Among the islands scattered along the Firth of Forth, one of the most
interesting is the ancient Aemonia, Emona, St. Columba's Isle, or St.
Colme's Inch--the modern Inchcolm. The island is not large, being little
more than half-a-mile in length, and about a hundred and fifty yards
across at its broadest part. At either extremity it is elevated and
rocky; while in its intermediate portion it is more level, though still
very rough and irregular, and at one point--a little to the east of the
old monastic buildings--it becomes so flat and narrow that at high tides
the waters of the Forth meet over it. Inchcolm lies nearly six miles
north-west from the harbour of Granton, or is about eight or nine miles
distant from Edinburgh; and of the many beautiful spots in the vicinity
of the Scottish metropolis, there is perhaps none which surpasses this
little island in the charming and picturesque character of the views
that are obtained in various directions from it.
Though small in its geographical dimensions, Inchcolm is rich in
historical and archaeological associations. In proof of this remark, I
might adduce various facts to show that it has been at one time a
favoured seat of learning, as when, upwards of four hundred years ago,
the Scottish historian, Walter Bower, the Abbot of its Monastery, wrote
there his contributions to the ancient history of Scotland;[17] and at
other times the seat of war, as when it was pillaged at different
periods by the English, during the course of the fourteenth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth centuries.[18] For ages it was the site of a monastic
institution and the habitation of numerous monks;[19] and at the
beginning of the present century it was temporarily degraded to the site
of a military fort, and the habitation of a corps of artillery.[20]
During the plagues and epidemics of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, it formed sometimes a lazaretto for the suspected and
diseased;[21] and during the reign of James I. it was used as a
state-prison for the daughter of the Earl of Ross and the mother of the
Lord of the Isles[22]--"a mannish, implacable woman," as Drummond of
Hawthornden ungallantly terms her;[23] while fifty years later, when
Patrick Graham, Archbishop of St. Andrews, was "decernit ane heretique,
scismatike, symoniak, and declarit cursit, and condamnit to perpetuall
presoun," he was, for this last purpose, "first transportit to St.
Colmes Insche."[24] Punishments more dark and dire than mere
transportation to, and imprisonment upon Inchcolm, have perhaps taken
place within the bounds of the island, if we do not altogether
misinterpret the history of "a human skeleton standing upright," found
several years ago immured and built up within the old ecclesiastic
walls.[25] Nor is this eastern Iona, as patronised and protected by St.
Columba,--and, at one period of his mission to the Picts and Scots, his
own alleged dwelling-place,[26]--devoid in its history of the usual
amount of old monkish miracles and legends. The Scotichronicon contains
long and elaborate details of several of them. When, in 1412, the Earl
of Douglas thrice essayed to sail out to sea, and was thrice driven back
by adverse gales, he at last made a pilgrimage to the holy isle of
Aemonia, presented an offering to Columba, and forthwith the Saint sped
him with fair winds to Flanders and home again.[27] When, towards the
winter of 1421, a boat was sent on a Sunday (die Dominica) to bring off
to the monastery from the mainland some house provisions and barrels of
beer brewed at Bernhill (in barellis cerevisiam apud Bernhill
brasiatam), and the crew, exhilarated with liquor (alacres et potosi),
hoisted, on their return, a sail, and upset the barge, Sir Peter the
Canon,--who, with five others, was thrown into the water,--fervently and
unceasingly invoked the aid of Columba, and the Saint appeared in person
to him, and kept Sir Peter afloat for an hour and a half by the help of
a truss of tow (adminiculo cujusdam stupae), till the boat of Portevin
picked up him and two others.[28] When, in 1385, the crew of an English
vessel (quidam filii Belial) sacrilegiously robbed the island, and tried
to burn the church, St. Columba, in answer to the earnest prayers of
those who, on the neighbouring shore, saw the danger of the sacred
edifice, suddenly shifted round the wind and quenched the flames, while
the chief of the incendiaries was, within a few hours afterwards, struck
with madness, and forty of his comrades drowned.[29] When, in 1335, an
English fleet ravaged the shores of the Forth, and one of their largest
ships was carrying off from Inchcolm an image of Columba[30] and a store
of ecclesiastical plunder, there sprung up such a furious tempest around
the vessel immediately after she set sail, that she drifted helplessly
and hopelessly towards the neighbouring island of Inchkeith, and was
threatened with destruction on the rocks there till the crew implored
pardon of Columba, vowed to him restitution of their spoils, and a
suitable offering of gold and silver, and then they instantly and
unexpectedly were lodged safe in port (et statim in tranquillo portu
insperate ducebantur).[31] When, in 1336, some English pirates robbed
the church at Dollar--which had been some time previously repaired and
richly decorated by an Abbot of Aemonia--and while they were, with their
sacrilegious booty, sailing triumphantly, and with music on board, down
the Forth, under a favouring and gentle west wind, in the twinkling of
an eye (non solum subito sed in ictu oculi), and exactly opposite the
abbey of Inchcolm, the ship sank to the bottom like a stone. Hence, adds
the writer of this miracle in the _Scotichronicon_,--and no doubt that
writer was the Abbot Walter Bower,--in consequence of these marked
retaliating propensities of St. Columba, his vengeance against all who
trespassed against him became proverbial in England; and instead of
calling him, as his name seems to have been usually pronounced at the
time, St. Callum or St. Colam, he was commonly known among them as
_St. Quhalme_ ("et ideo, ut non reticeam quid de eo dicatur, apud eos
vulgariter _Sanct Quhalme_ nuncupatur"[32]).
But without dwelling on these and other well-known facts and fictions in
the history of Inchcolm, let me state,--for the statement has, as we
shall afterwards see, some bearing upon the more immediate object of
this notice,--that this island is one of the few spots in the vicinity
of Edinburgh that has been rendered classical by the pen of Shakspeare.
In the second scene of the opening act of the tragedy of Macbeth, the
Thane of Ross comes as a hurried messenger from the field of battle to
King Duncan, and reports that Duncan's own rebellious subjects and the
invading Scandinavians had both been so completely defeated by his
generals, Macbeth and Banquo, that the Norwegians craved for peace:--
"Sueno, the Norways' King, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes Inch,
Ten thousand dollars to our general use."
Inchcolm is the only island of the east coast of Scotland which derives
its distinctive designation from the great Scottish saint. But more than
one island on our western shores bears the name of St. Columba; as, for
example, St. Colme's Isle, in Loch Erisort, and St. Colm's Isle in the
Minch, in the Lewis; the island of Kolmbkill, at the head of Loch Arkeg,
in Inverness-shire; Eilean Colm, in the parish of Tongue;[33] and, above
all, Icolmkill, or Iona itself, the original seat and subsequent great
centre of the ecclesiastic power of St. Columba and his successors.[34]
An esteemed antiquarian friend, to whom I lately mentioned the preceding
reference to Inchcolm by Shakspeare, at once maintained that the St.
Colme's Isle in Macbeth was Iona. Indeed, some of the modern editors[35]
of Shakspeare, carried away by the same view, have printed the line
which I have quoted thus:--
"Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's-kill Isle,"
instead of "Saint Colmes ynch," as the old folio edition prints it. But
there is no doubt whatever about the reading, nor that the island
mentioned in Macbeth is Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth. For the site of
the defeat of the Norwegian host was in the adjoining mainland of Fife,
as the Thane of Ross tells the Scotch king that, to report his victory,
he had come from the seat of war--
"from Fife,
Where the Norwegian banners flout the sky."
The reference to Inchcolm by Shakspeare becomes more interesting when we
follow the poet to the original historical foundations upon which he
built his wondrous tragedy. It is well known that Shakspeare derived the
incidents for his story of Macbeth from that translation of Hector
Boece's _Chronicles of Scotland_, which was published in England by
Raphael Holinshed in 1577. In these Chronicles, Holinshed, or rather
Hector Boece, after describing the reputed poisoning, with the juice of
belladonna, of Sueno and his army, and their subsequent almost complete
destruction, adds, that shortly afterwards, and indeed while the Scots
were still celebrating this equivocal conquest, another Danish host
landed at Kinghorn. The fate of this second army is described by
Holinshed in the following words:--
"The Scots hauing woone so notable a victorie, after they had
gathered and diuided the spoile of the field, caused solemne
processions to be made in all places of the realme, and thanks to be
giuen to almightie God, that had sent them so faire a day ouer their
enimies. But whilest the people were thus at their processions, woord
was brought that a new fleet of Danes was arriued at Kingcorne, sent
thither by Canute, King of England, in reuenge of his brother Suenos
ouerthrow. To resist these enimies, which were alreadie landed, and
busie in spoiling the countrie, Makbeth and Banquho were sent with
the Kings authoritie, who hauing with them a conuenient power,
incountred the enimies, slue part of them, and chased the other to
their ships. They that escaped and got once to their ships, obteined
of Makbeth for a great summe of gold, that such of their friends as
were slaine at this last bickering, might be buried in Saint Colmes
Inch. In memorie whereof, manie old sepultures are yet in the said
Inch, there to be seene grauen with the armes of the Danes, as the
maner of burieng noble men still is, and hieretofore hath beene vsed.
A peace was also concluded at the same time betwixt the Danes and
Scotishmen, ratified (as some haue written) in this wise: that from
thencefoorth the Danes should neuer come into Scotland to make anie
warres against the Scots by anie maner of meanes. And these were the
warres that Duncane had with forren enimies, in the seuenth yiere of
his reigne."[36]
To this account of Holinshed, as bearing upon the question of the St.
Colme's Isle alluded to by Shakspeare, it is only necessary to add one
remark:--Certainly the western Iona, with its nine separate cemeteries,
could readily afford fit burial-space for the slain Danes; but it is
impossible to believe that the defeated and dejected Danish army would
or could carry the dead and decomposing bodies of their chiefs to that
remote place of sepulture. And, supposing that the dead bodies had been
embalmed, then it would have been easier to carry them back to the
Danish territories in England, or even across the German Ocean to
Denmark itself, than round by the Pentland Firth to the distant western
island of Icolmkill. On the other hand, that St. Colme's Inch, in the
Firth of Forth, is the island alluded to, is, as I have already said,
perfectly certain, from its propinquity to the seat of war, and the
point of landing of the new Scandinavian host, namely, Kinghorn; the old
town of Wester Kinghorn lying only about three or four miles below
Inchcolm, and the present town of the same name, or Eastern Kinghorn,
being placed about a couple of miles further down the coast.
We might here have adduced another incontrovertible argument in favour
of this view by appealing to the statement, given in the above
quotation, of the existence on Inchcolm, in Boece's time, of Danish
sepulchral monuments, provided we felt assured that this statement was
in itself perfectly correct. But before adopting it as such, it is
necessary to remember that Boece describes the sculptured crosses and
stones at Camustane and Aberlemno,[37] in Forfarshire, as monuments of a
Danish character also; and whatever may have been the origin and objects
of these mysteries in Scottish archaeology,--our old and numerous
Sculptured Stones, with their strange enigmatical symbols,--we are at
least certain that they are not Danish either in their source or
design, as no sculptured stones with these peculiar symbols exist in
Denmark itself. That Inchcolm contained one or more of those sculptured
stones, is proved by a small fragment that still remains, and which was
detected a few years ago about the garden-wall. A drawing of it has been
already published by Mr. Stuart.[38] (See woodcut, Fig. 1.) In the
quotation which I have given from Holinshed's Chronicles, the "old
sepultures there (on Inchcolm) to be seene grauen with the armes of the
Danes," are spoken of as "manie" in number.[39] Bellenden uses similar
language: "Thir Danes" (he writes) "that fled to thair schippis, gaif
gret sowmes of gold to Makbeth to suffer thair freindis that war slane
at his jeoperd to be buryit in Sanct Colmes Inche. In memory heirof,
_mony_ auld sepulturis ar yit in the said Inche, gravin with armis of
Danis."[40] In translating this passage from Boece, both Holinshed and
Bellenden overstate, in some degree, the words of their original author.
Boece speaks of the Danish monuments still existing on Inchcolm in his
day, or about the year 1525, as plural in number, but without speaking
of them as many. After stating that the Danes purchased the right of
sepulture for their slain chiefs (nobiles) "in Emonia insula, loco
sacro," he adds, "extant et hac aetate notissima Danorum monumenta,
lapidibusque insculpta eorum insignia."[41] For a long period past only
one so-called Danish monument has existed on Inchcolm, and is still to
be seen there. It is a single recumbent block of stone above five feet
long, about a foot broad, and one foot nine inches in depth, having a
rude sculptured figure on its upper surface. In his _History of Fife_,
published in 1710, Sir Robert Sibbald has both drawn and described it.
"It is (says he) made like a coffin, and very fierce and grim faces are
done on both the ends of it. Upon the middle stone which supports it,
there is the figure of a man holding a spear in his hand."[42] He might
have added that on the corresponding middle part of the opposite side
there is sculptured a rude cross; but both the cross and "man holding a
spear" are cut on the single block of stone forming the monument, and
not, as he represents, on a separate supporting stone. Pennant, in his
_Tour through Scotland_ in 1772, tells us that this "Danish monument"
"lies in the south-east [south-west] side of the building (or
monastery), on a rising ground. It is (he adds) of a rigid form, and
the surface ornamented with scale-like figures. At each end is the
representation of a human head."[43][44] In its existing defaced
form,[45] the sculpture has certainly much more the appearance of a
recumbent human figure, with a head at one end and the feet at the
other, than with a human head at either extremity. The present
condition of the monument is faithfully given in the accompanying
woodcut, which, like most of the other woodcuts in this little essay,
have been copied from sketches made by the masterly pencil of my
esteemed friend, Mr. James Drummond, R.S.A.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Sculptured Stone, Inchcolm.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Danish Monument.]
It is well known that, about a century after the occurrence of these
Danish wars, and of the alleged burial of the Danish chiefs on
Inchcolm,--or in the first half of the thirteenth[47] century,--there
was founded on this island, by Alexander I., a monastery, which from
time to time was greatly enlarged, and well endowed. The monastic
buildings remaining on Inchcolm at the present day are of very various
dates, and still so extensive that their oblong light-grey mass,
surmounted by a tall square central tower, forms a striking object in
the distance, as seen in the summer morning light from the higher
streets and houses of Edinburgh, and from the neighbouring shores of the
Firth of Forth. These monastic buildings have been fortunately protected
and preserved by their insular situation,--not from the silent and
wasting touch of time, but from the more ruthless and destructive hand
of man. The stone-roofed octagonal chapter-house is one of the most
beautiful and perfect in Scotland; and the abbot's house, the cloisters,
refectory, etc., are still comparatively entire. But the object of the
present communication is not to describe the well-known conventual ruins
on the island, but to direct the attention of the Society to a small
building, isolated, and standing at a little distance from the remains
of the monastery, and which, I am inclined to believe, is of an older
date, and of an earlier age, than any part of the monastery itself.
[Illustration: Fig 3. Inchcolm.]
The small building, cell, oratory, or chapel, to which I allude, forms
now, with its south side, a portion of the line of the north wall of the
present garden, and is in a very ruinous state; but its more
characteristic and original features can still be accurately made out.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Ground-plan of Oratory.]
The building is of the quadrangular figure of the oldest and smallest
Irish churches and oratories. But its form is very irregular, partly in
consequence of the extremely sloping nature of the ground on which it is
built, and partly perhaps to accommodate it in position to three large
and immovable masses of trap that lie on either side of it, and one of
which masses is incorporated into its south-west angle. It is thus
deeper on its north than on its south side; and much deeper at its
eastern than at its western end. Further, its remaining eastern gable is
set at an oblique angle to the side walls, while both the side walls
themselves seem slightly curved or bent. Hence it happens, that whilst
externally the total length of the north side of the building is 19 feet
and a half, the total length of its south side is 21 feet and a half, or
2 feet more. Internally, also, it gradually becomes narrower towards its
western extremity; so that, whilst the breadth of the interior of the
building is about 6 feet 3 inches at its eastern end, it is only 4 feet
and 9 inches at its western end. Some of these peculiarities are shown
in the accompanying ground-plan drawn by Mr. Brash (see woodcut, Fig.
4), in which the line A B represents the whole breadth of the building;
A the north, and B the south wall of it. Unfortunately, as far as can be
gathered amid the accumulated debris at the western part of the
building, the gable at that end is almost destroyed, with the exception
of the stones at its base; but, judging from the height of the vaulted
roof, this gable probably did not measure externally above 8 feet, while
the depth of the eastern gable, which is comparatively entire, is
between 14 and 15 feet. The interior of the building has been
originally, along its central line, about 16 feet in length; it is
nearly 8 feet in height from the middle of the vaulted roof to the
present floor; and the interior has an average breadth of about 5 feet.
Internally the side walls are 5 feet in height from the ground to the
spring of the arch or vault.
Three feet from the ground there is interiorly, in the south wall, a
small four-sided recess,[48] 1 foot in breadth, and 15 inches in height
and depth. (See C in ground plan, Fig. 4; and also Fig. 8.) In the same
south-side wall, near the western gable, is an opening extending from
the floor to the spring of the roof. It has apparently been the original
door of the building; but as it is now built up by a layer of thin stone
externally, and the soil of the garden has been heaped up against it and
the whole south wall to the depth of several feet, it is difficult to
make out its full relations and character. There is a peculiarity,
however, about the head of this entrance which deserves special notice.
The top of the doorway, as seen both from within and from without the
building, is arched, but in two very different ways. When examined from
within, the head of the doorway is found to be composed of stones laid
in the form of a horizontal arch, the superincumbent stones on each side
projecting more and more over each other to constitute its sides, and
then a large, flat, horizontal stone closing the apex. (See woodcut,
Fig. 5.) On the contrary, when examined from without, the top of the
doorway is formed by stones laid in the usual form of the radiating
arch, and roughly broken off, as if that arch at a former period had
extended beyond the line of the wall. (See woodcut, Fig. 6.) This
doorway, let me add, is 5 feet high, and on an average about 4 feet
wide,[49] but it is 2 or 3 inches narrower at the top, or at the spring
of the arch, than it is at the bottom.[50] The north side wall of the
building is less perfect; as, in modern times, a large rude opening has
been broken through as an entrance or door (see woodcut, Fig. 7, and
ground-plan, Fig. 4), after the original door on the other side had
become blocked up.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Horizontal arch of the door, as seen from within
the cell.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Semi-circular arch of the door as seen from
without, the garden earth filling the doorway.]
The eastern gable is still very entire, and contains a small window,[51]
which, as measured outside, is 1 foot 11 inches in height, and 10
inches in breadth. But the jambs of this window incline or splay
internally, so as to form on the internal plane of the gable an opening
2 feet 3 inches in breadth.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Eastern gable and north side of the building.]
The squared sill stone of the window is one of the largest in the
eastern gable. Its flat lintel stone projects externally in an angled or
sharpened form beyond the plane of the gable, like a rude attempt at a
moulding or architrave, but probably with the more utilitarian object
of preventing entrance of the common eastern showers into the interior
of the cell. The thin single flat sandstones composing the jambs are
each large enough to extend backwards the whole length of the interior
splay of the window, and, from the marks upon them, have evidently been
hammer-dressed.[53] Internally, in this eastern gable, there is placed
below the window, and in continuation of its interior splay, a recess
about 18 inches in depth, and of nearly the same breadth as the
divergence of the jambs of the window. The broken base or floor of this
recess is in the position of the altar-stone in some small early Irish
chapels.
The accompanying sketch (see woodcut, Fig. 7) of the exterior of the
eastern gable shows that the stones of which it is built have been
prepared and dressed with sufficient care--especially those forming the
angles--to entitle us to speak of it as presenting the type of rude
ashlar-work. The stones composing it, particularly above the line of the
window, are laid in pretty regular horizontal courses; lower down they
are not by any means so equable in size. The masonry of the side walls
is much less regular, and more of a ruble character. The walls are on an
average about 3 feet in thickness.[54] The stones of which the building
is composed are, with a few exceptions, almost all squared sandstone.
The exceptions consist of some larger stones of trap or basalt, placed
principally along the base of the walls. Both secondary trap and
sandstone are found _in situ_ among the rocks of the island. A roundish
basalt stone, 2 feet long, forms a portion of the floor of the building
at its southern corner. At other points there is evidence of a
well-laid earth floor. The whole interior of the building has been
carefully plastered at one time. The surface of this plaster-covering of
the walls, wherever it is left, is so dense and hard as to be scratched
with difficulty. The lime used for building and cementing the walls, as
shown in a part at the west end which has been lately exposed, contains
oyster and other smaller sea-shells, and is as firm and hard as some
forms of concrete.
I have reserved till the last a notice of one of the most remarkable
architectural features in this little building, namely, its arched or
vaulted stone roof,--the circumstance, no doubt, to which the whole
structure owes its past durability and present existence.
Stone roofs are found in some old Irish buildings, formed on the
principle of the horizontal arch, or by each layer of stone overlapping
and projecting within the layer placed below it till a single stone
closes the top. A remarkable example of this type of stone roof is
presented by the ancient oratory of Gallerus in the county of Kerry; and
stone roofs of the same construction covered most of the old beehive
houses and variously shaped cloghans that formerly existed in
considerable numbers in the western and southern districts of Ireland,
and more sparsely on the western shores of Scotland. In the Inchcolm
oratory the stone roof is constructed on another principle--on that,
namely, of the radiating arch--a form of roof still seen in some early
Irish oratories and churches, whose reputed date of building ranges from
the sixth or seventh onward to the tenth or eleventh centuries.
The mode of construction of the stone roof of the Inchcolm cell is well
displayed in the accidental section of it that has been made by the
falling in of the western gable. One of Mr. Drummond's sketches (see
woodcut, Fig. 9) represents the section as seen across the collection of
flower-tipped rubbish and stones made by the debris of the gable and
some accumulated earth. The roof is constructed, first, of stones placed
in the shape of a radiating arch; secondly, of a thin layer of lime and
small stones placed over the outer surface of this arch; and, thirdly,
the roof is finished by being covered externally with a layer of oblong,
rhomboid stones, laid in regular courses from the top of the side walls
onwards and upwards to the ridge of the building. This outer coating of
squared stones is seen in the external surface of the roof to the left
in one sketch (see woodcut, Fig. 9); but a more perfect and better
preserved specimen of it exists immediately above the entrance-door, as
shown in another of Mr. Drummond's drawings (see woodcut, Fig. 6).
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Interior of the building, showing splayed window
in eastern gable, recess in interior of south wall, vaulted roof, etc.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Exposed section of the arch of the vault.]
The arch or vault of the roof has one peculiarity, perhaps worthy of
notice (and seen in the preceding woodcut, Fig. 9). The central keystone
of the arch has the form of a triangular wedge, or of the letter V, a
type seen in other rude and primitive arches. Interiorly, a similar
keystone line appears to run along the length of the vault, but not
always perfectly straight; and the whole figure of the arch distinctly
affects the pointed form.
Several years ago I first saw the building which I have described when
visiting Inchcolm with Captain Thomas, Dr. Daniel Wilson, and some other
friends, and its peculiar antique character and strong rude masonry
struck all of us, for it seemed different in type from any of the other
buildings around it. Last year I had an opportunity of visiting several
of the oldest remaining Irish churches and oratories at Glendalough,
Killaloe, Clonmacnoise, and elsewhere, and the features of some of them
strongly recalled to my recollection the peculiarities of the old
building in Inchcolm, and left on my mind a strong desire to re-inspect
it. Later in the year Mr. Fraser and I visited Inchcolm in company with
our greatest Scottish authority on such an ecclesiological question--Mr.
Joseph Robertson. That visit confirmed us in the idea, first, that the
small building in question was of a much more ancient type than any
portion of the neighbouring monastery; and, secondly, that in form and
construction it presented the principal architectural characters of the
earliest and oldest Irish churches and oratories. More lately I had an
opportunity of showing the various original sketches which Mr. Drummond
had made for me of the building to the highest living authority on every
question connected with early Irish and Scoto-Irish ecclesiastical
architecture--namely, Dr. Petrie of Dublin; and before asking anything
as to its site, etc., he at once pronounced the building to be "a
Columbian cell."
The tradition, as told to our party by the cicerone on the island on my
first visit, was, that this neglected outbuilding was the place in which
"King Alexander lived for three days with the hermit of Inchcolm." There
was nothing in the rude architecture and general character of the
building to gainsay such a tradition, but the reverse; and, on the
contrary, when we turn to the notice of a visit of Alexander I. to the
island in 1123, as given by our earliest Scotch historians, their
account of the little chapel or oratory which he found there perfectly
applies to the building which I have been describing. In order to prove
this, let me quote the history of Alexander's visit from the
_Scotichronicon_ of Fordun and Bower, the _Extracta e Cronicis Scocie_,
and the _Scotorum Historia_ of Hector Boece.[55]
The _Scotichronicon_ contains the following account of King Alexander's
adventure and temporary sojourn in Inchcolm:--
"About the year of our Lord 1123, under circumstances not less
wonderful than miraculous, a monastery was founded on the island
Aemonia, near Inverkeithing. For when the noble and most Christian
Sovereign Alexander, first of this name, was, in pursuit of some
state business, making a passage across the Queensferry, suddenly a
tremendous storm arose, and the fierce south-west wind forced the
vessel and sailors to make, for safety's sake, for the island of
Aemonia, where at that time lived an island hermit (_eremita
insulanus_), who, belonging to the service of St. Columba, devoted
himself sedulously to his duties at a certain little chapel there
(_ad quandam inibi capellulam_), content with such poor food as the
milk of one cow and the shell and small sea fishes which he could
collect. On the hermit's slender stores the king and his suite of
companions, detained by the storm, gratefully lived for three
consecutive days. But on the day before landing, when in very great
danger from the sea, and tossed by the fury of the tempest, the king
despaired of life, he vowed to the Saint, that if he should bring him
and his companions safe to the island, he would leave on it such a
memorial to his honour as would render it a future asylum and refuge
to sailors and those that were shipwrecked. Therefore, it was decided
on this occasion that he should found there a monastery of
prebendaries, such as now exists; and this the more so, as he had
always venerated St. Columba with special honour from his youth; and
chiefly because his own parents were for several years childless and
destitute of the solace of offspring, until, beseeching St. Columba
with suppliant devotion, they gloriously obtained what they sought
for so long a time with anxious desire. Hence the origin of the
verse--
'M.C, ter, I. bis, et X literis a tempore Christi,
Aemon, tunc ab Alexandro fundata fuisti
Scotorum primo. Structorem Canonicorum
Transferat ex imo Deus hunc ad alta polorum.'"[56]
The preceding account of King Alexander's visit to Inchcolm, and his
founding of the monastery there, occurs in the course of the fifth book
(lib. v. cap. 37) of the _Scotichronicon_, without its being marked
whether the passage itself exists in the original five books of Fordun,
or in one of the additions made to them by the Abbot Walter Bower.[57]
The first of these writers, John of Fordun, lived, it will be
recollected, in the reigns of Robert II. and III., and wrote about 1380;
while Walter Bower, the principal continuator of Fordun's history, was
Abbot of Inchcolm from 1418 to the date of his death in 1449.
In the work known under the title of _Extracta e Variis Cronicis
Scocie_,[58] there is an account of Alexander's fortuitous visit to
Inchcolm, exactly similar to the above, but in an abridged form. Mr.
Tytler, in his _History of Scotland_,[59] supposes the _Extracta_ to
have been written posterior to the time of Fordun, and prior to the date
of Bower's _Continuation of the Scotichronicon_,--a conjecture which one
or more passages in the work entirely disprove.[60] If the opinion of
Mr. Tytler had been correct, it would have been important as a proof
that the story of the royal adventure of Alexander upon Inchcolm was
written by Fordun, and not by Bower, inasmuch as the two accounts in the
_Scotichronicon_ and in the _Extracta_ are on this, as on most other
points, very similar, the _Extracta_ being merely somewhat curtailed. As
evidence of this remark, let me here cite the original words of the
_Extracta_:--
"Emonia insula seu monasterium, nunc Sancti Columbe de Emonia, per
dictum regem fundatur circa annum Domini millesimum vigesimum quartum
miraculose. Nam cum idem nobilis rex transitum faciens per Passagium
Regine, exorta tempestas valida, flante Africo, ratem cum naucleris,
vix vita comite, compulit applicare ad insulam Emoniam, ubi tunc
degebat quidam heremita insulanus, qui seruicio Sancti Columbe
deditus, ad quamdam inibi capellulam tenui victu, utpote lacte vnius
vacce et conchis ac pisiculis marinis contentatus, sedule se dedit,
de quibus cibariis rex cum suis, tribus diebus, vento compellente,
reficitur. Et quia Sanctum Columbam a juventute dilexit, in periculo
maris, ut predicitur, positus, vouit se, si ad prefatam insulam
veheretur incolumis, aliquid memoria dignum ibidem facere, et sic
monasterium ibidem construxit canonicorum, et dotauit."[61]
I shall content myself with citing from our older Scottish historians
one more account of Alexander's adventure upon Inchcolm--namely, that
given by Hector Boece, Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, in his
_Scotorum Historia_, a work written during the reign of James V., and
first published in 1526. In this work, after alluding to the foundation
of the Abbey of Scone, Boece proceeds to state that--(to quote the
translation of the passage as given by Bellenden)--"Nocht long efter
King Alexander come in Sanct Colmes Inche; quhair he was constrainit, be
violent tempest, to remane thre dayis, sustenand his life with skars
fude, be ane heremit that dwelt in the said inche: in quhilk, he had ane
litill chapell, dedicat in the honoure of Sanct Colme. Finaly, King
Alexander, becaus his life was saiffit be this heremit, biggit ane Abbay
of Chanonis regular, in the honour of Sanct Colme; and dotat it with
sindry landes and rentis, to sustene the abbot and convent thairof."[62]
As Bellenden's translation of Boece's work does not in this and other
parts adhere by any means strictly to the author's original context, I
will add the account given by Boece in that historian's own words:[63]
"Nec ita multo post Fortheae rex aestuarium trajiciens, coorta
tempestate in Emoniam insulam appulsus descendit, repertoque Divi
Columbae _saccllo_, viroque Eremita, triduo tempestatis vi permanere
illic coactus est, exiguo sustentatus cibo, quem apud Eremitam
quendam sacelli custodem reperiebat, nec tamen comitantium
multitudini ulla ex parte sufficiente. Itaque eo periculo defunctus
Divo Columbae aedem vovit. Nec diu voto damnatus fuit, coenobio paulo
post Regularium, ordinis Divi Augustini extructo, agrisque atque
redditibus ad sumptus eorum collatis."
That the very small and antique-looking edifice which I have described
as still standing on Inchcolm is identically the little chapel or cell
spoken of by Fordun and Boece as existing on the island at the time of
Alexander's visit to it, upwards of seven centuries ago, is a matter
admitting of great probability, but not of perfect legal proof. One or
two irrecoverable links are wanting in the chain of evidence to make
that proof complete; and more particularly do we lack for this purpose
any distinct allusions or notices among our mediaeval annalists, of the
existence or character of the building during these intervening seven
centuries, except, indeed, we consider the notice of it which I have
cited from the _Scotichronicon_ "_ad quandam inibi capellulam_," to be
written by the hand of Walter Bower, and to have a reference to the
little chapel as it existed and stood about the year 1430, when Bower
wrote his additions to Fordun, while living and ruling on Inchcolm as
Abbot of its Monastery.
But various circumstances render it highly probable that the old
stone-roofed cell still standing on the island is the ancient chapel or
oratory in which the island hermit (_eremita insulanus_) lived and
worshipped at the time of Alexander's royal but compulsory visit in
1123. I have already adduced in favour of this belief the very doubtful
and imperfect evidence of tradition, and the fact that this little
building itself is, in its whole architectural style and character,
evidently far more rude, primitive, and ancient, than any of the
extensive monastic structures existing on the island, and that have been
erected from the time of Alexander downwards. In support of the same
view there are other and still more valuable pieces of corroborative
proof, which perhaps I may be here excused from now dwelling upon with a
little more fullness and detail.
The existing half-ruinous cell answers, I would first venture to
remark--and answers most fitly and perfectly--to the two characteristic
appellations used respectively in the _Scotichronicon_ and in the
_Historiae Scotorum_, to designate the cell or oratory of the Inchcolm
anchorite at the time of King Alexander's three days' sojourn on the
island. These two appellations we have already found in the preceding
quotations to be _capellula_ and _sacellum_. As applied to the small,
rude, vaulted edifice to which I have endeavoured to draw the attention
of the Society, both terms are strikingly significant. The word used by
Fordun or Bower in the _Scotichronicon_ to designate the oratory of the
Inchcolm anchorite, namely "capellula," or little chapel, is very
descriptive of a diminutive church or oratory, but at the same time very
rare. Du Cange, in his learned glossary, only adduces one example of its
employment. It occurs in the testament of Guido, Bishop of Auxerre, in
the thirteenth century (1270), who directs that "oratorium seu
_capellulam_ super sepulchrum dicti Robini construent." This passage
further proves the similar signification of the two names of oratorium
and capellula. The other appellation "sacellum," applied by Boece to the
hermit's chapel, is a better known and more classical word than the
capellula of the _Scotichronicon_. It is, as is well known, a diminutive
from sacer, as tenellus is from tener, macellus from macer, etc.; and
Cicero himself has left us a complete definition of the word, for he has
described "sacellum" as "locus parvus deo sacratus cum ara."[64]
Again, in favour of the view that the existing building on Inchcolm is
the actual chapel or oratory in which the insular anchorite lived and
worshipped there in the twelfth century, it may be further argued, that,
where they were not constructed of perishable materials, it was in
consonance with the practice of these early times to preserve carefully
houses and buildings of religious note, as hallowed relics. Most of the
old oratories and houses raised by the early Irish and Scottish saints
were undoubtedly built of wattles, wood, or clay, and other perishable
materials, and of necessity were soon lost.[65] But when of a more solid
and permanent construction, they were sometimes sedulously preserved,
and piously and punctually visited for long centuries as holy shrines.
There still exist in Ireland various stone oratories of early Irish
saints to which this remark applies--as, for example, that of St. Kevin
at Glendalough, of St. Columba at Kells, those of St. Molua and St.
Flannan at Killaloe, of St. Benan on Aranmore, St. Ceannanach on
Inishmaan, etc. etc. Let us take the first two examples which I have
named, to illustrate more fully my remark. St. Kevin died at an extreme
old age, in the year 618; and St. Columba died a few years earlier,
namely in the year 597. When speaking of the two houses at Glendalough
and Kells, respectively bearing the names of these two early Irish
saints, Dr. Petrie--and I certainly could not quote either a higher or a
more cautious antiquarian authority--observes, "I think we have every
reason to believe that the buildings called St. Columba's House at
Kells, and St. Kevin's House at Glendalough, buildings so closely
resembling each other in every respect, were erected by the persons
whose names they bear."[66] If Dr. Petrie's idea be correct, and he
repeats it elsewhere,[67] then these houses were constructed about the
end of the sixth century, and their preservation for so long an
intervening period was no doubt in a great measure the result of their
being looked upon, protected, and visited, as spots hallowed by having
been the earthly dwellings of such esteemed saints.
In the great work on _The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_,
which I have just quoted--a work, let me add, overflowing with the
richest and ripest antiquarian lore, and yet written with all the
fascination of a romance--Dr. Petrie, after describing the two houses I
speak of, St. Kevin's and St. Columba's, farther states his belief that
both of these buildings "served the double purpose of a habitation and
an oratory."[70] They were, in this view, the residences, as well as the
chapels, of their original inhabitants; and subsequently the house of
St. Kevin at Glendalough, of St. Flannan at Killaloe, etc., were
publicly used as chapels or churches.[71] In all probability the
_capellula_ of the hermit on Inchcolm was, in the same way, at once both
the habitation and the oratory of this solitary anchorite, and
apparently the only building on the island when Alexander was tossed
upon its shores. The sacred character of the humble cell, as the
dwelling and oratory of a holy Columbite hermit, and possibly also the
interest attached to it as an edifice which had afforded for three days
such welcome and grateful shelter to King Alexander and his suite, would
in all probability--judging from the numerous analogies which we might
trace elsewhere--led to its preservation, and perhaps its repair and
restoration, when, a few years afterwards, the monastery rose in its
immediate neighbourhood, in pious fulfilment of the royal vow.[72]
Indeed, that the holy cell or chapel of the Inchcolm anchorite would,
under the circumstances in question, be carefully saved and preserved by
King Alexander I., is a step which we would specially expect, from all
that we know of the religious character of that prince, and his peculiar
love for sacred buildings and the relics of saints. For, according to
Fordun, Alexander "vir literatus et pius" "erat in construendis
ecclesiis, et reliquis Sanctorum perquirendis, in vestibus
sacerdotalibus librisque sacris conficiendis et ordinandis,
studiosissimus."
For the antiquity of the Inchcolm cell there yet remains an additional
argument, and perhaps the strongest of all. I have already stated that,
in its whole architectural type and features, the cell or oratory is
manifestly older, and more rude and primitive, than any of the diverse
monastic buildings erected on the island from the twelfth century
downwards. But more, the Inchcolm cell or oratory corresponds in all its
leading architectural features and specialities with the cells,
oratories, or small chapels, raised from the sixth and eighth, down to
the tenth and twelfth centuries, in different parts of Ireland, and in
some districts in Scotland, by the early Irish ecclesiastics, and their
Irish or Scoto-Irish disciples and followers, of these distant times and
dates.
It is now acknowledged on all sides, that, though not the first
preachers of Christianity in Scotland,[73] the Irish were at least by
far the most active and the most influential of our early missionaries;
and truly a new epoch began in Scottish history when, in the year 563,
St. Columba, "pro Christo peregrinari volens," embarked, with his twelve
companions, and sailing across from Ireland to the west coast of
Scotland, founded the monastery of Iona. It is certainly to St. Columba
and his numerous disciples and followers that the spread of Christianity
in this country, during the succeeding two or three centuries, is
principally due. At the same time we must not forget that numerous other
Irish saints in these early times engaged in missionary visits to
Scotland, and founded churches there, which still bear their names, as
(to quote part of the enumeration of Dr. Reeves) St. Finbar, St.
Comgall, St. Blaan, St. Brendan, the two St. Fillans, St. Ronan, St.
Flannan, St. Beranch, St. Catan, St. Merinus, St. Mernoc, St. Molaise,
St. Munna, St. Vigean, etc.[74]
Along with their Christian doctrines and teachings these Irish
ecclesiastics brought over to Scotland their peculiar religious habits
and customs, and, amongst other things, imported into this country their
architectural knowledge and practices with regard to sacred and monastic
buildings. In the western parts of Scotland, more particularly, numerous
ecclesiastical structures were raised similar to those which were
peculiar to Ireland; and various material vestiges of these still
exist.[75] In the eastern parts of Scotland, to which the personal
teaching of the Irish missionaries speedily spread, we have still
remaining two undoubted examples of the repetition in this country of
Irish ecclesiastical architecture in the well-known Round Towers of
Abernethy and Brechin, and perhaps we have a third example in the
stone-roofed oratory of Inchcolm.
Various ancient stone oratories still exist in a more or less perfect
condition in different parts of Ireland, sometimes standing by
themselves, sometimes with the remains of a round beehive-shaped cell or
dwelling near them, and sometimes forming one of a group of churches, or
of a series of monastic buildings. Such, for example, are the small
chapels or oratories of St. Gobnet, St. Benen, and St. MacDuach, in the
Isles of Aran,[76] of St. Senan on Bishop's Island, of St. Molua on
Friar's Island, Killaloe, the Leabha Mollayga near Mitchelstown, in the
County Cork, and probably the so-called dormitory of St. Declan at
Ardmore. Among the old sacred buildings of Ireland we find, in fact, two
kinds or classes of churches, the "ecclesiae majores" and "minores," if
we may call them so, and principally distinguished from each other by
their comparative length or size. It appears both from the remains of
the first class which still exist, and from the incidental notices which
occur of their erection, measurements, etc., in the ancient annals and
hagiology of Ireland, that the larger abbey or cathedral churches of
that country, whose date of foundation is anterior to the twelfth
century, were oblong quadrangular buildings, which rarely, if ever,
exceeded the length of 60 feet, and were sometimes less. In the
Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, he is described as prescribing 60 feet
as the length of the church of Donagh Patrick.[77] This "was also," says
Dr. Petrie, "the measure of the other celebrated chapels erected by him
throughout Ireland, and imitated as a model by his successors."[78]
"Indeed," he further observes, "that the Irish, who have been ever
remarkable for a tenacious adherence to their ancient customs, should
preserve with religious veneration that form and size of the primitive
church introduced by the first teachers of Christianity, is only what
might be naturally expected, and what we find to have been the fact. We
see," Dr. Petrie adds, "the result of this feeling exhibited very
remarkably in the conservation, down to a late period, of the humblest
and rudest _oratories_ of the first ecclesiastics in all those
localities where Irish manners and customs remained, and where such
edifices, too small for the services of religion, would not have been
deemed worthy of conservation, but from such feeling."[79]
The second or lesser type of the early Irish churches, or, in other
words, of the humble and rude oratories to which Dr. Petrie refers in
the last sentence of the preceding paragraph, were of a similar form,
but of a much smaller size than the larger or abbey churches.[80] We
have ample and accurate evidence of this, both in the oratories which
still remain, and in a fragment of the Brehon laws, referring to the
different payments which ecclesiastical artificers received according as
the building was--(1.) a duirtheach or small chapel or oratory; (2.) a
large abbey church or damhliag, etc.[81]
Generally, according to Dr. Petrie, the average of the smaller type of
churches or oratories may be stated to be about 15 feet in length, and
10 feet in breadth, though they show no fixed similarity in regard to
size.[82] "In the general plan," he observes, "of this class of
buildings there was an equal uniformity. They had a single doorway,
always placed in the centre of the west wall,[83] and were lighted by a
single window placed in the centre of the east wall, and a stone altar
usually, perhaps always, placed beneath this window."[84] In these
leading architectural features (with an exception to which I shall
immediately advert), the Inchcolm cell or oratory corresponds to the
ancient cells or oratories existing in Ireland, and presents the same
ancient style of masonry--the same splaying internally of the window
which is so common in the ancient Irish churches, both large and
small--and the same configuration of doorway which is seen in many of
them, the opening forming it being narrower at the top than at the
bottom.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. St. Senan's Oratory on Bishop's Island.]
In the Inchcolm oratory there is one exception, as I have just stated,
to the general type and features of the ancient Irish oratory. I allude
to the position of the door, which is placed in the south side of the
Inchcolm cell, instead of being placed, as usual, in the western gable
of the building. But this position of the door in the south wall is not
without example in ancient Irish oratories that still exist.[85] The
door occupies in this respect the same position in the Inchcolm oratory
as in an oratory on Bishop's Island upon the coast of Clare, the
erection of which is traditionally ascribed to St. Senan, who lived in
the sixth century. This oratory of St. Senan (says Mr. Wakeman)
"measures 18 feet by 12; the walls are in thickness 2 feet 7 inches. The
doorway, which occupies an unusual position in the south side,
immediately adjoining the west end wall, is 6 feet in height, and 1 foot
10 inches wide at the top, 2 feet 4 inches at the bottom. The east
window splays externally, and in this respect is probably unique in
Ireland."[86][87] These peculiarities are shown in the accompanying
woodcut, Fig. 10, taken from Mr. Wakeman's _Handbook of Irish
Antiquities_.
The Irish ecclesiastics did not scruple to deviate from the established
plans of their sacred buildings, when the necessities of individual
cases required it. In the Firth of Forth west winds are the most
prevalent of all; and sometimes the western blast is still as fierce and
long continued as when of old it drove King Alexander on the shores of
Inchcolm. The hermit's cell or oratory is placed on perhaps the most
protected spot on the island; and yet it would have been scarcely
habitable with an open window exposing its interior to the east, and
with a door placed directly opposite it in the western gable. It has
been rendered, however, much more fit for a human abode by the door
being situated in the south wall; and the more so, because the ledge of
rock against which the south-west corner of the building abuts, protects
in a great degree this south door from the direct effects of the western
storm. The building itself is narrower than the generality of the Irish
oratories, but this was perhaps necessitated by another circumstance,
for its breadth was probably determined by the immovable basaltic blocks
lying on either side of it.
The head of the doorway in the Inchcolm oratory is, as pointed out in a
preceding page, peculiar in this respect, that externally it is
constructed on the principle of the radiating arch, whilst internally it
is built on the principle of the horizontal arch. But in other early
Irish ecclesiastical buildings in Scotland, as well as in Ireland, the
external and internal aspect of the doorway is sometimes thus
constructed on opposite principles. In the round tower, for example, of
Abernethy, the head of the doorway externally is formed of a large
single stone laid horizontally, and having a semicircular opening cut
out of the lower side of the horizontal block; while the head of the
doorway internally is constructed of separate stones on the plan of the
radiating arch.
One striking circumstance in the Inchcolm oratory--viz., its vaulted or
arched roof, has been already sufficiently described; and, in describing
it, I have stated that the arch is of a pointed form. In many of the
ancient Irish oratories the roof was of wood, and covered with rushes or
shingles; and most of them had their walls even constructed of wood or
oak, as the term _duir-theach_ originally signifies. But apparently,
though the generic name duir-theach still continued to be applied to
them, some of them were constructed, from a very early period, entirely
of stone; and of these the roofs were occasionally formed of the same
material as the walls, and arched or vaulted, as in the Inchcolm
oratory. In speaking of the construction of the primitive larger
churches of Ireland, Dr. Petrie states, that their "roof appears to have
been constructed generally of wood, even where their walls were of
stone;" while in the oratories or primitive smaller stone churches, "the
roofs (says he) generally appear to have been constructed of stone,
their sides forming at the ridge a very acute angle."[88] The selection
of the special materials of which both walls and roof were composed, was
no doubt, in many cases, regulated and determined by the comparative
facility or difficulty with which these materials were obtained. At no
time, perhaps, did timber exist on Inchcolm that could have been used in
constructing such a building; whilst plenty of stones fit for the
purpose abounded on the island, and there was abundance of lime on the
neighbouring shore. Stone-roofed oratories of a more complex and
elaborate architectural character than that of Inchcolm still exist in
Ireland, and of a supposed very early date. We have already found, for
instance, Dr. Petrie stating that "we have every reason to believe" that
the stone-roofed oratories known as St. Kevin's House at Glendalough,
and St. Columba's House at Kells, "were erected by the persons whose
names they bear,"[89] and consequently that they are as old as the sixth
century. These two oratories, are, as it were, two storeyed buildings;
for each consists of a lower and larger stone-arched or vaulted chamber
below, and of another higher and smaller stone-arched or vaulted chamber
or over-croft above. The old small stone-roofed church still standing at
Killaloe, and the erection of which Dr. Petrie is[90] inclined to
ascribe to St. Flannan in the seventh century[91] presents also in its
structure this type of double stone-vault or arch, as shown in the
following section of it by Mr. Fergusson.[92] When treating of the early
Irish oratories, Mr. Fergusson observes, "One of the peculiarities of
these churches is, that they were nearly all designed to have stone
roofs, no wood being used in their construction. The section (Fig. 11)
of the old church at Killaloe, belonging probably to the tenth century,
will explain how this was generally managed. The nave was roofed with a
tunnel-vault with a pointed one over it, on which the roofing slabs were
laid." Mr. Fergusson adduces Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel, St.
Kevin's House or Kitchen at Glendalough, which he thinks "may belong to
the seventh century;" and St. Columba's House at Kells, "and several
others in various parts of Ireland, as all displaying the same
peculiarity" in the stone roofing.
[Illustration: Fig. 11. Section of St. Flannan's Church at Killaloe.]
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Section of the Church of Killaghy.]
Like some oratories and churches in Ireland, more simple and primitive
than those just alluded to, the building on Inchcolm is an edifice
consisting of a single vaulted chamber, analogous in form to the
over-croft of the larger oratories or minor churches. The accompanying
section of the old and small stone-roofed church of Killaghy, at the
village of Cloghereen, near Killarney, is the result of an accurate
examination of that building by Mr. Brash of Cork. Its stones look
better dressed and more equal in size, but otherwise it is so exactly a
section of the Inchcolm oratory, that it might well be regarded as a
plan of it, intended to display the figure and mode of construction of
its walls and stone roof, formed as that roof is of three layers--viz.,
1. The layer consisting of the proper stones of the arch of the cell
interiorly; 2. The layer of outer roofing stones placed exteriorly; and
3. The intermediate layer of lime, and grit or small stones, cementing
and binding together these other two courses.[93]
It was once suggested to me as an argument against the Irish
architectural character and antiquity of the Inchcolm oratory, that its
vault or arch was slightly but distinctly pointed, and that pointed
arches did not become an architectural feature in ecclesiastical
buildings before the latter half of the twelfth century. But if there
existed any truth in this objection, it would equally disprove the early
character and antiquity of those ecclesiastical buildings at Killaloe,
Glendalough, and Kells, in which the arch of the over-croft is of the
same pointed form. The over-croft in King Cormac's Chapel at Cashel
shows also a similar pointed vault or arch; and no one now ventures to
challenge it as an established fact in ecclesiological history, that
this edifice was consecrated in 1134, or at a date anterior to the
introduction[94] of Gothic church architecture or pointed arches in
sacred buildings in England.[95] In truth, the pointed form of arched
vault was sometimes used by Irish ecclesiastics structurally, and for
the sake of more simply and easily sustaining the stone roof, long
before that arch became the distinctive mark of any architectural style.
Indeed, in the very oldest existing Irish oratory--viz. that of
Gallerus, which is generally reckoned[96] as early as, if not earlier
than, the time of St. Patrick, or about the fifth century--the stone
roof, though constructed on the principle of the horizontal arch, is of
the pointed form. The whole section of the oratory of Gallerus is that
of a pointed arch commencing directly at the ground line.[97] "I have,"
Mr. Brash writes me, and I could not well quote a better judge or more
learned ecclesiastic antiquary, "carefully examined the oratory at
Inchcolm, and it is my conviction that the pointed arch supporting the
stone roof does not in any wise whatever militate against its antiquity,
particularly when taking it in connection with the extreme rudeness and
simplicity of the rest of the structure, and the total absence of any
pointed form in either door or window."[98]
Let me add one word more as to the probable or possible age of the
capellula on Inchcolm. Granting, for a moment, that the building on
Inchcolm is the small chapel existing on the island when visited by King
Alexander in 1123, have we any reason to suppose the structure to be
one of a still earlier date? Inchcolm was apparently a favourite place
of sepulture up, indeed, to comparatively late times; and may possibly
have been so in old Pagan times, and previously to the introduction of
Christianity into Scotland. The soil of the fields to the west of the
monastery is, when turned over, found still full of fragments of human
bones. Allan de Mortimer, Lord of Aberdour, gave to the Abbey of
Inchcolm a moiety of the lands of his town of Aberdour for leave of
burial in the church of the monastery.[100] In Scottish history various
allusions occur with regard to persons of note, and especially the
ecclesiastics of Dunkeld, being carried for sepulture to Inchcolm.[101]
The Danish chiefs who, after the invasion of Fife, were buried in the
cemetery of Inchcolm, were, as we have already found, interred there in
the seventh or last year of King Duncan's reign, or in 1039, nearly a
century before the date of Alexander's visit to the island. But if there
was, a century before Alexander's visit, a place of burial on the
island, there was almost certainly also this or some other chapel
attached to the place, as a Christian cemetery had in these early times
always a Christian chapel or church of some form attached to it. The
style and architecture of the building is apparently, as I have already
stated, as old, or even older than this; or, at all events, it
corresponds in[102] its features to Irish houses and oratories that are
regarded as having been built two or three centuries before the date
even of the of the Danes in the island.
The manuscript copy of the _Scotichronicon_, which belonged to the Abbey
of Cupar, and which, like the other old manuscripts of the
_Scotichronicon_, was written before the end of the fifteenth
century,[103] describes Inchcolm as the temporary abode of St. Columba
himself,[104] when he was engaged as a missionary among the Scots and
Picts. In enumerating the islands of the Firth of Forth, Inchcolm is
mentioned in the Cupar manuscript as "alia insuper insula ad occidens
distans ab Inchcketh, quae vocatur AEmonia, inter Edinburch et
Inverkethyn; _quam quondam incoluit, dum Pictis et Scotis fidem
praedicavit, Sanctus Columba Abbas_."[105] We do not know upon what
foundation, if any, this statement is based; but it is very evidently an
allegation upon which no great assurance can be placed. Nor, in alluding
to this statement here, have I any intention of arguing that this cell
might even have served St. Columba both as a house and oratory, such as
the house of the Saint still standing at Kells is believed by Dr. Petrie
to have possibly been.
The nameless religious recluse whom Alexander found residing on Inchcolm
is described by Fordun and Boece as leading there the life of a hermit
(_Eremita_), though a follower of the order or rule of Saint Columba.
The ecclesiastical writers of these early times not unfrequently refer
to such self-denying and secluded anchorites. The Irish Annals are full
of their obits. Thus, for example, under the single year 898, the Four
Masters[106] record the death of, at least, four who had passed longer
or shorter periods of their lives as hermits, namely, "Suairleach,
anchorite and Bishop of Treoit;" "Cosgrach, who was called Truaghan [the
meagre], anchorite of Inis-Cealtra;" "Tuathal, anchorite;" "Ceallach,
anchorite and Bishop of Ard-Macha;"--and probably we have the obit of a
fifth entered in this same year under the designation of "Caenchomhrac
of the Caves of Inis-bo-fine," as these early ascetics sometimes betook
themselves to caves, natural or artificial, using them for their houses
and oratories.[107] Various early English authors also allude to the
habitations and lives of different anchorites belonging to our own
country. Thus the venerable Bede--living himself as a monk in the
Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow, in the early part of the eighth
century--refers by name to several, as to Hemgils, who, as a religious
solitary (_solitarius_), passed the latter portion of his life
sustained by coarse bread and cold water; and to Wicbert,[108] who,
"multos annos in Hibernia peregrinus anchoreticam in magna perfectione
vitam egerat."[109] Reginald of Durham has left a work on the life,
penances, medical and other miracles, of the celebrated St. Godric, who,
during the twelfth century, lived for about forty years as an anchorite
in the hermitage of Finchale, on the river Weir, near Durham.[110] The
same author speaks of, as contemporary holy hermits, St. Elric of
Walsingham, and an anchorite at Yareshale, on the Derwent.[111][112] A
succession of hermits occupied a cell near Norham.[113] Small islands
appear to have been specially selected by the early anchorets for their
heremitical retreats. Hereberct, the friend of St. Cuthbert, lived,
according to Bede, an anchoret life upon one of the islands in the lake
of Derwentwater; and St. Cuthbert himself, Ethelwald, and Felgeld, when
they aspired to the rank of anchoretish perfection (gradum anchoreticae
sublimitatis), successively betook themselves for this purpose to Farne,
on the coast of Northumberland, a small isle about eight or nine miles
south of Lindisfarne.[114] Among other anchorets who subsequently lived
on Farne, Reginald incidentally mentions Aelric, Bartholomew, and
Aelwin.[115] On Coquet Island, lying also off the Northumbrian coast,
St. Henry the Dane led the life of a religious hermit, and died about
the year 1120.[116] Inchcolm is not the only island in the Firth of
Forth which is hallowed by the reputation of having been the residence
of anchorets, seeking for scenes in which they might practise
uninterrupted devotion. Thus, St. Baldred or Balther lived for some
time, during the course of the seventh century, as a religious recluse,
upon the rugged and precipitous island of the Bass, as stated by Boece,
Leslie, Dempster,[117] etc., and, as we know with more certainty from a
poem written--upwards now of one thousand years ago--by a native of this
country, the celebrated Alcuin.[118] The followers of the order of St.
Columba who desired to follow a more ascetic life than that which the
society of his religious houses and monasteries afforded to its ordinary
members, sometimes withdrew (observes Dr. Reeves[120]) to a solitary
place in the neighbourhood of the monastery, where they enjoyed
undisturbed meditation, without breaking the fraternal bond. Such, in
634, was Beccan, the "solitarius," as he is designated in Cummian's
contemporary Paschal letter to Segene, the Abbot of Iona; and such was
Finan, the hermit of Darrow, in the words of Adamnan, "vitam multis
anchoreticam annis irreprehensibiliter ducebat." According to the
evidence of the Four Masters, an anchorite held the Abbacy of Iona in
747; another anchorite was Abbot-elect in 935; and a third was made
Bishop in 964[121] "The abode of such anchorites was (adds Dr. Reeves)
called in Irish a 'desert' (Dysart), from the Latin _desertum_; and as
the heremitical life was held in such honour among the Scotic Churches,
we frequently find this word 'desert' an element in religious
nomenclature. There was a 'desert' beside the monastery of Derry; and
that belonging to Iona was situate near the shore, in the low ground
north of the Cathedral, as may be inferred from Port-an-diseart, the
name of a little bay in this situation." The charters of the Columbian
House at Kells show that a "desert" existed in connection with that
institution. Could the old building or capellula on Inchcolm have served
as a "desert" to the Monastery there?[122]
The preceding remarks have spun out to a most unexpected extent; and I
have to apologise both for their extravagant length and rambling
character. At the same time, however, I believe that it would be
considered an object of no small interest if it could be shown to be at
all probable that we had still near us a specimen, however rude and
ruinous, of early Scoto-Irish architecture. All authorities now
acknowledge the great influence which, from the sixth to the eleventh or
twelfth century, the Irish Church and Irish clergy exercised over the
conversion and civilisation of Scotland. But on the eastern side of the
kingdom we have no known remains of Scoto-Irish ecclesiastical
architecture except the beautiful and perfect Round Tower of
Brechin,[123] and the ruder and probably older Round Tower of
Abernethy. If, to these two instances, we dare to conjoin a specimen of
a house or oratory of the same Scoto-Irish style, and of the same
ancient period, such as the Oratory on Inchcolm seems to me probably to
be, we would have in such a specimen an addition of some moment to this
limited and meagre list. Besides, it would surely not be uninteresting
could we feel certain that we have still standing, within eight or ten
miles of Edinburgh, a building whose roof had covered the head of King
Alexander I., though it covered it for three days only; for that very
circumstance would at the same time go far to establish another fact,
namely, that any such building might claim to be now the oldest roofed
stone habitation in Scotland.[127]
[Illustration: Fig. 13. Oratory on Inchcolm, as lately repaired by the
Earl of Moray.]