OS1/13/102/28

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 28

a greyhound in the act of seizing a fox nondescript quadruped with wings mounted on the back of an ass two monkeys and other animals which are all well executed but out of proportion and thrown together without any regard to perspective. The whole is in alto re-relieve. Some suppose them to be of Danish origin. Cordiner in his Antiquities of North Britain gives some engravings of stones not very dissimilar particularly of one or two in Ross-shire. The date he assigns to them is the tenth century. He observes that in rude times it was the custom to bury in the graves of eminent men the weapons or implements in which they took pleasure when alive and that hence by an easy transition the occupation which they were addicted or excelled in came to be represented on their coffins or tombstones. This account seems plausible in the absence of better information but others are of the opinion that the coffin in question and like emblematical representation must have been coeval with the introduction of Christianity into this part of Scotland and that connexion of the cross with the hieroglyphics of our Scandinavian or Pictish ancestors marks their disposition to combine the symbols of the two creeds into one. Lyons Hist. [History] of St Andrews vol. [volume] ll [2] p. [page] 162
Note. The above observations concerning the hieroglyphic stones apply equally to other stones found in a few places in Scotland and generally called Runic Stones which is the reason why this account is written here at full length as reference may be made in other Name Books to this account.

Transcriber's notes

Continuation of Description for St Regulus Chapel and Tower