We learn from the record of grants in the Book of Deer that the mormaer,

the local ruler of the province, the toshach, and the King of Scotland,

each had separate or divisible rights in the same piece of land,

which either of them could convey to another party. This indicates an

organisation and gradation of landed rights which is rather surprising,

and seems to show a pretty advanced stage of society. The brief

descriptions, too, which accompany some of these grants, such as “the

field of the clerics,” the number of davochs is stated――a well-known

measure of land in the north-east of Scotland, or “both mountain and

field,” which seems to imply a townland of varying extent, and which

probably included rights of commonage. The clauses of freedom from

mormaer and toshach meant the exemption of the lands of the monastery

from taxes of various kinds, which were exacted by the local officials

from the people over whom they ruled in the form of land rent: as it

was from this source that the polity and organisation of the tribe were

kept up. Further, the development of the Central Government, and the

extension of the kingdom, had then reached the stage when a tax upon

all land was exacted. In spite of all the explicit declarations that

the lands of the monastery were free from mormaer and toshach, these

lands were still liable for their proportion of the national tax. As

this was a tax from which no land in early times was ever relieved,

although it might be paid in various ways, such as a portion of the

produce of the soil, or in military service; still, in some form, it

was everywhere exacted. The rents paid by the people, the occupiers and

toilers of the land, was a customary rent due to the local chiefs and

headmen of the tribe, and consisted of a part of the produce,――cattle,

sheep, pigs, horses, corn, and the like. There is evidence that the

people lived under this form of local organisation in comparative

comfort.¹

¹ _Book of Deer_, Preface, pages 82‒89, 91‒95; _Sculptured

Stones of Scotland_, Volume II., Preface, page 11. Those who

desire to make a special study of the early Celtic tribal

organisations in Britain and in Ireland, will find the

original sources of information in:――1, _Ancient Laws of

Ireland_, 4 Volumes; 2, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of

Wales_; 3, some fragments in the first volume of the _Acts

of Parliament of Scotland_. These have all been published by

the Royal Commission.

The names of two local clans were mentioned in the Book of Deer, the

Clan Canan, and the Clan Morgan; and in each the toshach appears as the

head and leader of the clan; and he also possessed rights in connection

with the land, which rights, as we have seen, could be transferred

to another party. It further appears that the Toshach at this period

performed fiscal duties in connection with the taxes on land, and the

local organisation of the tribe. We may then reasonably assume that

similar tribal organisations prevailed in other parts of the country,

at least from the Firth of Forth to Inverness; and also in Galloway and

Argyle throughout this period. In the ancient laws of Ireland there was

much care and humanity shown for all the members of the tribe who were

unable to support themselves from old age or any other cause. On this

matter the early law will compare favourably with that of the present

day.¹

¹ _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, Volume II., pages 194, 341.

The culture of cereals was introduced in prehistoric times. Probably

the earliest attempts at agriculture were made on the heights in

association with the early settlements in similar positions. This seems

probable from the fact that many of the chief towns of Scotland were

originally erected on heights of moderate elevation. Agriculture was

earnestly practised by the monks, who showed a noble example to the

people. In this period the tillage of the soil was gradually advancing

and spreading among the people, though the method of cultivation and

the implements in use were still somewhat primitive. The staple food

of the people consisted of oatmeal and some barley, milk, flesh, fish,

venison, kail, and other vegetables, and small quantities of fruit.

Cattle, sheep, and horses, formed the chief wealth of the people; and

taxes and fines were paid in cows. There was as yet little manufacture,

as most families had their own weavers, tailors, shoemakers, and

carpenters, within themselves. The minute division of labour only

arises after a comparatively advanced stage of civilisation has been

reached, when a more complex and artificial state of society causes

a greater multiplicity of wants and luxuries. The clothing of the

people mostly consisted of woollen stuffs and furs of home manufacture.

Their dwellings were mostly formed of wood, clay, and turf, sometimes

raised on stone foundations. One class of houses were formed by a wall

of upright stakes with twigs interlaced between them, and a second

wall of the same kind placed at a short distance apart, and then the

intervening space was filled with turf or clay, making a pretty solid

wall, which was then roofed.¹

¹ _Historians of Scotland_, Volume V., pages 16, 17, 57, 66,

67, 68; Volume VI., pages 39, 50, 63, 97; _Proceedings of

the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, Volume X., pages

616‒618; _Book of Deer_, pages 147‒154.

Shipbuilding had not made much progress. But they had vessels on which

sails and oars were used, and these were then sufficient to carry on

the intercourse and trade between the different quarters of the country.

The centres of population were nowhere very dense. Scone, Dunkeld,

Perth, Dundee, St. Andrews, Dumbarton, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow,

and Paisley, and northward Brechin, Aberdeen, Burghead and Inverness,

were centres of some trade and commerce, and having regular market-days

at which business of all kinds was transacted. Markets arise at a

comparatively early stage of social organisation and must have been

quite common in every quarter of Scotland during this period.¹ Our

towns and cities do not owe their origin to any king or chief in

particular, as it was the intelligence and sagacity of the inhabitants

which selected their sites in far gone ages, and their ♦descendants

in succeeding ages who have extended and developed them by prolonged

energy and industry.

¹ “In order to understand what a market originally was, you

must try to picture to yourself a territory occupied by

village communities, self-acting, and as yet ♠autonomous,

each cultivating its arable land in the middle of its waste,

and each, I fear I must add, at perpetual war with his

neighbour. But at several points, points probably where the

domains of two or three villages converged, there appears to

have been spaces of what we should now call neutral ground.

These were the markets. They were probably the only places

at which the members of the different primitive groups met

for any purpose except warfare, and the persons who came to

them at first were persons specially employed to exchange

the produce and manufactures of one little village for those

of another.” Maine’s _Village Communities_, page 192.

♦ “descendents” replaced with “descendants”

♠ “automatous” replaced with “autonomous”

Touching the department of crime and punishment, among the old laws

of Scotland, some fragments appear to embody customs which prevailed

in this period, though perhaps they were only in operation in certain

quarters of the country. One of these fragments is called “Laws of the

Britons and Scots,” it is preserved in Latin, in Norman-French, and

in the vernacular Scotch, and has by some been attributed to David I.;

and, as I said, it can only be assumed to embody the customs of certain

localities, one of which was Strathclyde, the province of the Britons;

but its application to the Scots is not so clear. The code contains

the fines paid in compensation for crimes, and its peculiar feature

is that it was the injured party or his kin who received the fines.

The scale of fines was regulated by the rank of the injured party and

the nature of the crime committed, thus:――The fine for the slaughter

of the King of Scotland is stated to be one thousand cows or three

thousand shillings; for the King’s son, one hundred and fifty cows

or four hundred and fifty shillings; the fine for slaying an Earl of

Scotland is the same as for the King’s son; and for an Earl’s son,

one hundred cows. For slaying a Thane one hundred cows; for a Thane’s

son, sixty-six and two-thirds of a cow; for the nephew of a Thane,

forty-four cows and twenty-one pence and two parts of a penny. All

those of lower rank were called carls, rustics, and villains, or serfs;

the fine for slaying a carl, is said to be sixteen cows; but there

is no other fine specified for any other injury which might happen to

be inflicted upon this class. The lives of the unmarried women were

estimated at the same value as their brothers, but the lives of the

married females at one-third less than that of their husbands.¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume I., page 299;

and also _Laws of David I._, pages 6‒8. On the same subject

there is a vast mass of information in the _Ancient Laws of

Ireland_, and the _Early Laws of the Saxons_, published by

the Royal Commission.

The mulcts for smaller crimes and assaults were stated with equal

minuteness. If any one drew blood from the head of the King’s son,

or the head of an Earl, the fine was nine cows; in the case of an

Earl’s son, or a Thane, six cows; of a Thane’s son three cows; and of

a carl one cow. The women as before were placed on equality with their

brothers. The fine for a blow without drawing blood was tenpence. As a

matter of course, compensation was taken for theft and all other crimes,

as well as murder and personal assaults. Another old fragment of Scotch

law presents the following exposition of the system: “All laws are

either man’s laws or God’s laws. By the law of God, a head for a head,

a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye, a foot for a foot. By the law of

man, for the life of a man, one hundred and fifty cows; for a foot, a

mark; for a hand, as much; for an eye, half a mark; for an eir, as much;

for a tooth, twelvepence; for each inch of the breadth of the wound,

twelvepence; for a stroke under the eir, sixteenpence; for a stroke

with a staff, eightpence, and if he fall, sixteenpence; for a wound in

the face he shall give an image of gold,” and so on.¹

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume I., pages 300,

301, ♦53, 72, 375, 376.

♦ probably “353” and “372”

Regarding social morality, much might be said on the relations of the

different sexes. Marriage, like every social institution, has passed

through many modifications.¹ It was not till after many thousands of

years during which the lower passions sought gratification in various

forms and degrees of intensity; not till long after the introduction

of Christianity that marriage obtained its present position among the

most civilised nations of Europe. The custom of capture seems to have

been followed by that of purchase, and the custom of purchasing wives

long prevailed in Europe, among the Jews, and many other communities.

A sum of money, or something equivalent, was paid by the husband or

his family to the family of the woman whom he desired to make his wife.

Thus in early times a woman was supposed to be always under tutelage,

in the position of a subordinate member of the family; and hence

when married, she was still regarded as being under the protection of

her own kindred. In the earliest of the Saxon Laws in England, which

probably belong to the seventh century, the mode of purchasing a wife

was stated thus:――“If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain

stand, if it be without guile; but if there be guile, let him bring her

home again, and let his property be restored to him. If she bear a live

child, let her have half the property, if the husband die first. If she

wish to go away with her children, let her have half the property. If

the husband wish to have them, let her portion be as one child.”² From

the same ancient code it appears that the Saxon was in the habit of

carrying off young women by force.³ Even in the statutes of the first

Christian King of Kent, ample provisions were made for the transfer of

money or cattle as the price of the bride.⁴

¹ “The lowest races have no institution of marriage; true

love is almost unknown among them, and marriage, in its

lowest forms, is by no means a matter of affection and

companionship.” Sir J. Lubbock’s _Origin of Civilisation_,

page 50. Sir John thinks “that communal marriages, where

every man and woman in a small community were equally

regarded as married to one another,” was the first form

of it, page 67. Again, he says, “I believe that communal

marriage was gradually superseded by individual marriage

founded on capture,” page 70. He illustrates the capture

theory at great length, and with considerable force. But he

has not proved that communal marriage was the original form;

indeed individual marriage is as conceivable and far more

natural than communal marriage.

² _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, page 9.

³ “If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay fifty

shillings to the owner, and afterwards buy the object of his

will of the owner.” _Ibid._ page 10.

⁴ _Ibid._, pages 45, 53. “The principle was carried out with

the utmost consistency when the wife proved unfaithful to

her owner, nothing was then considered but the market value

of the woman; and the adulterer was compelled to spend the

equivalent of her original price in the purchase of a new

bride, whom he formally delivered to the injured husband.

The Church was compelled to accept this with many other

discreditable institutions, when it first made converts in

England. In the laws of a king of Wessex, who lived at the

end of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century,

the purchase of wives is deliberately sanctioned; and it

is stated in the preface that the compilation was drawn up

with the assistance of the Bishop of Winchester, and a large

assembly of God’s servants.” Pike’s _History of Crime in

England_, Volume I., page 91.

In the tenth century there was some improvement; though the essence

of purchase was still recognised, it was more elaborately worked out,

thus: “If a man desires to betroth a maiden or a woman, and if it so be

agreeable to her and her friends, then it is right that the bridegroom,

according to the law of God, and according to the customs of the world,

first promise and give a pledge to those who are her forspeakers that

he desires her in such ways that he will keep her, according to God’s

law, as a husband should his wife, and let his friends guarantee that.

After that, it is to be known to whom the fortesban belongs; let the

bridegroom again give a pledge for this and let his friends guarantee

it. Then, after that let the bridegroom declare what he will give her,

in case she choose his will, and what he will grant her if she lives

longer than he. If it be so agreed, then it is right that she be

entitled to half the property, and to all if they have children in

common, except she again choose a husband. Let him confirm all that

which he has promised with a pledge, and let his friends guarantee

that. If they then are agreed in everything, then let the kinsmen

take it in hand, and betroth their kinsman to wife, and to a righteous

life, to him who desires her, and let him take possession of the borh

who has control of the pledge. At the nuptials there shall be a mass

priest by law, who shall, with God’s blessing, bind their union to

all prosperity.”¹ These minute arrangements embodied the feature of

purchase, though it makes provisions to secure fair rights in the

interest of the wife and children. The Saxons introduced slavery into

Britain in some of its worst forms, but the custom of purchasing and

endowing a wife involved the conditions that the husband must have had

property and freedom, or the permission of his lord, and consequently

marriage could not be contracted amongst the servile classes, who

were simply regarded as cattle or stock, and joined or separated as

it suited the interest and convenience of their masters. Indeed, for

these unfortunate classes there was no law but their master’s will

and caprice.² This social phenomena was a fatal and degrading weakness

in the constitution and organisation of all the ancient empires and

nations, and yet these empires and nations have often been held up as

endowed with all the characteristics of humanity and all the emblems of

true glory!

¹ _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, pages 108,

109. “With slavery in its worst form, the barbarians, who

became masters of Britain after the Roman power was broken,

introduced the custom of wife-buying. An unmarried woman was,

among them, in the position of a chattel, for the sale of

which the owner was entitled to make as good a bargain as

possible. It was only natural that, in a community in which

it was necessary to pay for taking a man’s life, it should

be considered equally necessary to pay for the permanent

possession of a woman’s person. The payment represented in

each case a rude attempt to supersede a primitive condition

of universal violence.” Pike’s _History of Crime in England_,

Volume I., pages 90, 91.

² _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, pages 282, 337,

353. These statutes belong to the legislation of the Church,

and probably attempted to make the condition of the serfs as

endurable as possible.

“In short, as amongst the strictly servile classes marriage

was scarcely a permanent bond until after the lapse of

many generations of Christianity, so amongst the dependent

freemen it could only be contracted with the permission of

their lord.” Robertson’s _Early Kings_, Volume II., pages

127, 328.

In Scotland the institution of marriage was far from being on a proper

footing among the people, or even amongst the clergy. The custom of

selling and purchasing wives was not as yet extinct in Scotland, and

marriages were contracted within the forbidden degrees of relationship.

Indeed, long after this period the ties of wedlock were rather lax.

The Church often attempted to regulate and enforce marriage as a public

and solemn institution, but she came into contact with habits connected

with the intercourse of the different sexes which were extremely

difficult to overcome, and her efforts were only partly successful.

The people did not observe the Lord’s Day, but followed their usual

occupations as on other days. Queen Margaret is represented by her

biographer as holding a council for the reform of the Church from its

strange customs, and the people from their evil habits, and with the

Sword of the Spirit she contended with the ecclesiastics for three days.

Touching the observance of the Lord’s Day Margaret said: “Let us keep

the Lord’s Day in reverence on account of the resurrection of our Lord

from the dead on that day, and let us do no servile work on that day

on which, as we know, we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil.

The blessed Pope Gregory lays this down, saying that we must cease

from earthly labour on the Lord’s Day, and continue instant in prayer,

so that, if aught has been done amiss during the six days, it may be

expiated by our prayers on the day of our Lord’s resurrection.” We are

further told that “Many other practices which were contrary to the rule

of faith and the observances of the Church she persuaded the council

to condemn and to drive out of the bounds of her kingdom.” There is,

however, nothing said about the marriage of the clergy themselves, nor

about many of the high offices in the Church which were then filled by

laymen, nor about the appropriation of benefices by certain parties,

which were becoming hereditary in their own families.¹

¹ _Statuta Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ_, Volume I., pages 24, 309,

310; Volume II., pages 36, 37, 42, 59, 60, 68; Turgot’s

_Life of Queen Margaret_.

Many of the monasteries in the Western Isles and in other parts of

the country had suffered severely from the ravages of the Norsemen,

but their fierce warfare was moderated after they obtained a right to

these isles: and the monastery of Iona, which they had destroyed, was

restored by Queen Margaret, re-endowed, and filled with monks; and it

seems probable that some fragments of the ruins which still exist on

the island belong to her time. The Abbey Church of Dunfermline was

founded by Malcolm Canmore shortly after his marriage with the Princess

Margaret, in honour of that important event. The discipline of the

monasteries had somewhat declined, and their usefulness had become

impaired; the lands which had been granted for religious uses had

become partly secularised and diverted from their original end. Still

there were many earnest and religious men connected with the Christian

institutions of Scotland; there were communities of anchorites,

sometimes called Culdees. Queen Margaret gives her testimony as to the

purity and devotion of this class of clerics, for her biographer says

that “There were many in Scotland, in different places, who, enclosed

in separate cells, lived even on earth the life of angels.” Through

them the Queen did her utmost to love and venerate Christ, often

visited them, and commended herself to their prayers; as she could not

induce them to accept any earthly gift from her, she implored them to

prescribe for her some work of charity or mercy. Whatever they desired

she devoutly fulfilled, either relieving the wants of the poor or

comforting the sick and afflicted. As the religious devotion of the

people brought many from all quarters to the church of St. Andrews,

she erected dwellings on both sides of the Firth of Forth, so that

the pilgrims and the poor might find everything ready there which

was required for the refreshment and rest of the body. Servants were

appointed there to minister to them, and vessels were provided to ferry

them across without payment.”¹

¹ _Book of Deer_, Preface, pages 105‒106; _Register of

Dunfermline_, page 3; Turgot’s _Life of Queen Margaret_,

Chapter 9.

In the preceding pages of this section it appeared that in the tribal

organisations personal rights in connection with the land had arisen.

The local ruler of the tribe and other officials associated with the

polity of the tribe had obtained personal rights in the land; in so

far, at least, as they could dispose of such rights to other parties.

It further appeared that the King of Scotland had acquired rights in

tribal lands which he could dispose of, and also that all the lands

within the kingdom were, in the eleventh century, subject to a national

tax. The custom of commuting all forms of crime by a scale of fines,

fixed according to personal rank, was noticed, and various customs and

practices associated with the institution of marriage, were stated.

A brief reference to the state of religion, and to Queen Margaret in

relation to it, concluded the section. Taking a view of the entire

movement since the foundation of the monarchy, its advance was

remarkable; and nothing had, as yet, occurred to arrest the progressive

development of the kingdom and the civilisation of the people.

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.

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.

CHAPTER II.

_Critical Estimate of the Result of Norman Feudalism

on the Civilisation of Scotland._

THIS important question demands a careful examination, inasmuch as it

has usually been treated from one exclusive standpoint. It has been

repeatedly stated in the preceding pages that the Angles or Saxons had

occupied a portion of the country in the south-east since the middle

of the sixth century, and that they had partly mingled with the Celtic

inhabitants in that region. But it has been often averred that from

about the beginning of the twelfth century onward into the thirteenth,

there was a great influx of Normans and Saxons from England into

Scotland. The real historic question is,――how far and in what form was

the subsequent civilisation of Scotland indebted to this latter class

of settlers? Several historians have boldly asserted that Scotland owes

all her civilisation to these Norman and Saxon nobles, adding by way

of evidence, that the Celts never showed any disposition to follow an

industrious occupation or to congregate in towns; but that these Norman

and Saxon nobles were men of exalted virtue and marked ability, and

therefore the veritable originators of Scottish civilisation.¹ Before

accepting this view, let us test its historic truth.

¹ _Chalmers’ Caledonia_, Volume I., pages 460, 495‒614, 775;

Burton’s _History of Scotland_, Volume II., pages 85, 86;

C. Innes’ _Sketches of Early Scotch History_, pages 10, 11;

_Origines Parochiales Scotiæ_, Volume I., Preface, page 27;

_Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis_, Preface, pages 9, 10.

Seeing that the Saxons had occupied an important and extensive district

of Scotland for upwards of four centuries, whatever customs and

essential characteristics of political and social organisation which

specially belonged to them, must have been in full operation in the

south-east of Scotland centuries before the Norman conquest. Thus, at

the outset, the real question becomes limited to the Normans alone, and

without entering into unnecessary details, I will present the requisite

historic facts and the real issue, in so far as Scotland is concerned.

The Normans were originally of the same race as the people noticed

in the preceding pages under the name of Norsemen. Commencing their

plundering raids about the end of the eighth century, they first

seized the Shetland islands and then the Orkneys. Afterwards hordes

of them proceeded to the Western Islands, plundered and destroyed the

monastery of Iona, slew the monks and the inhabitants of the island.

They occupied themselves in work of this description for many years,

infesting and desolating the coasts of Scotland. Afterwards they

effected a lodgment in Caithness and in other parts of the north,

and in the Western Isles. Ultimately, however, except in the Shetland

and Orkney Islands, and a portion of Caithness, they have left

comparatively few traces of their civilisation on the mainland of

Scotland, save the traditions associated with their heathen customs

and their extreme cruelty.

Many other hordes swarmed off from the original hives in Scandinavia,

which proceeded on plundering expeditions in different directions

and to different countries, where they engaged in work similar to

that indicated in the above paragraph. They made many raids into Gaul

(France), plundered the country, and with ruthless cruelty slew all the

people who offered any resistance to them. At first entering the mouths

of the rivers with their vessels, they landed and spread devastation

and suffering on every hand. Then, encouraged by their success and

prompted by their savage propensities, they extended the range of their

operations. They entered the mouth of the Seine with their vessels,

proceeded inland and ravished the country on every side, and constantly

threatened Paris. Under the leadership of their great hero Rollo,

their raids and devastations had become so fierce and unbearable that

King Charles of France granted to Rollo by treaty a tract of territory

to be held as a feudal fief. After some natural demur on the part of

the conquering hero, at last Rollo rendered due homage to his Lord

Superior by kissing King Charles’ great toe. Rollo then gave the name

of Normandy to the territory thus ceded to him, and he became the first

Duke of Normandy.

Concerning the internal condition of this province after Rollo obtained

possession of it, there is very little reliable information. It is

said that the land was sold by auction amongst Rollo’s followers; and

no doubt the Normans soon became the only land-owners. Rollo added

the district of Bessin to his province, and in 927 he resigned the

government in favour of his son. Five years later, the hero who founded

the Dukedom of Normandy, expired at an advanced age. His son, who

succeeded, was called William Longsword, but he was not a strong ruler.

He was basely assassinated in December 942, on the Flemish side of the

river Somme. Longsword was succeeded by his natural son, Richard the

Fearless, his mother being Esprota, a Breton woman of great attractions,

but of unknown lineage. His enemies made the fact of his illegitimate

birth a ground for disputing his right of inheritance, and Richard was

soon in the midst of trying difficulties. He was sometimes hard pressed

in his struggles with the neighbouring princes, but he ultimately

succeeded in holding his ground. Richard’s wife Emma had no children,

but he had natural children by Gnenora, a woman of unknown lineage;

her children were declared illegitimate by the Church, and Richard then

married her according to the form of the Church, and thus his children

became legitimised. Richard the Fearless died in 996, and was succeeded

by his son, who was called Richard the Good.

Richard the Good was not long seated on the ducal throne when he had to

face a threatening movement of the peasants under his sway. This class

mainly consisted of the ancient Gaulish or Celtic inhabitants, who had

since the fall of the Roman Empire, and the successive invasions of

the Franks and the Normans, suffered grievous oppression. The Normans

had begun in earnest to assume and to exercise all the functions of a

military and ruling class. They had begun to erect baronial castles,

and the swarms of illegitimate children of the successive Dukes, which

required to be provided with lands, continually increased the number

of petty and despotic lords. At last their oppression of the poor

peasantry passed the limits of human endurance, and the sons of toil

then thought of trying issues with their ruthless oppressors. As might

have been expected, only an imperfect notice of the rising has been

preserved, from which it appears that the grievances of the peasants

were these: “The nobles do us naught but ill, and we gain no profit

from our labours. Our days are spent in toil and fatigue, our cattle

and horses are seized for dues and services, and our goods wasted by

continual suits. We have no safety against our lords, and no oath is

binding on them. Why should we not shake off all this evil? Are we

not men as they? Dare we to do and dare again; a good heart is all

we want. Let us then unite, and if they should make war upon us, have

we not thirty or forty hardy peasants ready to fight with club and

flail to each knight? Let us only learn to resist, and we shall be

free to cut our own firewood, to fish and to hunt, and to do our will,

in river, field, and wood.” They resolved to form a commune to discuss

their common wrongs and the means of resistance.¹ As far as can be

ascertained from imperfect indications and circumstances, it seems that

the peasants obtained some slight relief.

¹ _Roman ♦de Rou._

♦ “de ea Rose” replaced with “de Rou”

Under the government of Richard the Good the Norman power increased,

and he died in 1026. He was succeeded by his son Richard; but he

soon became involved in a dispute with his brother Robert, about the

latter’s share of the Dukedom, and the possession of the castle of

Falaise. At last they came to an agreement and met on friendly terms,

but immediately after Richard died. It was reported that his brother

Robert had poisoned him;¹ be that as it may, Robert then mounted the

ducal throne. He became known as Robert the “Magnificent.” One day

when looking around him from the cliffs of Falaise Robert observed an

exceedingly attractive young woman washing clothes in the neighbouring

brook, and he fixed his eyes and his heart on her. She was Harlotta,

daughter of a tanner of Falaise, and in due time she gave birth to

William the Conqueror. Of course he was an illegitimate child, and was

sometimes called “the bastard;” but no one is accountable for his own

birth, as no one was ever consulted on that point. It may, however,

be observed that two of William’s lineal progenitors were the sons of

women of humble and unknown lineage; and it is more than probable that

these two women, and also the graceful and attractive Harlotta herself,

were all of Celtic descent. It therefore follows according to the law

of natural descent, and the well known law of sexual selection, that

William the Conqueror was three-fourths Celtic and only one fourth

Norman. This phenomena, if carefully examined, might perhaps explain

why the Normans so soon disappeared from the world as a distinct race.

¹ Crowe’s _History of France_, Volume I. pages 87, 88. 1858.

Robert the Magnificent attempted to invade England when the great

Canute was on the throne, but he completely failed. He went on a

pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and died when returning home in 1035. His

natural son, William, then ascended the ducal throne; but the nobles

of Normandy rebelled against him, and for many years he only held

a wavering and perilous sway. At last, with the assistance of his

Lord Superior, Henry I. of France, the conspiracy of his nobles was

overthrown. But then the men of Alençon revolted, and William marched

towards their town to subdue them: as he approached, they spread skins

over the walls and beat upon them, shouting, “Hides for the tanner,

plenty of work for the tanner.” This insult stung William to the core,

and he swore by “the splendour of God, that he would deal with them

as with a tree whose branches were cut off with a pollarding axe.”

The town shortly after fell, and William then ordered that thirty-two

of the citizens should be brought before him; and by his orders their

hands and feet were cut off, and the dismembered limbs were thrown

over the castle walls as emblems of his vengeance. The garrison were

terrified, craved mercy, and at once surrendered.¹

¹ Crowe’s _History of France_, Volume I., page 91.

The character of the feudal government of Normandy may be indicated

thus:――The Duke assumed all the functions of a King and ruled with

the advice of a few of his nobles selected by himself. The nobles in

possession of land were under feudal obligations to him, which they

took every opportunity to cast off. Their rank was derived partly from

Norse descent, and partly from relations with the ducal family; and

thus they were kept in a sort of subordination by self-interest and by

the strong arm of the Duke. It was mainly the energy and the decision

of the Duke which kept the province from dismemberment; the attempts of

his nobles to obtain independence led to continual quarrels, which were

only checked by ruthless bloodshed. There was also the wild love of

excitement inseparably associated with the life of idle and uncultured

men, which often manifested itself in deeds and scenes of the utmost

ferocity, and continually issuing in outbursts of anarchy at home, or

in expeditions to foreign lands in search of plunder and new excitement.

The people who lived and toiled under this military aristocracy were

kept in absolute dependence on their lords, though possibly some

of them may have still retained a faint remembrance of their former

freedom.¹

¹ Freeman’s _Norman Conquest_, Volume V., page 482; _The

Normans in Europe_, by A. H. Johnson, M.A., pages 103, 104.

1884.

War was the fundamental principle of Norman Feudalism and the essential

condition of Norman organisation and life. William the Conqueror

understood this very well, and looked out for a field to give it scope.

He had fixed his eye on England long before he actually invaded it; and

he prepared for the grand effort with a caution and deliberation, and

an astuteness and craft which were truly amazing. He either obtained

a promise from Edward the Confessor, his cousin, that he should succeed

to the English throne on Edward’s death, or he pretended that he

received it; and in 1064, an accident caused by the weather enabled

William to meet Harold under the most favourable circumstances for

himself; and it was reported that Harold became his man, promised to

marry his daughter, to place Dover in his hands, and to support his

claim to the English throne on Edward’s death. Edward died in 1066, and

the Witan elected Harold King of England. William was enjoying himself

hunting in the forest of Rouen when tidings of Harold’s election

reached him. He then affected the utmost astonishment, and at once

vehemently denounced Harold as a perjured man, planned a very plausible

claim for himself, and appealed to Christendom. He was especially

careful to obtain the sanction of the Pope; and he informed his

holiness that he was undertaking a great missionary work, “which should

purify the corrupted Anglo-Saxon State and Church, and bring England

more closely under the sway of Rome.” All the turbulent Normans, needy

and landless nobles, petty knights and adventurers, hastened to join

his army, which consisted of a motley assemblage.¹

¹ Few of the higher nobles of Europe joined William’s invading

army; indeed, it has been stated that a number of his

own Norman nobles did not join his army, but remained in

Normandy.

He defeated and slew Harold the English king, and if there had been

no more resistance, then in that case, the Conqueror might have been

merciful, but he never hesitated to sacrifice any number of human lives

if they stood between him and his end; possibly he would have slain

every man in England rather than relinquish his hold of the country.

He gave some examples of the length to which he was prepared to go,

as when he reduced the whole of the territory between the Tees and the

Humber to a waste, and it remained for many years untilled. Toward the

close of his career difficulties and failures thickened around him. In

1079 his own son, Robert, fought against him, and wounded and unhorsed

his father. In 1087 William engaged in a war with the King of France,

and after burning the town of Hantes he was riding over the ruins

when his horse stumbled and he fell fatally injured. He was carried

to Rouen, and declared his wishes before he expired. To his eldest son,

Robert, Normandy was given; William Rufus, his second son, he named as

his successor to the throne of England; and to Henry, his third son,

he left 5,000 pounds of silver. Whenever his sons heard what their

respective shares were, they all immediately departed before their

father expired――Robert to Normandy, Rufus to England, and Henry to

grasp his treasure. More inhumane and disgraceful conduct of sons

toward their dying father it would be difficult to conceive. The

remains of the Conqueror were stripped and disgracefully dispoiled,

and hurried without decent burial into the grave, while the owner of

the soil exacted his price for it before he allowed the remains to be

interred.¹ Thus ended the career of William the Conqueror, the greatest

of all the Normans. His intellectual powers were excellent, his natural

sagacity and strength of will were striking features of his character;

he had also the faculty of commanding and of organising; but morally

and humanely he stood on an extremely low level. Indeed, this lack of

humanity was the black and the degrading characteristic of the Normans

from the beginning to the close of their career in Europe.

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., pages 183, 184; _The Normans

in Europe_, by A. H. Johnson, pages 155, 180.

It has often been stated, and is still occasionally repeated, that the

Normans had attained to a higher stage of civilisation than the people

whom they conquered and subjugated in England. There is no difficulty

in understanding how this view originated, or how it continued to

be favourably received and strongly maintained. The first and most

important result of the Conquest was the transference of the ownership

of the greater part of the land of England to the Normans, who were a

military and ruling aristocracy. Thus they almost at once became the

absolute masters of the people, assumed the functions of government,

and constantly endeavoured to maintain their position as the hereditary

owners of the land, the hereditary legislators, and rulers of the

people. The Normans introduced the claim of the divine right of kings,

and exercised it themselves to an enormous extent in every direction.

They covered England with castles, not for the protection of the people

and their property, as in former times, but to enable each individual

noble to oppress the people in his own district with impunity. They

depopulated large tracts of the country to make forests for mere sport

to themselves.

I have stated in preceding pages that war was the fundamental principle

of Norman feudalism, and that morally and humanely the Conqueror

himself stood on an extremely low level; the circumstantial evidence

of this will now be adduced. What are the chief distinctions between

civilised and uncivilised life? 1, So far as yet ascertained the

pursuit and slaughter of wild animals is one of the most primitive

and characteristic traits of savage life; 2, Extreme cruelty and a

disregard of human life are features usually associated with tribes

living in a savage state; 3, An utter disregard of the rights and of

the lives of other men, whether this be exhibited by the head of a

dukedom or the aristocracy under him, or by both acting together, must

afford unimpeachable evidence that such a community is still in a low

stage of civilisation.

Let us carefully examine if any of the above characteristics of

life befit William the Conqueror and his Norman aristocracy as they

exhibited themselves in Normandy and in England in the eleventh century.

The Conqueror himself was so destitute of human culture that when he

was not engaged in war or in scheming the overthrow of his enemies,

no other form of amusement was brutal enough to satisfy his rude

propensities but the pursuit and slaughter of wild animals. After he

had subdued the people of England, and had leisure to enjoy himself,

he then discovered that the natural and existing ranges were not

sufficient for his favourite amusement. What was he to do? Did the

Conqueror think that the rights and the homes of the people of England

should be considered in preference to the gratification of his own

extreme passion for sport? No, he never did. On the contrary, he

ordered that in Hampshire thirty-six parishes should be destroyed,

thirty-six churches pulled down, the whole of the inhabitants evicted

from their homes, and the country utterly depopulated for thirty miles

round, and all this was merely to make space for the Conqueror’s New

Forest, in which he might satisfy his appetence for sport in full

measure. The Conqueror’s son, King Rufus, greatly increased the forests,

and in the early part of the twelfth century there were sixty-seven

forests, thirty chases, and seven hundred and eighty-one parks, which

were full of wild animals, specially and carefully preserved, and to be

pursued and slaughtered only by the Normans.

It is unnecessary to detail the many acts of ruthless cruelty inflicted

under the direction of the Conqueror himself. The cutting off of the

hands and feet of thirty-two men for a ♦trivial offence, a mere joke,

affords a characteristic example of his cold and revengeful nature.

It is recorded that, on his death-bed, he said――“No tongue can tell

the deeds of wickedness I have perpetrated in my weary pilgrimage

of toil and care.” He was unquestionably an irresponsible and cruel

despot, and in the words of a contemporary record I close my remarks

on him:――“Alas! that any man should be so proud, so raise himself up,

and account himself above all men! May the Almighty God show mercy to

his soul, and grant him forgiveness of his sins.”¹

♦ “trival” replaced with “trivial”

¹ _Saxon Chronicle_, Volume II., pages 188‒190; Freeman’s

_History of the Norman Conquest_, Volume IV. toward the end;

Volume V., pages 6‒52, Note C., pages 747‒759.

In the preceding pages the internal government of Normandy under

the Normans was twice referred to, and it appeared that the people

under this military aristocracy were sorely afflicted by the continual

recurrence of internal war and bloodshed among the local nobles.

Indeed, war was the breath of life and the bread of life to the Normans,

insomuch that they could not exist anywhere without it. They understood

the requisite conditions of their own existence very well; and if at

any time there was no war for them, then in that case, they had ample

and carefully prepared substitutes in their great forests and preserves,

and to these they returned, like the primitive savages, to the pursuit

and slaughter of wild animals.

Thus it inevitably appears on every side that the Norman aristocracy

were morally and socially in a comparatively low stage of culture and

civilisation. That the ruder propensities and the lower passions were

still rampant amongst them to an enormous degree, that they had not

yet learned to respect the very rudiments of the rights of mankind, and

consequently they were utterly callous to the people under them. They

had no adequate conception of justice whatever, apart from the special

interest of their own class, nor of truth, “for no oath was binding

on them.” Hence Norman feudalism instead of being an advanced stage of

society, shows an almost total absence of the fundamental and essential

elements upon which progress and civilisation proceed.