Chapter XXX: Section XII

_Characteristics of Early Celtic Art.
Fragments of Early Literature._

The period of native Celtic art stretches back beyond the Christian era, as we have already seen in the prehistoric age; and it seems necessary to indicate the characteristics of this art as exhibited on metal work and other forms, as the culture and civilisation of ♦a people can only be traced and disclosed in its continuity by the historic treatment of the products of the mind and feeling as manifested in the whole circle of their action. Beginning with such objects as reach back to the Bronze Age culture, we may observe the continuous development of this form of decorative art.

♦ duplicate word “a” removed

A bronze mirror, along with other articles, was found in draining a bog in the parish of Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbrightshire. Its form resembles the mirrors which appear on the sculptured monuments, and the part where the handle is joined to the body of the mirror is concealed by a finely ornamented plate. A massive collar of cast bronze was found in digging a well at Stitchell, Roxburghshire, in 1747; it is jointed, and opens on a hinge in the centre, and fastening in front by a pin and socket. Its ornamentation resembles the double escaping and divergent spirals of the later Celtic art. Closely similar in ornament to this collar is an armlet of thin bronze, found in 1826 in the parish of Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire. It is ornamented by three raised mouldings, beaten up from the back, and run round it, but concealed on each side of the hinges by two thin plates of bronze, which are ornamented in repoussè trumpet-like ornaments connected by curves. In 1806 a herd boy unearthed a hoard of gold objects on the side of the Shaw Hill in the parish of Kirkurd, Peeblesshire, which consisted of two twisted arm-rings, each weighing eight ounces, a broken ring of a similar form, forty small studs, and a hollow ornament weighing over four ounces. The bullion value of the whole amounted to about £110. The armlets are spirally twisted rods of gold, with flat extremities bent round to encircle the arm. The studs are spiral in form, and marked on the surface with a cruciform ornament in relief. These are a few examples selected out of many others which belong to the early Celtic school of art.¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland, Iron Age_, pages 126, 137, 138.

As the art developed, its leading characteristic was exhibited in metal work with striking effect and beauty. In 1826 a shepherd, when passing along the hillside of Hunterston, six miles from Largs, observed a flattened-like ring of metal partially protruding from the soil, which he picked up. It turned out to be a silver brooch, and a specimen of artistic work in metal which has rarely been surpassed. It is large, measuring about four and a half inches in diameter, and it is elaborately decorated in the Celtic style, and in many of its features resembles the illuminated decorations of the manuscripts of the Gospels. It thus belongs to the art of the early Christian period, and the beauty of its design and decoration is almost equal to that of the best manuscripts. “The skill of its workmanship is such that it is questionable whether it could be greatly surpassed by the most skilful workmanship of the present day. It is only when its details are examined with a magnifying glass that the fitness and beauty of their minutest rendering becomes fully apparent.”¹ A point of much interest connected with this brooch is that it bears on the plain portion of the back the autographs of two of its former owners scratched with a point in the surface of the silver; both the inscriptions belong to the later and more local variety of the Runic alphabet. The inscriptions are simple, mere markings of ownership, and have been read thus: 1, “Maelbritha owns this brooch; 2, Olfriti owns this brooch.”² The first name is Celtic, and both names were common among the mixed population of the Norwegian province of the Western Isles. The forms of the Runes indicate a date about the tenth century, which would agree with the period when Celtic art-workmanship was approaching the point of its highest expression.³

¹ _Ibid._ _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, page 3, 1881.

² Various readings of these scratched inscriptions have been
given. Their decipherment has been made the subject of
several papers――Finn Magnusen in the _Annaler for Nordisk
Oldkindyghed og Historie_, 1846, pages 323, 399; P. A. Munch
in the _Memoires de la Sociéte des Antiquaires du Nord_,
page 202, 1845‒49; Dr. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Annals of
Scotland_, Volume II., pages 267‒277; Professor Dr. George
Stephens, in his great work, _The Old Northern Runic
Monuments of Scandinavia and England_, has given details of
the inscriptions along with a critical discussion. Volume
II., pages 589‒599.

³ “The art of the brooch, as I have shown, is Celtic, and the
inscriptions are such as would be carved by natives of the
restricted area, whose population was partly of Norwegian
and partly of Celtic origin.” _Scotland in Early Christian
Times_, page 6.

In 1868, when the Sutherland railway was making through the parish of Rogart, a large earthfast stone was blasted, and in clearing away the rubbish one of the workmen found in the soil underneath the stone a hoard of brooches; and he at once left his work and disappeared. The number of the brooches found, was never ascertained, but two of them subsequently came into the possession of Mr. Macleod of Cadboll, and these two were known as the Cadboll brooches; and in 1888 they were purchased for the National Museum. A third one passed into the hands of the Duke of Sutherland, and is preserved in the museum at Dunrobin. The two now in the National Museum are penannular brooches of silver. The largest one is plated with gold, and measures four and a half inches in diameter, and the pin seven and three-fourth inches in length. The body of the brooch consists of a flattened band of silver, three quarters of an inch in width, and nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness, bent into a circular form and terminating at each extremity in an ornamental expansion of quarterfoil form, and an amber setting fills the centre of the terminal ornaments. Round this setting there is a circular space, enclosed by a plain raised border and quartered by similar partitions, each of which is filled with an interlacing pattern. The four semi-circular spaces surrounding the central circle, and forming the quarterfoils, are also enclosed by plain raised borders, and from each of these spaces there rises, to the height of half an inch, part of the body and neck of a large billed bird. Its eyes are set with green glass, the neck bends gracefully, and the long bill dips into the interior of the enclosed circle. In the middle of the bend of the circular part of the brooch, there is a circular space divided into four segments with a central setting of amber, and segments filled in with interlacing patterns. On each side of the circle there are two birds’ heads similarly placed, and ornamented as those at the extremities of the brooch. The surface of that portion of the ring of the brooch between the central group of the two, and the terminal groups of the four birds’ heads, is divided on each side into four panels filled with interlaced patterns. The pin is loosely attached to the brooch by a large loop open at the back, and the head is an oval expansion covered with interlaced patterns, continued down the front of the pin. The whole of these ornamental details are worked out with great delicacy and the utmost precision. “The brooch presents twenty-one different panels of interlaced work in gold, ten panels occupied by bird’s heads, and twenty-four settings of amber and glass.” The other brooch is smaller and simpler, though of the same class. These brooches present a striking speciality of form and decoration; they exhibit a class of ornamental metal-work not necessarily ecclesiastical in origin or use, but showing designs and patterns similar to the decorative art of the Celtic manuscripts.¹

¹ _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,
Volume VIII., page 305; Volume XXII., pages 271‒273.
Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages 9, 11.

A considerable number of these early Celtic brooches in silver and other metal have been found in Scotland; and many of them are fine specimens of decorative art. There are other articles in silver and bronze which present this art, such as the massive silver chains of double circular links, which show upon their penannular terminal links symbols of a peculiar character, and are sometimes filled with enamel. Five of these chains, belonging to Scotland, are in the National Museum. One found in making the Caledonian Canal in Inverness-shire, consists of sixteen pairs of circular links, and a single link at one end. The links are solid bars of silver, each hammered round and bent circularly till the ends meet. It measured eighteen inches in length, and weighed ninety-two ounces. Another chain of a similar character, formed of rather smaller links, was found at Parkhill, Aberdeenshire. It consisted of twenty-three pairs of circular links, with a terminal link of a peculiar shape; and on the surface of this link there were dots on each side of a curved symbol, which sometimes appears incised on the sculptured monuments. On the opposite side there were triangular sunk spaces and three dots, and the sunk spaces had been filled with red enamel. A chain found at Whitecleuch in the parish of Crawfordjohn, in Lanarkshire, was formed of twenty-two pairs of circular links, with a penannular terminal link, on which there appeared two symbols, often found associated with the decoration of the sculptured monuments.¹

¹ Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, pages 42‒44.

The Crosier of St. Fillan is an interesting relic of ornamented art, and it has also an exceedingly interesting history.¹ There are many other relics and objects which might be used to illustrate the characteristics of Celtic art; but its central principle and leading features, which were essentially decoration and ornamentation, have now been sufficiently explicated for the purpose and scale of this history.

¹ _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,
Volume XII., pages 122, 134. Dr. Anderson has treated the
relics of St. Fillan in several publications. From the
latest of these the following may be quoted:――“Putting
together the several indications gathered from these
documents, we find that before the Reformation there were
in Glendochart five different relics of St. Fillan, and
that in the case of each separate relic the authority of the
Church had been unable to prevail against the Celtic usage
which had up to that time preserved the lay succession of
hereditary Dewars, and which, in the case of the Quigrich,
succeeded in preserving it, not only till the Reformation,
but down to the time when the Society of Antiquaries
succeeded to the keepership of that relic.

“The five relics of St. Fillan, in the possession of their
hereditary Dewars, each with a croft of land held by the
tenure of the keepership, were as follows:――1, The Quigrich
or Crosier, in the keeping of the Dewar of the Quigrich,
who held the lands of Cryetindewer in Eyich. 2, The Bernane,
in the keeping of the Dewar Bhernane, who held the lands
of Dewar Bhernane’s croft in Suy. 3, The Ferg, in the
keeping of the Dewar-na-Ferg, who had Dewar-na-Ferg’s
croft in Auchlyne. 4, The Man, or Mayne, in the keeping of
Dewar-na-Mayne, who had the Dewar-na-Mayne’s croft at Killin.
5, The Meser, in the keeping of the Dewar de Meser, who had
lands, including Coreheynan. The next question that arises
is, how far the relics are now capable of being identified.

“The Quigrich is the ornamented head of the Crosier, now
in the National Museum.... The Bernane, I think, may be
identified as another relic of St. Fillan, also now in the
possession of the Society.... The Ferg is quite unknown to
me, and I am not prepared to hazard even a guess as to its
identity.... The Mayne, according to the analogy of the
word, ought to mean the hand, and we can readily conceive
the application of this name to a very interesting and highly
venerated relic of St. Fillan, viz., the miraculous left
hand which he was wont to hold up when writing in the dark,
as the servant, who looked through the chink in the door,
saw that the left hand afforded a clear and steady light to
the right hand.... In all probability the arm of St. Fillan
was enshrined, at least as early as the Crosier or the bell;
that it was preserved in a case or shrine in the early part
of the fourteenth century, we learn from Boece’s account of
the miracle which took place in the tent of King Robert the
Bruce on the night before the Battle of Bannockburn. There
can be no doubt that the relic of St. Fillan, which was at
Bannockburn, was not the Crosier or the Bell, but the Mayne
or enshrined arm and hand which used to give the miraculous
light.... The Meser is not known, except from the single
notice of its Dewar in 1468.” _Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume XXIII., pages 115‒118.

Turning to the earliest fragments of literature still preserved, it appears that they issued from Iona. Owing to the position and fame of St. Columba in his own lifetime, some of his many disciples would be ready to record those events of his life calculated to interest his followers and enhance the veneration of his memory. Cummene, son of Ernan, was the seventh Abbot of Iona, and succeeded to the abbacy in 657; and according to the standard of his time, he was a learned and accomplished man. One of his letters in Latin touching the Easter festival is extant; and he also composed in Latin a life of St. Columba. His life of Columba consists of twenty-seven short chapters, which chiefly deal with the miracles performed by Columba or on his account. Several manuscripts of Cummene’s life of Columba exist, and it has been repeatedly printed.¹ After presiding over the community of Iona, and the Columban Church for twelve years, he died in 669.

¹ Mabillon’s _Acta Sanctorum ordinis Sancti Benedicti_, i. ♦342,
from the Compiegne MS.; in _Acta Sanctorum_, ii. 180, mainly
from the Belfort MS; and by Pinkerton in _Vitæ Sanctorum
Scotiæ_.

♦ “242, from the Compeigne” replaced with
“342, from the Compiegne”

Adamnan, son of Ronan, was born in Ireland in the year 624; and, in virtue of his birth, claimed kin to St. Columba. On the death of Failbhe in 679, he was elected as ninth Abbot of Iona. Adamnan was the most accomplished of all St. Columba’s successors. He took an active part in all matters relating to the Church in his time. He went to Ireland in 697, where he was engaged in efforts to effect social reform among the people and the clergy; and probably it was at this time, from ♦697 till his return to Iona in 704, that he wrote his Life of Columba. His information for this work was derived partly from written and partly from oral sources. His written materials were Cummene’s Life of St. Columba which he cites by name; he had also another memoir, to which he refers thus――“Hanc prædictam visionem, non solum, paginis inscriptam reperimus, sed et ab aliquibus expertis senioribus, quibus ipse Virgnous retulerat, sine ullo didicimus cunctamine.” He also refers to poems on the praises of Columba written in the native language, “Scoticæ linguæ” (Gaelic); and other metrical compositions by St. Mura, who died about 645.¹ The narrative of Cummene was transferred almost verbatim, by Adamnan, into his own Life of Columba. The oral source of information available to Adamnan would have consisted of the recollections and reminiscences about Columba then current among his brethren in Iona and in Ireland. Thus he produced a work in complete harmony with the feeling, the spirit, and the thought of his age. He returned from Ireland to Iona in the summer of 704, and died on the 23rd of September, the same year, at the advanced age of seventy-eight.²

♦ “397” replaced with “697”

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 17, 237, 318, and Preface pages
5‒7. Among the poems in praise of Columba written in the
native tongue, the celebrated Amhra was ascribed to St.
Baithene Mor, a contemporary of Columba.

² Reeves’ _Adamnan_, Appendix to Preface pages 53, 56, 57.

Adamnan’s Life of Columba is somewhat prolix, and its main themes throughout are associated with supposed miraculous and supernatural events and circumstances. Still, incidentally it contains a considerable number of facts of more or less historic value. His account of the last scenes of St. Columba’s life is natural, beautiful, and pathetic. Seeing that the work was written in the latter years of the seventh century or the opening years of the eighth, it has a special value, as being the earliest writing of any length directly connected with Scotland. He was the author of a tract entitled _De Locis Sanctis_, which is written in a more flowing style than his Life of Columba. Besides these two works, Adamnan is said to have written a Life of St. Patrick; Poems; and some other works. These have not, however, been authoritatively recognised as his productions.

From the number of manuscripts of his life of St. Columba which were spread over the Continent, it appears that the work was highly esteemed, and a considerable number of his writings still exist in various libraries. His Life of Columba has also often been printed.¹ Adamnan was held in great respect while living, and after his death his memory was widely venerated both in Ireland and in Scotland. A number of churches were dedicated to St. Adamnan in Ireland, and in Scotland nine or ten churches were dedicated to his name, among which were Forglen, in the beautiful valley of the Deveron, lying in the lower division of Banffshire; Dalmeny, a parish in Linlithgow, and in Inchkeith; and several wells were called after him. His shrine and relics became objects of extreme veneration, and were latterly preserved in his church of Skreen in Ireland.

¹ _Ibid._, Preface, pages 8‒10, 12‒30. Adamnan’s _Life of
Columba_ was first printed by ♦Canisius in his Antiquæ
Lectiones, from a MS. preserved in the monastery of Windberg,
in Bavaria, Volume V., pages 559‒621, 1604. This was
reprinted in 1624, by Thomas Messingham, an Irish priest,
who added titles to the chapters, and a few marginal glosses,
together with testimonies of Adamnan and of St. Columba.
In 1647, Colgan published it in his great work entitled,
_Triadis Thaumaturgæ, seu Divorum Patricii Columbæ et
Brigidæ, trium ♦Veteris et Majoris Scotiæ seu Hiberniæ
sanctorum Insulæ, communium Patronorum Acta, etc._ It
is inserted in the Bollandists’ _Acta Sanctorum_; in
Pinkerton’s _Vitæ Antiquæ Sanctorum, etc._; and Dr.
Reeves’ very valuable edition, so often referred to in
the preceding pages, contains a vast number of facts and
interesting particulars.

♦ “Canisiu” replaced with “Canisius”
“Veberis” replaced with “Veteris”

A few fragments of writings in Latin have been preserved: such as the Pictish Chronicle, which was compiled about the close of the tenth century, probably by the scribe or _ferleiginn_ of the monastery of Brechin. This short chronicle has been preserved in Latin, which, however, seems to have been translated from a Gaelic original, as Celtic words here and there were left untranslated. It is known that a number of ancient writings existed, which have perished amid the internal and external struggles which subsequently ensued. As already indicated, references to writings in the native language of the people occur, which appear to have consisted of legends and lives of the saints.¹

¹ _Chronicles_, Preface pages 19‒23; _Register of the Priory
of St. Andrews_; _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland_, Volume III., page 264.

The earliest specimen of Gaelic writing on parchment in Scotland occurs in the Book of Deer, a MS. which originally belonged to one of St. Columba’s monasteries in Buchan, Aberdeenshire. This book contains portions of the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, and the whole of the Gospel of St. John, and the Apostles’ Creed, all in Latin. It is written in one uniform hand, and in a character which has been assigned by the most skilful experts to the ninth century. After the Apostles’ Creed, the scribe who wrote the Gospels adds a colophon in Gaelic which has been translated thus: “Be it on the conscience of every one in whom shall be for grace the booklet with splendour; that he give a blessing on the soul of the wretchock who wrote it.”¹ For two centuries it appears that nothing was added to the original book. The fragment of an office for the visitation of the sick is in a different and a later handwriting. The memoranda written in Gaelic on the blank pages and the margins of the original manuscript belong to a period not later than the eleventh century and the early part of the twelfth. Thus, these memoranda afford a specimen of the written Celtic language of the period, which has been found in its main features to resemble the written Irish of the same age. Although this is the only example of vernacular Celtic now known to exist, still we cannot infer that this was all that Scotland had produced down to the twelfth century; in fact there can be little doubt that in many of the other monasteries similar writings in the vernacular were in use from an early period.

¹ _Book of Deer_, page 89.

The _ferleiginn_ or man of learning was a prominent official in the monasteries of Ireland, and of those of the west and north-eastern regions of Scotland. The function of this official at first seems to have been mainly limited to the practice and teaching of penmanship; but from about the middle of the tenth century instruction in literature was added to his functions: so that _ferleiginn_ lecturer, meant literally man of learning. This official appears as a member of the monastic community at Turriff, which stands on a fine commanding site near the river Deveron at the northern extremity of Aberdeenshire. It was thus one of the schools of the period. In some other parts of Scotland, the same functionary appears under the name of Scolofthes――Scolocs; in somewhat later times they appear in connection with several churches which belonged to St. Andrews. Touching the range of the learning of these functionaries there is little definite information.¹

¹ Reeves’ _Adamnan_, pages 365, 62‒63; _Miscellany of the Old
Spalding Club_, Volume V., Preface, pages 56‒67, _et seq._;
_Book of Deer_, Preface, pages 185‒189.

The monasteries of Scotland, however, considered as schools in relation to the people, were not very efficient. Although in certain directions they had an educational influence upon the people which produced results, such as the introduction of letters and a standard of written Gaelic amongst themselves; and what education existed was supplied through the monasteries and the monks; but it does not appear that this written Gaelic was widely or generally taught to the young and rising generations during the period in question. The far greater part of the people were not taught to read at all, and whatever they received as education was imparted orally and retained through the memory. In connection with religious worship and the service of the church the people were fully informed about the lives, the works, and the miracles of the saints, and in this relation their religion still resembled the ancient worship of ancestors. But in relation to industry and art, the teaching and the example of the monastic communities had a marked and beneficial educational influence upon the people.

Legends, stories, and rhymes were common among the people. When writing was little practised and printing unknown, people depended far more upon their memories, and in these circumstances the retention of a few thousands of lines would imply no great stretch of memory. Homer was simply a reciter; he never wrote the immortal work which has been stamped with his name for more than two thousand years. As thought must precede articulate speech and written composition and connected expression in the natural order of development, so oral composition in rhyme and tale have everywhere preceded the forms of written composition. As a matter of fact, there have been several instances in Scotland, in quite recent times, of men who could neither read nor write, and yet they have composed many songs and poems of recognised merit, which, of course, were written down from their diction. Indeed, the greater part of the ballad literature of Scotland has been collected by a somewhat similar process, and also to a large extent the tales and ballad literature of other nations. We may then conclude, that the people of this period had an ample store of oral rhymes, tales, and traditions――the accumulated accretions of the preceding ages――which still continue to be orally learned and transmitted from generation to generation, with such additional variations as imagination and circumstances suggested to their minds.

At the close of the eleventh century the Celtic race possessed the whole of Scotland except the Lothians, in the south-east, which was occupied by the Angles. Caithness in the north, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and the Western Islands, which had been colonised by the Norsemen. But the original heat of the Norse movement had begun to cool, and the Celtic race retained their own language in the Western Isles: a considerable number of Norse words, however, occur in these islands. Throughout the regions occupied by the Celtic race there were, no doubt, dialectical variations in the speech of the people in different districts, but they all essentially belonged to one language. In short, the people from the Firth of Forth to Caithness were still essentially of the same race as the tribes who contended with the Roman Legions at Mons Grampius in the year 86 A.D.

I. In conclusion the main points of the seven preceding sections of this Introduction may be recapitulated. New historic conditions arose through the Roman invasion, and their occupation of a portion of the country on the south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde. But the tribes on the north side of the Roman barrier remained unconquered and independent, and the Roman occupation produced no permanent impression upon them. After the departure of the Romans from the island, other migrations and external invasions by different races ensued which created new historic conditions. This resulted in a series of conflicts amongst the different races and tribes which was continued for several centuries.

1. But during this period a new moral power, Christianity, was gradually introduced into the territories of the contending races and tribes, and it affected their subsequent movements in various directions. The new religion tended to draw the tribes more together, and in the direction of greater unity of action and organisation.

2. The natural result of the internal struggle of the different tribes appeared in the foundation of the historic monarchy in 844. The centre and chief seat of the monarchy was on the banks of the Tay at Scone. The gradual extension of the kingdom outward from its centre, and its development, and the affinities and elements of the future nationality, were noted and explained.

II. The social state of the people from the seventh century to the end of the eleventh was treated in detail. After some remarks on the more primitive forms of tribal organisation, and the relation of the tribe to the land, which in very early stages of society was the common property of the tribe alone, the causes which tended to change and modify this condition of society, were then explained. It was shown how individual rights in land had arisen, the tribal organisation in relation to the land, the rights of the heads of tribes to impose taxes on land, and the right of the king to impose a national tax upon all land within his kingdom. The state of agriculture, the herds of cattle, the food, the clothing, and the dwellings of the people, and the origin of markets, were noticed. The custom of paying for all classes of crime, by a scale of fines fixed according to the rank of the injured party, was noticed and explained. Social morality, the relations of the different sexes, customs and forms associated with the institution of marriage, and the efforts of the Church to place marriage on a proper footing, were noticed; the state of the Church, the observance of the Lord’s day, and the efforts of Queen Margaret to reform abuses and minister to the poor.

3. Early architecture was historically treated in relation to the civilisation of the people. The local area in which the remains of the Brochs are found, was pointed out, the structure and characteristics of these singularly peculiar erections were then described, their origin and purpose was touched on, and it was observed that they exhibited a type of structure which was confined to Scotland alone. The traces of the daily life of the occupiers of the Brochs, their culture and civilisation as disclosed by the tools, implements, ornaments, articles, and remains found in and around these structures, were considered; and it was inferred, on sufficient evidence, that they cultivated the land, grew grain, and possessed herds of cattle and sheep, practised the arts of spinning and weaving, and made pottery. From this and other evidence and associated circumstances, it was concluded that the occupiers of the Brochs were the people of the soil, who had been long settled on it, and that they were not a horde who had suddenly effected a lodgment in a hostile country.

4. The early types of church architecture were briefly treated. It was indicated that these types passed through a series of changes and became merged in the architecture of the twelfth century. The round towers of Brechin and Abernethy were described, and their original purpose indicated.

5. The early sculptured stone monuments were treated at some length. Beginning with the undressed stones which present the peculiar symbols incised on them, the local area in which they occur, was pointed out; and it was observed that there was no Christian cross on any of them. From many associated circumstances and other considerations it was inferred that this class of stone monuments existed prior to the introduction of Christianity. After a brief description of some of the symbols, many of the scenes and articles depicted on the elaborate class of the sculptured monuments were treated historically in relation to the life of the people, the weapons, the dress, and the civilisation of the period. The art of the monuments was then briefly handled, and its relation to the art of the illuminated manuscripts, which attained its highest development in Ireland. The ethnic implication associated with the monuments was indicated, and a reference to Ogham and Runic inscriptions on monuments concluded the section.

6. The characteristics of early Celtic art, as exhibited in decorative metal work, was touched on, and the aim and principle of this art shown to consist in elaborate decoration. The literature of the period was then treated, the educational relation of the monasteries to the people, and the oral tales and rhymes current among them. Viewing the condition of the kingdom at the close of the eleventh century, it had reached a stage of political organisation and development which appeared in every way quite vigorous and capable of further progress. The diverse elements of race within the kingdom had long been slowly amalgamating, and barring foreign interference and encroachment these elements only required more time to develop into a complete nationality. The social organisation of the people of this kingdom, their culture, art, and civilisation, had attained to a stage of progress at least equal to anything as yet achieved by the people in the southern division of the island.