AN ATTEMPT
TO EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN AND MEANING
OF THE EARLY INTERLACED
ORNAMENTATION
FOUND ON THE
Ancient Sculptured Stones
OF
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND THEISLE OF MAN.
BY
GILBERT J. FRENCH,
OF BOLTON.
PRINTED FOR PRESENTATION ONLY.
MANCHESTER:
PRINTED BY CHARLES SIMMS AND CO.
1858.
AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN, &c.
Any reasonable and honest attempt to explainthe origin of the singularly elegant interlacedornamentation, familiar to archæologists asthe very earliest style of artistic decorationknown in the British islands, must be entitledto, and I feel assured will receive, favourable consideration.Even should the attempted explanation fail to obtain entiresanction, it will at least lead to attentive and accurateobservations upon an interesting subject, which may at somefuture time refute or establish the theory which I venture topropound.
The style of interlaced ornament to which I refer is foundin an infinite variety of devices on the earliest sculpture,whether of stone or metal, and in the oldest manuscripts andilluminations of Britain and Ireland. It retained its peculiardistinctive character throughout the Roman occupation ofBritain, slightly modified by, and often mixed with, classicalornaments. These, however, in a great measure disappearedduring the Saxon period, a circumstance which induces thebelief that, whatever its origin and purpose, interlaced ornamentationwas equally familiar to the Saxon invaders and tothe British aborigines. It entered largely into Norman[4]architecture; but from the time of the Conquest it graduallybecame less used, though traces of it are to be met with atnearly every period in the history of British art. Thus itwas revived with the introduction of printing, when manybeautiful capital letters, copied from ancient manuscripts,were reproduced as wood-cuts. It reappeared in the strap-workpeculiar to the architecture and ornamentation of theElizabethan and Jacobean eras. It is found in the bone-lacepatterns of this country and of Northern Europe in the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries, and was retained in almostits original purity for the decoration of the dirks, targets,brooches and powder horns of the Scottish Highlanderswithin the last hundred years.[1]
Very striking examples of interlaced ornament are metwith on the ancient sculptured stones and crosses so plentifullyscattered over our islands. They have been of latebrought into prominent notice by three invaluable publicationswhich graphically represent and accurately describethese interesting relics of ancient art as they are now foundin Scotland[2], Ireland[3] and the Isle of Man[4]. It is to beregretted that those of England and Wales—though manyof them have been separately engraved—have not yet beencollected in a well-edited volume, since a ca