dumfries-1920/04-073

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

all of later date; while it is not found in Scotland outside these limits. In the skill
of the relief work, too, these southern crosses are distinguished from similar cases
beyond the Forth. The fragments from Knockhill (No. 273), now described in detail
for the first time, have suffered most severely. They apparently represent a small
group of crosses, and also have their own special features. On the Ruthwell Cross
the subjects re scriptural or saintly narrative, or are symbolic in a straightforward
way noticeable also at Knockhill, where, however, the other surviving subjects appear
to be allegorical or representative. On the principal specimen in the Grierson Museum,
Thornhill (No. 514), the figures are of a symbolism that hitherto has withstood
explanation.
Bells. - Of the bells in the county the oldest is that still in use in the Parish
Church of Lochmaben (No. 452), which may be of the early 14th century. Its
companion is much later. A 15th-century bell survives in the Maxwelltown Museum,
Dumfries (No. 134). The bells of the vanished Abbey of Holywood (No. 285) are,
one certainly and probably both, of the early 16th century. The 17th century has left
a few examples: one at Closeburn Church (No. 58), another on a tree at Ewes (No. 227),
and one in Moffat (No. 496). The bell at Closeburn is a Potterrow (Edinburgh)
casting, and the handsome 18th-century bell at Mickle Dalton (No. 96) is also from
Edinburgh.

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