OS1/13/19/29

Continued entries/extra info

29 [No Header]

[Quotation continued] those who have seen some of them that they contained no inscription but were marked with Symbols similar to those on the oval plates. At the time General Durham obtained the portions of the armour aforementioned, he was not aware that more had been found or exertions might have been made to recover more of it. Unfortunately when the truth came to be known it was too late to do so. The man who found it appears to have sold it in portions to a hawker by whom it was again sold to different Silversmiths and thus found its way to the melting pot. Mr. R. Robertson, Jeweller, Cupar purchased at one time £5 worth, and subsequently made two purchases of £10 each and he knows that a Jeweller in Edinburgh made a purchase of other portions to the value of £20. A farmer in the parish of Ceres likewise got possession of some of the scales with which he had heads made to some staffs and we have seen in his possession one or two of the links by which the scales were connected. Altogether from what has been ascertained, it would appear that there could not have been less than 400 ounces of pure bullion in the armour. Mr Robertson has a distinct recollection of the forms of various portions of the armour which came into his possession and speaks in particular of the rich carving of the shield, the helmet and the sword handle which were brought to him crushed together for the purpose of being easier carried and concealed. The shield was heart shaped and had upon it the figure of a man on horseback. A considerable part of the armour was partially corroded, the alloy having been eaten away as if by some weak acid, and the bullion in these cases was much more pure than where it remained solid and untouched. It was in fact reduced to the state of porous, brittle spongy silver. The parts chiefly affected in this way were those lowest down which seem to have suffered from long exposure to some slight acid. The upper portions were fresh, compact and entire, and of nearly the same quality as our present standard. The most remarkable circumstance in connection with this armour is the similarity of the symbols engraved upon it with the carvings on some of the carved stones found in the north-east of Scotland. The same symbol being found on those of Glammis, Crosstown and Balkello in Forfarshire; of Dyce and Muir of Rhynie, in Aberdeenshire; of Fordun in the Mearns; of Newton in Banffshire; of Elgin in Morayshire ; of Foulis Wester and Abernethy in Perthshire and of Baldowrie in Strathmore and various others. Though the same symbols are not found on the Largo Cross yet from the carvings which it presents being similar to those found on others which have the symbol, there can be no doubt of their all belonging to one Class. This remarkable class of monuments presents a fruitful field for speculation which has as yet been little entered upon. Tradition assigns them in various districts to the period of the Danish invasion of our shores but as no such class of monuments are to be found in any of the Scandinavian countries there is no good ground for assigning such an origin to them. It is said that many of the symbols represented on them are found on stones of great and unknown antiquity in India, and as the Celtic people came from the East they would no doubt bring their superstitions, and the appropriate Symbols along with them. The question however is one of..... (cont)