C. Cordiner pina FORRES PILLAR. Published according to Act of Parliament, June 14th 1787. Peter Maxell Engraver, No 4, Drwy Lane Peter Maxall sculp FORRES PILLAR. TH HIS majestic column, on account of its fize*, is the most remarkable of the ancient obelifks now remaining in North-Britain. It is called by historians the most stately monument of the Gothic kind to be seen in Europe. From its magnitude, and the elaborate workmanship wherewith it is covered over, in an early age it may have been a work of national concern; but to what event in history it refers is as yet a matter covered by an impenetrable veil, no authentic tradition nor written record concerning it being extant. Several authors have been profufe in their conjectures concerning the tranfactions in memory of which it has been raised; a humbler task is at prefent proposed, that of distinctly ascertaining the sculptures on it :-that care will enable us to judge with more certainty concerning the probability of what hiftorians have alledged; and with that view their teftimonies fhall be afterwards produced. The rude figures of the plate, in Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, are in general widely different, and in many respects altogether foreign to the truth of thofe on the column. A diftincter reprefentation was attempted for Shaw's Hiftory of Moray; but there the figures are for the most part also faulty, and their form imitated in too feeble and puerile a manner. A more elaborate drawing from it was made at Mr. Pennant's inftance, and an engraving from it was published in a fupplemental volume to his Tour, "The "Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland;" but the figures are there laid out on too small a scale to render them fufficiently expressive. As that plate †, however, gives a general idea of the obelifk, it may ferve to ascertain the connection of the feveral departments to be reprefented at large, as in the annexed fpecimen. Without quoting the brief fummary there narrated of the transactions to which the fculptures of this column may refer, fome general remarks shall now be offered, as an illuftration of the plate annexed. Twenty-five feet in height; three and a half broad, or about four at the base. † Antiquities and Scenery of Scotland, plate vi. p. 54. 5 At At the top there is a warlike band of men: fome brandishing their weapons; others, as exulting, hold their fhields on high, or are joining hands, in earnest of mutual encouragement and support, and apparently rejoicing in their strength, as a prelude to victory. In the midst of the next row of figures, two of the warriors appear preparing for, or engaged in, a fingle combat, while their followers or adherents are looking on with various expreffion of intereft in the conflict. This custom often of old decided the fate of armies and of war *. chiefs, we have heard of the ambitious and accepted challenge, Of British "Let you and I the battle try, and fet our men afidet.” And an inflance is mentioned of Caledonian story, by Mr. Pennant, where a young Earl of Caithness, and the fon of an Earl of Sutherland, fought a single combat, in which both were flain, while their armies ftood looking on . In the fquare department below, a number of the figures are evidently engaged in the folemnity of a deliberate execution of captives, by beheading of them. Three trumpeters are founding their trumpets, while one stands with a sword in his hand, in the action of executioner; in the other hand holding the head of one of the captives, just severed from the body, which lies by. Several men with poles, or halberts, are standing round, as guarding a kind of tent or canopy, under which the heads of the dead are depofited, while the bodies are arranged feemingly without the circle: seven are figured as having incurred the above penalty on this occafion. This, though seemingly a barbarous tranfaction, has been too often exemplified in the history of polished nations. The piles of heads which were laid at the gates of Jezreel § exemplifies its antiquity; and in a more nearly corresponding age, at the fiege of Nantes, in the thirteenth century of the Christian æra, the Duke of Normandy caufed the heads of thirty prifoners to be cut off in cold blood. We need not be surprised at the folemnity, therefore, as represented on the obelisk, but at the filence of history with refpect to it. The combatants, who are trying their dexterity in pairs, as at the conclufion of the above execution, may be contending in arms, in presence of the chiefs, who best deserves the armour of the flain: the fhields placed between them seem to vindicate this allufion. 1 Samuel xvii. + Chevy Chace. IO 1 Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 193. § 2 Kings x. |