manuscripts, the sculpture of the monuments, the carving of the ivory and woodwork, the ornamentation in chased work or filigree, or embossed work in all kinds of personal ornaments in gold, silver, or bronze, with gilded or inlaid patterns or devices of the most exquisite beauty and unrivalled intricacy and excellence of workmanship. Beyond this school of native art we shall find a still earlier one producing forms that are also peculiar to Scotland, and exhibiting a style of decorative design which is specially Celtic, and can be traced back to the time of the Roman occupation. We shall visit the sites of the Brochs and study their singular structure. We shall find them to constitute a group of architectural remains unparalleled in number and unsurpassed in interest, and a group also so specially Scottish that it can be affirmed that no single example is known beyond the bounds of the country. In their floors, their chambers, and their galleries, we shall find suggestive traces of the everyday life of their inmates-vestiges so numerous and so suggestive that no collection similar to that now displayed in the cases of our museum exists anywhere else. We shall visit the people of the Crannogs in their pile-dwellings, placed in bogs and lakes, and study the manner of their life and the nature of their relics. We shall explore the dark recesses of the Weems or Yird Houses, and gather what light we can from their contents, as to the culture and civilisation of the people who constructed such strange subterranean cells. We shall make acquaintance with the people who dwelt in caves, and investigate their culture and knowledge of the arts. Beyond all these we shall meet with a bronze-using people, manufacturing their implements and weapons in that material, adorning their persons with ornaments of jet or of gold, and exhibiting a style of art which is found only in connection with the products of that industry. We shall find them sometimes erecting stone circles around the graves of their dead, whose

calcined bones are deposited in clay urns of large size and peculiar form; at other times raising great tumuli or unchambered cairns over the burial. And last of all we shall reach the stone-using people, fabricating their implements and weapons in stone, but using the material available to them with skill and taste-doing, in short, with their materials precisely what we do with ours, adapting them to meet the necessities and suit the circumstances of their lives, with due regard to fitness of purpose, beauty of finish, and variety and elegance of design. And while their tools and weapons will show their skill and taste, their burial customs will reveal the fact, that up to the earliest times at which we can trace the existence of human beings in the land, there dwelt in their breasts the same feelings of reverence for the dead, the same desire to perpetuate the memory of those they had loved and honoured in life, which is still regarded as the constant characteristic of civilised man.

Having thus indicated the nature of the materials and the methods of the science, and sketched in outline the direction and the objects of the investigation, it may be desirable here to recapitulate the points which it has been my aim to establish in this introductory lecture. They are (1) That archæology is the study of phenomena which differ in different areas; (2) That the great question in every area is, What are the facts? (3) That the answer to this question, in respect to Scotland, can only be obtained by an exhaustive collection of the materials from the whole country; (4) That the attainment of such a completely representative collection of materials implies a national effort, inasmuch as it is an object which no effort less comprehensive in its aim and effect can ever accomplish; (5) That while this is a necessity of science, it is also an object worthy of a national effort, because it is characteristic of all educated communities, that

they are careful of their scientific materials; (6) That the peculiar nature of these materials as the only revealers of the growth of the culture and civilisation of the nation, their extreme rarity and special liability to destruction and loss, require that any such effort must be special and speedy, as well as national, in order to be effectual; and (7) That we owe it as a duty to our country to transmit to posterity all its monuments and relics of national interest, of which our position as the present possessors has constituted us the guardians in trust for all future generations.

LECTURE II.

(17TH OCTOBER 1879.)

STRUCTURAL REMAINS OF THE EARLY CELTIC CHURCH.

THE characteristics of ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland in the first half of the twelfth century are well known. But previous to that time there are the ecclesiastical constructions of five centuries to be accounted for. The object of this Lecture is to inquire whether it may be possible to determine the types of the earlier constructions of Christian character and use, and to demonstrate the sequence of these types by examination and comparison of the existing remains.

The earliest of the existing twelfth-century churches1

1 The great conventual and cathedral churches erected, or begun to be erected, chiefly in the reign of King David I.-Jedburgh, Inchcolm, Kelso, Holyrood, Melrose, Dunblane, Cambuskenneth, Dunfermline, Dryburgh, etc.-do not, now exhibit much of the work of that early time. The nave of Dunfermline, as it was rebuilt by King David, is partially preserved, but in all the others the earliest work is only to be recognised in fragmentary portions of the existing structures. Examples of the smaller churches, however, are more numerous, and of these Mr. Muir has given a pretty complete list in the first chapter of his Characteristics of Old Church Architecture in Scotland. It is curious that we should have to look to the distant Orkneys, and to the work of an alien people, for the best preserved example of the Romanesque in Scotland. The Cathedral of St. Magnus, designed by the Norwegian Kol, and commenced by Earl Rognvald in 1137, contains "the greatest amount of Norman work of any building in Scotland," and in its internal aspect, according to Mr. Muir, is "nowhere equalled by any interior in Scotland." It is equally curious that we must look to Orkney for the only specimen in Scotland of a circular church—that at Orphir, now only a mere fragment. This interesting ruin has been adduced as an example of the development of a church from the early drybuilt circular or beehive

present certain features of form and construction which are of importance for this inquiry as enabling us to separate the known from the unknown. They give us a typical form consisting of nave and chancel, and the typical features of construction are round arches with radiating joints over doors and windows having perpendicular jambs or sides.

Having thus obtained a fixed starting-point in time, and a known type of structure for comparison, I proceed to deal with the unascertained types on the principles of archæological classification.

Supposing that all the ecclesiastical structures which are known by their characteristics of construction or decoration to be twelfth century or later, are swept away, there are left a considerable number, of which the most that can be said is, that they possess no architectural features in the common acceptation of the term-no moulding, ornament, or distinctive feature to be found in the architectural books. It is obvious that in this residue there must be some that are earlier than others. It is possible that there may be some that are even later than the twelfth century, because the earlier type may have survived longer in some places than in others. It is even possible, at least it is conceivable, that there may be places where the earlier type was never superseded by a This, we must remember, produces an element of uncertainty in dealing with individual specimens. But in dealing with types or classes it has no disturbing influence, because, if the sequence of the types can be established, it is of no moment whether the specimens may be early or may be late examples of the type.

later type at all.

dwellings of the native inhabitants; but it is on record that the Norwegian Earl Hakon, who had his residence at Orphir, made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in expiation of the murder of St. Magnus, and as the church is plainly one of the well-known twelfth-century imitations of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it was more likely to have been erected by him than by any one previous to his time.