decoration must, they expand with a sort of floral freedom, dealing in the arrangements of branches, leaves, flowers, and clusters. Many of them, as works of art, are extremely beautiful. None of them are so ancient as their eastern brethren; and whether or not it be from a Celtic distaste of change, the oldest types are imitated down to days comparatively modern, even to the early part of the eighteenth century. Altogether, this school of art, with at the one extremity the rudest sculptures on the stones in north-eastern Scotland, and at the other the splendid crosses of Ireland, is worthy of more study, even as part of the history of art, than it has hitherto received.1

From the point we have now reached, we can trace this school of art farther onwards, and into a higher development. Specimens of it are to be seen in the bindings of ancient Irish psalters, and other books held

1 For the study of the stones of the eastern district, besides and in aid of local inspection, the exhaustive work prepared by Mr Stuart for the Spalding Club will supersede everything else in the shape of art and literature. As this goes to press, a tempting glimpse has been obtained of the second part-not yet issued-of Mr Stuart's great work. He there gives some specimens of the western stones-enough to excite some emulation on the richer side of Scotland to imitate what has been done in the north-east.

When this is done, and the whole result is examined, along with some other specimens of art to be presently noticed, it will be found that there existed a widespread school of decorative art, so far claiming a Scottish origin that as yet the most ancient specimens of the peculiar style of workmanship are found in Scotland. Mr Stuart notices the elements common to the sculptured stones of Scotland and the decorated crosses of Ireland, which make it difficult, if not impracticable, to draw a distinct dividing line between them. He points to some very interesting variations of the one from the other, which, instead of separating them by a dividing line, show them to have the variations which belong to members of the same family.

"If the knowledge of this intricate style of ornament was introduced into Pictland from Ireland, the fact remains, that such knowledge was

sacred. The binding was, in fact, the shrine in which the book, as a holy relic, was enclosed; and it behoved such a receptacle to be decorated according to the highest skill of the age. In the illumination of the manuscripts themselves there was opportunity for bringing in a new element of art in the application of colour, and these illuminations by Irish scribes are so remarkable as to have received much attention from

foreign critics of art. Dr Waagen was struck with the beauty and variety of their geometric patterns, and the precision and firmness with which each design was carried to its ultimate conclusions. He observed the specialty already hinted at, that the artists, so wonderful in geometric design, yet had little hold upon art proper-had no command over perspective anatomy, the distribution of light and shade, or the transcript of natural colours. All their efforts to produce the human

used in so independent a fashion that we must allow to it the merit of a national art. For not only did it make use of the sculptures which it found on the earlier rude pillars, embellishing and working them up in the general design of the crosses, but it seems plain that the artists in Scotland preceded those in Ireland in the art of sculpturing the elaborate devices in question on stone.

"This will be granted if we bear in mind the prevailing character of the Scotch crosses, as compared with that of such Irish crosses as those at Monasterboice, Kells, and Clonmacnois. In Pictland the idea of the pillar stone is still retained. The cross is merely sculptured on the face of a pillar or erect slab, having its limbs filled up with the ornament in question on a flat surface. Occasionally a circle is cut on the face of the slab at the intersection of the limbs. A comparison will show that this is the Irish cross in germ, and that the latter is in a greatly more developed stage than the Scotch examples. In Ireland the stone is cut into the figure of a cross, with sculpture on its faces and edges, and the circle around the arms is cut free; so that we may regard a Scotch cross as an artist's draft on stone of the plan of an Irish one, and as first attempts at that form which the Irish cross subsequently attained. The subjects of the Irish sculptures are generally biblical, and the date of the crosses is probably two centuries later than those of Pictland.”—Preface, ii. 20.

figure or other objects were what is called "out of drawing" to an extent which helped to prove that their school of art was peculiar to themselves, and had not received aid from Continental models; and he concluded that "such a high cultivation of the purely technical part, at so early a period, with the total absence of all knowledge of the figurative part, which forms the true and the higher element of art, is certainly peculiar and remarkable."

There is a more remarkable instance, in which the specialties of this school of art caught the attention of a foreign critic. Of all the Continental monasteries with which the Irish churchmen were connected, the most illustrious in itself, and the most largely associated with these wanderers, was St Gall. Among the remarkable manuscripts preserved there, are very ancient Irish books-as old, it is said, as the seventh century. Some of them are richly illuminated, and we have the benefit of a critical examination of their decorations by Dr Ferdinand Keller. He notices the great preponderance of technical geometric decoration over high art, and especially observes that the human figure is brought in less to represent life than to fit into and complete a symmetrical design. He sets to work, in the analytic and classifying spirit of his country, to describe the specialties of the school of art before him; and whether or not we must adopt his conclusions about its origin, there is no denying the precision of his analysis.2 More satisfactory than his analysis,

1 Quoted by Dr Reeves in article on Early Irish Caligraphy, in the Ulster Journal of Archæology, July 1860.

2 "The principles of Irish ornamentation consist

"1. In a single band, or a number of bands interlaced diagonally and symmetrically, so as to form by their crossings a great variety of different

however, are some fac-similes of these decorated books, furnished by the author and repeated by the translator. In these the eye accustomed to the sculptured stones patterns. In the language of ordinary life, such an ornament is called with us 'zweifelstricke' (literally, doubtful bands).

"2. In one or two extremely fine spiral lines, which wind round each other and meet in the centre, while their ends run off again and form new spirals.

"3. In various representations of animals resembling birds, lizards, serpents, and dogs, which are often stretched out lengthwise in a disagreeable manner, and interlaced with each other, while their tails and tongues are drawn out into bands.

"4. In a row of broken diagonal strokes, which form different systems of lattice-work, resembling some kinds of Chinese ornaments.

"5. In panelling, generally composed of triangular compartments or other geometrical figures, which represent a kind of draught-board, or a mosaic of variegated stones.

"All these ornaments are usually distributed in well-defined compartments. In the initial letters, especially the larger ones, the genius of Irish ornamental design is found in full development, and brought to a degree of beauty and precision of execution of which it is almost impossible to form an idea without having seen it. Here are displayed, in the greatest profusion and variety, the spirals, the complicated serpentine windings, and the panelling; in short, the designer has expended his whole skill and knowledge in producing these gigantic initials, whose height is often from 10 to 15 French inches. The most difficult task in these patterns is, without doubt, the spiral lines. These are real masterpieces, which furnish a splendid proof of the extraordinary firmness of hand possessed by the artist.

"Every one of the larger initial letters is a rich and systematically planned composition, the closer examination of which becomes a kind of study in itself, if we would wish to follow the ideas of the designer, and account for the impression he aimed at producing on the observer. "In all these ornaments there breathes a peculiar spirit, which is foreign to the people of the West: there is in them a something mysterious, which imparts to the eye a certain feeling of uneasiness and suspense. This is especially the case with those frightful-looking monstrous figures of animals, whose limbs twist and twine themselves into a labyrinth of ornaments, where one can hardly resist the natural impulse to search for the other parts of their bodies, often nearly concealed, or passing into different strange creatures.

"The variety of these forms of ornament, with their luxuriant development, often extravagant, but sometimes uncommonly delicate and lovely, could not possibly have been the creation of a fancy which derived its nourishment and its stimulus from natural objects so devoid of colour and form as present themselves in the north of Ireland, and in the rocky

of Scotland finds itself at once at home. This special school of decoration is as certainly identified in these as in any specimens of Egyptian or Etruscan art. Indeed, the most complex and beautiful specimen furnished by the German artist, is but a variation on the specimen to which the same terms might be applied in the celebrated collection of transcripts of the sculptured stones of Scotland. There is one, then, though as yet but one, comprehensive conclusion to which the scrutiny recently applied to these monuments has brought us-that they show to us the development of a separate and remarkable school of art.

islands of the west of Scotland. They must have originated in the East, or at least have their prototypes there. That the Irish system of ornamentation does naturally find an analogy in Eastern countries is proved by the illustrations published by C. Knight, in a small work on Egypt. We there find the serpentine bands of the Irish ornaments appearing already in the oldest Egyptian and Ethiopian manuscripts, and with a similarity of colour and combination truly astonishing."

The last supposition must go for what it is worth-the description and the comparisons are, however, rendered obvious by the fac-similes given in the Ulster Journal. They may be compared with the stones at Shandwick, at Nigg in Ross-shire, at St Andrews, and at Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, forming Nos. 26, 28, 52, 54, and 121 in Mr Stuart's Collection. The analogy may indeed be in some measure tested through the imperfect medium of a woodcut.