Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/149

NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. lOo Worsaae's valuable labours will henceforth induce, as he so cordially desires, an increasing union of efforts between British antiquaries and the learned Society of the North. THE ANTIQUITIES OF lONA. By Henry Davenport Graham, Esq. London : Day and Son. 1850. 4to., -with Fifty-two Lithographic Illustrations. The architectural and sepulchral antiquities, of the medieval period, existing in North Britain, have hitherto been very insufficiently examined. The value of the examples of early monumental art in Scotland, previously known only through the imperfect notices and representations supplied in the works of Gordon, Pennant, or Cordiner, has in recent times been more fully appreciated, through the noble Publication for which we are indebted to the liberality of Mr. Chalmers, — the monograph on the sculptured monuments of Angus, to which the attention of our readers was called in a previous volume of this Journal.^ We were enabled, also, on a former occasion, by the kindness of Mr. Auldjo, to lay before them one of the liighly curious memorials in the Western Islands — the Cross of Abbot MacKinnon, still to be seen at lona. We entertained the hope that some antiquary, inspired by the interest of the historical associations connected with that remarkable Island, might undertake to collect and pourtray the numerous vestiges of antiquity by which the site, long the burial-place of kings and chieftains, is distinguished. In the work before us, Mr. Graham has supplied this desideratum in archaeological literature ; and the volume will be viewed with gratification by the architectural antiquary, as displaying, for the first time, detailed repre- sentations with a ground plan of the venerable Cathedral of Icolmkill, and the Primitive Chapel of St. Oran. The curious tombs surrounding it ; the monumental portraitures of ecclesiastics and warriors ; many a sculptured slab which recalls names of renown in ancient Scottish stoiy, present to those who take interest in monumental sculpture a valuable series for comparison with examples in our own and in other countries. The details of ornament and costume are highly curious ; a peculiar local character may be distinguished, with traces of a traditional use of decorative design, probably of Irish or Scandinavian origin. It may deserve notice, since so large a class of English antiquaries take interest in sepulchral brasses, that the matrix, or indent, of a large effigy apparently of that nature, appears in the series of tombs given by Mr. Graham. Tradition affirms that the figure was of silver : it represents a knight of the Macleod family, date apparently about 1400. The outline of the figure seems to indicate that he wore the basinet with that singular projection at the apex, seen in other early examples of Scottish military costume. In recommending this interesting work of Mr. Graham's to the notice of our readers, we must express the hope that his laudable example may stimulate other antiquaries to illustrate the sculptured remains of North Britain. In the island of Oronsay, especially, adjoining to lona, several sepulchral memorials exist, of great curiosity, of which faithful represen- tations would be a desirable acquisition. ' Ardiacol. .Tonrnal, vol. vi., ]). 8G. VOL. Vir. 1'