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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
peculiar type of face is more of a mythological conception than a
conventionality of art. The point which concerns our inquiry is that
we have localised the typical form definitely within the Scandinavian
area, and demonstrated its association with the art of the
monuments and the metal work of the Scandinavian heathen time.

Fig. 80.—Runic Monument at Skjern, North

Jutland, with Thor’s face (5 feet high).
The general result of this examination of the typical form and
ornamentation of these bulbous brooches is that they are found to
possess features that are Celtic, in combination with features that
are distinctive of the art of the Scandinavian heathen time. The
obvious inference is that the birthplace of the type is to be looked
for in an area in which the population were partly Celtic and partly
Scandinavian in their extraction. At the period indicated by the range
in date of these silver hoards,[52]
and for a considerable time
previous to the earliest date
assigned to them, this was the
character of the mixed race of the
Gall-gael of the Western Isles, and
it was also to a certain extent the
character of the inhabitants of the
northern isles of Orkney and
Shetland, though there the Celtic
element was feeble and the
northern element strong. But this
is precisely the nature of the Fig. 81.—Runic Monument at Aby,
with representation of Thor’s
mixed art of these brooches. It is Head and Hammer.
more northern than Celtic, and
seeing that the deposit is found in the very area where this was the
special character of the population, the conclusion seems irresistible
that the type is the product of the area in which it is found. There is
no evidence whatever of its having come from the east—no evidence
of its having come from Scandinavia itself. The only other example
of the type that has occurred in Scotland—the plain bulbous brooch
of silvered bronze—which was found with a heathen burial in the
island of Eigg (Fig. 43), also occurs within the area of the mixed
population. A few specimens have occurred sporadically in England,
[53]
but there they are confined to the north-western area—that is,
the portion adjacent to the insular territories possessed by the Norse
colonists of the Western Isles. A few specimens have been found in
Ireland, chiefly isolated, but in one remarkable instance associated
with brooches and other metal work of pure Celtic types.[54] In
Scandinavia itself they do not occur in such abundance as to suggest
that they were common ornaments characteristic of the people or
the time. While, therefore, they are partially Scandinavian in the
character of their art, they occur so sparsely in the Scandinavian
countries that they cannot be considered as products that are
characteristic of that area, or indigenous to it, and their presence in
such limited numbers in the archæological deposits of Norway,
Sweden, and Denmark, is not inconsistent with the conclusion that
the type may have had its birthplace in the Scandinavian colonies
planted in Celtic soil, between whom and the fatherland there was
always such a closely-knit connection and continuous intercourse.
In passing finally from the examination of these brooches, it may
be desirable to refer briefly to the materials composing the dress in
which such gigantic ornaments were worn. The perishable nature of
these materials precludes the possibility of obtaining such specimens
of them as would suffice to show the form and appearance of the
garments themselves. But there are occasional instances in which
the natural circumstances of the deposit have been more than
usually favourable to their preservation, and there may be cases in
which exceptional carefulness in the examination of these
circumstances may preserve not only the texture but even the form
and appearance of the garment. I have already alluded to the fact
that small portions of the dress from a grave of the Viking time in
the island of Eigg exhibit distinctly the texture of the woollen fabric,
and retain portions of its mountings of fur. Similar discoveries in
Denmark and Norway have established the truth of the Saga
narratives, which testify to the excessive richness of the
ornamentation, and the costly nature of the materials of the dress of
this period.
 Fig. 82.—Hood found in a Moss in St. Andrew’s
Parish, Orkney.
(27 inches in length.)
The fact that a few examples from Scottish graves have shown the
possibility of obtaining even from these perishable materials the
tangible evidence of the form and fashion of the garments that
clothed the men and women who made and wore these ornaments,
gives room for hope that with increasing interest and greater care
the products of future investigations may complete this evidence. In
the meantime we have but one piece of dress which retains its form,
and which may with some degree of probability be attributed to the
mixed population of the Scandinavian colony. It is a hood of a coarse
woollen fabric (Fig. 82), woven with a peculiarly twilled texture, and
decorated with a long fringe of pendent and knotted cords, formed
by twisting the doubled end of a thread with two contiguous threads
of the warp. It was dug up in a peat moss in the parish of St.
Andrews, in the mainland of Orkney, many years ago, and came into
the possession of the late Mr. George Petrie of Kirkwall, after whose
death it was acquired for the National Museum, along with his
general collection. It measures 32 inches in height and 17 inches in
greatest width. The border to which the fringe is attached is 3 inches
in width. The fringe itself is 15 inches in depth. The fabric of which
the body of the hood is composed is worked in alternate stripes,
presenting at their junction the appearance shown in the woodcut
(Fig. 83). The fringe of two-ply cords (Fig. 84), which is its most
peculiar feature, presents a striking similarity to the fringe (Fig. 85)
of a portion of the dress of a woman whose body was discovered in
1835 in digging peats in the Moss of
Haraldskjaer, in Jutland. The body,
which was stretched on its back,
was pegged down in the moss by
hooked branches of trees driven into
the peat so as to fasten down the
legs and arms at the knees and
elbows, and further secured by other
branches placed across the breast
and abdomen, and staked down at
Fig. 83.—Portion of the Fabric of the ends. The dress was well
the Hood. preserved when first discovered, but
only a few fragments were saved,
and among them is a portion with a fringe of two-ply cords (Fig. 85),
bearing a suggestive similarity to the fringe of the Orkney hood. This
similarity, so far as it has any value as an indication of relationship,
links the Orkney specimen with the Scandinavian, and thus gives
apparent ground for the inference that the hood may belong to the
period of the Scandinavian colonisation of the islands, and that, like
the brooches, it may represent a typical variety of head-dress
peculiar to the colony.
Fig. 84.—Part of the Border and Fringe Fig. 85.—Woollen Fabric from the Moss
of the Hood. of Haraldskjaer, Jutland.

The typical form of neck ring and arm ring (Figs. 64, 65), which is
associated with the bulbous brooches in these hoards, composed of
hammered rods and intertwisted wires of silver plaited manifoldly,
and formed into a circlet by soldering the ends, does not occur again
in Scotland. But it has obvious relations with a group of personal
ornaments in gold, which present similar features of form and
construction. They are of smaller size than the silver rings, all that
are known being obviously finger-rings.

Fig. 86.—Gold Rings found at Stenness (actual size).

Two of these (Fig. 86, Nos. 2 and 3) were dug up in the month of
August 1879, in a field near the shore of the Loch of Stenness, in
Orkney, and are now in the National Museum. The largest is formed
of two double twists of gold wires, hammered round, and tapering to
the small ends, which are connected by a lozenge-shaped bezel. The
smaller of the two is composed of three strands of gold wire,
similarly shaped by the hammer alone, and intertwisted, and the
small ends soldered together. With them there were also found two
plain flat hoops or circlets of gold, of about an inch in diameter, ¼
inch wide in the widest part, and tapering to the ends, which are
unjoined (Fig. 86, No. 1).
There is also in the Museum a hoard of gold objects of this
character, consisting of six finger-rings of plaited wires, a plain solid
ring formed of a tapering rod (Fig. 87), with the ends unjoined, two
portions of plaited rings cut off, and two portions of plain solid rings
similarly cut. Two of the plaited rings (one of which is shown in Fig.
87) are formed of three wires each, intertwisted, and the ends
soldered together; the wires or rods are simply rounded by the
hammer and tapered to either end. The other four rings are slightly
larger. They are composed of eight wires, each similarly fashioned by
the hammer alone, and ingeniously interplaited, so that two strands
of the plait form a ridge all round the convexity of the ring, the ends
united and worked flat to form a bezel. Unfortunately we are unable
to localise this hoard more closely than that it was found somewhere
in the Hebrides.

Fig. 87.—Gold Rings found in the Hebrides

(actual size).
Another hoard of somewhat similar character was found in June
1863, in the island of Bute, about 300 yards distant from the old
church of St. Blane, in Kingarth. The hoard, which was deposited
beneath a large stone, consisted of two
gold rings, three long, narrow fillets of
thin gold, a small ingot of silver (Fig.
88), weighing 228 grains, and a number Fig. 88.—Ingot of Silver
of silver coins, of which twenty-one (actual size).
were pennies of David I. of Scotland, three of King Stephen, and one
of King Henry I. of England. Of the two gold rings, one (Fig. 89, No.
1) is a plain solid ring, formed of a rod rounded by the hammer, and
tapered to both ends, and the ends unjoined. The other, shown in
Fig. 89, No. 2, is composed of three similarly-hammered rods or
wires twisted together, and the ends joined into a lozenge-shaped
bezel. The largest of the three fillets found with them is (Fig. 90) 17
inches in length, and about 3⁄16 inch wide in the centre, tapering to
both ends until it expands into a small terminal loop. The others are
similar in form. They are scarcely thicker than stout writing-paper,
and the largest, though 17 inches in length, weighs only 55 grains.
Their ornamentation consists of zig-zag running patterns, and
beaded work in repoussé.

Fig. 89.—Gold Rings found in Bute (actual size).

It is thus evident that this typical form of construction of personal
ornaments in the precious metals by interplaiting and intertwisting
slender rods of metal, rounded and tapered by the hammer alone,
and their ends soldered together, comes down at least to the twelfth
century, and appears in associations in which there is no suggestion
of an Oriental origin. Its area, so far as our present knowledge
enables us to define it, appears to be limited to the northern and
western isles, no well-authenticated instance having been recorded
from the mainland of Scotland. On the other hand, the area of the
type extends eastwards into Scandinavia, but there the type itself is
regarded as one which is not indigenous.
 Fig. 90.—Terminal portions of two Gold Fillets found in Bute (actual
size).
The type of penannular arm ring, which is of rounded or
quadrangular section, with tapering or slightly flattened ends, of
which so many examples were associated with the twisted rings and
bulbous brooches in the Skaill hoard, has not occurred in any other
metal than silver. Like the other types associated with them, they
have not been found in Scotland beyond the area of the
Scandinavian colonisation. Within that area, however, they appear
not unfrequently. Wallace records the discovery of a hoard of nine in
one of the mounds at Stennis, in Orkney. Another hoard, of which
the precise number is not given, was found in 1774 at Caldale, near
Kirkwall, with a horn containing 300 silver pennies of Canute the
Great. In 1830 six or seven were found at Quendale, in Shetland,
with a horn full of Anglo-Saxon coins of Ethelred, Ethelstan, Edwy,
and Edgar.
In 1850 a hoard of at least six were found in the island of Skye,
but in circumstances of which there is no record.

Fig. 91.—Penannular Arm-ring of Silver, one of a hoard

of eight, found at Burn of Rattar, Caithness (3½ inches
diameter).
In 1872 a hoard of eight were found in a cist of stones in or close
to an ancient burying-ground near where the burn of Rattar enters
the Pentland Firth, in Caithness. One of these is shown in Fig. 91.
 All these are similar in form to each other, and to the rings of the
same type found in Scandinavia in association with the other types
of silver ornaments previously described. They are more frequently
plain than ornamented, and when ornamented their decoration
consists simply of a series of impressions formed by a triangular
punch, with one, two, or three dots in the field. This species of
ornamentation is only found on these silver ornaments in Scotland,
but in Scandinavia it is common to them and to the oval bowl-
shaped brooches of brass which were the characteristic personal
ornaments of the closing period of the Scandinavian Paganism.
It follows from this enumeration of the characteristics of form and
ornament exhibited by the different varieties of these silver
ornaments which have been deposited in hoards within the area of
the Scandinavian colonisation of Scotland, that they possess a
character which is distinctive and peculiar, being neither wholly Celtic
nor wholly Scandinavian, but owing its individuality to an
intermixture of characteristics derived from forms and systems of
ornament which are peculiar to each of these racial areas.
The deposit of such hoards of ornaments and coin is a custom
more characteristic of the Scandinavian than of the Celtic area.
Deposits of this character may have been placed in the soil for
simple concealment at any time, but they are much more frequent in
this particular period than in any other, and there was a motive
connected with the Pagan faith of the people which may have
operated to increase their abundance. We learn from the Saga of
Egil Skalagrimson that there was a belief among the Pagan
Northmen that treasure thus buried during their lifetime would be
available for use or display in the life to come.
But whatever may have been the manner or the motive of their
concealment, the fact, which is of special importance for the purpose
of the present investigation, is that they are for the most part relics
which, by their forms and the characteristics of their art, are but
feebly linked with the forms and art of the Celtic area in which they
are found, and strongly linked by their art characteristics with the art
of the Scandinavian Paganism, which was contemporary with the art
of the Christian Celtic school. The soil in which they are found is
within that area of Scotland which was occupied by a mixed
population, composed of the two races whose special art instincts
are visible in the mixed art of the objects—the dominant race,
moreover, being that whose art is dominant in their decoration.
The colonisation of the northern and western coasts of Scotland
by the heathen Northmen forms an episode in the history of our
country only second in importance to the earlier colonisation of its
southern districts by the Romans, and far surpassing it in the
interest of its historical annals. Its archæological interest may be
estimated by the number and variety of the relics which have now
been shown to belong to the Viking period of the Northmen in
Scotland—a period of singular interest alike in connection with its
history, its archæology, and its art.
 LECTURE III.
(October 24, 1882.)
THE CELTIC ART OF THE PAGAN PERIOD.

In this Lecture I shall deal with certain groups of relics which present
in their forms and their decoration features which we have learned to
recognise as distinctively Celtic.
About the year 1820 a singular object was found in a morass on the
farm of Torrs, in the parish of Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire. Having
passed into the possession of Mr. Joseph Train, it was presented by
him to Sir Walter Scott, and it still remains in the Museum at
Abbotsford.[55] It is of the form of an elongated mask (Fig. 92),
somewhat resembling the frontal of a horse. It measures 10½ inches
in total length, but the tip is apparently imperfect. Its breadth in a
straight line across the lower margin is 3⅝ inches, and about 8½
inches on the round outside. Its greatest breadth in a straight line
across the back is 6 inches, and 11 inches on the round outside,
immediately above the insertion of the horns. At a height of 3 inches
above the lower straight margin are placed two circular holes, one on
each side, each measuring 2 inches in diameter. From between these
eyelike holes, and a little above the level of their centres, two
curiously curved, cylindrical, tapering horns spring close together on
either side of the median line. The diameter of each of the horns at
the base is 1⅜ inch, and they rise to a height of 8¾ inches to the top
of the curve, the whole length of the perfect horns along the curve of
the outer edge being 16½ inches. The horns are hollow, the whole
object being formed of thin beaten bronze.
 Fig. 92.—Bronze object found at Torrs, Kirkcudbrightshire (10½
inches in length).
Its ornamentation is as peculiar as its form. It consists of a series of
irregularly divergent spirals in repoussé work repeated symmetrically
but not identically on either side of the median line of the front of the
object. These spirals or scroll-like figures are formed of curves which
are long and flattened, passing suddenly into curves of quicker
motion, and ending in volutes. These curves, though proceeding in
the same direction, do not proceed at parallel or regular distances
from each other, but converge and diverge so as to enclose between
them alternate spaces of varying extent of surface. The spaces
enclosed between the curves are raised, and the spaces enclosed by
their convolutions are flat, but the raised spaces are modelled so as to
express the confluence of solid curves of the peculiar forms already
indicated. These trumpet and spiral scrolls, as they are called,
enclosing irregularly formed curvilinear spaces, and producing designs
which are similar but unsymmetrical, are repeated in different varieties
of pattern on the outer sides of the horns (Fig. 93). In the terminal
convolutions of the scrolls the curves are sometimes arranged so as to
produce a zoomorphic effect, which differs from the later
zoomorphism of the metal-work of the Christian time and of the later
manuscripts, in being more geometrical in form and character. The
zoomorphic termination of the horns has also more of a geometric
character than is usual in the Christian period.

Fig. 93.—Plan of the Horns and their Ornament. (1) The right horn.
(2) Zoomorphic termination of the right horn seen frontwise. (3)
The left horn.
The object being incomplete, its purpose is not obvious. But it is
suggestive of the probability of its having formed part of a helmet that
Diodorus Siculus, writing only a few years after the conquest of Gaul
by Julius Cæsar, describes the military equipment of certain Gallic
tribes as including “bronze helmets with lofty projections rising out of
them, which impart a gigantic appearance to the wearers; for upon
some are fixed pairs of horns, upon others the shapes of birds and
beasts wrought out of the same metal.” These horned helmets are
represented on some of the consular medals, and the whole
description of the Gallic equipment is so similar to what we know of
the habits of the Celtic tribes of Britain, that it may be concluded that
in this respect their customs may not have been greatly dissimilar.[56]
And, in point of fact, there is in the British Museum a bronze
headpiece found in the river Thames, near Waterloo Bridge, which,
from its peculiar form, was at first considered to be a jester’s cap. But
Mr. Franks has shown that it is a military helmet of native
workmanship. It consists of a cap of thin bronze, with an additional
plate at the back, decorated with scrolls of this peculiar character in
low relief, among which are cross-hatched discs once coated with red
enamel. From each side of the cap projects a conical horn terminating
in a moulded button, and upon one side of the horn runs a string of
small projecting studs.
It is therefore not improbable that this
object at Abbotsford may have been the
front part of a military helmet, or of a
headpiece used for display. Such a
headpiece with similarly large and curving
horns, terminating in similar zoomorphic
endings is seen (Fig. 94) on the head of a
warrior who appears to be engaged in
mimic combat with another accoutred as
Fig. 94.—Bronze Plaque found fantastically as himself, and whose
in Oland (actual size). grotesque headpiece bears a resemblance
still more remarkable to another bronze
object of the same character which I have next to describe. These
representations occur on a bronze plaque dug up in the island of
Oland, and they have therefore no necessary connection with the
usages of the Celtic people. They merely show that in assigning such
a purpose to these objects we are not attributing to them a purpose
to which they were never applied. But the special use of the object is
really of no great moment for the purpose of the present
investigation. That purpose is fulfilled when we are enabled to say,
from an examination of its special characteristics, that it has certain
typical relations linking it with other objects, forming a distinct group
and occupying a definite place in the series of types which
characterise the area now termed Scotland. I therefore proceed to the
description of other objects distinguished by the same characteristics.

Fig. 95.—Bronze object in the form of a swine’s head found at

Liechestown, Deskford, Banffshire (8½ inches in length).]
At Liechestown, in the parish of Deskford, Banffshire, about the
year 1816, a remarkable relic (Fig. 95), now in the Banff Museum, was
found in a mossy piece of ground, at a depth of about 6 feet, and
resting on a bed of clay at the bottom of the moss. This object, which
is equally peculiar alike in respect to its form and ornamentation, is in
the shape of a boar’s head of thin beaten bronze 8½ inches in length
by 5½ in greatest breadth. The lower jaw is movable. The eyes are
circular holes 1¼ inch in diameter. The whole head is formed of four
plates of bronze, the snout, the palate, and the lower jaw (Fig. 96)
having been each made separately, and attached to the posterior part
of the head, which consists of an embossed plate bent to the shape. A
disc-like plate, which was found with it, is now attached to the open
back of the head, but does not quite fit, and it is doubtful whether it
had been so placed originally. The ornamentation of this singular
object is of the same character as that of the Torrs bronze, but
simpler, being merely a series of trumpet-shaped ridges in repoussé
work round the eyes. But this ornament, simple as it is, is quite
sufficient to determine the relations of the relic to that general group
of objects of which it and the bronze from Torrs are the most
remarkable specimens.

Fig. 96.—Plates of thin bronze forming separate parts of the

swine’s head. (2) The lower jaw. (3) The palate. (4 and 5)
Posterior and lateral views of the palate.
It is obvious that if these objects had any relation to military
equipment, we ought to find the very peculiar art which is so
conspicuous in their decoration, also exhibiting itself in the decoration
of the weapons and other war-gear in use among the same people.
Diodorus, in fact, informs us that the Gauls used oblong shields as tall
 as the man, and painted after a peculiar fashion. Some of
these shields, he also says, had figures of animals in relief
of bronze, not merely for ornament but also for defence,
and very well wrought. It has been already remarked that
it is probable that the military equipment of the Gallic
tribes resembled that of the British; and it is the fact that
oblong shields, decorated with the peculiar patterns
characteristic of the style of art exhibited by the two
headpieces which have been described, having these
patterns further adorned by coloured enamels, and also
possessing the distinctive feature of figures of animals in
relief in bronze, have been found in England.[57]
No shields of this character have yet been discovered in
Scotland, but there are other objects of a military kind
which exhibit the same peculiar art in a sufficiently
characteristic manner. One of these is a sword-sheath
(Fig. 97) of bronze, 23½ inches in length by 1¼ inch in
width, which was found at the foot of the Pentlands, near
Mortonhall, and is now in the Museum. It is formed of
thin beaten bronze; the ornamental cup-shaped
expansions at the lower end are solid castings, and the
ornamental strap carrying the loop in front is fastened on
with pins. The back of the sheath is a thin slip of bronze
sliding in grooves in the inner margins of the two sides.
This is the only example of a sword-sheath of this style
and period known to have been found in Scotland.
Several sheaths of the same character have been
discovered in England. Perhaps the most characteristic of
these is one in the collection of Canon Greenwell at
Durham, which exhibits, in a very special manner, the
Fig. 97.— peculiar style of ornament of which I have given so many
Sword-sheath illustrations. The swords which these sheaths contained
found near were of iron and have perished. One found in the Thames
Mortonhall has the blade still within it, 3 feet 1½ inch in length, but
(23½ inches [58]
long).
a mere mass of oxide. These swords differ greatly in
the length and form of the blade from the leaf-shaped
swords of bronze which were in general use at an earlier period, and
their sheaths differ still more widely in form and ornament from the
sheaths of the leaf-shaped swords.
Another class of objects, which are more of the nature of harness-
mountings or horse-furniture, also exhibit this peculiar style of
ornamentation, in some cases combined with the remarkable feature
of having their sunk spaces filled with coloured enamels.

Fig. 98.—Mountings of Cast Bronze (5

inches in length).
A pair of massively-formed objects (Fig. 98), the precise use of
which is not apparent, were found in a bank of clay on a spur of the
Cheviots at Henshole on Cheviot. They are of cast bronze, and consist
of an oblong body, hollow, rounded at one end and flattened at the
other; the upper and lower surfaces inclined towards the small end,
which is narrower than the width at the middle. A stout tang of about
2 inches in length is carried on a bar which crosses the open part of
the small end, and the convexity of the larger end bears the mark of
hammering as if to drive the tang home. They are destitute of surface
decoration, but they seem to be allied by the characteristics of their
form to other objects which are less indefinite in the indications of
their art.

Fig. 99.—Bronze Ornaments found in a Cairn at

Towie, Aberdeenshire.
In a large cairn on the farm of Hillock Head, in the parish of Towie,
Aberdeenshire, which covered an interment placed in a cist with an
urn, there were found a number of bronze objects, all of which were
lost except two (Fig. 99), which are now in the Museum. They are in
the form of oval hollow rings, expanding on the inferior side, and
having an oval opening in the under part, which shows the remains of
an iron pin fastened at each side of the opening with lead. Their
general appearance is suggestive of the mountings of horse-harness,
but their precise purpose is not obvious, and the articles found in
association with them are undescribed. Although the testimony is
singularly defective on that point, it is not probable that they had any
connection with the interment in the “short cist” which contained
bones and an urn. A similar object in
bronze, also presenting the remains of
iron fastenings in the lower part, was
found under a large stone on the hill of
Crichie, near Kintore, along with a
number of globular balls of shale each
about 1¼ inch in diameter, slightly
flattened on one side, and having the
remains of iron loop-like fastenings in the
flattened side.[59] A number of rings and Fig. 100.—Mounting in
harness-mountings found at Middleby, in Cast Bronze from
Annandale, in 1737, and now preserved in Dowalton Loch (2 inches in
diameter).
Penicuick House, exhibit the same style of decoration in a more
pronounced and characteristic manner.[60]
A mounting in cast bronze (Fig. 100), 2 inches diameter, the sunk
spaces of which had probably been filled with enamels, was recently
found in the dry bed of the loch of Dowalton, which was drained
about eighteen years ago. It is formed of a combination of segmental
spaces, the curves of which are those of the divergent spiral, each
space being surrounded by a raised border, and the sunk surfaces
roughened with a tool.
A bridle-bit (Fig. 101), found in a moss at
Birrenswark, in Annandale, before 1785, and now
in the National Museum, exhibits the
characteristics of this peculiar phase of art in a
very striking manner. It is no less peculiar in its
design and construction than in the character of
its ornamentation. It is a single casting of bronze.
The loops of the cheek-rings have been cast
within the loops of the centre-piece, an operation
implying technical skill and experience of
complicated processes of moulding and casting.
The design, however, is the most remarkable
feature of the object. It is designed as carefully
as if it were a piece of jewellery. The rings,
though cast in one piece with the loops, are
penannular in form, grasping the neck of the loop
between their expanded ends. The two rings
differ slightly in size, and the loops differ greatly
in form. The one is treated as a loop formed of a
cylindrical rod bent to the shape of a loop, and
carrying the ornamented open-work of its
terminal part as between its extended ends. The
other loop is treated as a solid form, and in its
ornamental termination there is no open work.
Fig. 101.—Bridle-bit The two rings are similar, but not identical. The
found in a Moss at idea of openness suggested by the modelling of
Birrenswark, the one loop is carried into the construction of
 Dumfriesshire (6¾ the terminal portions as open work, and the idea
inches in length). of solidity is similarly carried out in the other
loop. The surface decoration of the terminal
portions of the loops is of the same character in the parts of both that
are similar, and is partly carried also into the parts of the one which
are wanting in the other. It consists of red and yellow enamel
champléve, the colours alternating in alternate rows of triangular and
oval spaces. A double spiral and trumpet pattern appears in the open
work of the one loop. The loops and rings are greatly the worse for
wear, and have been strengthened by thin pieces riveted on.
It is certainly a peculiar feature of an art so singularly decorative
that it was applied so largely to the ornamentation of objects that
were appropriated to the commonest uses. Enamelled horse-trappings
of the most finished and beautiful workmanship have frequently been
found in England, sometimes associated with the remains of chariots.
[61]
Not only is the use of enamel in the decoration of such objects
unknown beyond the area of the British Isles, but the special system
of design which accompanies its use is also confined within that area.
And it is an interesting fact that there is historical evidence as to the
nationality of these remains. The only classical author who mentions
the art of enamelling is Philostratus, a Greek sophist in the household
of Julia Domna, wife of the Emperor Severus. In a notice of the
variegated trappings of the horses in a painting of a boar-hunt he
accounts for their peculiar appearance as follows:—“They say that the
barbarians who live in the Ocean pour such colours on heated brass,
and that they adhere to it, become as hard as stone, and thus
preserve the designs that are made in them.” It is matter of inference
what people they were who are thus styled “barbarians in the ocean,”
but it is matter of fact that horse-trappings of bronze (or brass)
decorated with coloured enamels have hitherto been found in the
British Islands alone.
But this peculiar style of art was not confined to the decoration of
such objects as parts of military equipments or harness of horses. It
was largely employed in the decoration of personal ornaments and
objects of personal use.
 In the parish of Balmaclellan, in
Kirkcudbright, a number of bronze articles
were found in draining a bog. It is stated that
they were found about 3 feet under the
surface in four parcels, each wrapped in
coarse linen cloth. Close by them the upper
stone of a quern was also found. The quern
stone (Fig. 102) is ornamented, but the
ornament possesses none of the distinctive
Fig. 102.—Quern Stone of features of the decoration of the bronzes.
sandstone found at They consisted of a circular mirror with
Balmaclellan (14 inches in handle, and a number of thin plates of bronze,
diameter).
some being long narrow bands, others curved
and cut into various shapes. The mirror (Fig.
103) is of the form so commonly seen on the sculptured monuments
of the Celtic Christian time in Scotland. The circular part is 8 inches in
diameter, and the handle 5 inches in projection from the
circumference of the circular part. The body
of the mirror is a thin plate of bronze,
surrounded by a plain-rolled edging. The
handle, which is also a thin plate of bronze
similarly edged, is attached to the circular
plate by rivets, and the junction is concealed
by a finely-ornamented plate (Fig. 104),
presenting a pattern composed of those
peculiar raised surfaces formed by the
meeting of curves rising from the flat at
different angles, and traversing the ground
also in curves, which converge and diverge
in a manner pleasing to the eye, but difficult Fig. 103.—Bronze
to describe. The upper part of this Mirror found at
Balmaclellan (8 inches
ornamental plate is tri-lobate, the lobes in diameter)
bounded by curves of peculiar form, and
bordered by an edging of studs embossed on the metal. The central
ornament of each lobe is a circular device, with a central boss
surrounded by a circle of oval-raised surfaces, and presenting a nearer
Fig. 104.—Ornamental Plate of thin bronze, embossed, at the junction of the mirror
with its handle (actual size).

approach to the effect of a floral decoration than is usually seen in this

style of ornament. The handle of the mirror is pierced with three
segmental openings formed of the curves of the divergent spiral. A
crescentic collar-shaped plate of bronze (Fig. 105), 13 inches in
diameter, and 2 inches in the width of the band, is decorated with a
chased pattern of similarly convergent and divergent curves, the
spaces enclosed by the curves being hatched with parallel lines. The
remaining plates (Fig. 106), of which there are a considerable number,
are of various forms. Some have straight outer edges, and the interior
edges cut into curves, meeting each other with long and short points;
others are triangular pieces, with one convex and two concave edges,
while others again are long narrow bands with straight edges. They
are all bordered with an edging of thin metal doubled over and pinned
on, and they seem themselves to have been attached by pins to some
object of a more perishable nature. What their precise purpose was—
whether they were mountings on wood or leather, or whether they
formed parts of some object constructed wholly of thin plates of metal
(as the two objects previously described are constructed)—it is not
necessary to conjecture since the form and condition of the objects
themselves give no definite indications on these points. Their being
wrapped in cloth in separate parcels may imply that they are not all
Fig. 105.—Half of the Crescentic Collar-like Plate of Bronze found with the Mirror at
Balmaclellan.

parts of the same object, and their local association with objects of
such incongruous purposes, as a mirror and a quern, may imply that
they were not necessarily even associated with each other when in
use. There is no evidence that the deposit was in any way connected
with sepulture, although the mirror of this form, and bearing precisely
the same kind of ornamentation, has been found associated with
interments of Pagan time in Britain.
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