various names of skales or kayles, loggats, closh, &c., are frequently mentioned in ancient statutes, and have been found represented on manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The implements of such pastimes are not such as were likely, in many cases, to be long preserved, though it is by no means improbable that the spherical stone-balls frequently found along with ancient relics, and even in the tumuli, may have been used for some such purpose.[590] One interesting and well-authenticated example, however, is known of the discovery of a complete set of the implements for such a game, in the parish of Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbrightshire. They are thus described by the well-known antiquary, Mr. Joseph Train: "In the summer of 1834, as the servants of Mr. Bell of Baryown, were casting peats on Ironmacaunnie Moor, when cutting near the bottom of the moss, they laid open with their spades what appeared to be the instruments of an ancient game, consisting of an oaken ball, eighteen inches in circumference, and seven wooden pins, each thirteen inches in length, of a conical shape, with a circular top. These ancient Reel Pins, as they are termed by Strutt, were all standing erect on the hard till, equidistant from each other, with the exception of two, which pointed towards the ball that lay about a yard in front, from which it may be inferred they were overthrown in the course of the game. The ball has been formed of solid oak, and, from its decayed state, must have remained undisturbed for centuries, till discovered at a depth of not less than twelve feet from the original surface. At Pompeii, utensils are often found, seemingly in the very position in which they were last used. This may be accounted for by the suddenness of the calamity that befell that devoted city; but what induced or impelled the ancient gamesters, in this remote corner of the Glenkens, to leave the instruments of their amusements in what might be considered the middle of the game? These relics, which are in my possession, can now only be prized for their curiosity, the singular position in which they were found, and the relation they bear to ancient times."[591] The moss in which this remarkable discovery was made is described as a place where peats have been cut from time immemorial. It were vain to speculate on the origin or owners of these homely relics of obsolete pastimes; yet to the curious fancy, indulging in the reanimation of such long-silent scenes, they seem suggestive of the sudden intrusion, it may be, of invaders, the hasty call to arms, the utter desolation of the scene, and then the slow lapse of unnumbered centuries, during which the moss accumulated above them so gently that it seems as if the old revellers were to return and play out their unfinished game.

Amusements of the latter class scarcely admit of much refinement, and may well be supposed to have exercised fully as much ingenuity among the ancient players of the Glenkens, as they now do in the bowling-green or skittle-ground. From them, indeed, modern refinement has educed the practised art of the billiard-table. In a simpler age the improvement assumed a more practical form, and gave way to putting the stone, throwing the hammer, and the like trials of strength, which appear to have been favourite pastimes among the Scottish Highlanders from the earliest periods to which their traditions extend.

In complete contrast to these are the amusements indicated by the bone draughtsmen or bead-stones of the tumuli. They are appropriately classed by Strutt in his "Sports and Pastimes," under the general title of "Sedentary Games;" and he furnishes much curious information regarding medieval pastimes, of which traces may be detected in the remoter periods into which we are inquiring. The construction of regular draughtsmen and chessmen is in itself an evidence of increased taste for such amusements. The ancients employed stones, shells, or nuts as counters, and also, there is reason to think, as tablemen, in games of this nature. Hence the Greek name ψηφοι, and the Roman calculi and scrupuli; from whence scrupus, a table-man, or chessman. The Scandinavian terms are of similar import; and among the ancient Northern games which have survived as popular pastimes in Iceland and Lapland, we find the very same which figure among the illuminations of medieval manuscripts, and have influenced the grotesque decorations of our early ecclesiastical architecture. "Of such games," says a writer in the Report of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, "we find that our Pagan ancestors were acquainted with at least three different sorts, namely, hnefatafl, fist-play, i.e., hand-play;[592] hnottafl, nut-play; and skáktafl, chess. Hnottafl signifies properly a game played with nuts, or pieces shaped like nuts. A húni--i.e., a bear, or bear's cub--was anciently the principal personage in it; but in Iceland, where the fox is the only beast of prey, this animal eventually superseded the bear, and the game then came to be denominated refskál. The other pieces represented sheep, or lambs, pursued by Reynard. In the variety of this game, which still forms one of the favourite diversions of the Laplanders, the fox continues to play his part, with this difference, that he there pursues geese instead of lambs; as in the Gänsespiel of the Germans, the Fox and geese of the English, the Ganzespeel of the Dutch, the Jeu d'oie of the French, &c. In Denmark a dog usually takes the place of the fox, and hares of the geese; and hence the game is there called Hund og hare, or hound and hare." According to the Irish chroniclers, Cahir Mor, who died A.D. 177, left, among other legacies to his son, both chessboards (fichell) and chessmen (muintir;) and the Welsh laws of Howel Dha, (circa A.D. 943,) refer to some species of game played with pieces of different colours, (werin,) on a table-board, (tawlbwrdd.) In Bishop Percy's "Translation of Runic Poetry," a Northern hero says,--"I am master of nine accomplishments. I play at chess; I know how to engrave Runic characters," &c.; and in a curious Anglo-Saxon poem, translated for the first time into English by Mr. J. M. Kemble in his paper on Anglo-Saxon Runes, this stanza occurs:--

Chessman is ever Play and laughter To the proud, where Warriors sit In the beer-hall Blithe together.

It is not necessary to assume that all, or indeed any of these allusions necessarily apply to the game of chess, but only to one of the old table-games, played with pieces, many of which will more readily account for the "play and laughter" in the warrior's hall than that skilful and complicated game. These, as well as so many other of the primitive arts and rites of the North, were in all probability brought with the earlier nomades from the eastern cradle-land of our race; for more than one representation of such table-games has been discovered among the pictorial decorations of the Egyptian temples. Dr. Brunton has figured two of these at Medinat Haboo, in his Excerpta Hieroglyphica, in one of which (Plate XIII.) the table and pieces are partly obliterated, but in the other (Plate XI.) it is observable that the pieces are all alike, resembling the most common modern form of chess-pawns. The players are also in both cases moving their pieces at the same time; so that the Egyptian game evidently bore very slight resemblance to chess, and may with more probability be sought for among the early table-games of the north of Europe.

The great antiquity of the game of chess has been long since established on indisputable evidence. For its invention and earliest form the best authorities agree in looking to India, whither the simpler table-games of Egypt may have passed before the migration of the Teutonic races from Asia, and been returned from thence to Europe in their later and more complicated forms. In the ninth century, while yet the Northmen were only known along the British coasts as the dreaded marauding Vikings, Ragnar Lodbrog is reputed to have visited the Hellespont, and the intercourse between the Scandinavians and the Greeks of the Lower Empire, is an accredited feature of well authenticated history. But pilgrimages to Rome, and the passing and repassing of the clergy from Britain to the Continent, were matters of common occurrence at an earlier date; so that there can be no difficulty as to the means by which the game might be introduced from Asia to the north of Europe. Into this curious question Sir Frederick Madden has entered with great learning and ability, collecting the numerous observations of previous writers, and illustrating them from his own copious stores.[593] It will suffice for our present purpose to notice the remarkable illustrations of the implements of this game which have been discovered in Scotland, surpassing in number and value any specimens of ancient chessmen known to exist, if we except the set still preserved in the Cabinet of Antiquities in the Bibliothèque du Roi at Paris, and which there is satisfactory evidence for believing may be the very chessmen presented to Charlemagne by the Empress Irene, or her successor Nicephorus.

In the spring of 1831, the inroads effected by the sea undermined and carried away a considerable portion of a sandbank in the parish of Uig, Isle of Lewis, and uncovered a small subterranean stone building like an oven, at some depth below the surface. The exposure of this singular structure having excited the curiosity, or more probably the cupidity, of a peasant who chanced to be working in the neighbourhood, he proceeded to break into it, when he was astonished to see what he concluded to be an assemblage of elves or gnomes upon whose mysteries he had unconsciously intruded. The superstitious Highlander flung down his spade, and fled home in dismay; but incited by the bolder curiosity of his wife he was at length induced to return to the spot, and bring away with him the singular little ivory figures, which had not unnaturally appeared to him the pigmy sprites of Celtic folk-lore. They consisted in all of at least ninety-two pieces, including fourteen tablemen or draughtsmen, eight of which are kings, eight queens, thirteen bishops, fifteen knights, and twelve figures of footmen, to which Sir Frederick Madden gives the name of warders.[594] These have been so carefully and minutely illustrated in the valuable remarks in the Archæologia, that a slight description will now suffice.

They form altogether portions of eight or more sets, none of which, however, appear to be complete. They vary considerably in size, the largest being four and one-eighth inches in height, while the smallest measures fully an inch less; but the smaller sets are, upon the whole, more carefully and elaborately carved. The annexed illustration represents one of the smaller kings, now in the collection of Mr. Sharp. In point of costume it closely resembles the example engraved in the Archæologia, as well as the others of the set, though differing somewhat in the fashion of the beard. The king is represented as an old bearded man, with long hair falling in plaits over his shoulders, and a low trefoil crown on his head. He is seated on a chair with a high back, richly carved with intricate tracery and ornaments, corresponding, for the most part, to the style of decoration with which we are familiar on the Romanesque work of the twelfth century, and holds a short sword with both hands across his knees, as if in the act of drawing it.

The queens are crowned and throned in like manner. They are represented seated in a contemplative posture, resting the head upon the hand; and two of them hold drinking horns in their left hands. The most striking portion of their costume, represented in the accompanying engraving from one of those in Mr. Sharp's collection, is a species of hood depending from the back of the head, and spreading over the shoulders.[595]

Of the bishops some are seated in chairs similar to those occupied by the kings and queens, while others are in a standing posture. Sir F. Madden remarks, "all of the sitting figures and four of the standing ones wear the chasuble, dalmatic, stole, and tunic of the form anciently prescribed, and corresponding with representations of much greater antiquity. The remainder have a cope instead of a chasuble, but omit the stole and dalmatic. The mitres are very low, and in some instances quite plain, but have the double band or infulæ attached behind. The hair is cut short round the head. They hold a crosier with one or with both hands; and in the former instances, the other hand holds a book or is raised in the attitude of benediction."

The knights afford perhaps the most characteristic examples of the costume of the period. They are mounted on horseback, armed with a heavy spear, and a long kite-shaped shield. Beneath the shield appears the sword, attached to the waist by a belt. The helmets are mostly of a conical shape, in addition to which several have nasals projecting in front, and round flaps protecting the ears and neck. The horses are caparisoned in high saddles, stirrups, and bridles, and with long saddlecloths, fringed with ornamental borders, reaching to the ground.

The footmen or warders bear the same kite-shaped shields as the horsemen, and are armed with swords and head-pieces of iron of different forms. The costume otherwise worn by them has obviously been made subservient to the convenience of the carver, as in the long saddlecloths of the horsemen, and consists, for the most part, of an ample flowing robe, reaching to the ground and concealing the feet. Numerous variations occur in the details of these remarkable carvings, and the utmost variety of design characterizes the ornamentation of the chairs on which the kings, queens, and bishops are seated. Their dresses also vary in ornamental detail, and each of the shields, both of the knights and warders, is decorated with some peculiar device or interlaced pattern, some of which approach very nearly to the heraldic blazonry of a later period, and no doubt indicate the first accidental rudiments of medieval cognizances.

The various details of costume and ornament indicated in this brief description, furnish the chief evidence by which we may hope to assign the period and place of manufacture of these interesting works of early art. This question has already been discussed with much learning and ability by Sir Frederick Madden, who remarks, "I shall now proceed to develop the result of my inquiries in respect to the place where and the period when these chessmen were in all probability manufactured. I shall draw my inferences from three separate subjects of consideration; the material of which they are made, the costume in which they appear, and the historical passages to be found in the ancient writings of Scandinavia; and from each I shall endeavour to prove that these pieces were executed about the middle of the twelfth century, by the same extraordinary race of people who, at an earlier period of time, under the general name of Northmen, overran the greater part of Europe." Against the conclusions carefully arrived at by following out this proposed course of reasoning, with the exception of the period to which they are assigned, I venture, in all deference, to enter a demurrer. It has been so long the fashion to assign every indication of early art and civilisation found in Scotland to these Scandinavian invaders,--though, as I trust has already been shewn, in many cases without evidence and upon false premises,--that it becomes the Scottish archæologist to receive such conclusions with caution, even when advanced by high authorities and supported by evidence. The farther we pursue this investigation into the history of primitive native art we find the less reason to assign to it a foreign origin, or to adopt the improbable theory that the rude Scandinavian rovers brought with them from the Pagan North new elements of civilisation and refinement to replace the Christian arts which they eradicated at the point of the sword. Singer justly remarks on the characteristic difference between the Greek and Scandinavian traditions of the mythic artist, Dædalus or Weland, that the Greeks ascribed to theirs: "Plastic works, and above all images of the gods, while the Scandinavians attributed to their workman principally weapons of a superior temper. It is that the Greeks were a people alive to the beauty of mythologic representations. The Scandinavians, on the contrary, valued nothing but good swords, with which they conquered that which the rude climate of the North denied them."[596] Doubtless, by the middle of the twelfth century a very great change had taken place, but then we trace it not in the invention of a northern Christian art, but in the tardy adoption of what was already common to the ecclesiology and arts of Christendom.

As to the material of the Lewis chessmen, the mere fact of their being made of the tusks of the Rostungr or Walrus--the "huel-bone" of Chaucer--can no more prove their Scandinavian origin, than that of the still older set of Charlemagne being of ivory[597] (presuming this to mean the elephant's tusk) affords any evidence of Indian manufacture. By the middle of the twelfth century, the Northmen had traded as well as warred with Scotland for nearly three centuries, and were at that late period, as Mr. Worsaae remarks, "the central point for an extensive commerce between the east and the northern parts of Europe."[598] The author of the Kongs-Skugg-sio, or Speculum Regale, composed, as Einersen concludes, between the years 1154-1164, but certainly before the close of the century, takes particular notice of the Rostungr, and mentions also the circumstance of its teeth and hide being used as articles of commerce. Such indeed almost of necessity follows from the evidence of the frequent voyages of the Scandinavians in pursuit of these animals, at a time when they had abandoned the old predatory habits of the Vikings for a regular government and peaceful intercourse with other nations. The nature of their settlements on the Scottish islands and mainland, and their alliances and intermarriage with the aboriginal race, may also suffice, if further proof be needed, to shew that the walrus ivory could be no great rarity in Scotland, when it formed a special article of commerce with the Northmen. We accordingly find distinct evidence of its native use: "Ivory dirk-hilts, elegantly turned or wrought by the hand, were manufactured in various parts of the Highlands and isles. Of these specimens still remain at Fingask and Glengary,"[599] and a curious large sword, evidently of early date, preserved at Hawthornden, near Edinburgh, has the hilt made of the narwhal's tusk. The argument of Scandinavian origin from the material is therefore of no value, and the varied devices on the chairs and other highly decorated portions of the Lewis chessmen are equally little indicative of Northern art. They are the same details as are familiar to us on the Romanesque work of the twelfth century, never yet traced to a Northern source. In St. Magnus Cathedral we have a most valuable specimen of Romanesque style, executed in obedience to the piety of a Scandinavian jarl of the Scottish Isles, but so far from finding in it any trace of a style peculiar to the Northmen, its oldest portions are characterized by the usual features of the fully developed style, manifestly derived from Southern models, and betraying in these the later date of its foundation than the examples of the same class which still remain at Durham and Dunfermline. No Scandinavian ecclesiologist, I believe, doubts the foreign origin of the few examples of the earlier styles of medieval ecclesiastical architecture still remaining in Norway and Sweden; and the evidence already adduced tends to suggest the conclusion that whatever military and naval skill the natives of Scotland might acquire from their intercourse with the Northmen, they were much more likely to impart than to receive a superior knowledge in the arts of the sculptor and the carver. Christianity was introduced into Scotland and Ireland some centuries before its acceptance by the Scandinavians, yet the primitive Christian monuments of Denmark or Norway will, as works of art, bear no comparison with those which preceded them in Scotland.

To the costume of the twelfth century we must therefore look for the only safe guide to the origin of the Lewis chessmen. Those of the kings and queens are of little value for this purpose, and those of the bishops, though minutest of all, of none. It is to the military costume of which the knights and footmen afford such curious examples that we must have recourse for some solution of the question. But these also are mostly of Southern and not of Scandinavian origin. Both the shield and the pointed helmet are what would usually be styled Norman. We find the kite-shaped shield represented in the Bayeux tapestry; a curious example of it is engraved on a candlestick of the twelfth century, now in the collection at Goodrich Court;[600] and a still more conclusive instance is the remarkable group of warriors, each with nasal, spear, and kite-shaped shield, sculptured on the lintel of the doorway of Fordington Church, Dorchester, circa 1160.[601] Sir S. R. Meyrick conjectures that the Normans derived this shield from Sicily. There is, at any rate, good evidence for believing that while it was in use in Britain early in the twelfth century, the Northmen retained their round shield till a later period. Judging from Mr. Worsaae's valuable treatise, as well as from the "Guide to Northern Antiquities," the round shield appears to be alone known among the defensive arms of the latest Pagan period, which closes little more than a century prior to the probable date of the Lewis chessmen. But Sir F. Madden has referred to an authority the bearing of which on this point has escaped him, although it seems conclusive. The passage is that in Giraldus, (quoted from a MS. temp. John,) in which he describes the descent of the Norwegians under Hasculph or Asgal, to attack the city of Dublin, then defended by Miles de Cogan, about the year 1172, as follows: "A navibus igitur certatim erumpentibus, duce Johanne ... viri bellicosi Danico more undique ferro vestiti, alii loricis longis, alii laminis ferreis arte consutis, clipeis quoque rotundis et rubris, circulariter ferro munitis, homines tam animis ferrei quam armis, ordinatis turmis, ad portam orientalem muros invadunt." Such shields, formed of wood bound with iron, and with an iron umbo in the centre, are still preserved in Norway, and correspond not only to the requisitions of the old Gulathings-law, cap. 309, circa 1180, but even to a later one--circa 1270. Into the minuter details of wambeys, gambeson, panzar, &c., referred to in the Archæologia, it is needless to enter, because most of them are wanting on the chessmen, or can at best only be guessed at. Were the swords and shields removed from the warders, along with their beards, so little would any one dream of detecting such traces of medieval armour in their costume, that even their sex might be in doubt, and some of their conical helmets and gambesons might serve equally well for the scapulars and tunics of gentle nuns.[602] Of the horsemen also little positive can be made out of anything but the helmet and shield; and of the former scarcely two are alike on knights or warders, the difference in some of them amounting to a total dissimilarity in form and fashion. Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the knight-pieces is the small size of the horses, so characteristic of the old Scottish breed. But it is even matter of doubt if the Norse warriors of the twelfth century ever fought on horseback. If they did so at that period, it was a novelty borrowed, like their new faith and arts, from the nations of the south.

A figure of a mounted warrior, apparently bearing a close resemblance to the chess knights, with a peaked helmet, carrying a spear, and with a long saddle cloth pendant from his horse, is sculptured in relief, amid knotwork and floriated ornaments, on an early monumental slab in the Relig Oran at Iona. A claymore of antique form occupies the centre of the slab, but the shield is concealed by the position of the figure. It is not, however, to the sculptured monuments either of Scotland or of Norway and Denmark that we must look for identifying the costume of these figures with any contemporary examples. Fortunately the same class of evidence has been preserved, on perhaps still more trustworthy authority, not in marble but in wax, in the royal and baronial seals attached to early charters. From these we learn that prior to the date of the Norwegians assailing Miles de Cogan, armed with their "shields, round and red," both the peaked helmet and nasal, and the kite-shaped shield, were the usual defensive armour of the Scottish baron. On the seal, for example, appended to the charter of Robert de Lundres, c. A.D. 1165, conveying a carucate of land in Roxburghshire to the Abbey of Melros, the knight is represented on horseback in full armour, with a flattened helmet with nasal and a kite-shaped shield.[603] So also in the seals of Uchtred, son of Osulf: William son of John: Philip de Valoniis, chamberlain of Scotland, c. A.D. 1176; and on that of Richard de Morville, constable of Scotland, appended to a charter A.D. 1176: all among the charters of the Abbey of Melros, about the middle of the twelfth century, we find the kite-shaped shield, the nasal, and the peaked helmet; while in the very beautiful seal of Patrick de Dunbar, c. A.D. 1200, the nasal appears attached to a round chapel-de-fer, very similar to those worn by some of the Lewis warders.[604] Such examples might be greatly multiplied, but these are sufficient to shew the entire correspondence of the chessmen found in Lewis, both with the contemporary native costume and with other productions of Scottish art of the twelfth century, while it still remains to be shewn that such resemblance is traceable in any single undoubted Scandinavian work of the same period. The intimate intercourse between the Scandinavian and native races of the north of Scotland, and their offensive and defensive alliances already referred to, would indeed render it probable that in the twelfth century no great difference existed in their weapons or defensive armour. Yet we find no traces in the arms or armour of the Scottish Highlanders, with whom alone such close alliances were formed, of anything resembling those in question. In the Lothians, or Saxonia, as it is sometimes styled even in the Pictish Chronicle, it was entirely different. Before the close of the eleventh century, a mingled Saxon and Norman population occupied the old kingdom of Northumbria, a Saxon queen shared the Scottish throne, and exercised a most important influence in changing the manners of the people, and in modifying and reforming their ecclesiastical system. To this period, therefore, and from this source it is that we must look for the introduction of the military costume of the South, as well as of the minutiæ of clerical attire, which may be presumed to have previously been as little in conformity with the Roman model as the other parts of the system.

Founding on the supposed discovery of the Lewis chessmen within tide-mark, and exposed to the sea on the shores of Lewis, it has been suggested that they "formed part of the stock of an Icelandic kaup-mann or merchant, who carried these articles to the Hebrides or Ireland for the sake of traffic; and the ship in which they were conveyed being wrecked, these figures were swept by the waves on shore, and buried beneath the sandbank."[605] This supposition, however, was formed under imperfect information of the circumstances attending the discovery, as they were found in a stone building, which, from the general description furnished of it, there appears reason to assume, must have been a Scottish Weem, and in the vicinity of a considerable ruin. There is greater probability in the earlier conjecture, that the carving of these ancient chessmen may have helped to relieve the monotony of cloistral seclusion. The minuteness of detail in the ecclesiastical costume is much more explicable on such a supposition than by a theory which would ascribe either to an Icelandic kaup-mann, or Norse carver of the twelfth century, such a knowledge of Episcopal chasuble, dalmatic, stole, cope, and tunic, as is traceable in the bishops of the Lewis chessmen.

Danish antiquaries have naturally been little inclined to dispute the idea of a Scandinavian origin assigned on such high authority to the beautiful specimens of carved chessmen found in Scotland. A keen spirit of nationality has been enlisted with the happiest effects in the cause of Northern Archæology, and however honestly bent on the discovery of truth, it was scarcely to be looked for that the Danish archæologist should search too curiously into the evidence by which such valuable relics were handed over to him. They are, accordingly, referred to in the Report of the Northern Antiquaries for 1836, under the title of Scandinavian Chessmen, and at length figure in the "Guide to Northern Archæology," among articles from the Christian Period, without its even being hinted that they were discovered, not in Denmark but in Scotland. The subject is treated more at large in the interesting paper on "Some Ancient Scandinavian Chessmen," included in the Report of the Northern Antiquaries to its British and American Members, in which several specimens found in Scandinavia are described and engraved. One of these, a female figure on horseback, supposed to be a queen-piece, (also figured in the Guide to Northern Archæology, p. 75,) is in the private collection of Professor Sjöborg. On it the writer remarks,--"The serpentine ornament upon it resembles, it will be observed, those on several of the chessmen found at Lewis. The mantle, too, or veil, hanging down the shoulders of the figure, is another point of similitude between them." A comparison of the engraving in Lord Ellesmere's translation of the Guide to Northern Archæology, with the Lewis chessmen in the British Museum, will suffice to shew how easily men are persuaded of what they wish to believe. The character both of horse and rider essentially differ; the costumes in no way resemble each other more than all female dresses necessarily do; while the horses differ as much as is well possible. In the Lewis knights their horses' manes are cut short and stand up, while the hair hangs down over their foreheads. In the Scandinavian example the mane is long, and the forehead uncovered; and what is no less worthy of note, the horse, both in this and the following examples, differs from the former in being of full size, as tested by the comparative proportions of the rider. The horse-furniture is equally dissimilar: but a still greater and more important disagreement is in the style of art. A very great resemblance may be traced between the square forms and most characteristic details of the Lewis horses' heads, and the contemporary sculptures of Dalmeny Church, Linlithgowshire, where a series of similar heads occur in the corbel-table of the Apse. Such a comparison affords the best test of style, the peculiarities of which are more easily illustrated than described. No such resemblance could possibly be suggested by Professor Sjöborg's chesspiece; and the similarity which the Danish antiquaries discover in its serpentine ornament to those of the Lewis carvings, is little more satisfactory. The difference in style is no less obvious in two carved groups from the Christiansborg Collection at Copenhagen, (tab. vi. figs. 1, 2,) representing, the one a king and the other a queen on horseback, and surrounded each by four attendants. They are also formed of the tooth of the Rostungr or walrus, and are believed to be the king and queen pieces of a set of chessmen. It is sufficient to say of them that they bear equally little resemblance to the Lewis figures in arms, armour, costume, or ornamental details. In Scotland it is otherwise. Examples have been found there admitting of comparison with the Lewis chessmen. Pennant engraves one discovered in the ruins of Dunstaffnage Castle, Argyleshire, the ancient royal abode of the Dalriadic kings. It represents a king seated in a chair of square form, holding a book in the left hand. The costume differs from the kings of the Lewis sets, and obviously belongs to a somewhat later period; but the general arrangement of the figures correspond, and there can be no doubt that the latter is the king-piece of a similar set of chessmen. It is still preserved at Dunstaffnage, where it was examined by Pennant in 1772.[606]

Another of the chesspieces referred to is in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, and furnishes a most beautiful example of the skill of the early carvers. It is also wrought from the walrus ivory, and may be presumed to have formed a warder or rook-piece of the set. It represents two mailed knights, armed with sword and shield, and may be ascribed to the early part of the thirteenth century. The shields are shorter than in the Lewis figures, and the devices afford an interesting means of comparison. Several of the ornamental patterns wrought on the shields of the former bear such close resemblance to heraldic distinctions that they admit of intelligible description according to rules of blazonry, yet they are all evidently mere arbitrary ornaments and not bearings; whereas on one of the shields of the latter knight we have a curious and very early example of dimidiation in heraldry,--a fleur-de-lys dimidiated on a diapered field,--a figure little likely to be chosen for mere ornament. The history of this interesting relic is unknown. It was presented to the Society by Lord Macdonald in 1782, as the handle of a Highland dirk. From his extensive possessions in the Isle of Skye, it is not improbable that it may have been found there, where the frequent discovery of relics of different periods attests the ancient presence of a population skilled in the useful and ornamental arts. It measures three and five-eighth inches in height, and is fully equal, in point of workmanship, to any of the Lewis figures, though certainly exhibiting no characteristics which should suggest any doubt of its native workmanship.

The annexed woodcut exhibits another chesspiece, apparently of a still later date, preserved in the collection formed by Sir John Clerk at Penicuick House. Attached to it is a parchment label in the handwriting of the old Scottish Antiquary, which thus describes it: "An ancient piece of sculpture on the tooth of a whale. It was found by Jo. Adair, geographer, in the north of Scotland, anno 1682. All the figures are remarkable." John Adair, geographer for Scotland, was appointed by the Lords of the Scottish Privy-Council, in 1682, to make a survey of the whole kingdom, and maps of the different shires. This he effected, and published the first part of his work, but, unfortunately, obstacles arising apparently from the tardy advances of the necessary funds, prevented the second part--including his voyage round the Western Isles and an account of the Roman wall--from ever appearing, and his papers, it is to be feared, no longer exist.[607] It was, no doubt, while he was engaged on this survey, that the interesting relic was discovered which is figured here. It has evidently formed a queen-piece, though consisting in all of seven figures. The queen is represented crowned, and seated on her throne, with a lap-dog on her knee, and apparently a book in her right hand. On her left is a knight in full armour, with drawn sword, and from whose costume we can have little hesitation in assigning the work to the early part of the fourteenth century. On the right hand of the throne stands a trouvere or minstrel playing on the crowde, an ancient musical instrument somewhat resembling the violin. Behind are four female figures, holding each other by the hand, and the one next to the minstrel bearing a palm-branch. This curious chesspiece is of great value; as adding another link to the chain of chronological evidence by which we trace the continuous native production of these costly relics of ancient pastime in our own country.

Mr. Albert Way has described two other very curious chessmen, both knight-pieces. One of these, which is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, is also believed to be made of the walrus tooth, and is interesting as an example of military costume, apparently belonging to the early part of the reign of Henry III. The other figure is carved in ivory, and furnishes a very minute and characteristic illustration of the military costume and horse-armour in use during the reign of Edward III.[608] But a much more remarkable relic of the same class, believed to be a queen-piece, is figured and described in the Archæological Journal.[609] It was found, about twenty years since, in the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey, and is said to bear some resemblance to another of inferior workmanship, discovered along with several chesspieces at Woodperry, Oxfordshire. One of these, a bishop, is also engraved in the Archæological Journal.[610] The form of the Kirkstall piece is further illustrated by the illuminations of a German MS. of the fourteenth century,[611] where Otho, Marquis of Brandenbourg, who died in 1298, is represented playing at chess with a lady, and with such a piece before him on the board. The details of this queen-piece are very peculiar. The four-leaved flower and triangular foliation would suggest a date not earlier than the close of the thirteenth century; nor is there anything irreconcilable with this in the very singular figures which they accompany. A parallel may be found to the most remarkable of them in the sculptural details which the exuberant fancy of that period lavished on cathedrals and shrines, without, we may suspect, always troubling themselves for the meanings which modern symbolists insist on deducing from them.

One other Scottish example of a chesspiece may be mentioned. It is a small mutilated ivory figure, apparently of a king, in classic costume, and with a drawn sword in his hand, found a few years since among the ruins of North-Berwick Abbey. But it belongs to a much more recent period than any of those previously referred to, and is inferior to them as a work of art. Were it not, indeed, for the Scandinavian origin so generally assigned to nearly all the early examples of British chessmen, their manifest classification among the productions of Christian art would have rendered it more consistent with an orderly system of chronology to treat of them along with late medieval antiquities. The "Collection of Inventories of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel House," among its many curious items, furnishes this interesting notice of the tables and chessmen of James IV., and possibly of older Scottish kings:--"Ane pair of tabillis of silvir, ourgilt with gold, indentit with jasp and cristallyne, with table men and chess men of jasp and cristallyne."[612] The entry sufficiently shews the familiarity of the Scottish court with the use both of table and chessmen at the date of its record, in the reign of James V., A.D. 1539. But evidence is hardly needed to prove the knowledge of a pastime which was then a favourite in every European court. The tables and chessmen are entered among the royal jewels, and unfortunately their costly materials, which admitted of such a classification, render it vain to hope that they may still be in existence, like the older but more homely chessmen of Charlemagne.

FOOTNOTES:

[590] Ante, p. 139.

[591] Hist. of Galloway, vol. ii. App. p. 67. New Stat. Acc., Kirkcudbrightshire, vol. iv. p. 103.

[592] This game still survives among the juvenile sports of Scotland, played with cherry stones, or paips, Ang. pips, and called nieves, i.e., fists, from their being held in the closed hand. Some of these games with paips may perhaps claim a classic origin. Ovid alludes to one played with nuts,--Nux Elegia, ver. 72. Hence the phrase nuces relinquere, to put away childish things; to become a man.

[593] Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 203.

[594] The account in the text differs as to the number of pieces, as well as in some other and more important points, from that given in the Archæologia, (vol. xxiv. p. 212.) Sir F. Madden, however, only describes those which were acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., to whom I owe these particulars, possesses eleven pieces, consisting of two kings, three queens, three bishops, one knight, and two warders. Ten of these he selected from the whole, previous to their possessor, Mr. Roderick Ririe, offering them to the Trustees. The remaining one was afterwards obtained from a person residing in Lewis. Sir F. Madden is also mistaken in speaking of their having been long subject to the action of salt-water. They were found at some distance from the shore; a sudden and very considerable inroad having been made by the sea. A minute of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, referring to the exhibition of these chessmen, 11th April 1831, describes them as "found buried fifteen feet under a bank of sand." Mr. Sharp has in his possession the original receipt given to Mr. Ririe by the jeweller in Edinburgh, with whom they were deposited, which describes them as "fifty-eight figures, thirty-four pieces, and a buckle of ivory or bone."

[595] The queen figure, of which a back view is given in the engraving in order to shew the peculiar form of the head-dress, holds in the left hand a horn similar to that which one of the queen figures now in the British Museum bears. In cutting this figure the carver has exposed the core of the tooth, and the side of the chair here seen is formed of another piece of ivory attached to it with pins of the same material. This is so neatly done that Mr. Sharp's attention was called to it for the first time when I was drawing the piece.

[596] Singer's Wayland Smith, p. lxxiii.

[597] "L'Empereur et Roy de France, Sainct Charlemagne, a donné, au Thresor de Sainct Denys un jeu d'eschets, avec le tablier, le tout d'yvoire."--Hist. Abbey of St. Denis, 1625.

[598] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 148.

[599] Stuart's Costume of the Clans, Introd. p. xxxiv.

[600] Archæologia, vol. xxiii. Plate XXVIII. p. 317.

[601] Glossary of Architecture, fifth edit. vol. ii. Plate LXXIII.

[602] Vide, in addition to figure shewn here, Archæol. vol. xxiv. Pl. XLVIII. figs. 3, 4.

[603] Liber Sancti de Melros, p. 76, No. 88.

[604] Vide Laing's Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Scottish Seals. Nos. 283, 593, 825, 828, 843. Edin. 1850.

[605] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 290.

[606] It was exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, by the late Captain Campbell of Inistore, in 1833, but I have been unsuccessful in several attempts since to ascertain in whose custody it now is, in order to obtain access to it for the purpose of making a drawing from the original.

[607] Vide Papers relative to the Geographical Description, &c. of Scotland, by John Adair, F.R.S., 1686-1723. Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 347.

[608] Archæol. Journal, vol. iii. pp. 243, 244.

[609] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 170.

[610] Archæol. Journal, vol. iii. p. 121.

[611] Bibl. Du Roi, No. 7266. Ibid. vol. vi.

[612] Collection of Inventories, p. 49.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

VI. PRIMITIVE ECCLESIOLOGY

With the introduction of Christianity into Britain an entirely new era of art begins, derivable here, as elsewhere, from the central heart of ancient Christendom, as in the celebrated example of the Candida Casa, built at Whithern, in Galloway, in the Roman style.

We have the authority of Bede for the fact already referred to,--that the first churches of the Britons were constructed of timber. The cathedral of St. Asaph, founded by St. Kentigern in the sixth century, was a wooden church, after the manner of the Britons, and so also we may believe was the first cathedral of Glasgow, the work of the same founder. The first cathedral of the Isles seems not even to have aspired to the dignity of a wooden church, but to have been only a wattled inclosure, not unsuited to the simplicity of the primitive apostle of the Picts. Similar erections were probably employed at a much later period, for the temporary accommodation of the first phalanx of the newly founded monastery. A very curious seal, attached to one of the older charters of Holyrood Abbey, represents a structure so entirely differing from all the usual devices of the earliest ecclesiastical seals, that I am strongly inclined to look upon it as an attempt to represent the original wooden church, reared by the brethren of the Holyrood Abbey, on their first clearance in the forest of Drumselch. It manifestly represents a timber structure. The round tower is also curiously consistent with the older Scottish style, which the Romanesque was then remodelling or superseding, but bears no analogy to that of the Abbey of St. David. The contemporary seal of St. Andrews, which has for its device the venerable metropolitan church of St. Rule, proves that such portraiture was actually attempted and successfully practised at the period.[613] Viewed in this light the old Holyrood seal is one of the most interesting ecclesiological relics we possess, figuring, it may be, the primitive structure first reared on the site which is now associated with so many of the most momentous occurrences both in the ecclesiastical and civil history of Scotland. The earliest charter to which it has yet been found attached is a notification by Alwyn, Abbot of Holyrood, A.D. 1141; but both the style of workmanship and the curiously mixed lettering manifestly belong to an earlier period, when the mos Scotorum was still in use, and perhaps point to the existence of a familia, or Christian community established in the glades of Drumselch Forest, long before the royal foundation of the Holyrood. Amid such primitive structures, the Candida Casa of St. Ninian must have stood forth as a majestic example of Italian art, and have furnished a model which succeeding builders would strive to imitate. Yet as each country of Christian Europe has its own peculiar variations from the theoretical standard, or its provincialisms, as they may be fitly enough called, so Scotland and Ireland, occupying originally a more isolated position than the other kingdoms of Christendom, modified these to a remarkable extent, and produced a style differing so greatly from the Italian model as to confound the speculations of modern ecclesiologists. The masterly essay of Dr. Petrie on "The Round Towers of Ireland," has at length freed this inquiry from the cumbrous theories of older antiquaries, and given consistency to the archæological records of native art.

While England has her Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical remains, exhibiting more or less of the transition by which the debased Roman passed into the pure Romanesque, or Norman style, Scotland, along with Ireland, possesses examples of an early native style belonging to the same period, anterior to the Norman invasion, and distinguished by more marked and clearly defined characteristics. The peculiarities of the early masonry have generally been selected by judicious ecclesiologists as one of the most unerring guides to genuine Saxon remains, including such constructive features as the varieties of long and short work, whether introduced plainly in the angles of the buildings, or in the form of pilaster-strips, panels, arcades, and other decorations on the surface of the walls, as in the celebrated Earl's Barton Tower, Northamptonshire, and in Stanton Lacy Church, Shropshire. The latter are only modifications of the simpler long and short work, and are obviously introduced for the same purpose, namely, to supply the want of a sufficiency of good building materials, and to bind together the unsubstantial ruble-work between, much in the same way as beams and brick-work are united in a timber-framed house. This difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of stone accounts for the introduction of herring-bone work, consisting of courses of bricks or tiles of Roman shape, and not unfrequently the spoils of older Roman buildings, disposed in alternate chevron rows. Such evidence is not of course in itself sufficient to fix a building as undoubtedly belonging to the Anglo-Saxon period, but as it generally occurs along with features more or less markedly distinct from the earliest Romanesque buildings to which an authentic date is assigned, it is a mere disputing about terms to question the existence of many well known examples in England of a style of ecclesiastical building popularly known as Saxon architecture. In addition to these constructive features there are not wanting peculiarities of detail, such as the belfry windows, divided with a rude baluster, or a slender cylindrical shaft carrying a long impost without any capital, and small apertures both in doors and windows, formed by two or more stones laid so as to form a straight slope, and producing a class of pointed openings coeval with the earliest circular arch in our ecclesiastical architecture. Sculptured decoration is rare, and generally extremely rude. The imposts of arches most frequently present imperfect imitations of Roman mouldings, where they are not simple square blocks, though in some instances a modification of the long and short work, consisting of rag-stone regularly disposed in imitation of carved mouldings, serves as an economical substitute for more laboured decorations.

Most of these characteristics of Anglo-Saxon architecture are, in the true sense of the word, provincialisms, not indeed necessarily confined to England, but pertaining to the earliest buildings of districts where good stone is scarce, and not easily procured. They form interesting examples of the legitimate origin of architectural details from the necessities of the locality in which they are found. On this very account, however, they are such as we should not expect to find, either in Scotland or Ireland, where substantial building materials abound. Examples, indeed, of analogous workmanship are not wanting in either country, and some of those of Scotland will be referred to. The celebrated ruin of St. Anthony's Chapel, near Edinburgh, though certainly not earlier than the fourteenth, and more probably belonging to the fifteenth century, affords a curious instance of the adaptation of the rude materials of its immediate site, where others of the best quality were of easy access. This, however, is a solitary example, and no indication of a prevalent custom. Any evidence of such an exotic style as that usually called Saxon in the south of England transplanted to these localities, like the Scoto-Roman masonry already described, would clearly point to a foreign origin, and to builders unfamiliar with the facilities of a stone country.

The peculiar characteristics of the later ecclesiastical revolutions of Scotland, which almost entirely eradicated all veneration for the historical memorials of the ancient Scottish Church, have largely contributed to obliterate the evidences of our primitive Christian architecture. Some few examples of singular value, however, exist to attest the correspondence of the earliest sacred structures with other contemporary works of art. Scotland, as well as Ireland, has still her round towers, among the earliest and most interesting relics of native ecclesiastical architecture. Into the endless controversy of which these have formed the subject it is happily no longer needful to enter. Dr. Petrie's admirable work has sufficed to sweep away the learned dust and cobwebs laboriously accumulated about the inquiry into their origin, and exhibits the value of patient investigation and the logical deductions of a thoroughly informed mind, in contrast to the vague and visionary speculations of the fireside student. The field which the Scottish antiquary has to investigate is narrow indeed when compared with that which Ireland offers; but is on that very account freed from some of the difficulties which beset the explorer into the corresponding Irish examples of the architectural taste and skill of a remote and long unknown period. It is even possible that a closer investigation of the history of the round towers of Scotland may throw some additional light on those of the sister isle.

It is with extreme hesitation that I venture to hint a doubt in regard to any of the conclusions arrived at in the "Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion," regarding it, as I do, as a nearly perfect model of critical analysis and research. Yet even Dr. Petrie occasionally seems not to have entirely escaped the influence of that temptation to assign the remotest conceivable antiquity to these national monuments, which proved so effectual a stumblingblock to his predecessors. Notwithstanding the evidence adduced for the date assigned to the erection of the Round Tower of Kildare, it is impossible to overlook the fact, that the doorways both of that and of the tower at Timahoe are decorated with ornaments and mouldings, which, though not without their own peculiar details, essentially correspond to those found throughout Europe on works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. If the record of erection at a particular date, with the absence of any notice of rebuilding, were to be accepted in proof of the date of styles, there is probably no single phase of medieval ecclesiastical architecture which might not be proved on such evidence to be coeval with the earliest. The silence of all authorities as to the re-erection of churches once built is a species of negative proof of the smallest possible value. In the ruined nave of Holyrood Abbey at Edinburgh, the experienced eye may detect work of nearly every period from the twelfth to the seventeenth century; yet in some places the mouldings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are so ingeniously engrafted on the original Romanesque work, that it is hardly possible precisely to define the amount of change. The ingenuity with which the old masons have thus remodelled churches to bring them into correspondence with the progressive developments of pointed architecture, completely baffles the attempt to fix from single examples, such as the remarkable doorway of Timahoe, the work of a precise date. The form of arch, the chevron mouldings, decorated capitals, the sculptures on the imposts, are all such as the experienced eye would assign to the era of the Romanesque or Anglo-Norman style; and this idea is rather strengthened than weakened by the finely-jointed character of the ashlar-work, as such well-finished masonry is rarely met with in any English edifice prior to the twelfth century. The well-known details common to the Romanesque style are undoubtedly accompanied, as might be expected, by others peculiar to Ireland; but these examples referred to do not differ more from any twelfth century building in England or Scotland than does the beautiful stone-roofed Church of Cormac, on the Rock of Cashel, to which Dr. Petrie assigns, on indisputable evidence, the date of 1134. I am induced to direct attention to these points--otherwise foreign to the subject in hand--because the few marked characteristics which can be referred to on the round towers of Scotland correspond with those in Ireland which, according to all received ecclesiological analogies, seem to indicate an earlier date than the towers of Timahoe or Kildare, or the presumed contemporary monastery of Rathairn, and can hardly be supposed to be works of a later period. On this point I find it difficult to follow Dr. Petrie, who assigns to these specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, marked by details corresponding with works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in England and Scotland, a date not later than the close of the eighth century, while the tower of Donaghmore, which bears considerable resemblance to the Scottish round tower at Brechin--though greatly inferior in the amount or richness of ornament--is ascribed to the early part of the tenth century, or fully a century prior to the date of the corresponding Scottish building. Yet there are also points of resemblance of a sufficiently marked character, both in the peculiar masonry and details of the Timahoe and Brechin Towers. The pellet and bead moulding on the soffit of the former also very closely corresponds with the finish of the architrave in the Scottish doorway, though their decorations otherwise greatly differ.

The well-known round towers of Scotland are those of Abernethy and Brechin; but in addition to these we have the ancient church and tower of St. Magnus, Egilshay, in Orkney, which, though hitherto generally overlooked from its remote and inaccessible position, is no less interesting and worthy of note. The little church of St. Magnus, on the island of Egilshay, still remains in tolerably perfect condition though roofless, consisting of a chancel, nave, and round tower at its west end, which appears, when perfect, to have been between fifty and sixty feet high. It was roofed with an irregular dome-shaped capping, and both the nave and chancel were also protected, at no very distant period, with a roofing of stone. Dr. Hibbert, in his "Description of the Shetland Isles," refers to this little Orkney edifice as a specimen of the ancient Scandinavian Church, corresponding, as he conceives, to others which formerly existed in Shetland. After describing Burra, St. Ronan's, and other localities in the Bay of Scalloway, he goes on to remark,--"On an adjacent promontory, named Ireland, once stood a church which was adorned with a lofty steeple. But of three buildings of this kind situated in Ireland, Burra, and Tingwall, that were said to have been erected by Norwegian sisters, it is unfortunate that not one should now remain."[614] It is in illustration of the presumed appearance of these that the church of Egilshay is referred to as "a small religious edifice in Orkney, which these kirks of Shetland are said to have much resembled."

The date of these churches, which tradition thus assigns to Norwegian builders, is not known. If, however, we were to take the dedication of the one still remaining on the island of Egilshay as a clue to the whole, we should be compelled to assign them to a comparatively recent period, and one later by more than a century than the most modern of the round towers of the mainland.

According to well-known Scandinavian records, the introduction of Christianity into the Orkney Islands was effected by the Norwegian king Olaf Trigvason, better known to us as St. Olaf, on his return from an expedition to Ireland in the year 998, having himself received baptism not long before in the Scilly isles. This important change, however, which the warrior missionary characteristically effected at the edge of the sword, there is good reason for believing only affected the Norwegian jarls. Christianity, as has been already shewn, had long preceded the conquest of these islands by the Northmen. The missionaries of Iona had not been so effectually scared by the intrusion of these fierce invaders as to abandon the numerous scenes of their early labours; and it is entirely consistent, both with the history of the northern islands and the characteristics of the primitive little edifice referred to, to believe that the church which still stands, though in ruin, on the island of Egilshay was the scene of Christian rites, amid "the storm-swept Orcades," when the rude Norse king landed his strange missionary crew on the neighbouring isle.

It can hardly admit of doubt that the simple little church and tower of St. Magnus, Egilshay, were built from Irish models. Even if its origin were satisfactorily traced to Norwegian founders, the frequent expeditions of the Northmen to Ireland would suffice to account for this. St. Olaf visited Ireland before his memorable visit to the Orkneys, on his way to Norway, bent on introducing the new faith into his own country. Sigurd, the Jarl whom he converted by the summary alternative of embracing Christianity or forfeiting his dominions, fell in the great battle of Clontarf, in Ireland, A.D. 1014, in which Danes and Northmen of Northumberland, the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Man, fought along with other foreign auxiliaries, on behalf of the Danish colonists of Ireland, against the famous Irish monarch, Brian Boru, while among his allies were the Scottish Maormors of Lennox and Marr. Gray's celebrated ode of "The Fatal Sisters" is a paraphrase of an ancient poem in the Icelandic Saga, on the battle in which the Northmen suffered so terrible a defeat. In this contemporary poem, Hilda, the Scandinavian goddess of war and victory, is introduced with her weird-sisters, the Valkyries, who attended on the field of slaughter to convey the spirits of the dying heroes to the hall of Odin, and otherwise received in the Scandinavian mythology nearly the same attributes as the Parcæ of the Greeks. These Scandinavian Fates are represented as having been seen at Caithness, in Scotland, by a man named Darraudar, on the very day of the battle of Clontarf. They were on horseback, riding swiftly towards a hill, into which they entered, and on looking through an opening of the rock he saw twelve gigantic females weaving a web at a strange loom. Their shuttles were weapons of war, their warp was weighted with human heads, and they wove with human entrails the ghastly texture of "the loom of hell." As they plied their shuttles they sang a dreadful incantation, on finishing which they tore the web into twelve pieces, and each taking her portion they mounted their black steeds and rode off, six to the north and six to the south. That same day they appeared on the field of Clontarf busied amid the heaps of the slain. Such was the creed of the Norse Jarls sixteen years after the conversion of Sigurd of Orkney by St. Olaf, and the sole fruit of their last visit to Ireland. It is not to them, therefore, that we must look for the introduction of the models of the first Christian churches of Orkney. It is much more probable that the earlier missionaries of St. Columba were themselves the architects of the humble little fane which remains on the island of Egilshay, as well as of many others that once adorned the neighbouring isles. It closely corresponds in general characteristics with Dr. Hibbert's account of the ancient churches of Shetland, of which traces still exist. "All the ecclesiastical buildings," he remarks, "appear to have been devoid of the least show and ornament, the ingenuity of the architect extending little farther than in constructing a round vaulted roof. The pointed arch, the pinnacled buttresses, or rich stone canopy, never dignified the chapels of humble Hialtland. The number of them, however, was remarkably great. The parish of Yell, for instance, boasted twenty chapels, where only two or three are used at the present day."[615] The venerable little Church of Egilshay has fallen into like decay, and the inhabitants are now compelled to seek a place of worship on a neighbouring island.

Like other Orkney buildings of very different dates, this primitive church is constructed almost entirely of the unhewn clay-slate of the district. The tower is unsymmetrical, tapering somewhat irregularly towards the top, and bulging considerably on the side attached to the church. It differs from other examples in having no external doorway. It has evidently been built contemporaneously with the church, and is entered from the nave by means of a door through the west wall. The accompanying view from the south-east will help to convey some idea of its external appearance. Since the view engraved in Dr. Hibbert's Plate of Antiquities was drawn, the stone roofs both of the church and tower have disappeared, along with a portion of the walls of the latter, which was taken down from the apprehended danger of its falling. The following are the proportions of the church and tower. The greatest circumference of the tower is forty-eight feet, and its present height about forty-five feet. There is no appearance of any stair having been constructed in it, but two beams of oak near the top, and two lower down, still indicate the arrangement of the floors by which it has at one time been subdivided. Directly above the door on the eastern side, connecting it with the nave, are the only two windows in the tower, one above the other, arched with unhewn stone. The doorway is only four feet in height from the present floor, and two feet four inches broad. The walls of the nave are about three feet thick, and it measures thirty feet long by sixteen feet wide within the walls. It is entered both on the north and south sides by doorways constructed "more Romano," with a plain semicircular arch of unhewn stone. On the north side there is but one small arched window, three feet three inches in height, and only nine inches wide; while on the south side, in addition to a corresponding window of similar size, there are two other plain square-headed windows, measuring respectively two feet eleven inches by one foot two inches, and one foot nine inches by one foot one inch. The chancel is still covered in with a plain semicircular arch, above which has been a chamber, constructed between it and the outer covering of stone, and accessible only by an entrance over the chancel arch, where in all probability was kept the muniment chest of the officiating priest. Such an arrangement is traceable in early Irish churches, as in the original work of the beautiful church at Rathain, in King's county, which Dr. Petrie assigns as the work of St. Fidhairle Ua Suanaigh, who died in 763.[616] The chancel measures within the walls eleven feet by nine feet seven inches, and is lighted only by a small window in the north and south walls, measuring each twenty by eleven inches. But perhaps the most singular feature of this interesting structure is the chancel arch, which, directly contrary to those of corresponding edifices in Ireland, has its sides inclined inward towards the base, so as to present a complete horse-shoe arch. It is scarcely possible to examine the details of this most interesting relic of early Christian art, without recognising its manifest correspondence with the primitive Irish churches of the sixth and seventh centuries, which Dr. Petrie's researches have rendered so familiar to us.

That the little Church of Egilshay existed long prior to the era of St. Magnus cannot, I conceive, admit of doubt. A comparison of it with the stately cathedral of Kirkwall, founded little more than thirty years after the death of the sainted Earl, is alone sufficient to prove its erection at a period essentially differing from the era of the fully developed Romanesque. Its later dedication to that favourite northern saint is abundantly accounted for by the remarkable historical fact that in its immediate neighbourhood, if not indeed, as the Aberdeen Breviary states, within this venerable fane, the gentle Magnus Erlendson was hewn down by his fierce cousin Hacon, A.D. 1106. It affords additional confirmation of the source of the Christianity of the Northern Isles, that we are told in the same venerable Scottish ecclesiastical authority, that Magnus commended his soul to the Redeemer, to St. Mary, and to the old northern apostles, St. Palladius and St. Serf. The fame of the sanctity of the martyred Earl of Orkney was speedily attested, according to the faith of the period, by numerous miracles wrought at his tomb. Pilgrimages were made to his shrine, and saintly honours accorded to him, not in Orkney only, but throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Scottish mainland. Within twenty years after his death the legendary incidents of his life had been woven into an Icelandic Saga, strangely differing from that of Hilda and her attendant Valkyries. Ronald, the nephew of the martyred Earl, obtained a grant from the King of Norway of the possessions which were his by right of succession to his uncle, and on successfully establishing his claims the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall was begun in or about the year 1138, in fulfilment of a vow he had made while fortune still hung doubtful in the scale.

The reputation of the sainted Earl has outlived that of any other Scottish saint, if we except the good St. Margaret. His name is still spoken with reverence throughout Orkney and Shetland, independently of all idea of saintship or martyrdom, to which indeed his claims are greatly more doubtful than his just title to the character of an upright ruler in a barbarous age. He died in a private quarrel with his own cousin, in which no other questions than those of mutual interest appear to have been involved. But the Church availed itself of the reverence which his virtues had inspired; and to this it is no doubt mainly owing that, notwithstanding the extreme veneration in which his name was held, little trustworthy information is to be found regarding him, even in the authorized records of hagiology. The Aberdeen Breviary styles him "the Apostle of Orkney and the Hebrides." Other old authorities refer to him as a bishop or missionary to the Pagans of the north; and a writer in the first Statistical Accounts[617] winds up a sufficiently amusing attempt at tracing his history, by shewing the great probability that he was a knight templar!

The characteristics of the majestic cathedral of the Northern Isles furnish valuable elements of comparison with other examples of early ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland; while they completely confirm the great antiquity of the simple edifice which was deserted as the see of the Orkney bishops for the stately edifice at Kirkwall dedicated to the sainted Earl of the Orkneys. If we except the one common feature of the rounded arch, no elements of comparison exist. The cathedral is a well-defined example of the late Romanesque style, bearing no traces of the rudeness or imperfection which might be looked for in the transition from an humble and homely fane to one of such pretensions, but distinctly marked as belonging to a later period than Dunfermline, Kelso, and other of the older Scottish abbeys in the same style.

Returning to the consideration of the round towers of the Scottish mainland, the reader will probably be prepared by the previous evidences of the close affinity traceable between the early Irish and Scottish arts to assume that these erections, which find a parallel only in Ireland, are either the work of the Irish Scots or the result of the intimate intercourse with Ireland which was maintained at a well-ascertained period of our history. When we consider the close resemblance between the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy, and many of those of Ireland, amounting to a complete identity of style, it seems strange that Scottish antiquaries should have hesitated in ascribing to the former a Christian origin, after the obscure annals of the Dalriadic Scots had been cleared up. From these, as we have already seen, the Irish Scoti had no footing beyond their little territory in Argyleshire till the middle of the ninth century; and we have unquestionable evidence that the Romanesque or Anglo-Norman style had obtained general acceptance in Scotland in the very beginning of the twelfth century. Between these two periods, therefore, must the precise date of erection of both the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy be sought. But this interval is further greatly limited by the establishment of the third Norwegian kingdom by Thorfinn in 1034. It embraced nearly the whole of the north of Scotland, and was successfully maintained for thirty years, so that we are almost unavoidably compelled to assume their date as prior to this earlier period. The triumph of Thorfinn involved the extinction of the house of Kenneth MacAlpin, and the extermination of the most powerful chiefs of the Scottish race. By this we are limited to a period somewhat short of two centuries, within which it may be assumed that the Scottish round towers were erected; and with this such historical evidence as we possess in some degree accords. Neither of them, however, are the primitive structures reared on these long sacred sites. The tower of Abernethy, which stands solitary and unroofed, with all the ancient ecclesiastical adjuncts of a collegiate foundation utterly effaced, may be very briefly dismissed. Gordon[618] gives its dimensions as follows: Its elevation is seventy-five feet, wanting the conical roof which we may assume to have originally crowned its summit, adding ten or twelve feet to the height. The doorway which faces the north, and is, as usual, elevated several feet from the ground, is eight and a half feet high, by two and a half feet wide, and consists of a plain semicircular-headed opening. The tower now occupies an angle of the inclosed churchyard, and serves both as a belfry and clock-tower for the plain modern church; in addition to which the obsolete iron jougs still attached to it shew that it was also enlisted in older times in the execution of ecclesiastical discipline.

The Pictish Chronicle records the founding of a church at Abernethy, by Necton, King of the Picts, who reigned about the year 455. He dedicated the royal foundation to God and to St. Brigid, and endowed it with lands, usque ad diem judicii, the boundaries of which are minutely specified, "from the stone at Apurfeirt to the stone near Cairfuill," &c.,--an interesting example of the Hoare Stones or landmarks of the fifth century. This is further confirmed by Fordun,[619] who quotes an ancient chronicle of Abernethy in corroboration of the earlier record. Of the precise character of this ecclesia collegiata de Abernethy of the fifth century, it is now vain to speculate, but most probably, even for some centuries later, it was only a wooden church after the manner of the Britons, and so remained until about A.D. 711, when we learn from Bede of a second Naiton or Necton, King of the Picts, who sent messengers to the venerable Ceolfrid, abbot of the historian's own monastery of Jarrow, at the mouth of the Wear, inquiring concerning sundry disputed questions, and praying him to send architects who, according to the manner of the Romans, should make a church of stone among his people. The Pictish monarch qualifies a promise of future obedience to the holy Roman and Apostolic Church thus naively: "In quantum dumtaxat tam longe a Romanorum loquela et natione consegregati hunc ediscere potuissent."[620] At what time the royal foundation of Abernethy was remodelled, according to the fashion indicated by its ancient tower, is not recorded in any authority that I know of, but it may not improbably be found noted by some of the Irish annalists from whom Dr. Petrie has already recovered so large an amount of well-authenticated history. The interest in it has naturally been greatly diminished by the annihilation of every vestige of the collegiate buildings except the tower. Its masonry, however, closely corresponds to that of Brechin, while the character of its upper windows is suggestive of even a more recent period, and it is probable that they are additions of a later date than the original structure.

The ecclesiastical foundation of Brechin, so far as we know, is fully four centuries later than that of Abernethy, and belongs to the era of the kings of the Scottish race. The ancient Pictish Chronicle concludes in the reign of Kenneth, the son of Malcolm, 967-991, and is supposed to have been written at that early period. It sums up the brief record of his reign in these words: "This is he who gave the great city of Brechin to the Lord." It does not perhaps necessarily follow that no earlier church existed at Brechin; but to this period we may assign, on the authority of the ancient Chronicle, the first royal foundation; and in the absence of other evidence, I should have felt little hesitation in fixing it as the period when the present round tower was built. Dr. Petrie, however, assigns a date about thirty years later, and promises more precise information derived from the Irish annalists, from whence we may hope for other valuable additions to the Annales Scotorum. Meanwhile, we have obtained an approximation to the desired date, concerning which the indefatigable investigator of the history of these peculiar structures only remarks, "The round tower of Brechin in Scotland there is every reason to believe was erected about the year 1020, and by Irish ecclesiastics."[621] In dimensions this ancient structure somewhat exceeds that of Abernethy, measuring eighty-five feet to the cornice,[622] above which a roof or spire of later date has been added when the cathedral church was re-erected in the thirteenth century. In every other respect it offers superior attractions to that of Abernethy, surrounded as it is with the more recent yet venerable and characteristic memorials of ancient ecclesiastical art, and adorned with sculptures of a singular and very remarkable character. The masonry of the tower, as will be seen from the drawing of the doorway, is of that kind which has been traced as gradually arising out of the cyclopean work of ancient Greece. The stones are polygonal, carefully hewn, and fitted to each other with the utmost neatness and art; the courses of masonry being mostly horizontal, though with more or less irregularity, and the joints not uniformly vertical. It is the same style of work which characterizes the walls of the ancient cities of Etruria, and is also found in Ireland to have succeeded to the ruder primitive cyclopean masonry. But the peculiar feature of the Brechin Tower is its sculptured doorway. Its dimensions are as follows: The breadth at the spring of the arch is one foot seven and a half inches, and at the base one foot eleven inches. The height of the entrance to the centre of the arch is six feet one and a half inch, and the entire height of the doorway from the base of the external ornament to the summit of the crucifix which surmounts the centre of the arch, is eight feet eleven and a half inches.[623]

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.

[619] Fordun, vol. iv. p. 12.

[620] Beda, L. 5, c. 21.

[621] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, &c., 8vo, p. 410.

[622] Itiner. Septent., p. 165. Pennant says, height from ground to roof eighty feet, and, including the spire, one hundred and three feet.--Tour, vol. iii. p. 162.

[623] The drawing of the Brechin doorway is carefully made to scale, and the measurements have been taken for me by an experienced practical builder, so that they may be relied upon for accuracy.

[624] Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 85, Plate v.

[625] Martin's Western Isles, p. 154.

[626] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. xix. p. 417.

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