Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/172

88 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOaiCAL PUBLICATIONS. in manuscripts. This is a circumstance to be accounted for by the rela- tive geographical situation of Anglesea and Cumberland The Irish Crosses and carved stones present us (archaeologically speaking) vdth more interesting details, since they are covered with groups of figures illustrative of events of Scripture history, each group in a separate compartment. An excellent instance of this may be seen in one of our former numbers, contained in a notice of Mr. Wakeman's useful " Archaeologia Hibernica."" Thus the great Cross on the shores of Lough Neagh contains upwards of twenty of these groups ; and it is a reproach to the antiquaries of Ireland that so many evidences of the early skill of their countrymen, as well as so many illustrations of early manners and customs, which these monuments exhibit, have not been collected and published. In addition to these groups of figures, the Irish Crosses present all the characteristic ornaments of early Irish art, as shown in manuscripts. The carved stones of the Isle of Man, Cumberland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, likewise present peculiar features, which we shall not now stop to describe. We hope at some future time to illustrate them, — not, indeed, in so splendid a manner as we find the monuments of Angusshire represented in the work now before us, but endeavouring to follow the admirable example of its striking accuracy. The sculptured remains of the West of Scotland are very numerous ; indeed, we believe that in Argyllshire alone (independently of the crosses removed from lona, and now erected at Inverary and Campbell-town), as many as forty crosses have been noticed. How far lona may have influenced the opposite coast of Scotland, we are unable to judge, for want of proper representations of the monuments themselves, either of lona or Argyllshire. It is to Gordon, Pennant, and Cordiner that we are indebted, up to the present time, for our knowledge of these early monuments of the eastern coast of Scotland ; but, as observed by Pinkerton, in a passage cited in the preface of the work before us, the figures of Pennant are too diminutive, whilst those of Cordiner cannot be trusted, his imagination being strangely perverted by fantastic ideas of the picturesque. The numerous stone monuments of Angusshire are here, however, represented with an artistic power, and, at the same time, with so truthful an adherence to the most minute and intricate details, that we are fully persuaded of their accuracy, without which the most elaborate drawings are worthless. These monuments for the most part consist, as Pinkerton observes, of " singular erect stones, generally with crosses on one side, and upon the other, sculptures, not ill executed for a barbarous age." The crosses are almost always carved upon the flat oblong stone, but rarely the stone itself is fashioned into the shape of a cross, and the open portions of the cross are filled with the most elaborate interlaced ribbon patterns. We find, moreover, on these stones 'the same diagonal Chinese-like pattern, and the same spiral pattern formed of several lines running from a common centre, their opposite ends going off to other circles, which peculiarly distinguish the Anglo-Hibernian manuscripts. We do not find, however, such elaborate interlaced lacertine figures as occur in the latter, although these strange animals are not wanting, as in the Aberlemno Cross (PI. No. IV.), in which we would especially draw - Arcliacol. .Journal, vol. v. p. 241.