Chapter XXIX: Section XI: Early Architecture. Sculptured Stones

In preceding sections various early structures have been noticed, some of which were of a characteristic type, but the singular and curious structures now to be briefly described have occasioned much discussion. This class of erections are called Brochs. The area of their local distribution has been stated thus: Only three specimens are known south of Glenmore――1 in Berwickshire, 1 in Stirlingshire, and 1 in Perthshire:¹ in Inverness-shire, 47; in Ross-shire, 38; Sutherlandshire, 60; Caithness, 79; Orkney, 70; and in Shetland 75, making a total for the five northern counties of 369. But the greater part of those in Ross-shire and Inverness-shire are in the islands attached to these two counties.

¹ In the month of May, 1891, the members of the Galashiels
Ramblers’ Club discovered what appeared to be a Broch on
Crosslee Hill in the vicinity of that town. My friend, Mr.
George Desson, gave an account of it which appeared in the
_North British Daily Mail_ of the 15th May. He says: “All
that remains of the structure is the foundation of the walls,
which measure 17 feet 6 inches thick, and about 2½ feet high.
The walls are of circular form, and enclose a central area
of 39 feet 6 inches in diameter; from the central court
there are openings to three passages, which apparently led
to chambers, two of which have not yet been cleared of the
debris, but in the one that has been dug out there is a
passage 6 feet long and 3 feet 8 inches wide, while the
interior of the chamber is 14 feet long by 4 feet wide.”

The Brochs are all constructed on one typical form, so unvarying that they afford no indications for tracing the development of their special form through a series of stages. “I once heard an eminent Scotch antiquary, very familiar personally with their appearance, gravely maintaining that they were all erected at one time, and from one plan and specification. Though this is, of course, absurd enough, there is not, so far as I know, any example in any part of the world of so numerous a class of buildings which show so little difference in design and dimensions.”¹ The leading features of the Broch may be described as consisting of a circular tower of dry-built masonry, pretty wide and high, and enclosing a central area open to the sky, having all its apartments looking into the enclosed inner court, excepting the entrance to the central area, and having its chambers, stairs, and galleries, formed within the thickness of the enclosing wall. None of the existing specimens are complete, and their original height has not been precisely ascertained, but from the remains and indications of structure it has been inferred that they were from thirty to upwards of fifty feet in height. The only varying point is in their dimensions; as the external diameter of the Brochs varies from forty to seventy feet, so the inner court varies from about twenty to forty-five feet, owing partly to the thickness of the walls, which also vary from about nine to twenty feet. The wall is built solid for about ten feet, excepting the ♦entrance, and where it is partially hollowed by the construction within its thickness of oblong apartments with vaulted roofs. Above this the wall is built with a vacancy of about three feet wide between the inner and outer portions. Upwards, at every five or six feet, this vacancy is crossed by horizontal ranges of slabs inserted as ties between the outer and inner shells of the walls, and thus their upper surfaces form a floor to the space above and their under surfaces a roof to the space below. These spaces form galleries of some six feet high and three feet wide, separated from each other by the slabs of their floors and roofs, and they run round the tower, except where they are crossed in succession by the stair which gives access to them, and their dimensions contract as they approach the top of the tower. The galleries were lighted by ranges of windows above each other, which all looked into the central court enclosed by the wall of the tower. At various points of the inner court are placed the entrances to the apartments on the ground floor, within the thickness of the wall, and to the stair which ascends to the galleries. On the outside of the Broch there is only one entrance, a doorway opening off the tunnel-like passage leading into the central court; it is always on the ground level, from five to seven feet in height, and about three feet wide, passing direct through the thickness of the wall, and so varies from nine to twenty feet in length; at about four feet inward there is a rebute of the masonry faced with slabs, inserted edgeways in the wall, and forming cheeks for the door, behind which are the bar-holes, and behind them the opening to a guard-room built in the thickness of the wall.²

¹ _The Brochs_, etc. J. Fergusson; page 8.

♦ “extrance” replaced with “entrance”

² Anderson’s _Scotland_, pages 168, 200‒202; _Proceedings of
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume III., page
189, 191‒193; Volume VII., pages 290‒292, 296‒300.

On the ground floor there are usually three or four apartments, in which the people who possessed the Brochs lived. In the central courts of several of them there were drains for conveying the surface water outside the building; and in many of them there were walls which secured a water-supply within the enclosed area of the building. In short, the Brochs clearly indicate a very definite intention in the minds of their constructors, for the design of the structure and the whole arrangements of its separate parts evince a most careful and elaborate adaptation of means and materials to attain the desired ends――shelter and defence. “The clever constructive idea of turning the house outside, as it were, placing its rooms within its walls, and turning all their windows towards the interior of the edifice, implies boldness of conception and fertility of resource. The height of the wall, which secured the inmates against projectiles, also removed its essentially weak upper part beyond the reach of assault, while the pressure of its mass knit the masonry of the lower part firmly together, and its thickness made it difficult to force an entrance by digging through it――if such a wall could be approached for this purpose when the whole of its upper materials were deadly missiles ready to the hands of the defenders.” The door, secured by its great bar, was too strong to be carried by a rush; and, placed four or five feet within the passage, it could only be reached by one man at a time, and the narrowness of the passage prevented the use of long levers. Even if it had been forced, and the entrance to the inner court gained, the enemy would have found himself, as it were, in the bottom of a well thirty to forty feet in diameter, with walls fifty feet high, pierced on all sides with ranges of loopholes commanding every foot of the space below. “In short, the concentration of effort towards the two main objects of space for shelter and complete security was never more strikingly exhibited, and no more admirable adaptation of materials so simple and common as undressed and uncemented stone for this double purpose has ever been discovered or suggested.”¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland, Iron Age_, pages 203‒4.

No doubt the origin of the Brochs is assignable to the circumstances and the conditions under which the people lived. As we have seen in the preceding pages the Norsemen commenced their inroads in these localities where the Brochs were erected, and these structures were the most suitable and effective defences against the attacks of marauding enemies, which could then have been devised. The hordes of Norsemen infested the northern and western districts of the country for several centuries before they conquered the people and settled down in any part of the mainland of Scotland. Thus we can easily realise the reasons and the motives which originated the Brochs, and induced the people to make the great and laborious efforts evinced in the remains of these constructions. Further, we know that the inhabitants of the localities where the Brochs are found, had long before the age of these structures learned to labour and to wait, as the chambered cairns of the Stone Age witness. The manifestation of the constructive faculty, a concentration of thought, of energy, and of labour, directed to the accomplishment of a common object, was no new thing which had suddenly started up in this ancient region. But new historic conditions had arisen, new enemies had appeared upon the scene, which changed the surrounding circumstances, and the genius and intelligence of the people rose to the occasion, and they made the best use of the means at their command to protect and defend themselves.

It has been stated that the Brochs are peculiar to Scotland. Though there are many round towers in Ireland and elsewhere, their type is not similar to the Scotch type. “Out of Scotland the type is totally unknown. It is a type possessing features so distinct and peculiar, so numerous and well-marked, so pronounced in their absolute individuality, that if it exists anywhere it is capable of being instantly recognised. But no single instance occurs in Ireland or Wales or Cornwall; no trace of it is found in England, France, or Scandinavia. It is absolutely confined to Scotland alone.”¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland, Iron Age_.

Attempts have been made, however, to show that the Scotch Brochs were erected by the Norsemen. The main ground on which it has been sought to assign these peculiar structures to this people is, because the Brochs are nearly all found in the localities which were at one time more or less occupied by them. This circumstance does afford a presumption in favour of assigning the erection of the Brochs to them, and if it were supported by other circumstances, and clear traces of Norse products associated with these structures, the presumption might be rendered decisive. No trace of this special type of building has been discovered in the Norsemen’s own lands, and further, it has been shown that the implements, tools, and objects associated with the occupation of the Brochs are not Scandinavian in their forms and characteristics, but on the contrary are characteristic of the groups of implements and objects of the Celtic area of Scotland in post-Roman times.¹ Thus the presumption founded on locality completely falls to the ground, and no other tangible trace of the Norsemen’s connection with the erection of the Brochs has, as yet, been discovered.

¹ _Ibid._, page 259. Dr. James Ferguson contends, with much
determination, that the Brochs were erected by the Norsemen.
Except the geographical presumption, which he uses with
great ingenuity, he adduces no valid evidence whatever to
establish his contention. See _The Brochs, etc., of the
Orkney Islands and the North of Scotland_.

The traces of the life of the people who occupied the Brochs, disclosed by excavations and investigations in connection with their contents, are of considerable historic value, and may be briefly noticed. The objects found in and around the sites of the Brochs consist of manufactured implements, tools, and ornaments, of stone, bronze, and iron. Many stone querns――small hand mills for grinding grain,――stone pounders of various sizes, stone mortars, drinking-cups, hammer-stones, stone vessels of large size, stone spindle-whorles, and other tools; many articles in bone, such as combs of various kinds, long-handed ones, short round-backed, single-edged ones, and double-edged, some of which were ornamented; bone-buttons, pins in a variety of forms, and some of them ornamented, bone needles neatly made, and other bone objects. Bronze tweezers, pins, armlets, and other objects; several iron implements――spear-heads, daggers, knives, and chisels. Clay moulds for casting bronze pins, a large number of spindle-whorles for spinning with the distaff and spindle, many fragments of home-made pottery, and other articles of domestic use.

Amongst the refuse of the food of the Broch occupiers, the following were found:――Remains of animals, consisting of the ox, sheep of small size, the goat, the pig, the horse, dogs of various sizes, the reindeer, red-deer, and the roe; birds and fowls not in great numbers, but some of large size. Among the marine remains were a species of whale, the porpoise, the dog-fish, the cod, and haddock, and such edible shell-fish as the oyster, the mussel, the cockle, the periwinkle, and the limpet, were abundant.¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland, Iron Age_, pages 211‒258; _Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume VII.,
pages 43‒46, 56‒79, 426‒436; Volume VIII., pages 188‒204;
Volume X., pages 5‒23; _Orkneyinga Saga_, Introduction,
pages 109, 110.

From the above statement of facts taken in connection with the characteristics of the Brochs themselves, it appears that the people who possessed and inhabited them were cultivators of the ground. They grew grain, kept flocks and herds, hunted the woods, and fished the sea for their food. They practised industries and arts which demanded intelligence and technical skill, and it seems almost certain that they manufactured all the weapons and implements which they used; and we know that they made their own ornaments, as the clay moulds, crucibles, and the cakes of rough metal, have been found in several of the Brochs. The women practised the arts of spinning and weaving, while the men made the implements of stone and bone and the ornaments. They had attained to a stage of considerable culture and civilisation, and it is clear that they were the people of the soil, and that they had been long settled on it. Indeed, there is not a shred of evidence, either circumstantial or recorded, that they were a horde of strangers who had newly effected a lodgment in a hostile country.

It was mentioned in a preceding section that the earlier religious erections in Scotland were usually formed of wood, which possibly rested upon a stone foundation. Fragments and remains of a number of examples of rude stone chapels and cells which were erected before the twelfth century still exist. They mostly occur in the Isles; and, beginning with those which appear to be the earliest, I will proceed to notice briefly the others in succession.¹

¹ There were also a number of caves associated with the names
of the early saints and missionaries who were engaged, from
the fifth century to the ninth, in spreading the Gospel
among the tribes of Scotland, and the walls of these caves
are covered with memorials of their devotion in the form
of small crosses sculptured on the rocks. See _Sculptured
Stones of Scotland_, Volume II., Appendix to Preface, pages
87, 88, _et seq._

Loch Columcille, in Skye, was drained about seventy years ago by Lord Macdonald, and what was once an island in the centre of the loch is now an elevated spot in marshy ground. This patch of ground extends to about three acres, and on its northern side are the remains of an irregular circular enclosure of rude and uncemented masonry, measuring about sixteen yards in diameter from east to west, and eleven from north to south; within the enclosure there are traces of three cells and other erections, which were probably covered with beehive vaulting. One of the ruins, called St. Columba’s Church, measured internally twenty-two feet in length and twelve feet in width. On the small island of Eilean na Naoimh, which lies between Scarba and Mull, there are the remains of a number of beehive cells with dry-built walls, which were associated with a small church, also built of undressed stones without mortar of any kind. This church had only one small window placed in its east end, and the cells connected with it were very small. A considerable number of these small churches and cells have been found in the Western Isles and even in Orkney. Amongst the ruins of the monastery in the Isle of Inchcolm, there is a very early specimen of a stone roofed cell. It is irregular in form, and internally sixteen feet in length, six feet three inches wide at the east end, and four feet nine inches at the west end. The walls are three feet thick. The doorway was placed in the south wall near the west end, and it was five feet high and four feet wide, with inclining jambs and roughly arched externally by a radiating arch, but internally the arch was formed in the older overlapping principle. It had only one small window, placed in the east end. The roof was vaulted with stones in the form of a radiating arch, and the centring stones roughly wedge-shaped, and the space between the upper surface of the vaulting and the stone-roof was filled with small stones and a grouting of lime, in which were bedded the oblong roofing stones.¹ Such were the primitive forms of the earliest stone churches in Scotland.

¹ Muir’s _Characteristics of Old Church Architecture_, pages
2, 56, 141, 143, 205, 206; _Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume II., page 489, _et seq._;
Reeves’ _Adamnan_, page 138.

The next stage showed an approach towards the form of the chancelled church, passing through various types, which may be briefly indicated thus:――A church with a chancel added on to the nave but not banded into it, which showed a transition from the single chambered structure to the double chambered form. In some specimens of this variety the opening from the nave to the chancel is flat-headed and formed with inclined jambs, and in others the end of the barrel-vault of the chancel roof opened directly into the nave. Then came the developed chancel arch, associated with other features which passed into the current architecture of the twelfth century. There are examples of the Celtic chancelled churches in the Isles, while the church of St. Regulus at St. Andrews presents a fine specimen of the fully developed form of this style.¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages 32‒37;
_Lectures on Mediæval Architecture_, by Sir Gilbert Scott,
page 24.

There are two characteristic round towers of ecclesiastical origin in Scotland, one at Brechin in Forfarshire, and the other at Abernethy in Perthshire. They are not now connected with the remains of an early Celtic church; but the Tower of Brechin stands in the churchyard, and the Abernethy one stands partly within and partly beyond the churchyard. They resemble the round towers of Ireland, and belong to that class of structures.

The round Tower of Brechin stands at the south-west angle of the Cathedral, which now embraces nearly one-fourth of its circumference. At the base its external diameter is fifteen feet three inches, and its internal diameter seven feet eleven inches, and the walls are three feet eight inches thick; at the top its external diameter is thirteen feet, and the internal eight feet one inch, and the walls two feet five inches thick. The height of the Tower from the base to the spring of the modern spirelet, which now crowns it, is eighty-six feet nine inches; it is perfectly circular and tapers regularly from base to summit. Internally it is divided into seven stories by string courses. It is built of a hard reddish sandstone, and the masonry is massive; the stones are cut and fitted to each other with remarkable neatness; the courses are mostly horizontal with some irregularity, and the joints are not uniformly vertical. There are six windows, one in the third story, another in the fourth, and four in the upper story, which show certain peculiarities of structure. The doorway, however, is the most interesting feature of the Tower. Its dimensions are these:――The breadth at the spring of the arch is one foot seven and a half inches, and at the sill one foot eleven inches; the height of the entrance to the centre of the arch is six feet one and a half inch; and its entire height from the base of the external ornament to the summit of the crucifix, which surmounts the centre of the arch, is eight feet eleven inches. This doorway is formed of four stones, with jambs inclined towards each other. The jambs have a raised band, and rows of pellets run all round the doorway between two narrow fillets, while about the middle of the jambs on each side there are raised panels with figures of ecclesiastics in relief; and on the lower part of the jambs on each side there are crouching figures of beasts, bearing a close resemblance to some of those carved on the early sculptured stones. From various structural relations and associated circumstances, it seems highly probable that this Tower was erected in the eleventh century.

The Abernethy Round Tower is built of stones dressed to the curve, laid in horizontal courses with the joints vertical, and thus it differs somewhat in its masonry from the Brechin Tower. But the general features of form and construction of the two towers are remarkably similar. The Abernethy Tower is seventy-two feet in height, and it is divided into six stories by string courses, and it originally had seven windows. It appears that the original purpose of these towers was to afford an asylum for the ecclesiastics, and especially a place of security in times of war for the precious relics of the famous saints, such as shrines, crosiers, books, and bells, which were regarded with extreme and almost incredible veneration both in Ireland and in Scotland.

Stone monuments of various kinds associated with the memory of the dead, have already been treated in the prehistoric sections; and once more attention must be directed to a somewhat analogous, but a later and more artistic series of monumental stones. This series class is known as the Sculptured Stones of Scotland. For various reasons it will be necessary to deal with them at some length. The transition from the rough and undressed standing-stones and circles which were treated in connection with interments, to those now to be handled, was not abrupt, the progress from the earlier classes of monuments to the later classes proceeded gradually. Points of much historic interest and importance, both of an ethnic and artistic character, are inseparably associated with the Sculptured Stones.

The earliest class of sculptured stones are generally of granite or whinstone, and undressed, with peculiar symbols and figures incised on one face of the stone only, and with no Christian symbol of the cross. Nearly one hundred of this class have been figured or described. The area in which they have been found stretches from the Firth of Forth to Caithness, or over the eastern half of the country. But they are most common in the region between the Tay and the Spey; scarcely a single example occurs south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, nor in the Western Isles nor Argyle. They are mainly distributed thus,――three between the Forth and Tay, six between the Tay and the Dee, thirty-six between the Dee and Spey, and twenty-one to the northward of the Spey. In the same districts there are (or were) forty-three standing slabs more or less dressed, and with both faces sculptured; and on these the peculiar symbols of the rough stones appear carved along with crosses of various design and degrees of ornamentation. As to the local distribution of this class, twenty-seven were found between the Forth and the Dee; six between the Dee and the Spey; and ten to the north of the Spey.¹ A large number of such monuments have doubtless disappeared through the action of various causes and agencies, long before an intelligent historic interest was directed to them in this country.

¹ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, Volume I., Prefix, pages
6‒8; Volume II., Appendix to Preface, pages 74, 75. The
symbols occur on a fragment of a stone at Edinburgh, and on
a rock in Galloway.

Within the above area, and in other quarters of the kingdom, there are other sculptured monuments which differ from both of the types just indicated, and which are also Celtic in their leading characteristics. In the West of Scotland two types of monumental stones occur: 1, The free-standing crosses, ornamented in a fine Celtic style, but differing from the eastern monuments in the absence of the peculiar symbols. 2, At a much later period the stone cross of the West Coasts and Islands became characterised by a style of art which differed from the distinctive forms of the pure Celtic art. The distinguishing features of this latter style, consisted in the elaboration of graceful forms of foliage, and a freer development of the knot and scroll work than appears on the earlier stone cross of the eastern division of Scotland.

A number of erect undressed stones, with incised crosses simply, and all of archaic character, have been observed here and there throughout the country, and this group seems to present the earliest examples of the unornamented series of crosses. A more complete classification of the early incised crosses without the figured and peculiar symbols, and the other series having these peculiar symbols incised on them but without any cross, may hereafter be attained by carefully tracing the indications of development, and then showing that both classes passed into the decorated type, which presents the curious symbols and the cross, and also combined them with other subjects and scroll ornamentation.

Although it cannot be proved by direct evidence that the rough upright stones with the peculiar symbols incised on them succeeded the rough unsculptured standing stones, found singly and in circles throughout Scotland, still there are many facts and associated phenomena which point to this conclusion. For that circles of rough pillar stones were placed around the graves of our ancestors ages before the introduction of Christianity into this country cannot be questioned. When, therefore, similar undressed stones have been found standing with peculiar figures incised on one of their faces, which figures cannot be proved to have any reference to Christianity, why should it be assumed that these figures were Christian in their origin? Let us try the point in this way. Is the Cross an essential symbol of Christianity or not? If the sign of the Cross was believed to be so full of virtue and power as it is represented to have been in this country in early Christian times, is it conceivable that Christians would have cut figures and symbols on stone monuments without a cross on them? We are told that it was then a custom to cross tools and implements before using them, and if these rough monuments be of Christian origin, we must suppose that, though the very tools with which the figures were cut had been crossed and blessed, yet the men who used these tools so far forgot themselves that they never thought of cutting a cross――the chief symbol of their religion――on any of these stones.¹ Instead of advancing a view which involves such unwarranted assumptions, it seems more in accordance with ascertained facts and associated circumstances, to infer that these rude sculptured stones existed in Scotland with the peculiar symbols cut on them before the great emblem of the Christian Cross had become known in this quarter of the globe. Upwards of a hundred examples of these rough pillar stones with the symbols but no cross have been found, and doubtless a much greater number existed in earlier times. The curious symbols were continued, like many other things, into Christian times, as they frequently re-appear in monuments wherein the main idea and leading feature is the Christian cross. The monuments of the Christian period were mostly formed of dressed slabs with sculptures on both sides. On one face a cross in the centre covered with ornamental work of intricate and varied patterns, and with the peculiar symbols still retaining their original outline as on the rough stones, although usually overwarped by ornaments appropriate to the Christian cross style. On the reverse of the same stone different objects or scenes were frequently depicted.

¹ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, Volume I., Preface, 2, 3;
Volume II., Preface, 5‒7. Dr. Anderson deemed it unnecessary
to discuss at any length the question of the pagan origin
of these peculiar symbols which first appear on the
rough unhewed stones; yet he makes a somewhat sweeping
generalisation to the following effect:――“And now I sum up
the whole bearings of the evidence, whether derived from the
general features or from the special art characteristics of
these monuments in one generalisation. They are monuments
of Christian character and Christian time. There is no
evidence to show that there was among our forefathers any
pre-existing or Pagan custom of erecting such sculptured
monuments in honour of the dead.... We may find the cover of
cist, a rude unshapely block, sculptured on its under side
with cups and circles, or with triangles and rudely formed
spirals. But we have never found in Scotland any monuments
erected over a Pagan grave which exhibits the least approach
to a truly artistic decoration. The custom of erecting
such monuments is Christian and Christian alone, so far
as Scotland is concerned, and the art they exhibit and the
letters they bear were brought into this country with the
copies of the Gospels from which Christianity was taught
to the people.” _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages
132‒133, 1881. Dr. Anderson’s one generalisation is far too
dogmatic, and hardly in accordance with ascertained facts,
or even consistent with some of his own conclusions in other
parts of his writings.

The peculiar symbols may be briefly described. One of those which often occurs is a crescent combined with a rod, resembling the letter V, and terminating in ornamented extremities; the body of it is occasionally plain, but oftener filled with ornaments. Another symbol of frequent occurrence consists of two circles connected by two slightly curved lines; sometimes it appears alone, and more frequently associated with a bent figure terminating in ornamented extremities. The circles are sometimes plain, but usually filled with concentric circles, forms of spirals, of interlaced work, or bosses in relief. A symbol of frequent occurrence somewhat resembles the shape of a horse-shoe; it usually appears alone, but sometimes in combination with a bent rod. Amongst the more common figures used as symbols on these stone crosses, are the head of an animal which appears in a variety of combinations; a figure formed of three circles, a large one in the centre with a smaller one attached at each side; a smith’s anvil, a hammer and tongs, and the shears along with the mirror and comb.¹

¹ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 22‒23;
Appendix to Preface, 1‒12, 19‒21; _Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume X., pages
333‒347, 637‒640.

A number of the representations on these stones have been explained as scenes from the Bible.¹ But I have limited myself to a plain statement of what appears on the stones, without attempting to load them with far off interpretations. Although the primary purposes of these monuments was sepulchral and memorial; there can be no reasonable doubt that many of the accessories which appear upon them, such as the costume, the weapons, and many other distinctive objects, were those of the country and the period. In this relation as illustrative materials of unwritten history they have a considerable value. They afford illustrations of human life in Scotland, and show it in its common, as well as in its ecclesiastical and military characteristics. The scenes on these stones depict the dress of the warrior, the huntsman, the ecclesiastic, and the pilgrim. Such important tools and weapons of the period, as the knife, the axe, the dirk, the spear, the sword, the shield, and the bow, are all admirably represented. We learn from these representations that the horsemen of the age rode without spurs or stirrups, sat upon peaked saddle-cloths, and used snaffle-bridles with check rings and ornamental rosettes; that they travelled on horseback, and wore peaked hoods and cloaks; that when hunting, or on horseback armed, they wore a kilted dress falling a little below the knees, and a plaid across the shoulders. When travelling on foot they wore tight-fitting under garments, and a plaid loosely wrapped round the body, and sometimes a tight jerkin with sleeves and belt round the waist. They ♦wore their hair long, flowing, and curly, sometimes with peaked beards, at other times with moustaches on the upper lip, and shaven cheeks and chin.² They used long bows in war, and cross-bows in hunting. Their swords were long, broad-bladed, and double-edged, with triangular pommels and straight guards; their spears had long heads, and their shields were rounded and furnished with bosses. On horseback they fought with sword, spear, and shield; and on foot with sword and buckler. They used two wheeled carriages with poles for draught by two horses, the driver sitting on a seat over the pole, and the wheels had ornamented spokes. They used high chairs with side-arms, carved backs, and sometimes ornamented with heads of animals. Their boats had high prows and stern-posts. They used trumpets, and played beautifully on the harp. The ecclesiastics of the period wore long dresses, which were richly and elaborately embroidered; they walked about in loose short boots, and carried crosiers, and book sachels in their hands.³ Such are a few of the many historic and interesting facts which are portrayed with striking distinctness on these monuments.

¹ Dr. Anderson in his _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, has
given Scriptural interpretations of certain scenes of some
of the stones. See pages 144‒173.

♦ “were” replaced with “wore”

² “Long and flowing hair was at first evidence that the
wearer was a noble, and always that he possessed unforfeited
and unimpeached all the rights of a freeman. It conferred
dignity on the wearer, and the highest and most illustrious
were proud of it. It was the distinction in which the
Carlovingian Kings of France most glorified; and Harold,
Fairhair, and Canute the Great, considered that the length
and beauty of their hair added to their lawful claims to
popular admiration. In the earliest periods, beards and
moustaches were worn of immense size, and were especially
esteemed by such of the population as were of British
descent. The want of them was considered by the laity as
a mark of weakness and vulgarity, and by the clergy as
evidence of effeminacy and dissolute life. The Anglo-Saxon
priesthood persisted in wearing them, in defiance of
canonical prohibition, till Dunstan compelled them to
shave in an orthodox manner.

“If the right of wearing long hair was important to men,
it was doubly so to women; for with them it was not only a
mark of rank, but of chastity. Every young freewoman, while
unmarried, was said to be in her hair, which she wore long
and loose; and when she married, she was required to dress
it in a different manner. If she misconducted herself, it
was cut off altogether.” _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_,
Volume II., Appendix to Preface, pages 6‒8, and Volume I.,
plates 61, 77, Volume II., plate 103. There is some very
curious information touching the subject in the _Ancient
Laws of Ireland_. It is worth mentioning that cropping
the hair and beard is to this day a part of military and
criminal punishment.

³ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, especially in Volume I.
throughout, plates 26, 16, 29, 46, 52, 69, 76, 25, 43, 47,
58, 64, 70, 80, 82, 49, 93, 77, 61, 74, 126, Volume II.
plates 16, 2, 4, 12, 129.

Touching the art of these monuments, the earliest type, the undressed pillars without the cross, exhibit little art. The peculiar symbols, already described, are simply formed by incised lines, with little ornamentation. The floriated ends of the sceptre appears in various forms, the divergent spiral, and attempts to represent the feathers of a bird by angular lines and long flowing lines. But the range of decoration is very limited in this class of monuments, although it is essentially and characteristically Celtic, and this was its earliest stage on stone.

When we come to examine the stones with crosses on them, we find that the art becomes developed to a high degree of perfection. It is clear that the leading ideal and aim of the art manifested on these monuments was decoration; and its prevailing characteristic is a decoration of panels separated from each other by borders and then treated as surfaces. These surfaces often result from the divisions of the general surface by the main design, which may be a cross embracing the entire length of the stone. At other times the cross is divided into panels, or the spaces on each side of the shaft. Again, there is sometimes a border of decoration round the chief subject, which is divided into panels. The general surface is always decorated in spaces which balance each other exactly. The greatest elaboration on the surface of the finest monuments is attained by the use of interlaced work. The designs are not very numerous; but the divisions and the variations of the decorative and the symbolic ornaments appear to be almost infinite, the combinations endless, and yet beautiful, balanced, symmetrical, and perfect specimens of art.¹

¹ Dr. Anderson has treated the art of these monuments at
great length, and with much care and precision. See his
_Scotland Early Christian Times_, pages 97‒135, 1881. The
late Dr. John Stuart, the editor of the two volumes of the
_Sculptured Stones_, has also, in his two prefaces and notes,
presented much valuable information.

No other monuments show a greater profusion of ornament, or a style of decoration more striking and effective in its result. The art exhibits originality and individuality, always like itself in its distinctive characteristics. In short, these ancient monuments clearly indicate that the men who produced them were gifted with imaginative, reproductive, and elaborative faculties of a high order, associated with an intensity of feeling and a concentration of attention directed to the attainment of a definite end, rarely manifested anywhere.

It is probable that the more ornate and decorative features of this art were not originated and continuously developed as sculptures on stone. Although there is no reason whatever to doubt that the art of the rough incised stones bearing the symbols only, with no cross, did originate in Scotland, but its special characteristic consisted in incised work, which showed little decoration of any kind. The decorative and ornate characteristics of the art, no doubt, were first developed in the pages of the illuminated manuscripts; and this art of illuminating manuscripts was developed to a high degree of perfection at an early period in Ireland. The same art was practised in Scotland, though only a few specimens of it remain, which do not approach the perfection of the Irish examples. “It is interesting to compare these Irish illuminations with those of the Book of Deer, which may be presumed to be a work of Scotch art of a period not later than the volume of MacDuran, who died in 927, so the age of his work is the early part of the tenth century; and it will be remarked in the specimens here given, that the ornamented patterns composing the surrounding borders are identical with those on many of the crosses, and the design of the latter is, in many cases, the same as that of a page of the manuscripts, showing a rich border round the margin of the stone, with pictorial representations inside. The peculiar art of the Irish illuminations and the Scotch crosses is found on many bronze relics of the Christian period, as well as on those of an earlier age.”¹

¹ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, Volume II., Appendix to
Preface, page 81. “The peculiarities of the Irish style
consists,――1, in the entire absence of foliage or other
vegetable ornament, the classical acanthus being entirely
ignored; and 2, in the extreme intricacy and excessive
minuteness and elaboration of the various patterns,
mostly geometrical, consisting of interlaced ribbon work,
diagonal or spiral lines, and strange monstrous animals
and birds, with long top-knots, tongues, and tails
intertwined in almost endless knots. The most sumptuous of
the manuscripts――such, for instance, as the Book of ♦Kells,
the Gospels of Lindisfarne and St. Chad, and some of the
manuscripts of St. Gall――have entire pages covered with
the most elaborate patterns in compartments, the whole
forming beautiful cruciform designs, one of these facing
the commencement of each of the four Gospels. The labour
employed in such a mass of work must have been very great,
the care infinite, since the most scrutinising examination
with a magnifying glass will not detect an error in the
truth of the lines or the regularity of the interlacing;
and yet, with all this minuteness, the harmonious effect
of colouring has been introduced.” O. Jones’s Grammar of
Ornament, page 3, quoted in _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_.

Mr. Westwood says――“The principles of these most elaborate
ornaments are, however, but few in number, and may be
reduced to the four following:――1st, One or more narrow
ribbons diagonally but symmetrically interlaced, forming an
endless variety of patterns. 2nd, One, two, or three slender
spiral lines, coiling one within another till they meet in
the centre of the circle, their opposite ends going off to
other circles. 3rd, A vast variety of lacerative animals and
birds, hideously attenuated and coiled within one another,
with their tails, tongues, and top-knots forming long narrow
ribbons irregularly interlaced. 4th, A series of diagonal
lines, forming various kinds of Chinese-like patterns. These
ornaments are generally introduced into small compartments,
a number of which are arranged so as to form the large
initial letters and borders or tesselated pages with which
the first manuscripts were decorated.” _Sculptured Stones of
Scotland_, Volume II., Appendix to Preface, page 77.

♦ “Keels” replaced with “Kells”

It thus appears that it was only after the decorative elements of the art had attained a high degree of elaboration on parchment, that it began to be generally applied to stone in Scotland. It seems also probable that, looking to the profusion and quality of the ornament and decoration on the early stone monuments of Scotland, that there would have been something like a proportionate quantity on the pages of books which have perished. Some of the elements of this art are common, however, to a wider area than that of Celtic Scotland, Ireland, or Europe, being found, to a greater or less extent, in the art of many nations. Still the Celtic art of Scotland has distinctive characteristics of its own; in like manner as the art of other nations have special peculiarities which distinguishes each from that of others: for there is nothing in the world which stands absolutely alone and out of all relation. The essence of art belongs to the human mind and to humanity. But different nations have embodied their art in a variety of forms, differing in degrees of perfection and development, or in the elaboration given to certain elements of art, and special forms and characteristics.

The ethnic implications connected with these monuments remain to be considered, and may be shortly stated thus:――The region in which the greater number of these ancient monuments have been found, and those of the most distinctive and characteristic type, embraced the whole of eastern Scotland, from the Firths of Forth and Clyde to Caithness. This is the region where both the undressed stones bearing incised symbols on one side, but no cross, and the dressed stones bearing crosses and symbols; and here Celtic art attained the highest development which it ever reached in Scotland. It will be remembered that this was the country occupied by the people called the Picts. It is, therefore, a fair inference that these monuments were the work of the Pictish people. Further, it has been amply proved that the art of these monuments is essentially and intensely Celtic; and so the ethnic conclusion is, that the people also were intensely Celtic in spirit and race.

Touching the probable period of these monuments, taking them as a whole, it would be vain to fix on precise dates. But, excepting the rough stones with incised symbols on one side, the entire class of those with crosses probably range from about the middle of the ninth century to the end of the eleventh. Some of the incised stones may be a century or two earlier.

Having indicated the origin and the art of the sculptured stones, the early monuments with inscriptions on them comes in succession. Inscribed monuments of this period are rare in Scotland. Amongst the Celtic people of Britain and Ireland the earliest form of giving visible expression to a fact or event in writing was by using Ogham characters. The Ogham alphabet consisted of numbers of digit-like characters, which were arranged upon a stem line in groups when used on stone monuments, but it was sometimes used on metal work, in manuscripts, and on the wooden staves of the Irish poets. There are upwards of a hundred Ogham inscriptions in Ireland, and twenty-five in Wales, but there are only five examples known on the mainland of Scotland. One on a cross found at Scoonie, in Fifeshire; another on a fragment of a sculptured stone discovered in the churchyard of Aboyne, Aberdeenshire; one at Logie, in the Garioch; one on a stone found at Golspie, in Sutherlandshire, and another on the famous stone at Newton of Insch, Aberdeenshire. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands seven examples have been found, which together gives a total of upwards of one hundred and fifty characters. But the deciphering and reading of these Ogham inscriptions seems to be still beset with great difficulties, mainly owing to the uncertain value of the letters and the extremely archaic forms of the Celtic language in which they were written, and the remote circumstances associated with them.¹

¹ _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, Volume II. Notices of the
plates, page 6; _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland_, Volume X., pages 133‒141, 602; Brash’s _Ogham
Inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhil in the British Islands_,
1879.

In Iona there are a few monuments with Gaelic inscriptions, but undated. Another Gaelic inscription occurs on a finely decorated cross at St. Vigean’s, in Forfarshire. There are a few early monuments with inscriptions in partially debased Roman letters. One, called the Catstone, at Kirkliston, stands on the south bank of the Almond, in an area which, on examination, was found to be the site of an ancient cemetery. No other monument of this early period is known in Scotland still standing in the midst of its graves. Another inscription of the same class occurs on a rough slab at a spot called Yarrow Kirk in Selkirkshire. In the parish of Stoneykirk, Wigtonshire, there are early monuments with inscriptions in Latin, one of which has been translated thus:――

“Here lies the holy
and excellent priests,
to wit, Viventius
and Maiorius.”¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages
247‒255; Reeves’ _♦Adamnan_, page 418.

♦ “Adamnam” replaced with “Adamnan”

As the Ogham was the earliest form of writing among the Celtic people of Ireland and Britain, Runic was the earliest form of writing amongst the Teutonic race of Northern Britain. Thus monuments with Runic inscriptions occur in Scotland only in the districts which were colonised by the Norsemen. A few fragments have been found in the Northern Isles, and one complete monument only is known in the Hebrides, which once stood in the church of Kilbar, in the Island of Barra, and is now in the National Museum. It has a cross of Celtic form, and the Runic inscription states that――“Ur and Thur erected this stone after Raskur, Christ rest his soul.” Though the inscription is Norse, it appears that Celtic art held its ground even when the language failed. The same phenomena has been observed in a group of monuments in the Island of Man, which was the chief site of the Norse kingdom of Man and the Isles from 976 to 1266, and called in the sagas the kingdom of the Sudreys. On a cross at Ruthwell, in Annandale, there are inscriptions in two languages and two alphabets, the one set carved in Runes and the other in Roman capitals.¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages
227‒233; _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland_, Volume XII., page 143, _et seq._; _The Chronicle
of Man and the Sudreys_, by Prof. Munch, Christiania, 1860.

Having in this section touched on the architecture of the Brochs, and the indications of culture among the people who erected and occupied them, the remains of early church structures were briefly noticed; and, after describing the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy, I proceeded to treat the Sculptured Stone monuments historically. Indicated the area in which they were found, touched on the origin of the rough stones with the incised symbols, the relative sources of Celtic art, and the special characteristics of the art of the Scotch stone monuments; and indicated the ethnic inference deducible from them, concluding with a reference to Celtic Ogham inscriptions and Runic inscriptions. In order to render the characteristics of early Celtic art in other forms more clear, the opening part of the next section will be devoted to the illustration of it.