AMUSEMENTS.
[Illustration]
In the earliest and rudest states of society, war and the chase become
at once the business of life, and, with the needful preparations of
weapons and other requisites, suffice to supply each day with its
full complement of labour and pastime. A very slight rise, however,
in the social scale, creates the desire for some artificial means of
filling up the leisure hours of life; and the modes adopted for this
purpose often form no uncertain criterion of the age in which they
originate. We accordingly find traces of the existence of games both
of chance and skill from a very remote period. Reference has already
been made to spherical and truncated stones, measuring from an inch to
an inch and a half in diameter, which are frequently found in tumuli.
For the former the name of Bead-stones is proposed, and as they are
generally perforated, their use as personal ornaments has been assumed
as probable, notwithstanding their cumbrous size, and the unattractive
appearance of many of them. But as they are also very frequently flat
on one side, there is greater probability of the original purpose of
the latter class, at least, having been for table-stones (Anglo-Saxon,
_tæfelstan_) or draughtsmen, in which case the perforation might
serve to string them together, for carrying about. In Ireland, and
still more frequently in Norway, draughtsmen are found alongside of
the weapons and other relics buried with the warrior. They are made
generally of bone, of a conical or hemispherical shape, and with a
hole in the bottom, designed, as is presumed, to admit of their use on
shipboard. With these it is supposed the northmen beguiled the tedium
of their long voyages; and the estimation in which they are held is
implied in their deposition among the most favourite relics of the
dead. We learn from Tacitus that the Germans were so passionately
addicted to gambling, that they staked not only their property but
their personal liberty. The Romans were themselves scarcely less given
to such excesses. Among the many interesting relics restored to light
from the ruins of Pompeii, not the least valuable as illustrations of
the manners of the first century in Southern Italy, are the cogged
dice of the old Roman gamblers. But besides these games which mingled
the incentive and the excitement of chance and skill, there appears
also to have been in use, from a very early period, others of the
simpler class, still favourites among our rustic population, such as
bowling, nine-pins, and the like; which, under the various names of
skales or kayles, loggats, closh, &c., are frequently mentioned in
ancient statutes, and have been found represented on manuscripts of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The implements of such pastimes
are not such as were likely, in many cases, to be long preserved,
though it is by no means improbable that the spherical stone-balls
frequently found along with ancient relics, and even in the tumuli,
may have been used for some such purpose.[590] One interesting and
well-authenticated example, however, is known of the discovery of
a complete set of the implements for such a game, in the parish of
Balmaclellan, Kirkcudbrightshire. They are thus described by the
well-known antiquary, Mr. Joseph Train: "In the summer of 1834, as the
servants of Mr. Bell of Baryown, were casting peats on Ironmacaunnie
Moor, when cutting near the bottom of the moss, they laid open with
their spades what appeared to be the instruments of an ancient game,
consisting of an oaken ball, eighteen inches in circumference, and
seven wooden pins, each thirteen inches in length, of a conical shape,
with a circular top. These ancient _Reel Pins_, as they are termed by
Strutt, were all standing erect on the hard till, equidistant from
each other, with the exception of two, which pointed towards the ball
that lay about a yard in front, from which it may be inferred they
were overthrown in the course of the game. The ball has been formed of
solid oak, and, from its decayed state, must have remained undisturbed
for centuries, till discovered at a depth of not less than twelve
feet from the original surface. At Pompeii, utensils are often found,
seemingly in the very position in which they were last used. This may
be accounted for by the suddenness of the calamity that befell that
devoted city; but what induced or impelled the ancient gamesters, in
this remote corner of the Glenkens, to leave the instruments of their
amusements in what might be considered the middle of the game? These
relics, which are in my possession, can now only be prized for their
curiosity, the singular position in which they were found, and the
relation they bear to ancient times."[591] The moss in which this
remarkable discovery was made is described as a place where peats have
been cut from time immemorial. It were vain to speculate on the origin
or owners of these homely relics of obsolete pastimes; yet to the
curious fancy, indulging in the reanimation of such long-silent scenes,
they seem suggestive of the sudden intrusion, it may be, of invaders,
the hasty call to arms, the utter desolation of the scene, and then the
slow lapse of unnumbered centuries, during which the moss accumulated
above them so gently that it seems as if the old revellers were to
return and play out their unfinished game.
Amusements of the latter class scarcely admit of much refinement,
and may well be supposed to have exercised fully as much ingenuity
among the ancient players of the Glenkens, as they now do in the
bowling-green or skittle-ground. From them, indeed, modern refinement
has educed the practised art of the billiard-table. In a simpler age
the improvement assumed a more practical form, and gave way to putting
the stone, throwing the hammer, and the like trials of strength, which
appear to have been favourite pastimes among the Scottish Highlanders
from the earliest periods to which their traditions extend.
In complete contrast to these are the amusements indicated by the
bone draughtsmen or bead-stones of the tumuli. They are appropriately
classed by Strutt in his "Sports and Pastimes," under the general
title of "Sedentary Games;" and he furnishes much curious information
regarding medieval pastimes, of which traces may be detected in the
remoter periods into which we are inquiring. The construction of
regular draughtsmen and chessmen is in itself an evidence of increased
taste for such amusements. The ancients employed stones, shells, or
nuts as counters, and also, there is reason to think, as tablemen,
in games of this nature. Hence the Greek name ψηφοι, and the Roman
_calculi_ and _scrupuli_; from whence _scrupus_, a table-man, or
chessman. The Scandinavian terms are of similar import; and among
the ancient Northern games which have survived as popular pastimes
in Iceland and Lapland, we find the very same which figure among
the illuminations of medieval manuscripts, and have influenced the
grotesque decorations of our early ecclesiastical architecture. "Of
such games," says a writer in the Report of the Royal Society of
Northern Antiquaries, "we find that our Pagan ancestors were acquainted
with at least three different sorts, namely, _hnefatafl_, fist-play,
_i.e._, hand-play;[592] _hnottafl_, nut-play; and _skáktafl_, chess.
_Hnottafl_ signifies properly a game played with nuts, or pieces shaped
like nuts. A _húni_--_i.e._, a bear, or bear's cub--was anciently the
principal personage in it; but in Iceland, where the fox is the only
beast of prey, this animal eventually superseded the bear, and the game
then came to be denominated _refskál_. The other pieces represented
sheep, or lambs, pursued by Reynard. In the variety of this game, which
still forms one of the favourite diversions of the Laplanders, the
fox continues to play his part, with this difference, that he there
pursues geese instead of lambs; as in the _Gänsespiel_ of the Germans,
the _Fox and geese_ of the English, the _Ganzespeel_ of the Dutch,
the _Jeu d'oie_ of the French, &c. In Denmark a dog usually takes the
place of the fox, and hares of the geese; and hence the game is there
called _Hund og hare_, or hound and hare." According to the Irish
chroniclers, Cahir Mor, who died A.D. 177, left, among other legacies
to his son, both chessboards (_fichell_) and chessmen (_muintir_;)
and the Welsh laws of Howel Dha, (_circa_ A.D. 943,) refer to some
species of game played with pieces of different colours, (_werin_,) on
a table-board, (_tawlbwrdd_.) In Bishop Percy's "Translation of Runic
Poetry," a Northern hero says,--"I am master of nine accomplishments.
I play at chess; I know how to engrave Runic characters," &c.; and in
a curious Anglo-Saxon poem, translated for the first time into English
by Mr. J. M. Kemble in his paper on Anglo-Saxon Runes, this stanza
occurs:--
Chessman is ever
Play and laughter
To the proud, where
Warriors sit
In the beer-hall
Blithe together.
It is not necessary to assume that all, or indeed any of these
allusions necessarily apply to the game of chess, but only to one
of the old table-games, played with pieces, many of which will more
readily account for the "play and laughter" in the warrior's hall than
that skilful and complicated game. These, as well as so many other of
the primitive arts and rites of the North, were in all probability
brought with the earlier nomades from the eastern cradle-land of our
race; for more than one representation of such table-games has been
discovered among the pictorial decorations of the Egyptian temples. Dr.
Brunton has figured two of these at Medinat Haboo, in his _Excerpta
Hieroglyphica_, in one of which (_Plate_ XIII.) the table and pieces
are partly obliterated, but in the other (_Plate_ XI.) it is observable
that the pieces are all alike, resembling the most common modern form
of chess-pawns. The players are also in both cases moving their pieces
at the same time; so that the Egyptian game evidently bore very slight
resemblance to chess, and may with more probability be sought for among
the early table-games of the north of Europe.
The great antiquity of the game of chess has been long since
established on indisputable evidence. For its invention and earliest
form the best authorities agree in looking to India, whither the
simpler table-games of Egypt may have passed before the migration of
the Teutonic races from Asia, and been returned from thence to Europe
in their later and more complicated forms. In the ninth century,
while yet the Northmen were only known along the British coasts as
the dreaded marauding Vikings, Ragnar Lodbrog is reputed to have
visited the Hellespont, and the intercourse between the Scandinavians
and the Greeks of the Lower Empire, is an accredited feature of well
authenticated history. But pilgrimages to Rome, and the passing and
repassing of the clergy from Britain to the Continent, were matters
of common occurrence at an earlier date; so that there can be no
difficulty as to the means by which the game might be introduced from
Asia to the north of Europe. Into this curious question Sir Frederick
Madden has entered with great learning and ability, collecting the
numerous observations of previous writers, and illustrating them from
his own copious stores.[593] It will suffice for our present purpose
to notice the remarkable illustrations of the implements of this game
which have been discovered in Scotland, surpassing in number and value
any specimens of ancient chessmen known to exist, if we except the set
still preserved in the Cabinet of Antiquities in the Bibliothèque du
Roi at Paris, and which there is satisfactory evidence for believing
may be the very chessmen presented to Charlemagne by the Empress Irene,
or her successor Nicephorus.
In the spring of 1831, the inroads effected by the sea undermined and
carried away a considerable portion of a sandbank in the parish of
Uig, Isle of Lewis, and uncovered a small subterranean stone building
like an oven, at some depth below the surface. The exposure of this
singular structure having excited the curiosity, or more probably the
cupidity, of a peasant who chanced to be working in the neighbourhood,
he proceeded to break into it, when he was astonished to see what he
concluded to be an assemblage of elves or gnomes upon whose mysteries
he had unconsciously intruded. The superstitious Highlander flung
down his spade, and fled home in dismay; but incited by the bolder
curiosity of his wife he was at length induced to return to the spot,
and bring away with him the singular little ivory figures, which had
not unnaturally appeared to him the pigmy sprites of Celtic folk-lore.
They consisted in all of at least ninety-two pieces, including fourteen
tablemen or draughtsmen, eight of which are kings, eight queens,
thirteen bishops, fifteen knights, and twelve figures of footmen, to
which Sir Frederick Madden gives the name of warders.[594] These have
been so carefully and minutely illustrated in the valuable remarks in
the Archæologia, that a slight description will now suffice.
They form altogether portions of eight or more sets, none of which,
however, appear to be complete. They vary considerably in size, the
largest being four and one-eighth inches in height, while the smallest
measures fully an inch less; but the smaller sets are, upon the whole,
more carefully and elaborately carved. The annexed illustration
represents one of the smaller kings, now in the collection of Mr.
Sharp. In point of costume it closely resembles the example engraved
in the Archæologia, as well as the others of the set, though differing
somewhat in the fashion of the beard. The king is represented as an
old bearded man, with long hair falling in plaits over his shoulders,
and a low trefoil crown on his head. He is seated on a chair with
a high back, richly carved with intricate tracery and ornaments,
corresponding, for the most part, to the style of decoration with which
we are familiar on the Romanesque work of the twelfth century, and
holds a short sword with both hands across his knees, as if in the act
of drawing it.
[Illustration]
The queens are crowned and throned in like manner. They are represented
seated in a contemplative posture, resting the head upon the hand;
and two of them hold drinking horns in their left hands. The most
striking portion of their costume, represented in the accompanying
engraving from one of those in Mr. Sharp's collection, is a species
of hood depending from the back of the head, and spreading over the
shoulders.[595]
[Illustration]
Of the bishops some are seated in chairs similar to those occupied
by the kings and queens, while others are in a standing posture.
Sir F. Madden remarks, "all of the sitting figures and four of the
standing ones wear the chasuble, dalmatic, stole, and tunic of the form
anciently prescribed, and corresponding with representations of much
greater antiquity. The remainder have a cope instead of a chasuble,
but omit the stole and dalmatic. The mitres are very low, and in some
instances quite plain, but have the double band or _infulæ_ attached
behind. The hair is cut short round the head. They hold a crosier with
one or with both hands; and in the former instances, the other hand
holds a book or is raised in the attitude of benediction."
The knights afford perhaps the most characteristic examples of the
costume of the period. They are mounted on horseback, armed with a
heavy spear, and a long kite-shaped shield. Beneath the shield appears
the sword, attached to the waist by a belt. The helmets are mostly of
a conical shape, in addition to which several have nasals projecting
in front, and round flaps protecting the ears and neck. The horses
are caparisoned in high saddles, stirrups, and bridles, and with long
saddlecloths, fringed with ornamental borders, reaching to the ground.
The footmen or warders bear the same kite-shaped shields as the
horsemen, and are armed with swords and head-pieces of iron of
different forms. The costume otherwise worn by them has obviously been
made subservient to the convenience of the carver, as in the long
saddlecloths of the horsemen, and consists, for the most part, of an
ample flowing robe, reaching to the ground and concealing the feet.
Numerous variations occur in the details of these remarkable carvings,
and the utmost variety of design characterizes the ornamentation of
the chairs on which the kings, queens, and bishops are seated. Their
dresses also vary in ornamental detail, and each of the shields, both
of the knights and warders, is decorated with some peculiar device or
interlaced pattern, some of which approach very nearly to the heraldic
blazonry of a later period, and no doubt indicate the first accidental
rudiments of medieval cognizances.
The various details of costume and ornament indicated in this brief
description, furnish the chief evidence by which we may hope to assign
the period and place of manufacture of these interesting works of early
art. This question has already been discussed with much learning and
ability by Sir Frederick Madden, who remarks, "I shall now proceed to
develop the result of my inquiries in respect to the place where and
the period when these chessmen were in all probability manufactured. I
shall draw my inferences from three separate subjects of consideration;
the material of which they are made, the costume in which they appear,
and the historical passages to be found in the ancient writings of
Scandinavia; and from each I shall endeavour to prove that these
pieces were executed about the middle of the twelfth century, by the
same extraordinary race of people who, at an earlier period of time,
under the general name of _Northmen_, overran the greater part of
Europe." Against the conclusions carefully arrived at by following out
this proposed course of reasoning, with the exception of the period
to which they are assigned, I venture, in all deference, to enter a
demurrer. It has been so long the fashion to assign every indication
of early art and civilisation found in Scotland to these Scandinavian
invaders,--though, as I trust has already been shewn, in many cases
without evidence and upon false premises,--that it becomes the Scottish
archæologist to receive such conclusions with caution, even when
advanced by high authorities and supported by evidence. The farther we
pursue this investigation into the history of primitive native art we
find the less reason to assign to it a foreign origin, or to adopt the
improbable theory that the rude Scandinavian rovers brought with them
from the Pagan North new elements of civilisation and refinement to
replace the Christian arts which they eradicated at the point of the
sword. Singer justly remarks on the characteristic difference between
the Greek and Scandinavian traditions of the mythic artist, Dædalus or
Weland, that the Greeks ascribed to theirs: "Plastic works, and above
all images of the gods, while the Scandinavians attributed to their
workman principally weapons of a superior temper. It is that the Greeks
were a people alive to the beauty of mythologic representations. The
Scandinavians, on the contrary, valued nothing but good swords, with
which they conquered that which the rude climate of the North denied
them."[596] Doubtless, by the middle of the twelfth century a very
great change had taken place, but then we trace it not in the invention
of a northern Christian art, but in the tardy adoption of what was
already common to the ecclesiology and arts of Christendom.
As to the material of the Lewis chessmen, the mere fact of their being
made of the tusks of the _Rostungr_ or Walrus--the "huel-bone" of
Chaucer--can no more prove their Scandinavian origin, than that of
the still older set of Charlemagne being of ivory[597] (presuming
this to mean the elephant's tusk) affords any evidence of Indian
manufacture. By the middle of the twelfth century, the Northmen had
traded as well as warred with Scotland for nearly three centuries, and
were at that late period, as Mr. Worsaae remarks, "the central point
for an extensive commerce between the east and the northern parts
of Europe."[598] The author of the _Kongs-Skugg-sio_, or Speculum
Regale, composed, as Einersen concludes, between the years 1154-1164,
but certainly before the close of the century, takes particular
notice of the Rostungr, and mentions also the circumstance of its
teeth and hide being used as articles of commerce. Such indeed almost
of necessity follows from the evidence of the frequent voyages of
the Scandinavians in pursuit of these animals, at a time when they
had abandoned the old predatory habits of the Vikings for a regular
government and peaceful intercourse with other nations. The nature
of their settlements on the Scottish islands and mainland, and their
alliances and intermarriage with the aboriginal race, may also suffice,
if further proof be needed, to shew that the walrus ivory could be no
great rarity in Scotland, when it formed a special article of commerce
with the Northmen. We accordingly find distinct evidence of its native
use: "Ivory dirk-hilts, elegantly turned or wrought by the hand, were
manufactured in various parts of the Highlands and isles. Of these
specimens still remain at Fingask and Glengary,"[599] and a curious
large sword, evidently of early date, preserved at Hawthornden, near
Edinburgh, has the hilt made of the narwhal's tusk. The argument of
Scandinavian origin from the material is therefore of no value, and
the varied devices on the chairs and other highly decorated portions
of the Lewis chessmen are equally little indicative of Northern art.
They are the same details as are familiar to us on the Romanesque work
of the twelfth century, never yet traced to a Northern source. In
St. Magnus Cathedral we have a most valuable specimen of Romanesque
style, executed in obedience to the piety of a Scandinavian jarl of
the Scottish Isles, but so far from finding in it any trace of a style
peculiar to the Northmen, its oldest portions are characterized by
the usual features of the fully developed style, manifestly derived
from Southern models, and betraying in these the later date of its
foundation than the examples of the same class which still remain at
Durham and Dunfermline. No Scandinavian ecclesiologist, I believe,
doubts the foreign origin of the few examples of the earlier styles
of medieval ecclesiastical architecture still remaining in Norway
and Sweden; and the evidence already adduced tends to suggest the
conclusion that whatever military and naval skill the natives of
Scotland might acquire from their intercourse with the Northmen, they
were much more likely to impart than to receive a superior knowledge in
the arts of the sculptor and the carver. Christianity was introduced
into Scotland and Ireland some centuries before its acceptance by
the Scandinavians, yet the primitive Christian monuments of Denmark
or Norway will, as works of art, bear no comparison with those which
preceded them in Scotland.
[Illustration]
To the costume of the twelfth century we must therefore look for the
only safe guide to the origin of the Lewis chessmen. Those of the kings
and queens are of little value for this purpose, and those of the
bishops, though minutest of all, of none. It is to the military costume
of which the knights and footmen afford such curious examples that we
must have recourse for some solution of the question. But these also
are mostly of Southern and not of Scandinavian origin. Both the shield
and the pointed helmet are what would usually be styled Norman. We find
the kite-shaped shield represented in the Bayeux tapestry; a curious
example of it is engraved on a candlestick of the twelfth century, now
in the collection at Goodrich Court;[600] and a still more conclusive
instance is the remarkable group of warriors, each with nasal, spear,
and kite-shaped shield, sculptured on the lintel of the doorway of
Fordington Church, Dorchester, _circa_ 1160.[601] Sir S. R. Meyrick
conjectures that the Normans derived this shield from Sicily. There
is, at any rate, good evidence for believing that while it was in use
in Britain early in the twelfth century, the Northmen retained their
round shield till a later period. Judging from Mr. Worsaae's valuable
treatise, as well as from the "Guide to Northern Antiquities," the
round shield appears to be alone known among the defensive arms of the
latest Pagan period, which closes little more than a century prior to
the probable date of the Lewis chessmen. But Sir F. Madden has referred
to an authority the bearing of which on this point has escaped him,
although it seems conclusive. The passage is that in Giraldus, (quoted
from a MS. temp. John,) in which he describes the descent of the
Norwegians under Hasculph or Asgal, to attack the city of Dublin, then
defended by Miles de Cogan, about the year 1172, as follows: "A navibus
igitur certatim erumpentibus, duce Johanne ... viri bellicosi Danico
more undique ferro vestiti, alii loricis longis, alii laminis ferreis
arte consutis, _clipeis quoque rotundis et rubris_, circulariter ferro
munitis, homines tam animis ferrei quam armis, ordinatis turmis, ad
portam orientalem muros invadunt." Such shields, formed of wood bound
with iron, and with an iron umbo in the centre, are still preserved
in Norway, and correspond not only to the requisitions of the old
Gulathings-law, cap. 309, circa 1180, but even to a later one--circa
1270. Into the minuter details of _wambeys_, _gambeson_, _panzar_, &c.,
referred to in the Archæologia, it is needless to enter, because most
of them are wanting on the chessmen, or can at best only be guessed
at. Were the swords and shields removed from the warders, along with
their beards, so little would any one dream of detecting such traces
of medieval armour in their costume, that even their sex might be in
doubt, and some of their conical helmets and gambesons might serve
equally well for the scapulars and tunics of gentle nuns.[602] Of
the horsemen also little positive can be made out of anything but
the helmet and shield; and of the former scarcely two are alike on
knights or warders, the difference in some of them amounting to a total
dissimilarity in form and fashion. Perhaps the most remarkable feature
in the knight-pieces is the small size of the horses, so characteristic
of the old Scottish breed. But it is even matter of doubt if the Norse
warriors of the twelfth century ever fought on horseback. If they did
so at that period, it was a novelty borrowed, like their new faith and
arts, from the nations of the south.
A figure of a mounted warrior, apparently bearing a close resemblance
to the chess knights, with a peaked helmet, carrying a spear, and with
a long saddle cloth pendant from his horse, is sculptured in relief,
amid knotwork and floriated ornaments, on an early monumental slab in
the Relig Oran at Iona. A claymore of antique form occupies the centre
of the slab, but the shield is concealed by the position of the figure.
It is not, however, to the sculptured monuments either of Scotland or
of Norway and Denmark that we must look for identifying the costume
of these figures with any contemporary examples. Fortunately the same
class of evidence has been preserved, on perhaps still more trustworthy
authority, not in marble but in wax, in the royal and baronial seals
attached to early charters. From these we learn that prior to the date
of the Norwegians assailing Miles de Cogan, armed with their "shields,
round and red," both the peaked helmet and nasal, and the kite-shaped
shield, were the usual defensive armour of the Scottish baron. On the
seal, for example, appended to the charter of Robert de Lundres, c.
A.D. 1165, conveying a carucate of land in Roxburghshire to the Abbey
of Melros, the knight is represented on horseback in full armour, with
a flattened helmet with nasal and a kite-shaped shield.[603] So also
in the seals of Uchtred, son of Osulf: William son of John: Philip de
Valoniis, chamberlain of Scotland, c. A.D. 1176; and on that of Richard
de Morville, constable of Scotland, appended to a charter A.D. 1176:
all among the charters of the Abbey of Melros, about the middle of the
twelfth century, we find the kite-shaped shield, the nasal, and the
peaked helmet; while in the very beautiful seal of Patrick de Dunbar,
c. A.D. 1200, the nasal appears attached to a round chapel-de-fer,
very similar to those worn by some of the Lewis warders.[604] Such
examples might be greatly multiplied, but these are sufficient to shew
the entire correspondence of the chessmen found in Lewis, both with
the contemporary native costume and with other productions of Scottish
art of the twelfth century, while it still remains to be shewn that
such resemblance is traceable in any single undoubted Scandinavian work
of the same period. The intimate intercourse between the Scandinavian
and native races of the north of Scotland, and their offensive and
defensive alliances already referred to, would indeed render it
probable that in the twelfth century no great difference existed in
their weapons or defensive armour. Yet we find no traces in the arms
or armour of the Scottish Highlanders, with whom alone such close
alliances were formed, of anything resembling those in question. In the
Lothians, or Saxonia, as it is sometimes styled even in the Pictish
Chronicle, it was entirely different. Before the close of the eleventh
century, a mingled Saxon and Norman population occupied the old kingdom
of Northumbria, a Saxon queen shared the Scottish throne, and exercised
a most important influence in changing the manners of the people,
and in modifying and reforming their ecclesiastical system. To this
period, therefore, and from this source it is that we must look for the
introduction of the military costume of the South, as well as of the
minutiæ of clerical attire, which may be presumed to have previously
been as little in conformity with the Roman model as the other parts of
the system.
Founding on the supposed discovery of the Lewis chessmen within
tide-mark, and exposed to the sea on the shores of Lewis, it has
been suggested that they "formed part of the stock of an Icelandic
_kaup-mann_ or merchant, who carried these articles to the Hebrides
or Ireland for the sake of traffic; and the ship in which they were
conveyed being wrecked, these figures were swept by the waves on
shore, and buried beneath the sandbank."[605] This supposition,
however, was formed under imperfect information of the circumstances
attending the discovery, as they were found in a stone building,
which, from the general description furnished of it, there appears
reason to assume, must have been a Scottish Weem, and in the vicinity
of a considerable ruin. There is greater probability in the earlier
conjecture, that the carving of these ancient chessmen may have
helped to relieve the monotony of cloistral seclusion. The minuteness
of detail in the ecclesiastical costume is much more explicable on
such a supposition than by a theory which would ascribe either to an
Icelandic _kaup-mann_, or Norse carver of the twelfth century, such a
knowledge of Episcopal chasuble, dalmatic, stole, cope, and tunic, as
is traceable in the bishops of the Lewis chessmen.
[Illustration]
Danish antiquaries have naturally been little inclined to dispute
the idea of a Scandinavian origin assigned on such high authority to
the beautiful specimens of carved chessmen found in Scotland. A keen
spirit of nationality has been enlisted with the happiest effects in
the cause of Northern Archæology, and however honestly bent on the
discovery of truth, it was scarcely to be looked for that the Danish
archæologist should search too curiously into the evidence by which
such valuable relics were handed over to him. They are, accordingly,
referred to in the Report of the Northern Antiquaries for 1836, under
the title of Scandinavian Chessmen, and at length figure in the "Guide
to Northern Archæology," among articles from the Christian Period,
without its even being hinted that they were discovered, not in
Denmark but in Scotland. The subject is treated more at large in the
interesting paper on "Some Ancient Scandinavian Chessmen," included
in the Report of the Northern Antiquaries to its British and American
Members, in which several specimens found in Scandinavia are described
and engraved. One of these, a female figure on horseback, supposed to
be a queen-piece, (also figured in the Guide to Northern Archæology,
p. 75,) is in the private collection of Professor Sjöborg. On it
the writer remarks,--"The serpentine ornament upon it resembles, it
will be observed, those on several of the chessmen found at Lewis.
The mantle, too, or veil, hanging down the shoulders of the figure,
is another point of similitude between them." A comparison of the
engraving in Lord Ellesmere's translation of the Guide to Northern
Archæology, with the Lewis chessmen in the British Museum, will suffice
to shew how easily men are persuaded of what they wish to believe. The
character both of horse and rider essentially differ; the costumes in
no way resemble each other more than all female dresses necessarily
do; while the horses differ as much as is well possible. In the Lewis
knights their horses' manes are cut short and stand up, while the
hair hangs down over their foreheads. In the Scandinavian example the
mane is long, and the forehead uncovered; and what is no less worthy
of note, the horse, both in this and the following examples, differs
from the former in being of full size, as tested by the comparative
proportions of the rider. The horse-furniture is equally dissimilar:
but a still greater and more important disagreement is in the style of
art. A very great resemblance may be traced between the square forms
and most characteristic details of the Lewis horses' heads, and the
contemporary sculptures of Dalmeny Church, Linlithgowshire, where a
series of similar heads occur in the corbel-table of the Apse. Such
a comparison affords the best test of style, the peculiarities of
which are more easily illustrated than described. No such resemblance
could possibly be suggested by Professor Sjöborg's chesspiece; and the
similarity which the Danish antiquaries discover in its serpentine
ornament to those of the Lewis carvings, is little more satisfactory.
The difference in style is no less obvious in two carved groups from
the Christiansborg Collection at Copenhagen, (tab. vi. figs. 1, 2,)
representing, the one a king and the other a queen on horseback, and
surrounded each by four attendants. They are also formed of the tooth
of the _Rostungr_ or walrus, and are believed to be the king and queen
pieces of a set of chessmen. It is sufficient to say of them that
they bear equally little resemblance to the Lewis figures in arms,
armour, costume, or ornamental details. In Scotland it is otherwise.
Examples have been found there admitting of comparison with the Lewis
chessmen. Pennant engraves one discovered in the ruins of Dunstaffnage
Castle, Argyleshire, the ancient royal abode of the Dalriadic kings. It
represents a king seated in a chair of square form, holding a book in
the left hand. The costume differs from the kings of the Lewis sets,
and obviously belongs to a somewhat later period; but the general
arrangement of the figures correspond, and there can be no doubt that
the latter is the king-piece of a similar set of chessmen. It is
still preserved at Dunstaffnage, where it was examined by Pennant in
1772.[606]
Another of the chesspieces referred to is in the Museum of the Scottish
Antiquaries, and furnishes a most beautiful example of the skill of
the early carvers. It is also wrought from the walrus ivory, and may
be presumed to have formed a warder or rook-piece of the set. It
represents two mailed knights, armed with sword and shield, and may
be ascribed to the early part of the thirteenth century. The shields
are shorter than in the Lewis figures, and the devices afford an
interesting means of comparison. Several of the ornamental patterns
wrought on the shields of the former bear such close resemblance to
heraldic distinctions that they admit of intelligible description
according to rules of blazonry, yet they are all evidently mere
arbitrary ornaments and not bearings; whereas on one of the shields
of the latter knight we have a curious and very early example of
_dimidiation_ in heraldry,--a _fleur-de-lys_ dimidiated on a diapered
field,--a figure little likely to be chosen for mere ornament. The
history of this interesting relic is unknown. It was presented to
the Society by Lord Macdonald in 1782, as _the handle of a Highland
dirk_. From his extensive possessions in the Isle of Skye, it is
not improbable that it may have been found there, where the frequent
discovery of relics of different periods attests the ancient presence
of a population skilled in the useful and ornamental arts. It measures
three and five-eighth inches in height, and is fully equal, in point of
workmanship, to any of the Lewis figures, though certainly exhibiting
no characteristics which should suggest any doubt of its native
workmanship.
[Illustration: Chesspiece, Scottish Antiquarian Museum.]
The annexed woodcut exhibits another chesspiece, apparently of a still
later date, preserved in the collection formed by Sir John Clerk at
Penicuick House. Attached to it is a parchment label in the handwriting
of the old Scottish Antiquary, which thus describes it: "An ancient
piece of sculpture on the tooth of a whale. It was found by Jo. Adair,
geographer, in the north of Scotland, anno 1682. All the figures are
remarkable." John Adair, geographer for Scotland, was appointed by the
Lords of the Scottish Privy-Council, in 1682, to make a survey of the
whole kingdom, and maps of the different shires. This he effected, and
published the first part of his work, but, unfortunately, obstacles
arising apparently from the tardy advances of the necessary funds,
prevented the second part--including his voyage round the Western Isles
and an account of the Roman wall--from ever appearing, and his papers,
it is to be feared, no longer exist.[607] It was, no doubt, while he
was engaged on this survey, that the interesting relic was discovered
which is figured here. It has evidently formed a queen-piece, though
consisting in all of seven figures. The queen is represented crowned,
and seated on her throne, with a lap-dog on her knee, and apparently a
book in her right hand. On her left is a knight in full armour, with
drawn sword, and from whose costume we can have little hesitation in
assigning the work to the early part of the fourteenth century. On the
right hand of the throne stands a trouvere or minstrel playing on the
crowde, an ancient musical instrument somewhat resembling the violin.
Behind are four female figures, holding each other by the hand, and the
one next to the minstrel bearing a palm-branch. This curious chesspiece
is of great value; as adding another link to the chain of chronological
evidence by which we trace the continuous native production of these
costly relics of ancient pastime in our own country.
[Illustration: Queen-piece, Penicuick House.]
Mr. Albert Way has described two other very curious chessmen, both
knight-pieces. One of these, which is preserved in the Ashmolean
Museum, is also believed to be made of the walrus tooth, and is
interesting as an example of military costume, apparently belonging to
the early part of the reign of Henry III. The other figure is carved in
ivory, and furnishes a very minute and characteristic illustration of
the military costume and horse-armour in use during the reign of Edward
III.[608] But a much more remarkable relic of the same class, believed
to be a queen-piece, is figured and described in the Archæological
Journal.[609] It was found, about twenty years since, in the ruins of
Kirkstall Abbey, and is said to bear some resemblance to another of
inferior workmanship, discovered along with several chesspieces at
Woodperry, Oxfordshire. One of these, a bishop, is also engraved in the
Archæological Journal.[610] The form of the Kirkstall piece is further
illustrated by the illuminations of a German MS. of the fourteenth
century,[611] where Otho, Marquis of Brandenbourg, who died in 1298, is
represented playing at chess with a lady, and with such a piece before
him on the board. The details of this queen-piece are very peculiar.
The four-leaved flower and triangular foliation would suggest a date
not earlier than the close of the thirteenth century; nor is there
anything irreconcilable with this in the very singular figures which
they accompany. A parallel may be found to the most remarkable of them
in the sculptural details which the exuberant fancy of that period
lavished on cathedrals and shrines, without, we may suspect, always
troubling themselves for the meanings which modern symbolists insist on
deducing from them.
One other Scottish example of a chesspiece may be mentioned. It is
a small mutilated ivory figure, apparently of a king, in classic
costume, and with a drawn sword in his hand, found a few years since
among the ruins of North-Berwick Abbey. But it belongs to a much
more recent period than any of those previously referred to, and
is inferior to them as a work of art. Were it not, indeed, for the
Scandinavian origin so generally assigned to nearly all the early
examples of British chessmen, their manifest classification among the
productions of Christian art would have rendered it more consistent
with an orderly system of chronology to treat of them along with late
medieval antiquities. The "Collection of Inventories of the Royal
Wardrobe and Jewel House," among its many curious items, furnishes
this interesting notice of the tables and chessmen of James IV., and
possibly of older Scottish kings:--"Ane pair of tabillis of silvir,
ourgilt with gold, indentit with jasp and cristallyne, with table men
and chess men of jasp and cristallyne."[612] The entry sufficiently
shews the familiarity of the Scottish court with the use both of table
and chessmen at the date of its record, in the reign of James V., A.D.
1539. But evidence is hardly needed to prove the knowledge of a pastime
which was then a favourite in every European court. The tables and
chessmen are entered among the royal jewels, and unfortunately their
costly materials, which admitted of such a classification, render it
vain to hope that they may still be in existence, like the older but
more homely chessmen of Charlemagne.
FOOTNOTES:
[590] _Ante_, p. 139.
[591] Hist. of Galloway, vol. ii. App. p. 67. New Stat. Acc.,
Kirkcudbrightshire, vol. iv. p. 103.
[592] This game still survives among the juvenile sports of Scotland,
played with cherry stones, or _paips_, _Ang._ pips, and called
_nieves_, _i.e._, fists, from their being held in the closed hand. Some
of these games with _paips_ may perhaps claim a classic origin. Ovid
alludes to one played with nuts,--_Nux Elegia_, ver. 72. Hence the
phrase _nuces relinquere_, to put away childish things; to become a man.
[593] Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 203.
[594] The account in the text differs as to the number of pieces,
as well as in some other and more important points, from that given
in the Archæologia, (vol. xxiv. p. 212.) Sir F. Madden, however,
only describes those which were acquired by the Trustees of the
British Museum. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., to whom I owe these
particulars, possesses eleven pieces, consisting of two kings, three
queens, three bishops, one knight, and two warders. Ten of these he
selected from the whole, previous to their possessor, Mr. Roderick
Ririe, offering them to the Trustees. The remaining one was afterwards
obtained from a person residing in Lewis. Sir F. Madden is also
mistaken in speaking of their having been long subject to the action of
salt-water. They were found at some distance from the shore; a sudden
and very considerable inroad having been made by the sea. A minute
of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, referring to the exhibition
of these chessmen, 11th April 1831, describes them as "found buried
fifteen feet under a bank of sand." Mr. Sharp has in his possession the
original receipt given to Mr. Ririe by the jeweller in Edinburgh, with
whom they were deposited, which describes them as "fifty-eight figures,
thirty-four pieces, and a buckle of ivory or bone."
[595] The queen figure, of which a back view is given in the engraving
in order to shew the peculiar form of the head-dress, holds in the left
hand a horn similar to that which one of the queen figures now in the
British Museum bears. In cutting this figure the carver has exposed the
core of the tooth, and the side of the chair here seen is formed of
another piece of ivory attached to it with pins of the same material.
This is so neatly done that Mr. Sharp's attention was called to it for
the first time when I was drawing the piece.
[596] Singer's Wayland Smith, p. lxxiii.
[597] "L'Empereur et Roy de France, Sainct Charlemagne, a donné, au
Thresor de Sainct Denys un jeu d'eschets, avec le tablier, _le tout
d'yvoire_."--Hist. Abbey of St. Denis, 1625.
[598] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 148.
[599] Stuart's Costume of the Clans, Introd. p. xxxiv.
[600] Archæologia, vol. xxiii. Plate XXVIII. p. 317.
[601] Glossary of Architecture, fifth edit. vol. ii. Plate LXXIII.
[602] _Vide_, in addition to figure shewn here, Archæol. vol. xxiv. Pl.
XLVIII. figs. 3, 4.
[603] Liber Sancti de Melros, p. 76, No. 88.
[604] _Vide_ Laing's Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Scottish Seals.
Nos. 283, 593, 825, 828, 843. Edin. 1850.
[605] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 290.
[606] It was exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, by the late Captain Campbell of Inistore, in 1833, but I
have been unsuccessful in several attempts since to ascertain in whose
custody it now is, in order to obtain access to it for the purpose of
making a drawing from the original.
[607] _Vide_ Papers relative to the Geographical Description, &c. of
Scotland, by John Adair, F.R.S., 1686-1723. Bannatyne Miscellany, vol.
ii. p. 347.
[608] Archæol. Journal, vol. iii. pp. 243, 244.
[609] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 170.
[610] Archæol. Journal, vol. iii. p. 121.
[611] Bibl. Du Roi, No. 7266. Ibid. vol. vi.
[612] Collection of Inventories, p. 49.