Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

been the church which succeeded the building of Thorfinn's time. It is on record that it was reputed to have been dedicated to St. Peter. In complete analogy with this we find that the Celtic church of Deer, founded by St. Columba, was in King David's time re-dedicated to Christ and St. Peter. And there is still extant a drawing of the last century showing a bird's-eye view of Birsay, with the names of the localities immediately around. In this drawing the church on the Brough, which had the reputed Norse dedication to St. Peter, is represented as St. Come's Church. If there was an ecclesiastical community of Celtic foundation at Birsay, having a church dedicated to St. Columba, this bell may have belonged to them, and its special sanctity may have arisen from its being blessed by the great founder of Celtic Christianity in Northern Scotland, and sent as the token of his good wishes for the prosperity of the infant church in the Orkneys. We are told by Adamnan that when he was at the residence of King Bruide on the banks of the Ness he bespoke the protection of one of the petty kings of the Orkneys for Cormac and his companions, who had gone thither built of the dark gray whinstone of the district, and having no freestone dressings to door or windows or chancel opening. The walls are from 2 feet 4 inches to 2 feet 9 inches thick, except the west wall, which is 3 feet 8 inches thick. The nave is 28 feet 3 inches by 15 feet 6 inches internally. The only doorway is in the west end, 3 feet 8 inches wide. Only 3 feet of its height remains. In the north-east and south-east corners of the nave are the foundations of two circular spaces, in one of which the lowest step of a freestone circular stair remains. A stone seat, 14 inches high and 14 inches wide, runs all round the inside of the nave. The chancel entrance is 4 feet 3 inches wide, with plain jambs 3 feet 7 inches thick. Only 4 feet of their height remains. The chancel is of the square form common in early Norwegian churches, 10 feet 9 inches by 10 feet 3 inches internally. One window remains in the north wall, 3 feet high by 10 inches wide, splaying both internally and externally to 22 inches wide. Part of the altar remains at the chord of the apse. Only 2 feet of the height of the apse remains.

1 A facsimile of this drawing is given in Low's Tour in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, 1774 (Kirkwall, 1879), p. li.

in search of a new field of labour, and that this intervention was the means of saving Cormac from being put to death. Such indications as these do not amount to evidence of the specific history and associations of the bell, but they point to the conclusions that there was a foundation of the early Celtic Church at Birsay; that it was first dedicated to St. Columba, afterwards to Christ, and thirdly to St. Peter; that the community of Celtic ecclesiastics of the original foundation were driven from their settlement or slain by the heathen invaders; that when the danger first threatened them they would naturally conceal their bell, as we know that the shrine of St. Columba was concealed in similar circumstances at Iona by burying it under ground;1 and that, from the permanent nature of the occupation of Orkney by the Northmen, there would be no opportunity for the resuscitation of such an ecclesiastical community once scattered by pillage or extinguished by death.

The bell thus found buried at Birsay is the largest but one of the Scottish series. I shall now describe the smallest, which was also found in Orkney in circumstances almost as peculiar.

In 1870 Dr. Traill of Woodwick excavated a large grassgrown mound of circular form in the island of North Ronaldsay called the Broch of Burrian. The mound, as is common in these islands, covered the remains of one of the brochs, or circular towers, which are so numerous in the northern and western districts of Scotland, and of which I shall give detailed descriptions in a future lecture. It is sufficient at present to say that when the structure was cleared from the débris of the ruins of the upper part which had fallen down into the interior and around the base of the tower till it had assumed the appearance of a conical mound, it was found

1 Reeves's Introduction to Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, p. lxxxii. (Scottish Historians). Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii. p. 301.

that the lower part remained entire to a height of from 10 to 12 feet. The tower was 30 feet in diameter internally, the wall 15 feet thick, built entirely of undressed and uncemented stones. In clearing out the internal area a large and curious collection of implements and ornaments, and the general refuse of the every-day life of the inmates, was found. This interesting collection is preserved in the Museum, and from its character and completeness is one of the most instructive that has ever been recovered from the ruins of an ancient human habitation. It presents a variety of implements in stone, bone, bronze, and iron. The principal groups are whorls for spinning and combs for weaving, and a large assortment of needles and pins in bone and bronze, knives of iron, and blades and ferules of spears, double-edged combs of bone, and buttons and playing dice, glass beads and pottery. In its general aspect the collection resembles similar collections of smaller extent that have been made from many other brochs. But it contains more articles than have been found in any other, and it contains some articles of a kind that have not been found in any other. These are, first, a stone 28 inches long and 14 inches broad, having engraved upon its flat face the figure of a cross of peculiar form, having the intersections of the arms and stem hollowed out into segments of circles. This form of cross is Celtic, and of an early period. Alongside of the cross is engraved an inscription in characters which are not alphabetic, that is to say, the different letters are represented by groups of short straight lines of varying number drawn on either side of, or across a stem line, so that they are all attached to it like the branches to a tree. This inscription has not been satisfactorily deciphered, but it belongs to a well-known class of monumental inscriptions, which will be described more fully in a subsequent lecture. In the meantime it is sufficient to say that they form a class peculiar to Celtic areas, and mostly, if

not exclusively, of early Christian times. The second object of unusual character that occurs in this collection is a metatarsal bone of a small ox, which has engraved on it two of the symbols which are so frequently found on the sculptured memorial stones of the early Christian time in Scotland. The third object is a small bell (Fig. 55) made of thin sheet iron, riveted up the side, having a loop handle at the top, and flattened on the sides, exactly similar in everything but size to the buried bell of Birsay. It is, as I have said, the smallest of these Scottish bells, being only 2 inches in height, 2 inches in breadth, and 1 inch in width. Like most of these iron bells, it still bears indications of having been coated externally with bronze to enhance its appearance and sweeten its sound. It is very small, but not so much smaller than other bells of the same description that are known as sacred bells as to occasion a doubt as to its ecclesiastical character, and its association with the engraved symbols, the cross, and the Celtic inscription is sufficient to substantiate its claim to be considered as a relic of the early Celtic Church. But beyond this we cannot proceed, and the incidents of its history must remain unknown.

[graphic]

Fig. 55.-Bell found in Broch of Burrian. (2 inches high.)

Another buried bell was discovered at Kingoldrum, in Fortarshire, in 1843. Unfortunately the circumstances attending its discovery seem to have remained unrecorded for several years subsequent to the event, and the record is therefore wanting in that precision of character which is necessary for scientific purposes. It was dug up in the churchyard, and along with it were found two articles which are described as a bronze chalice and a glass bowl. The bell

was sent to the Museum, and is preserved, but the other articles found with it have disappeared, as all such articles do sooner or later if they are not placed in the safe keeping of the national collection. The bell (Fig. 56) is of iron, but has been coated with bronze, of which slight traces still remain. It measures 9 inches in height, exclusive of the handle, and 8 inches by 7 across the mouth. A curious crossshaped ornament or mounting (Fig. 57), decorated with enamel

and a portion of a bronze chain of S-shaped links, dug up near the place where the bell was found, and three sculptured stones from the same site, are also in the Museum. It is impossible to determine with certainty what the two articles, which are described as a chalice of bronze and a bowl or goblet of glass, may have been. We can only regret their loss, all the more to be deplored that nothing answering to this description has ever been found in connection with any other remains of the Christian period. No chalice of the early church exists in Scotland. Chalices of glass were in use on the Continent down to the tenth century. Bronze chalices were exceptional, and their use seems to have been peculiar to the early Scotic Church. St. Gall assigned as his reason for declining to use silver vessels in the service of the altar that his master St. Columbanus was accustomed to use vessels of bronze. It is therefore not at all unlikely that both these vessels may really have been chalices. If so, this was the most remarkable discovery of ecclesiastical utensils ever made in this country, and their discovery was their destruction. One

[graphic]

Fig. 56.-The Bell of Kingoldrum.

« AnteriorContinuar »