Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/269

Rh various collections. To the remarkable discovery of a large number in the Isle of Lewis, in 1832, now deposited in the British Museum, we owe the highly curious remarks by Sir Frederic Madden, not less valuable in regard to the ancient history of the game, than as illustrative of peculiarities of costume during the twelfth century, of which few examples are elsewhere to be discovered. The rich museum of northern antiquities at Copenhagen contains numerous pieces of similar character; they appear to have been chiefly fabricated in Iceland, and the material is not ivory, but the tusk of the walrus. In the cabinet of antiquities in the Bibliothèque Royale at Paris, there are a few chess-men of the same period, and of one of these, a warder, or rook, Mr. Shaw has given a representation in his Dresses and Decorations. In the same museum may be seen a portion of the "jeu d'eschets," presented by Charlemagne to the abbey of St. Denis, and inscribed with Cufic characters.

Two chess-knights and a warder, hitherto undescribed, of great curiosity as examples of military costume, have been preserved in our own country. The most ancient is a warder, formed of the tusk of the walrus; (?) it was presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland by Lord Macdonald, and formed part