Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/326

 242 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. early Irish saints are marked by stones differing in nowise from the pagan pillar stone, except that in some instances they are sculptured with a cross, plain or within a circle. This style of monument appears to have been succeeded by a rudely-formed cross, the arms of which are little more than indicated, and which is usually fixed in a socket, cut in a large flat stone. Such crosses rarely exhibit any kind of ornament, but occasionally, even in very rude examples, the upper part of the shaft is hewn into the form of a circle, from which the arms and the top extend ; and those portions of the stone by which the circle is indicated are frequently perforated, or slightly recessed. A fine plain cross of this style may be seen in the grave- yard of Tullagh, county Dublin ; and there is an early Decorated example near the church of Finglas, in the same county. Crosses, highly sculp- tured, appear to have been very generally erected between the ninth and twelfth centuries ; but there are no examples of a later period remaining, if we except a few bearing inscriptions in Latin or English, which belong to the close of the sixteenth, or to the seventeenth century, and which can hardly be looked upon as either Irish or ancient. " From the rude pillar stone marked with the symbol of our faith, enclosed wqthin a circle, the emblem of eternity, the finely proportioned and elabo- rately sculptured crosses of a later period are derived. In the latter, the circle, instead of being simply cut upon the face of the stone, is represented by a ring, binding, as it were, the shaft, arms, and upper portion of the cross together." The figures and ornaments with which its various sides are enriched appear to have been executed with an unusual degree of care, and even of artistic skill. It has suffered but little from the effects of time. The sacrilegious hands which attempted the ruin of the others appeared to have spared this, and it stands almost as perfect as when, nearly nine centuries ago, the artist, we may suppose, pronounced his work finished, and chiefs and abbots, bards, shanachies, warriors, ecclesiastics, and perhaps many a rival sculptor, crowded round this very spot, full of wonder and admiration for ■what they must have considered a truly glorious, and perhaps unequalled work. An inscription in Irish, upon the lower part of the shaft, desires 'a prayer for Muiredach, by whom was made this cross;' but, as Dr. Petrie, by whom the inscription has been published, remarks, there were two of the name mentioned in the Irish annals as having been connected with Monasterboice, one an abbot, who died in the year 844, and the other in the year 924, ' so that it must be a matter of some uncertainty to which of these the erection of the cross should be ascribed.' There is .reason, however, to assign it to the latter, ' as he was a man of greater distinction, and probably wealth, than the former, and therefore more likely to have been the erector of the crosses.' Its total height is exactly fifteen feet, and it is six in breadth at the arms. The shaft, which at the base mea- sures in breadth two feet six inches, and in thickness one foot nine inches, diminishes slightly in its ascent, and is divided upon its various sides, by
 * The smaller cross (of Monasterboice) is most eminently beautiful.