The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

Two other ancient episcopal crosiers remain to be noticed, each of them associated with Scottish sees. The one here engraved was found, in its present imperfect state, along with a glove and other relics, in the course of some excavations in the choir of the cathedral of Fortrose, when a stone coffin was discovered, which doubtless contained the remains of one of the old bishops of Ross. This interesting relic was presented by Sir George Mackenzie to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1822, and is now preserved in their Museum. It retains traces both of colour and gilding, and though greatly decayed and imperfect, is still characterized by considerable elegance. It measures the segment of a circle of about five inches in diameter.

The other crosier referred to belongs to the ancient see of St. Magnus in the Orkneys, and likewise owes its preservation, like the relics of more primitive eras, to the medieval practice of depositing the symbols of the chief pastoral office beside the remains of the deceased bishop. During the progress of the recent judicious restorations in the choir of the cathedral at Kirkwall, in the month of August 1848, a modern flooring was removed, which concealed the bases of the columns and piers. Several ancient tombs were brought to light by this means, and in one place on the north side of the altar steps, a finely carved slab of stone was exposed. On removing this, a small vaulted chamber or cist was discovered, within which lay a skeleton greatly decayed, and beside it the crosier figured, carved in oak, and a chalice and paten, both roughly modelled, apparently in the common white wax frequently used in ancient seals. The chalice, though somewhat imperfect round the lip, is otherwise entire, but the paten is greatly injured, and both are little more than rude symbols of these most essential sacred vessels used in the service of the mass. The oaken crosier measures eleven and a half inches long as figured here, but it is notched at the lower extremity, evidently for the purpose of attaching it to a staff. The tomb has been supposed to be that of Thomas de Tulloch, circa 1422-1448—a date with which the style of ornament of the crosier very well agrees, but there is no sufficient evidence to enable it to be assigned with certainty to a particular individual. Nearly at the same time as these interesting episcopal memorials were brought to light, a very curious discovery was made of human remains inclosed in one of the pillars of the western or most ancient portion of the choir, at a height of nearly twelve feet from the floor. There was an indentation or cut in the skull, which, with the singular position of the vault, induced some of the northern antiquaries to hazard the conjecture that they had discovered the remains of their patron saint, the good Earl Magnus: a thing not altogether inconceivable. It was nearly at the same time that the tomb of William, the first resident bishop of the Northern Isles, was exposed, as already described.

The form of the ancient Scottish chalice, as indicated on early tombs, corresponds, as might be expected, to the general usage of the medieval Church. The wax model found in the supposed tomb of Bishop Tulloch at Orkney, indicates the same conformity to the prevailing fashions of the age. The peculiar arts, however, which modified the sepulchral and monumental sculpture, as well as the architecture of the primitive Scottish Church, doubtless also occasionally conferred equally characteristic forms on the sacred vessels and other articles of Church furnishing.

The chalice is figured on various early Scottish ecclesiastical seals, as well as on sepulchral slabs and other medieval sculptures. But an original Scottish chalice, a relic of the venerable abbey of St. Columba, preserved till a very few years since an older example of the sacred vessels of the altar than is indicated in any existing memorial of the medieval Church. The later history of this venerable relic is replete with interest. It was of fine gold, of a very simple form, and ornamented in a style that gave evidence of its belonging to a very early period. It was transferred from the possession of Sir Lauchlan MacLean to the Glengarry family, in the time of Æneas, afterwards created by Charles II. Lord Macdonell and Arross, under the circumstances narrated in the following letter from a cousin of the celebrated Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, and communicated to me by a clergyman,[692] who obtained it from the family of the gentleman to whom it was originally addressed:—

Such was the last historical incident connected with the golden chalice of Iona, perhaps without exception the most interesting ecclesiastical relic which Scotland possessed. Unfortunately its later history only finds a parallel in that of the celebrated Danish golden horns. It was preserved in the charter-chest of Glengarry, until it was presented by the late Chief to Bishop Ronald M'Donald, on whose demise it came into the possession of his successor, Dr. Scott, Bishop of Glasgow. Only five years since the sacristy of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in that city, where it was preserved, was broken into, and before the police could obtain a clue to the depredators, the golden relic of Iona was no longer a chalice. Thus perished by the hands of a common felon a memorial of the spot consecrated by the labours of some of the earliest Christian missionaries to the Pagan Caledonians, and which had probably survived the vicissitudes of upwards of ten centuries. In reply to inquiries made as to the existence of any drawing of the chalice, or even the possibility of a trustworthy sketch being executed from memory, a gentleman in Glasgow writes:—"I have no means of getting even a sketch from which to make a drawing. Were I a good hand myself I could easily furnish one, having often examined it. It was a chalice that no one could look on without being convinced of its very great antiquity. The workmanship was rude, the ornamental drawings or engravings even more hard than medieval ones in their outlines, and the cup bore mark of the original hammering which had beaten it into shape."

The oldest existing Scottish relic of this class is the "Dunvegan Cup," celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his "Lord of the Isles," and still sacredly guarded in the Castle of Dunvegan, in Skye, along with other Celtic heirlooms of the chiefs of MacLeod. "The Horn of Rorie More," says Scott, "preserved in the family, and recorded by Dr. Johnson, is not to be compared with this piece of antiquity, which is one of the greatest curiosities in Scotland." Its dimensions are nine inches and three quarters in inside depth, ten and a half in height on the outside, the extreme measure over the lips being four inches and a half. The engraving on Plate VI. is from a private plate in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., executed from a drawing by Mrs. MacLeod. Another, but much less accurate or minute view of this curious relic is given in the Archæologia, from a sketch by Mr. Daniell.[693] These will serve better than any elaborate description to convey a correct idea of its peculiar form. The material of the cup is wood, to all appearance oak, most curiously wrought and embossed with silver work. A series of projecting bosses appear to have been jewelled, and two or three of them still retain their simple settings. The ledge, the projecting brim, and the four legs which support the cup, are of silver, which with the other silver mountings appear to have been gilt. Around the exterior is an inscription in Gothic characters, which Sir Walter Scott deciphered nearly as follows:[694]—

Ufo : Johis : Mich : Mgn : Principis : De :
Hi : Manæ : Vich : Liahia : Mgryneil :
Et : Spat : Do : Jhu : Da : Clea : Ill : Dea : Ipa :
Fecit : Ano : Di : Ix : 93º Onili : Oimi :

It may be thus extended:—Ufo Johannis Mich Magni Principis de Hi Manæ Vich Liahia Magryneil et sperat Domino Jhesu dari clementiam illi deæ ipsa. Fecit Anno Domini 993 Onili Oimi. The inscription is a curious specimen of early Celtic Latinity:—Ufo, the son of John, the son of Magnus, Prince of the Isle of Man, the grandson of Liahia Macgryneil, trusts in the Lord Jesus that mercy will be given to him in that day. Oneil Oimi made this in the year of God nine hundred and ninety-three. Within the mouth of the cup, on each of the four sides, is the sacred monogram, i.h.s., which, coupled with the tenour of the inscription, leaves little room to doubt, notwithstanding its unusual form, that it had been originally designed for a chalice, and gifted by Ufo for the service of the altar. The family legends of the Macleods associate it with some old traditional chief or hero, Neil Ghlune-dhu, or Black-knee, but it seems to have been a family heirloom from time immemorial.

The use of wooden vessels as chalices was, for obvious reasons, abandoned at an early period, so that the calices lignei became in later ages a proverbial illustration of the obsolete simplicity of primitive ages. "We may now take up that old regrait," exclaims Fountainhall, in moralizing on the immense wealth first acquired by the Church, about A.D. 600, "when ther ware calices lignei ther ware then sacerdotes aurei, but now when our chalices are of gold and silver, we have got ligneos sacerdotes."[695] Vessels of wood, even though mounted and jewelled, like the Dunvegan chalice, were very early disused in the services of the altar; and the mazer cup or maple bowl constituted one of the most prominent implements in the conviviality of the Middle Ages. The name indeed ceased at an early period to be exclusively reserved for those manufactured from the wood of the maple tree, from whence the mazer had derived its name, and was at length applied to all drinking cups of a certain class, of whatever material. Among the beautiful examples of medieval art recently exhibited at the London Royal Society of Arts, was a beautiful mazer bowl of silver-gilt, of fifteenth century workmanship, which belongs to Oriel College, Oxford. Of the same class also, probably, were some of the Scottish cups enumerated in a curious inventory of the treasure and jewels of James III., "fundin in a bandit kist like a gardeviant," among which are the "foure masaris, callit King Robert the Brocis, with a cover," and again, "the hede of silver of ane of the coveris of masar." The same "Collection of Inventorys of Royal Wardrobe and Jewell-house," from 1488 to 1606, furnishes some interesting minutiæ in regard to the royal plate and jewels, and the consecrated vessels for the service of the altar. Besides the mazers, there is "ane cowp callit king Robert the Bruce coupe, of silver owirgilt,"—another pleasing evidence of the reverence with which the name of the saviour of his country continued to be regarded. The royal plate and jewels are of an exceedingly curious and costly character, while among the "chapell geir" we find "ane chesabill of purpour velvot, with the stoyle and fannowne, orphis, twa abbis," &c. Another of "crammosie velvot, furniset with a stole and a fannoun only;" another "of black velvot, with croce upoune it, broderrit of clayth of gold." Altar cloths, broidered and jewelled; "ane challeis and ane patene gilt;" "ane caise of silver for the messbreid, with ane cover;" "ane litil cors with precious stanis;" "ane lytill box of gold with the haly croce, send be the Duk of Albany to the kingis graice;" "ane croce of silver, with our Lady and Sanct Johne, gilt." Of silver, "ouregilt," in Edinburgh Castle, "twa chandleris, ane chalice and ane patine, ane halie watter fatt," &c.; "ane bell of silver;" "ane bassing; ane laver of fyne massy gold, with thrissillis and lelleis crounit upoun the samen," &c. The list indeed, of which these are only a few illustrations, greatly exceeds what might have been anticipated at a period succeeding many years of national disaster and suffering. It is to be regretted that scarcely a solitary example of the medieval Scottish "chapell geir," or of the royal mazer, or convivial bowl, remains to illustrate the usages of our ancestors. We learn, however, from these old inventories, that there was no lack of either, and also that the value attached to the mazer cup dates in Scotland, as elsewhere, from a very early period. This probably originated in part from superstitious feelings, arising from some special virtue attached to the wood of the maple tree. But its close grain, the beauty of its variegated surface, and its susceptibility of high polish, were doubtless the chief reasons for its continued use as the material for the pledge-cup and wassail bowl; and when it was replaced by other woods, or even by the precious metals, the old name was still retained. The woodcut represents a mazer of very simple form, and probably of an early age, made not of the maple but the ash, a tree famed of old for many supernatural qualities. It was found in the deep draw-well, in the ruined castle of Merdon, near Hursly, built by Bishop Henry de Blois, A.D. 1138.[696] The ciphus de mazero frequently figures among the household effects of citizens of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is no less commonly alluded to by the elder poets, as in Robert de Brunne's version of Wace's Brut, written in the latter part of the thirteenth century, where "mazers of rich price" are specified among the gifts bestowed by king Arthur on his foreign guests. The mazer figures also in the inventory of goods of the Sheriff of Nottingham, taken by "Lytell John," as printed by Wynken de Worde, in the popular black-letter ballad,—"A Lytell geste of Robyn Hode;" and it is thus introduced in the fine old Scottish ballad of "Gill Morice,"

The mazer cup was evidently regarded as a family heirloom, and as such inscribed with quaint legends and pious aphorisms, and sometimes decorated with rich chasing and carving, as Chaucer has so beautifully described in the "Mazer yrought of the maple," mentioned in his Shepherd's Callender. The quaint simplicity, both of the devices and inscriptions of many of the wassail bowls, furnishes curious illustration of the manners and ideas of the age to which they belong. Our forefathers had a pious, but withal a very convenient fashion, of uniting religion with their daily sports, and even, as it might seem, seeking to sanctify their excesses. Both Chaucer and Dunbar wind up their freest versions of the Decameron with a pious couplet, and in like spirit the old toper invoked the Trinity on the rim of his wassail bowl, and engraved the mystic saint Christopher within it. The woodcut represents a very beautiful mazer of the time of Richard II., now in the possession of Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq, M.P. It is made of highly polished wood, apparently maple, and hooped with a richly embossed rim of silver gilt, on which is inscribed, as shewn in the annexed fac-simile of a portion of the "edgle of sylver," the following characteristic invocation:—

From the tenor of such legends frequently inscribed on these ancient cups, it has not been uncommon to describe them as sacred vessels, designed only for use in the service of the Church. Thus a maple cup, bearing the date 1608, was forwarded for exhibition at a meeting of the British Archæological Association in 1848, as a chalice;[697] and another, apparently of the same character, made in the year 1611, was shewn to the members of the Archæological Institute in 1850, which it was also conjectured "might have served in some rural parish as a chalice."[698] Such cups, however, were by no means rare in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and though frequently inscribed in terms calculated to suggest such a sacred character, there will generally be found some accompaniment in the legend or devices no less characteristic of mirth and good fellowship. On the 4th January 1667, Mr. Pepys notes in his gossiping Diary, having "last of all, a flagon of ale and apples, drunk out of a wood cup, as a Christmas draught, which made all merry." Fountainhall in his "Decisions," records some curious notes of an action brought by Sir Alexander Ogilvie, afterwards Lord Forglen, in 1685, against Sir Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, for stealing a gilded mazer cup out of his house, which was afterwards accidentally discovered in the hands of a goldsmith in Aberdeen, with whom its careless owner had left it some years before for repair. From such glimpses as we recover of the history of the litigants, neither of the old Scottish baronets seem characters likely to have gifted chalices, even of maple or ashen wood, though probably well fitted to match with Secretary Pepys in discussing a "Christmas draught." One quaint, but very beautiful allusion, however, is made by an old Scottish writer to the mazer cup, referring to it metaphorically, as to a sacramental chalice. The passage occurs in Zacharie Boyd's "Last Battell of the Soule," published at Edinburgh in 1629. "Take now," says he, "the cup of salvation, the great Mazer of His mercy, and call upon the name of the Lord."

A curious wooden cup, in the collection of W. B. Johnstone, Esq., bearing the date 1611, serves to illustrate the character of the pious legends graven on the mazers of the seventeenth century,—not unsuited in part for the decoration of a sacramental chalice, but also accompanied with other devices and allusions, which leave no doubt of the real destination of the mazer for the convivial board. Its height is nine inches, and its greatest circumference, a little below the brim, nineteen inches. The outer surface of the bowl is divided into ornamental compartments, within which are grouped the lion, unicorn, stag, ostrich, hedgehog, dog, and cock, with trees, flowers, &c. The ostrich is represented regaling himself with a horse-shoe![699] Around the rim, bowl, stem, and even on the lower side of the stand, the carver has indulged his moralizing vein, both in prose and verse. The inscription on the bowl reads,—

Round the rim of the stand are the words and date:—THEY THAT SEEKE AFTER THE LORD SHALL PRAYSE HIM, THEIR HARTS SHALL LIVE FOR EVER. 1611.; and then on the underside of the stand the cup thus takes up the hortatory strain, in a mixed vein, in propria persona:—

There was perhaps a little quiet humour lurking in the mind of the carver when he inscribed these latter excellent and very practical maxims on the underside of the stand, where it is only possible to peruse them when the cup is empty! It will be seen that this maple cup bears a very close resemblance to the contemporary vessels of the same class referred to in the Journals of the Archæological Association and of the Institute. Their odd devices and quaint inscriptions are not unworthy of note by the historian as indicative of the old Puritan spirit manifesting itself in this simple guise during the reign of James, preparatory to its stern outbreak in that of his son.

These spurious chalices of modern date have led us somewhat beyond the legitimate bounds of the subject, though they cannot be considered quite undeserving of a passing notice. Only one other early Scottish relic remains to be noted,—a small brass box, closely resembling several which have been found at various times in England, and have been supposed to be pyxes, intended to hold the chrism, or by some as designed only for containing pigments or unguents. Two similar boxes discovered at Lewis are engraved in the Archæologia, and described as small bronze pyxes;[700] and another found at Lincoln is figured in the Archæological Journal.[701] The remarkably close resemblance of these to the Scottish example manifestly points to some common purpose for the whole; and the latter is of special value as supplying the means which are wanting in the others of making some approximation to the precise age to which they belong. It was found about the year 1818, near Dalquharran Castle, in the parish of Daily, Ayrshire, filled with coins of David II. of Scotland, Edwards I. and II. of England, and two counterfeit sterlings of the Counts of Flanders and Porcieu. It is now in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries.

Few as are the examples of Scottish ecclesiastical relics which we can now refer to, they are more than we might reasonably anticipate in a country where the fanes and altars of the medieval church have lain in ruins for so many centuries, and even the existence of a single ruined church pertaining to its primitive Christian era may be still liable to dispute. Though such remains are of less esteem as sources of information relative to the periods to which they belong than the objects of earlier eras, they will not be regarded by the intelligent historian as altogether devoid of value in relation to the peculiar arts and customs or the degree of civilisation of ages, concerning which much obscurity has still to be removed.