CCordiner pinx.

FORRES PILLAR.

Peter Mazell Sculpt

Published as the Act directs Nov. 11787 by Peter Mazell Engraver No32 James Street Covent Garden.

FORRES PILLA R.

BOETIUS, and fome other of our more early historians, ftruck with the

pecu

liar characters, and remarkable number of the monuments of the obelifk kind, in North Britain, adorned with sculptured figures of beasts, birds, and fishes; apparently hieroglyphics; were impreffed with a high idea of their origin, and inferred from them-" That the first colonies which planted or civilized Caledonia were of "Egyptian extraction; and that these sculptured stones were an evidence how long "they had retained the customs of that celebrated country."

And although Mr. Gordon was fully aware of the extravagance of that reflection -for he gravely quotes * Bishop Nicholson's authority for calling it "one of Hector Boetius' fancies "-yet the thought has been probably, fomehow or other, the cause of his being betrayed into fo extraordinary a delineation of that part of the column at Forres, which is reprefented in the annexed plate. For he has given a sow, and a sphinx, and a centaur, and fome camels with human heads-instead of the fix men on horseback, who are flying before a pursuing enemy on foot.

One thing, however, it is but justice to remark, that a curfory observation of thefe fculptures, is not fufficient to apprehend their original forms, and ascertain their identity. They are carved out in pretty high relievo, and many of the more projecting parts of the figures are crumbled down through the unavoidable injuries of weather and time. In many lights, the real outlines are scarce difcernible : 'twas neceffary, therefore, to examine their effect in the funshine, both before and after noon, ere the dubious forms could be afcertained with precifion. The most difcerning eye will scarcely be able at once to discover the whole expreflion of the fculptures. Inftead of the indefinite defcription, therefore, " of figures of a mon"ftrous form, with men standing by them, holding obfcure weapons in their "hands," the upper compartment of this plate fhews, that the first line of the victorious party, who have put the horse to flight, are diftinctly armed with bows and arrows; followed by others with drawn fwords in their right hands, and targets on their left arms. And on the lower compartment, which Mr. Gordon had not taken time to delineate at all to any purpose, the troop of horse are evidently seized by the military on foot, who had routed, and were pursuing them, as above; and

Iter. Septen. p. 159.

+ Scotch Hift. Library, p. 64.

another

another folemnity, of beheading the captives, had taken place: one of the heads is diftinguished, as placed in a frame, fixed to a kind of arched canopy; which may be an expreffion of refentment fimilar to its being hung in chains. And under that covering, whatever it may imply, the reft of the decapitated bodies are difpofed.

It is obvious, that the actions and attitudes of the human figures, confidered in this and the former ftricture on Forres Pilar, are in many refpects very awkwardly defigned: and yet, when we reflect on its being the work of the tenth or eleventh century, it is rather a matter of furprife, that they are executed fo well. The fculptures on it are perhaps fuperior to any performances of the fame age, either in England or on the continent. At that period the arts, and all Europe, were but emerging from the dreadful fhade which the Gothic devastations occasioned. In the tenth century* many princes, and pontiffs, could not fubfcribe their names; and the representations of emperors and faints, made by artists on the windows of churches, and on miffals, do not far exceed in expreffion the copies of them made in the grotesque figures which form the motley pictures of the kings on cards. -Inftead of the remark that has been made, of these strictures on the monuments not allowing an early enough date to the progrefs of literature in Scotland; there may be now fome fallacy fufpected in the delineation of this and the other columns, because they evince that the imitative arts had attained a greater degree of perfection in Caledonia than in almost any other part of Europe, in the periods immediately fucceeding what are called the dark ages. But as facts, and not theories, are all that are here establishing, it is only requifite to mention, that where any fomewhat obliterated parts of the obelisks are more accurately defined than what these weather-beaten fculptures may suggest to a spectator on curfory observationthey are either the effect of more attentive confideration; or, if conjecture is ever allowed to interpret any dubious veftige, it was rather in favour of a natural and rational, than quaint or abfurd idea; a principle which, in all antiquarian or hiftorical fpeculation, is certainly philosophically just.

Hiftory of the Emperor Charles V.