Chapter V: Is the Great Pyramid of Gizeh a Metrological (4)

Various ancient stone oratories still exist in a more or less perfect condition in different parts of Ireland, sometimes standing by themselves, sometimes with the remains of a round beehive-shaped cell or dwelling near them, and sometimes forming one of a group of churches, or of a series of monastic buildings. Such, for example, are the small chapels or oratories of St. Gobnet, St. Benen, and St. MacDuach, in the Isles of Aran,[76] of St. Senan on Bishop's Island, of St. Molua on Friar's Island, Killaloe, the Leabha Mollayga near Mitchelstown, in the County Cork, and probably the so-called dormitory of St. Declan at Ardmore. Among the old sacred buildings of Ireland we find, in fact, two kinds or classes of churches, the "ecclesiae majores" and "minores," if we may call them so, and principally distinguished from each other by their comparative length or size. It appears both from the remains of the first class which still exist, and from the incidental notices which occur of their erection, measurements, etc., in the ancient annals and hagiology of Ireland, that the larger abbey or cathedral churches of that country, whose date of foundation is anterior to the twelfth century, were oblong quadrangular buildings, which rarely, if ever, exceeded the length of 60 feet, and were sometimes less. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, he is described as prescribing 60 feet as the length of the church of Donagh Patrick.[77] This "was also," says Dr. Petrie, "the measure of the other celebrated chapels erected by him throughout Ireland, and imitated as a model by his successors."[78] "Indeed," he further observes, "that the Irish, who have been ever remarkable for a tenacious adherence to their ancient customs, should preserve with religious veneration that form and size of the primitive church introduced by the first teachers of Christianity, is only what might be naturally expected, and what we find to have been the fact. We see," Dr. Petrie adds, "the result of this feeling exhibited very remarkably in the conservation, down to a late period, of the humblest and rudest _oratories_ of the first ecclesiastics in all those localities where Irish manners and customs remained, and where such edifices, too small for the services of religion, would not have been deemed worthy of conservation, but from such feeling."[79]

The second or lesser type of the early Irish churches, or, in other words, of the humble and rude oratories to which Dr. Petrie refers in the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, were of a similar form, but of a much smaller size than the larger or abbey churches.[80] We have ample and accurate evidence of this, both in the oratories which still remain, and in a fragment of the Brehon laws, referring to the different payments which ecclesiastical artificers received according as the building was--(1.) a duirtheach or small chapel or oratory; (2.) a large abbey church or damhliag, etc.[81]

Generally, according to Dr. Petrie, the average of the smaller type of churches or oratories may be stated to be about 15 feet in length, and 10 feet in breadth, though they show no fixed similarity in regard to size.[82] "In the general plan," he observes, "of this class of buildings there was an equal uniformity. They had a single doorway, always placed in the centre of the west wall,[83] and were lighted by a single window placed in the centre of the east wall, and a stone altar usually, perhaps always, placed beneath this window."[84] In these leading architectural features (with an exception to which I shall immediately advert), the Inchcolm cell or oratory corresponds to the ancient cells or oratories existing in Ireland, and presents the same ancient style of masonry--the same splaying internally of the window which is so common in the ancient Irish churches, both large and small--and the same configuration of doorway which is seen in many of them, the opening forming it being narrower at the top than at the bottom.

In the Inchcolm oratory there is one exception, as I have just stated, to the general type and features of the ancient Irish oratory. I allude to the position of the door, which is placed in the south side of the Inchcolm cell, instead of being placed, as usual, in the western gable of the building. But this position of the door in the south wall is not without example in ancient Irish oratories that still exist.[85] The door occupies in this respect the same position in the Inchcolm oratory as in an oratory on Bishop's Island upon the coast of Clare, the erection of which is traditionally ascribed to St. Senan, who lived in the sixth century. This oratory of St. Senan (says Mr. Wakeman) "measures 18 feet by 12; the walls are in thickness 2 feet 7 inches. The doorway, which occupies an unusual position in the south side, immediately adjoining the west end wall, is 6 feet in height, and 1 foot 10 inches wide at the top, 2 feet 4 inches at the bottom. The east window splays externally, and in this respect is probably unique in Ireland."[86][87] These peculiarities are shown in the accompanying woodcut, Fig. 10, taken from Mr. Wakeman's _Handbook of Irish Antiquities_.

The Irish ecclesiastics did not scruple to deviate from the established plans of their sacred buildings, when the necessities of individual cases required it. In the Firth of Forth west winds are the most prevalent of all; and sometimes the western blast is still as fierce and long continued as when of old it drove King Alexander on the shores of Inchcolm. The hermit's cell or oratory is placed on perhaps the most protected spot on the island; and yet it would have been scarcely habitable with an open window exposing its interior to the east, and with a door placed directly opposite it in the western gable. It has been rendered, however, much more fit for a human abode by the door being situated in the south wall; and the more so, because the ledge of rock against which the south-west corner of the building abuts, protects in a great degree this south door from the direct effects of the western storm. The building itself is narrower than the generality of the Irish oratories, but this was perhaps necessitated by another circumstance, for its breadth was probably determined by the immovable basaltic blocks lying on either side of it.

The head of the doorway in the Inchcolm oratory is, as pointed out in a preceding page, peculiar in this respect, that externally it is constructed on the principle of the radiating arch, whilst internally it is built on the principle of the horizontal arch. But in other early Irish ecclesiastical buildings in Scotland, as well as in Ireland, the external and internal aspect of the doorway is sometimes thus constructed on opposite principles. In the round tower, for example, of Abernethy, the head of the doorway externally is formed of a large single stone laid horizontally, and having a semicircular opening cut out of the lower side of the horizontal block; while the head of the doorway internally is constructed of separate stones on the plan of the radiating arch.

One striking circumstance in the Inchcolm oratory--viz., its vaulted or arched roof, has been already sufficiently described; and, in describing it, I have stated that the arch is of a pointed form. In many of the ancient Irish oratories the roof was of wood, and covered with rushes or shingles; and most of them had their walls even constructed of wood or oak, as the term _duir-theach_ originally signifies. But apparently, though the generic name duir-theach still continued to be applied to them, some of them were constructed, from a very early period, entirely of stone; and of these the roofs were occasionally formed of the same material as the walls, and arched or vaulted, as in the Inchcolm oratory. In speaking of the construction of the primitive larger churches of Ireland, Dr. Petrie states, that their "roof appears to have been constructed generally of wood, even where their walls were of stone;" while in the oratories or primitive smaller stone churches, "the roofs (says he) generally appear to have been constructed of stone, their sides forming at the ridge a very acute angle."[88] The selection of the special materials of which both walls and roof were composed, was no doubt, in many cases, regulated and determined by the comparative facility or difficulty with which these materials were obtained. At no time, perhaps, did timber exist on Inchcolm that could have been used in constructing such a building; whilst plenty of stones fit for the purpose abounded on the island, and there was abundance of lime on the neighbouring shore. Stone-roofed oratories of a more complex and elaborate architectural character than that of Inchcolm still exist in Ireland, and of a supposed very early date. We have already found, for instance, Dr. Petrie stating that "we have every reason to believe" that the stone-roofed oratories known as St. Kevin's House at Glendalough, and St. Columba's House at Kells, "were erected by the persons whose names they bear,"[89] and consequently that they are as old as the sixth century. These two oratories, are, as it were, two storeyed buildings; for each consists of a lower and larger stone-arched or vaulted chamber below, and of another higher and smaller stone-arched or vaulted chamber or over-croft above. The old small stone-roofed church still standing at Killaloe, and the erection of which Dr. Petrie is[90] inclined to ascribe to St. Flannan in the seventh century[91] presents also in its structure this type of double stone-vault or arch, as shown in the following section of it by Mr. Fergusson.[92] When treating of the early Irish oratories, Mr. Fergusson observes, "One of the peculiarities of these churches is, that they were nearly all designed to have stone roofs, no wood being used in their construction. The section (Fig. 11) of the old church at Killaloe, belonging probably to the tenth century, will explain how this was generally managed. The nave was roofed with a tunnel-vault with a pointed one over it, on which the roofing slabs were laid." Mr. Fergusson adduces Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel, St. Kevin's House or Kitchen at Glendalough, which he thinks "may belong to the seventh century;" and St. Columba's House at Kells, "and several others in various parts of Ireland, as all displaying the same peculiarity" in the stone roofing.

Like some oratories and churches in Ireland, more simple and primitive than those just alluded to, the building on Inchcolm is an edifice consisting of a single vaulted chamber, analogous in form to the over-croft of the larger oratories or minor churches. The accompanying section of the old and small stone-roofed church of Killaghy, at the village of Cloghereen, near Killarney, is the result of an accurate examination of that building by Mr. Brash of Cork. Its stones look better dressed and more equal in size, but otherwise it is so exactly a section of the Inchcolm oratory, that it might well be regarded as a plan of it, intended to display the figure and mode of construction of its walls and stone roof, formed as that roof is of three layers--viz., 1. The layer consisting of the proper stones of the arch of the cell interiorly; 2. The layer of outer roofing stones placed exteriorly; and 3. The intermediate layer of lime, and grit or small stones, cementing and binding together these other two courses.[93]

It was once suggested to me as an argument against the Irish architectural character and antiquity of the Inchcolm oratory, that its vault or arch was slightly but distinctly pointed, and that pointed arches did not become an architectural feature in ecclesiastical buildings before the latter half of the twelfth century. But if there existed any truth in this objection, it would equally disprove the early character and antiquity of those ecclesiastical buildings at Killaloe, Glendalough, and Kells, in which the arch of the over-croft is of the same pointed form. The over-croft in King Cormac's Chapel at Cashel shows also a similar pointed vault or arch; and no one now ventures to challenge it as an established fact in ecclesiological history, that this edifice was consecrated in 1134, or at a date anterior to the introduction[94] of Gothic church architecture or pointed arches in sacred buildings in England.[95] In truth, the pointed form of arched vault was sometimes used by Irish ecclesiastics structurally, and for the sake of more simply and easily sustaining the stone roof, long before that arch became the distinctive mark of any architectural style. Indeed, in the very oldest existing Irish oratory--viz. that of Gallerus, which is generally reckoned[96] as early as, if not earlier than, the time of St. Patrick, or about the fifth century--the stone roof, though constructed on the principle of the horizontal arch, is of the pointed form. The whole section of the oratory of Gallerus is that of a pointed arch commencing directly at the ground line.[97] "I have," Mr. Brash writes me, and I could not well quote a better judge or more learned ecclesiastic antiquary, "carefully examined the oratory at Inchcolm, and it is my conviction that the pointed arch supporting the stone roof does not in any wise whatever militate against its antiquity, particularly when taking it in connection with the extreme rudeness and simplicity of the rest of the structure, and the total absence of any pointed form in either door or window."[98]

Let me add one word more as to the probable or possible age of the capellula on Inchcolm. Granting, for a moment, that the building on Inchcolm is the small chapel existing on the island when visited by King Alexander in 1123, have we any reason to suppose the structure to be one of a still earlier date? Inchcolm was apparently a favourite place of sepulture up, indeed, to comparatively late times; and may possibly have been so in old Pagan times, and previously to the introduction of Christianity into Scotland. The soil of the fields to the west of the monastery is, when turned over, found still full of fragments of human bones. Allan de Mortimer, Lord of Aberdour, gave to the Abbey of Inchcolm a moiety of the lands of his town of Aberdour for leave of burial in the church of the monastery.[100] In Scottish history various allusions occur with regard to persons of note, and especially the ecclesiastics of Dunkeld, being carried for sepulture to Inchcolm.[101] The Danish chiefs who, after the invasion of Fife, were buried in the cemetery of Inchcolm, were, as we have already found, interred there in the seventh or last year of King Duncan's reign, or in 1039, nearly a century before the date of Alexander's visit to the island. But if there was, a century before Alexander's visit, a place of burial on the island, there was almost certainly also this or some other chapel attached to the place, as a Christian cemetery had in these early times always a Christian chapel or church of some form attached to it. The style and architecture of the building is apparently, as I have already stated, as old, or even older than this; or, at all events, it corresponds in[102] its features to Irish houses and oratories that are regarded as having been built two or three centuries before the date even of the of the Danes in the island.

The manuscript copy of the _Scotichronicon_, which belonged to the Abbey of Cupar, and which, like the other old manuscripts of the _Scotichronicon_, was written before the end of the fifteenth century,[103] describes Inchcolm as the temporary abode of St. Columba himself,[104] when he was engaged as a missionary among the Scots and Picts. In enumerating the islands of the Firth of Forth, Inchcolm is mentioned in the Cupar manuscript as "alia insuper insula ad occidens distans ab Inchcketh, quae vocatur AEmonia, inter Edinburch et Inverkethyn; _quam quondam incoluit, dum Pictis et Scotis fidem praedicavit, Sanctus Columba Abbas_."[105] We do not know upon what foundation, if any, this statement is based; but it is very evidently an allegation upon which no great assurance can be placed. Nor, in alluding to this statement here, have I any intention of arguing that this cell might even have served St. Columba both as a house and oratory, such as the house of the Saint still standing at Kells is believed by Dr. Petrie to have possibly been.

The nameless religious recluse whom Alexander found residing on Inchcolm is described by Fordun and Boece as leading there the life of a hermit (_Eremita_), though a follower of the order or rule of Saint Columba. The ecclesiastical writers of these early times not unfrequently refer to such self-denying and secluded anchorites. The Irish Annals are full of their obits. Thus, for example, under the single year 898, the Four Masters[106] record the death of, at least, four who had passed longer or shorter periods of their lives as hermits, namely, "Suairleach, anchorite and Bishop of Treoit;" "Cosgrach, who was called Truaghan [the meagre], anchorite of Inis-Cealtra;" "Tuathal, anchorite;" "Ceallach, anchorite and Bishop of Ard-Macha;"--and probably we have the obit of a fifth entered in this same year under the designation of "Caenchomhrac of the Caves of Inis-bo-fine," as these early ascetics sometimes betook themselves to caves, natural or artificial, using them for their houses and oratories.[107] Various early English authors also allude to the habitations and lives of different anchorites belonging to our own country. Thus the venerable Bede--living himself as a monk in the Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow, in the early part of the eighth century--refers by name to several, as to Hemgils, who, as a religious solitary (_solitarius_), passed the latter portion of his life sustained by coarse bread and cold water; and to Wicbert,[108] who, "multos annos in Hibernia peregrinus anchoreticam in magna perfectione vitam egerat."[109] Reginald of Durham has left a work on the life, penances, medical and other miracles, of the celebrated St. Godric, who, during the twelfth century, lived for about forty years as an anchorite in the hermitage of Finchale, on the river Weir, near Durham.[110] The same author speaks of, as contemporary holy hermits, St. Elric of Walsingham, and an anchorite at Yareshale, on the Derwent.[111][112] A succession of hermits occupied a cell near Norham.[113] Small islands appear to have been specially selected by the early anchorets for their heremitical retreats. Hereberct, the friend of St. Cuthbert, lived, according to Bede, an anchoret life upon one of the islands in the lake of Derwentwater; and St. Cuthbert himself, Ethelwald, and Felgeld, when they aspired to the rank of anchoretish perfection (gradum anchoreticae sublimitatis), successively betook themselves for this purpose to Farne, on the coast of Northumberland, a small isle about eight or nine miles south of Lindisfarne.[114] Among other anchorets who subsequently lived on Farne, Reginald incidentally mentions Aelric, Bartholomew, and Aelwin.[115] On Coquet Island, lying also off the Northumbrian coast, St. Henry the Dane led the life of a religious hermit, and died about the year 1120.[116] Inchcolm is not the only island in the Firth of Forth which is hallowed by the reputation of having been the residence of anchorets, seeking for scenes in which they might practise uninterrupted devotion. Thus, St. Baldred or Balther lived for some time, during the course of the seventh century, as a religious recluse, upon the rugged and precipitous island of the Bass, as stated by Boece, Leslie, Dempster,[117] etc., and, as we know with more certainty from a poem written--upwards now of one thousand years ago--by a native of this country, the celebrated Alcuin.[118] The followers of the order of St. Columba who desired to follow a more ascetic life than that which the society of his religious houses and monasteries afforded to its ordinary members, sometimes withdrew (observes Dr. Reeves[120]) to a solitary place in the neighbourhood of the monastery, where they enjoyed undisturbed meditation, without breaking the fraternal bond. Such, in 634, was Beccan, the "solitarius," as he is designated in Cummian's contemporary Paschal letter to Segene, the Abbot of Iona; and such was Finan, the hermit of Darrow, in the words of Adamnan, "vitam multis anchoreticam annis irreprehensibiliter ducebat." According to the evidence of the Four Masters, an anchorite held the Abbacy of Iona in 747; another anchorite was Abbot-elect in 935; and a third was made Bishop in 964[121] "The abode of such anchorites was (adds Dr. Reeves) called in Irish a 'desert' (Dysart), from the Latin _desertum_; and as the heremitical life was held in such honour among the Scotic Churches, we frequently find this word 'desert' an element in religious nomenclature. There was a 'desert' beside the monastery of Derry; and that belonging to Iona was situate near the shore, in the low ground north of the Cathedral, as may be inferred from Port-an-diseart, the name of a little bay in this situation." The charters of the Columbian House at Kells show that a "desert" existed in connection with that institution. Could the old building or capellula on Inchcolm have served as a "desert" to the Monastery there?[122]

The preceding remarks have spun out to a most unexpected extent; and I have to apologise both for their extravagant length and rambling character. At the same time, however, I believe that it would be considered an object of no small interest if it could be shown to be at all probable that we had still near us a specimen, however rude and ruinous, of early Scoto-Irish architecture. All authorities now acknowledge the great influence which, from the sixth to the eleventh or twelfth century, the Irish Church and Irish clergy exercised over the conversion and civilisation of Scotland. But on the eastern side of the kingdom we have no known remains of Scoto-Irish ecclesiastical architecture except the beautiful and perfect Round Tower of Brechin,[123] and the ruder and probably older Round Tower of Abernethy. If, to these two instances, we dare to conjoin a specimen of a house or oratory of the same Scoto-Irish style, and of the same ancient period, such as the Oratory on Inchcolm seems to me probably to be, we would have in such a specimen an addition of some moment to this limited and meagre list. Besides, it would surely not be uninteresting could we feel certain that we have still standing, within eight or ten miles of Edinburgh, a building whose roof had covered the head of King Alexander I., though it covered it for three days only; for that very circumstance would at the same time go far to establish another fact, namely, that any such building might claim to be now the oldest roofed stone habitation in Scotland.[127]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: From the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ii. part iii.]

[Footnote 17: These contributions by the "Abbas Aemoniae Insulae" are alluded to by Boece, who wrote nearly a century afterwards, as one of the works upon which he founded his own _Scotorum Historiae_.--(See his _Praefatio_, p. 2; and Innes' _Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland_, vol. i., pp. 218 and 228.) Bower, in a versified colophon, claims the merit of having completed eleven out of the sixteen books composing the _Scotichronicon_ lib. xvi. cap. 39:--

"Quinque libros Fordun, undenos auctor arabat,
Sic tibi clarescit sunt sedecim numero,
Ergo pro precibus, petimus te, lector eorum," etc.]

[Footnote 18: See _Scotichronicon_, lib. xiii. cap. 34 and 37; lib. xiv. cap. 38, etc. In 1547 the Duke of Somerset, after the battle of Pinkie, seized upon Inchcolm as a post commanding "vtterly ye whole vse of the Fryth it self, with all the hauens uppon it," and sent as "elect Abbot, by God's sufferance, of the monastery of Sainct Coomes Ins, Sir Jhon Luttrell, knight, with C. hakbutters and l. pioners, to kepe his house and land thear, and ii. rowe barkes, well furnished with municion, and lxx. mariners to kepe his waters, whereby (naively remarks Patten) it is thought he shall soon becum a prelate of great power. The perfytnes of his religion is not alwaies to tarry at home, but sumetime to rowe out abrode a visitacion; and when he goithe, I haue hard say he taketh alweyes his sumners in barke with hym, which ar very open mouthed, and neuer talk but they are harde a mile of, so that either for loove of his blessynges, or feare of his cursinges, he is lyke to be soouveraigne ouer most of his neighbours."--(See Patten's _Account of the late Expedition in Scotlande_, dating "out of the parsonage of S. Mary Hill, London," in Sir John Dalyell's _Fragments of Scottish History_, pp. 79 and 81.) In Abbot Bower's time, the island seems to have been provided with some means of defence against these English attacks; for, in the _Scotichronicon_, in incidentally speaking of the return of the Abbot and his canons in October 1421 from the mainland to the island, it is stated that they dared not, in the summer and autumn, live on the island for fear of the English, for, it is added, the monastery at that time was not fortified as it is now, "non enim erant tunc, quales ut nunc, in monasterio munitiones" (lib. xv. cap. 38).]

[Footnote 19: Iona itself has not an air of stiller solitude. Here, within view of the gay capital, and with half the riches of the Scotland of earlier days spread around them, the brethren might look forth from their secure retreat on that busy ambitious world, from which, though close at hand, they were effectually severed.--(Billings' _Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland_, vol. iii. Note on Inchcolm.)]

[Footnote 20: Alexander Campbell, in his _Journey through North Britain_ (1802), after speaking of a fort in the east part of Inchcolm having a corps of artillery stationed on it, adds, "so that in lieu of the pious orisons of holy monks, the orgies of lesser deities are celebrated here by the sons of Mars," etc., vol. ii. p. 69.]

[Footnote 21: See MS. Records of the Privy Council of Scotland, 23d September 1564, etc.]

[Footnote 22: Bellenden's translation of Boece's _History of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 500.]

[Footnote 23: _Works_ of William Drummond, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 7.]

[Footnote 24: Bishop Lesley's _History of Scotland_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 25: See General Hutton's MSS. in the Advocates' Library, as quoted in Billings' _Ecclesiastical Antiquities, loc. cit._]

[Footnote 26: See his Life in Colgan's _Trias Thaumaturga_, vol. ii. p. 466.]

[Footnote 27: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xv. cap. 23.]

[Footnote 28: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xv. cap. 38.]

[Footnote 29: _Ibid._ lib. xv. cap. 48.]

[Footnote 30: Images, or statues in wood, of the founders or patrons of churches of the sixth and seventh centuries, were common in Ireland, and no doubt in the Gaelic portion of Scotland. Some of these "images" are still preserved in islands on the west coast of Ireland. "St. Barr's wooden image" was preserved in his church in the island of Barray.--See Martin's _Western Isles of Scotland_, pp. 92, 93. But Macaulay, in his _History of St. Kilda_, p. 75, says, that this was an image of St. Brandan, to whom the church was consecrated.--P.]

[Footnote 31: _Ibid._ lib. xiii. cap. 34. When, in 1355, the navy of King Edward came up the Forth, and "spulyeit" Whitekirk, in East Lothian, still more summary vengeance was taken upon such sacrilege. For "trueth is (says Bellenden) ane Inglisman spulyeit all the ornamentis that was on the image of our Lady in the Quhite Kirk; and incontinent the crucifix fel doun on his head, and dang out his harnis."--(Bellenden's _Translation of Hector Boece's Croniklis_, lib. xv. c. 14; vol. ii. p. 446.)]

[Footnote 32: _Scotichronicon_, lib. xiii. cap. 37.]

[Footnote 33: See George Chalmers' _Caledonia_, vol. i. p. 320.]

[Footnote 34: "Within the bay call'd _Loch-Colmkill_, three miles further south, lies _Lough Erisort_, which hath an anchoring-place on the south and north."--Martin, p. 4. "The names of the churches in Lewis Isles, and the saints to whom they were dedicated, are St. _Columbkil's_, in the island of that name," etc.--_Ibid._ p. 27. I suspect that all the churches founded by Columba bore anciently the name of Columbkill. Bede tells that the saint bore the united name of Columbkill.--_Hist. Ec._ v. 9; and all the churches founded by him in Ireland, or places called after him, are, I think, invariably so designated. Thus also the lake near Mugstot, in Skye, now drained, and on the island of which the most undoubted remains of a monastic establishment of Columb's time still exist, was called Lough Columbkill, and the island Inch Columbkill.--P.]

[Footnote 35: See, for example, the notes on this passage in the editions of Steevens and Malone.]

[Footnote 36: Holinshed's _Chronicles_, vol. v. p. 268.]

[Footnote 37: _Scotorum Historiae_, lib. xi. f. 225, 251.]

[Footnote 38: See his great work on the _Sculptured Stones of Scotland_, plate cxxv. p. 39.]

[Footnote 39: I do not believe that there is a single example of armorial bearings to be found either in Scotland or Ireland of an earlier date than the close of the twelfth century.--P.]

[Footnote 40: Bellenden's _Translation of Boece's Croniklis of Scotland_, lib. xii. 2, vol. ii. p. 258.]

[Footnote 41: _Scotorum Historiae_ (1526), lib. xii. p. 257.]

[Footnote 42: _History of Fife and Kinross_, p. 35.]

[Footnote 43: _A Tour in Scotland_, part ii. p. 210. See also Grose's _Antiquities of Scotland_ (1797), vol. ii. p. 135.]

[Footnote 44: I feel quite satisfied that this monumental stone is of a much earlier date than the thirteenth century, and that it is most probably a Danish or Dano-Scottish monument.--P.]

[Footnote 45: In the _Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland_, or metrical version of the History of Hector Boece, by William Stewart, lately published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls, and edited by Mr. Turnbull, there is a description of the Danish monument on Inchcolm from the personal observation of the translator; and we know that this metrical translation was finished by the year 1535. The description is interesting, not only from being in this way a personal observation, but also as showing that, at the above date, the recumbent sculptured "greit stane," mentioned in the text, was regarded as a monument of the Danish leader, and that there stood beside it a Stone Cross, which has since unfortunately disappeared. After speaking of the burial of the Danes--

Into an yle callit Emonia,
Sanct Colmis hecht now callit is this da,

and the great quantity of human bones still existing there, he adds in proof--

As _I myself quhilk has bene thair and sene._
Ane croce of stane thair standis on ane grene,
Middis the feild quhair that they la ilk one,
Besyde the croce thair lyis ane greit stane;
Under the stane, in middis of the plane,
Their chiftane lyis quhilk in the feild was slane.

(See vol. ii. p. 635). Within the last few months there has been discovered by Mr. Crichton another sculptured stone on Inchcolm. But the character of the sculptures on it is still uncertain, as the stone is in a dark corner, the exposed portion of it forming the ceiling of the staircase of the Tower, and the remainder of the stone being built into, and buried in the wall. The sculptures are greatly weather-worn, and the stone itself had been used in the original building of the Tower. The Tower of St. Mary's Church, or of the so-called Cathedral at Iona, is known to have been erected early in the thirteenth century. Mr. Huband Smith, who believes the Tower of the Cathedral in Iona, and perhaps the larger portion of the nave and aisles, to be "probably the erection of the twelfth and next succeeding century," found, in 1844, on the abacus of one of the supporting columns, the inscription "DONALDUS OBROLCHAN FECIT HOC OPUS;" and already this inscription has been broken and mutilated.--(See Ulster _Journal of Archaeology_, vol. i. p. 86.) The obit of a person of this name, and probably of this builder, occurs, as Dr. Reeves has shown, in the _Annals of Ulster_ in 1203, and in the _Annals of the Four Masters_ in 1202; and Dr. Reeves considers the Church or Cathedral at Iona as "an edifice of the early part of the thirteenth century."--(_Life of Columba_, pp. 411 and 416.) But the Tower of the Church of Inchcolm is so similar in its architectural forms and details to that of Icolmkill, that it is evidently a structure nearly, if not entirely, of the same age; and the new choir (novum chorum) built to the church in 1265 (see _Scotichronicon_, lib. x. c. 20) is apparently, as seen by its remaining masonic connections, posterior in age to the Tower upon which it abuts. Hence we are, perhaps, fairly entitled to infer that this sculptured stone thus incidentally used in the construction of the Tower on Inchcolm, existed on the island long, at least, before the thirteenth century, as by that time it was already very weather-worn, and consequently old.[46]]

[Footnote 46: I, too, consider this church to be of the early part of the thirteenth century. Parts of it, however, I believe to be of the twelfth century. I allude particularly to that portion on one of the columns of which the name of the builder appears, and who, I have little doubt, was the eminent person whose death--1202--is recorded by the Annalists. Pinkerton, vol. ii. p. 258, is in error in supposing any portion of the church to be of the eleventh century. The family of the O'Brolchans were of distinguished rank in the county of Derry, and intimately connected with the churches there. See my notices of them in the _Ordnance Memoir of the Parish of Temple More_, pp. 21, 22, 29. It may be worthy of remark that this family of O'Brolchain, or a branch of it, appear to have been eminent, hereditarily, after the Irish usage, as architects or builders. At the year 1029 the _Annals of Ulster_ record the death of Maolbride O'Brolchan, "_chief mason_ of Ireland." And at the year 1097, the death of Maelbrighde _Mac-an-tsaeir_ (son of the mason) O'Brolchan. And, lastly, we have the name of Donald O'Brolchan as the architect of the great church at Iona. But if this Donald be the person whose death is recorded in the _Annals_ as "a noble senior" in 1202, that part of the building in which the inscription is found must be surely of the twelfth century; and the style of its architecture supports that conclusion.--P.]

[Footnote 47: Twelfth.--P.]

[Footnote 48: Square recesses or ambries of this kind are common in the most ancient Irish oratories.--P.]

[Footnote 49: The unusual breadth, 4 feet, of this doorway, is perhaps the only feature in the structure likely to excite a doubt of its early antiquity. I cannot remember ever having seen in any very ancient church or oratory in Ireland a doorway so wide. The widest doorway that I have met with is, I think, that of the great church at Glandelough, which is 3 feet 10 inches wide at its base. The usual width in doorways of small churches and oratories is from 2 feet to 2 feet 10 inches.--P.]

[Footnote 50: When I first visited Inchcolm the ancient cell described in the present paper was the abode of one or two pigs; and on another occasion I found it inhabited by a cow. In consequence of the attention of the Earl of Moray (the proprietor of the island), and his active factor, Mr. Philipps, having been directed to the subject, all such desecration has been put an end to, and the whole building has been repaired in such a way as to retard its dilapidation. The plans required for its proper repair were kindly drawn out by my friend Mr. Brash of Cork, a most able architect and archaeologist, who had performed on various occasions previously a similar duty in reference to the restoration of old ecclesiastical buildings in the south and west of Ireland. All these restorations preserve, as far as possible, in every respect the original characteristics of the building. In making these restorations, several points mentioned in the text as visible in the former dilapidated state of the building, are now of course covered up, such as the section of the arch of the roof, represented in woodcut, Fig. 9, etc. Other new points, not alluded to in the text, were cleared up and brought to light as the necessary repairs were proceeded with. The opening in the western part of the south wall of the building was found to be the undoubted original door of the cell; and when the earth accumulated up against it externally was cleared away, there was discovered, leading from this door to the south, and in the direction of the well of the island, a built way or passage,[52] gently sloping upwards out of the cell, 4 feet in width, like the door itself, but becoming slightly wider when it reached the limit to which it has been as yet traced--viz., about 13 or 14 feet from the building. The built sides of this passage still stand about 3 or 4 feet in height; the lime used, as cement in constructing these sides is apparently the same as that used in the construction of the walls of the cell itself; and, further, the passage has been coated over with the same dense plaster as that still seen adhering at different points to the interior of the oratory. It is impossible to fix the original height of the walls of this passage, but probably these walls were so high at one time, near the entrance at least into the oratory, as to be there arched over; for, as stated in the text, the stones composing the outer or external arch of the doorway offer that appearance of irregular fracturing which they would necessarily show if the archway had been originally continued forward, and subsequently broken across parallel with the line or face of the south side wall. It is perhaps not uninteresting here to add, that in Icolmkill a similar walled walk or entrance led into the small house or building of unknown antiquity, named the "Culdee's Cell." In the old _Statistical Account_ (1795), this cell is described as "the foundation of a small circular house, upon a reclining plain. From the door of the house a walk ascends to a small hillock, with the remains of a wall upon each side of the walk, which grows wider to the hillock."--(_Statistical Account of Scotland_, vol. xiv. p. 200.) At the old heremetical establishment of St. Fechin, on High Island, Connemara, there is "a covered passage, about 15 feet long and 3 wide," leading from the oratory to the supposed nearly circular, dome-roofed cell of the Abbot.--(Dr. Petrie's _Ecclesiastical Architecture_, p. 425.)]

[Footnote 51: This window seems very ancient, and no mistake! Compare it with the window of the oratory near Kilmalkedar, in my _Towers_, p. 184. First edition.--P.]

[Footnote 52: This fact is, I think, very interesting and important as an evidence of the great antiquity of the building. Such built-passages are often found in Ireland connected with small churches and oratories of the sixth and seventh centuries, but never, to my knowledge, with any of a later age. They may, in fact, be considered as characteristic appendages, or accompanying features, to the ecclesiastical structures of those times. There is one at Rathmichael, near Dublin, where there is the butt of a round tower. I have seen many of them in various states of preservation, and I think all were about 4 feet both in breadth and height. They were, however, never arched, but roofed with large flags, laid horizontally, and their upper surface level with the surrounding ground.--P.]

[Footnote 53: After this sentence Dr. Petrie adds, "Good--very good."]

[Footnote 54: This is a strong evidence in favour of the antiquity of the structure.--P.]

[Footnote 55: See other similar notices of the visit of Alexander I. to Inchcolm in Buchanan's _Rerum Scoticarum Historia_, lib. vii. cap. 27; Leslaeus _de Rebus Gestis Scotorum_, lib. vi. p. 219, etc.]

[Footnote 56: Joannis de Fordun _Scotichronicon_, cum Supplementis et Continuatione Walteri Boweri Insulae St. Columbae Abbatis; cura Walteri Goodall (1759), vol. i. p. 286.]

[Footnote 57: My friend Mr. David Laing, with his usual kindness, has examined, with a view to this point, several manuscripts of the _Scotichronicon_, and has found that the account in that work of King Alexander's visit to Inchcolm is from the pen of Bower, and, as Mr. Laing adds in his note to me, "not the less curious and interesting on that account." In his original portion of the History, Fordun himself merely refers to the foundation of the Monastery of Inchcolm by Alexander.]

[Footnote 58: _Extracta e Cronicis Scocie_, p. 66.]

[Footnote 59: _History of Scotland_, vol. iii. p. 336.]

[Footnote 60: See Mr. Turnbull's Introductory Notice to the Abbotsford Club edition of the _Extracta_, p. xiv.]

[Footnote 61: _Extracta e Cronicis Scocie_, p. 66.]

[Footnote 62: Boece's _History and Chronicles of Scotland_, translated by John Bellenden, book xii. chap. 15, vol. ii. p. 294.]

[Footnote 63: _Scotorum Historiae_, lib. v. fol. cclxxii. First Paris Edition of 1526.]

[Footnote 64: _De Divinitate_, cap. 46.]

[Footnote 65: Though Roman houses, temples, and other buildings of stone and lime abounded in this country in the earlier centuries of the Christian era, yet the first Christian churches erected at Glastonbury in England, and at St. David's in Wales, were--according to the authority, at least, of William of Malmesbury and Giraldus Cambrensis--made of wattles. The first Christian church which is recorded as having been erected in Scotland, namely, the _Candida Casa_, reared at Whithern, towards the beginning of the fifth century, by St. Ninian, was constructed, as mentioned in a well-known passage of Bede, of stone, forming "ecclesiam insignem ... de lapide insolito Britonibus more."--(_Historia Ecclesiast._, lib. iii. cap. 4.) According to the _Irish Annals_, the three churches first erected by Palladius, in Ireland, about the year 420, were of wood, one of them being termed House of the Romans, "Teach-na-Romhan," but not apparently from its Roman mode of building.--(See Dr. O'Donovan's _Annals of the Four Masters_, vol. i. p. 129.) The church of Duleck, one of the earliest, if not the earliest, which St. Patrick erected in Ireland, and the first bishop of which, St. Cianan, died in the year 490, was built of stone, as its original name of Daimhllag (stone house) signifies; and the same word, _damhliag_ or _stone house_, came subsequently to be applied as a generic term to the larger Irish churches.--(See Dr. Petrie's _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, p. 142, with a quotation from an old Irish poem of the names of the three masons in the household of St. Patrick, who "made damhliags first in Erin.") When, in the year 652, Finan succeeded to the Bishopric of Lindisfarne, he built there a suitable Episcopal church, constructed of oak planks, and covered with reeds, "more Scotorum non de lapide, sed de robore secto totam composuit, atque arundine texit."--(Bede's _Hist. Eccl._, lib. iii. cap. 25.) When St. Cuthbert erected his anchorite retreat on the island of Farne he made it of two chambers, one an oratory, and the other for domestic purposes; and he finished the walls of these buildings by digging round and cutting away the natural soil within and without, forming the roof out of rough wood and straw, "de lignis informibus et foeno."--(Vita S. Cuthberti, cap. 17.) Planks or "tabulae," also, were employed in building or reconstructing the walls of this oratory on Farne Island, as St. Ethelwald, Cuthbert's successor, finding hay and clay insufficient to fill up the openings that age made between its boards, obtained a calf's skin, and nailed it as a protection against the storms in that corner of the oratory, where, like his predecessor, he used to kneel or stand when praying.--(_Ibid._, cap. 46.) St. Godric's first rude hermitage at Finchale, on the Wear, was made of turf (vili cespite), and afterwards of rough wood and twigs (de lignis informibus et virgulis).--(See chaps 21 and 29 of his Life by Reginald.) On the construction, by wattles and wood, of some early Irish and Scoto-Irish monastic and saints' houses and oratories, as those of St. Wolloc, St. Columba, and St. Kevin, see Dr. Reeves' notes in his edition of the _Life of St. Columba_, pp. 106, 114, and 177. In some districts where wood was scarce, and stone abundant and easily worked, as in the west coast of Ireland, all ecclesiastical buildings were--like the far more ancient duns and forts in these parts--made principally or entirely of stone. But even in parts where wood was easily procured, oratories seem to have been sometimes, from an early period, built of stone. Thus, in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, the devout virgin Crumtherim is described as living in a stone-built oratory, "in cella sive _lapideo_ inclusorio," in the vicinity of Armagh, as early as the fifth century.--(Colgan's _Trias Thaumaturga_, p. 163.) And, at the city of Armagh again, we have an incidental notice of a stone oratory in the eighth century; for, in the _Ulster Annals_, under the year 788, there is reported "Contentio in Ardmacae in qua jugulatur vir in hostio [ostio] Oratorii _lapidei_."--(Dr. O'Conor's _Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores_, tom. iv. p. 113.) Dr. Petrie believes that all the churches at Armagh erected by St. Patrick and his immediate successors were built of stone, as well indeed as all the early abbey and cathedral churches throughout Ireland.--(_Ecclesiastical Architecture_, p. 159.)]

[Footnote 66: The _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, anterior to the Anglo-Saxon Invasion, comprising an Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland, pp. 437, 435 and 430.]

[Footnote 67: "That these buildings (St. Columb's House at Kells and St. Kevin's at Glendalough), which are so similar in most respects to each other, are of a very early antiquity, can scarcely admit of doubt; indeed, I see no reason to question their being of the times of the celebrated ecclesiastics whose names they bear."--(Dr. Petrie's _Ecclesiastical Architecture_, p. 430.) In his late edition of Adamnan's _Life of St. Columba_, Dr. Reeves, when describing the Columbite monasteries and churches founded in Ireland, speaks (p. 278) of Kells as "having become the chief seat of the Columbian monks" shortly after the commencement of the ninth century. Among the indications of the ancient importance of the place which still remain, he enumerates the fine old Round Tower of Kells, its three ancient large sculptured crosses, the "curious oratory called St. Columbkille's House," and its great literary monument now preserved in Trinity College, Dublin--namely, the _Book of Kells_. He quotes the old Irish _Life of St. Columba_, followed by O'Donnell, to show that it is there stated that the saint himself "marked out the city of Kells in extent as it now is, and blessed it;" but he doubts if any considerable church here was founded by Columba himself, or indeed before 804. He grounds his doubts chiefly on the negative circumstance that there is "no mention of the place in the _Annals_ as a religious seat" till the year 804. But the _Annals of the Four Masters_ record two years previously, or in 802, that "the church of Columcille at Ceanannus (or Kells) was destroyed" (vol. i. p. 413), referring of course to an _old_ or former church of St. Columba's there; whilst the _Annals of Clonmacnoise_ mention that two years afterwards, or in 804, "there was a new church founded in Kells in honour of St. Colume."--(See _Ibid._, footnote.)[68] The learned editor of the _Annals of the Four Masters_, Professor O'Donovan, has translated and published, in the first volume of the _Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society_, an ancient poem attributed to St. Columba, and which, at all events, was certainly composed at a period when some remains of Paganism existed in Ireland. In this production the poet makes St. Columba say, "My order is at Cennanus (Kells)," etc.; and in his note to this allusion Dr. O'Donovan states that at Kells "St. Columbkille erected a monastery in the sixth century."--(_Miscellany of Archaeological Society_, vol. i. p. 13.) Some minds would trust such a question regarding the antiquity of a place more to the evidence of parchment than to the evidence of stone and lime. The beautiful _Evangeliarium_, known as the _Book of Kells_, is mentioned by the _Four Masters_ under the year 1006 as being then the "principal relic of the western world," on account of its golden case or cover, and as having been temporarily stolen in that year from the erdomh or sacristy of the great church of Kells. In the same ancient entry this book is spoken of as "the Great Gospel of Columcille," and whether originally belonging to Kells or not, is certainly older than the ninth century, if not indeed as old as Columba. The corresponding _Evangeliarium_ of Durrow, placed now also in Trinity College, Dublin,--"a manuscript" (says Dr. Reeves, p. 276) "approaching, if not reaching to the Columbian age,"--is known from the inscription on the silver-mounted case which formerly belonged to it, to have been "venerable in age, and a reliquary in 916" (p. 327). In the remarkable colophon which closes this manuscript copy of the Evangelists, St. Columba himself is professed to be the copyist or writer of it, the reader being adjured to cherish the memory "Columbae scriptoris _qui hoc scripsi_." In the _Ulster Annals_, under the year 904, there is the following entry regarding Kells: "Violatio Ecclesiae Kellensis per Flannum mac Maelsechnalli contra Donchad filium suum, et alii decollati sunt circa _Oratorium_."--(Dr. O'Conor's _Rerum Hibern. Scriptores_, tom. iv. p. 243.) Is the scene of slaughter thus specialised the Oratory or "House of St. Columb," which is still standing at Kells?[69]]

[Footnote 68: I would say yes, beyond question! It was both oratory and house, like that of St. Cuthbert on Farne island, described in the passage quoted _ante_, p. 101, note.--P.]

[Footnote 69: St. Colume, as translated by Mageochagan or Macgeoghegan. In the original this would be Columbkille, as in all the other Annals.--P.]

[Footnote 70: In treating of the subsequent fate of the old Irish oratories, Dr. Petrie remarks, "Such structures came in subsequent times to be used by devotees as penitentiaries, and to be generally regarded as such exclusively. Nor is it easy to conceive localities as such better fitted, in a religious age, to excite feelings of contrition for past sins, and of expectations of forgiveness, than those which had been rendered sacred by the sanctity of those to whom they had owed their origin. Most certain, at all events, it is, that they came to be regarded as sanctuaries the most inviolable, to which, as our annals show, the people were accustomed to fly in the hope of safety--a hope, however, which was not always realised."--(P. 358.)]

[Footnote 71: _Scotichronicon_, lib. v. cap. 36. Goodall's edition, vol. i. p. 286.]

[Footnote 72: Such cells or oratories, as relics of the holy men who had been their founders, were always regarded by the Irish, like every other kind of relics, as their bells, croziers, books, etc. etc., with the deepest sentiments of veneration, and their injury or violation--"dishonouring," as the annalists often term it--was regarded as a sacrilege of the most revolting and sinful character. And to this pious feeling we may ascribe the singular preservation to our own times of so many of such buildings--though, indeed, in many instances, they may only retain the general form, or a portion of the walls, of the original structure--owing to the injuries inflicted by time, or, as more frequently, by foreign violence. Thus, in the great Aran of the _Tiglach Enda_, or "House of Enda," a portion only--the east end--is of the Saint's time, the rest is some centuries later; and of St. Ciarn's oratory at Clonmacnoise--called in the _Irish Annals_ "Temple Ciaron," or "Eaglais-beag," and, sometimes, "_Temple-beg_," or "The Little Church," though the original form was carefully preserved, there was, when I first examined it, more than forty years ago, apparently no portion of its masonry that was not obviously of much later times--in parts even as late as the seventeenth century. Our annalists record the names of Airchinneachs of this oratory from 893 to 1097.--P.]