And somewhere on this sorrowful earth | ground, as they rise in clouds frightened there wanders, from house to house, from by the shouts of the boatmen, and fill the land to land, a man who eats and drinks, air with their deafening cries. While on and talks and sleeps-ay, even some- some projecting point a scart or green. times laughs much as other men do, crested cormorant sits, and stretching who seems much as other men seem, forth its long neck, looks down at the and yet who carries with him always, in spectator sailing past with its wild, uncrowds or in solitude, in the glare of canny eye, seeming the very demon of the daylight or the dead of night, the touch solitude. of a beseeching hand, the sound of an entreating voice saying "Cecil! forgive me, believe me.

But the world does not look below the surface, and the world does not see that.

From Fraser's Magazine.

AN EARLY CELTIC COLLEGE.

It is hard to realize, what the signs around emphatically indicate, that this region, so peaceful now, was once the scene of the wildest convulsions. These lofty cliffs were upheaved by subterranean fires, and those mountains of Mull which look so quiet and cold in the serenity of heaven, flared as active volcanoes upon the lurid horizon. Soundings here show in one place a sudden abyss six or seven hundred feet deep, and in another a shalOn the wide space of sea between the low table-land that comes within a few south-east coast of Mull and the mainland fathoms of the surface, indicating violent of Lorne, to the west of Scarba and Jura, plutonic disturbance. The mountains of there is a group of six small islands called | Mull are supposed to have been no less the Garveloch Islands. They lie out than fourteen thousand feet high, excellof the steamboat track of tourists to Oban ing Etna in sublimity; and their reducand the Hebrides, and are therefore rarely tion to their present low level, the highest visited. In the magnificent archipelago point having an elevation of less than which bursts upon the gaze of the trav-three thousand feet, shows to what a treeller as he emerges from the Crinan mendous process of denudation they have Canal and passes out through the wide since been subjected. Judging from the portals of the Dorus Mohr, this group of evidence of the curious leaf-beds of Ardislands may escape notice altogether, and tun in the neighborhood, this great volyet when sailing close to them they ex- canic outburst took place at a comparahibit some of the finest sea cliffs on the tively recent period of geological history. west coast of Scotland. Rising two or The fossils found in these remarkably three hundred feet sheer from deep water, preserved beds, intercalated between thick they form for nearly three miles, a sub- deposits of volcanic ashes, are analogous lime rampart, on which the elements have with the existing flora of the eastern seacarved their grand runes in many a fis- board of North America from the mouth sure and rugged ledge. Here and there of the St. Lawrence to Carolina; and they they have crystallized into splendid basal- tell us that islands now utterly bare and tic columns not unworthy of Staffa and destitute of wood were at this period covthe Giant's Causeway; and at short inter- ered with luxuriant forests of deciduous vals enormous trap-dykes run up through trees, ere they were overwhelmed like the them, some of which have been excavated neighborhood of Naples with a succesby the action of the waves, forming caves sion of fiery deluges. If we wish to form and clefts into which the sea dashes with some idea how these ancient geological a sullen roar. The natural brown of the forests looked, we have only to go to any basalt is deepened in some places by the part of eastern North America, where beating. upon it of incessant tempests into the aboriginal woods have not been cut a kind of black bloom, giving to the cliffs down. The Puritan fathers saw the very a peculiarly stern, iron look, repellent of same kind of vegetation when they landed all life; in other places they are bright- on the shores of New England two cenened by the most brilliant mural vegeta- turies ago. Immeasurably older than tion; lichens giving them a golden or this volcanic region are Iona and the hoary appearance, and mosses softening outer Hebrides with their Laurentian their haggard features with a tinge of rocks. They are fragments of a lost verdure. Myriads of sea-fowl have made country, against whose iron shores the their nests in the ledges of the preci- unbroken force of the Atlantic dashed at pices; and their white forms may a time when Skye and Mull and the clearly relieved against the dark back- Garveloch Islands lay as mud at the bot

be seen

tom of a wide sound, and the Alps, Hima- | belonged in the far-off ages to those layas, and Andes, the highest but young- lonely isles. As out of the faint mornest mountains of the earth, had not yet reared their snowy crests to heaven.

It is most interesting to compare the geological with the civil and ecclesiastical history of this region, and to trace the striking points of resemblance between them. The inconceivable antiquity of the rocks of Iona formed a fitting scene for those primitive Christian missions which go so far back in our short human history, that they seem almost lost in the mists of fable. The later fiery eruptions which played so important a part in the formation of Mull and the Garveloch group were parallelled by the wild scenes of human strife which those places witnessed from the sixth to the fourteenth century. During the time of St. Columba they formed the battle-ground between the Scots of Dalriada and the heathen Picts, when sanguinary fights between the two rival nations were continually taking place and no human life or possession was safe. Pictish pirates infested the surrounding seas, and ravaged the coasts with fire and sword. On the highest point of one of the Garveloch Islands, called Dunchonnel, perched on the edge of a basaltic cliff, are the scanty ruins of a rude fort, where dwelt a noted sea robber of the name of Johan, son of royal Conall, who descended from his eyrie at frequent intervals and plundered the island of Mull and the mainland of Ardnamurchan. Then came the Danish and Norwegian invasions, which proved even more disastrous to the inhabitants, and resulted in the subjugation of all the western isles to the rule of the Northmen. The whole region is a land of romance, to whose exciting story Sir Walter Scott has given charming poetic expression in his "Lord of the Isles." On almost every projecting traprock and prominent headland on this intricate coast, are the remains of strongly fortified castles, erected after the expulsion of the Scandinavians by the fierce Celtic chieftains, whose grim effigies with sword and helmet and coat of mail, we see carved on the tombstones of Iona.

ing mists that lightly envelop them in July when touched by the rising sun, the islands and coasts emerge, and with a subtle witchery of shyness and boldness reveal their hidden charms, so out of the dim, misty ecclesiastical legends that hover around them, shine before the eye of the student of Church history the heavenly lives of saints and hermits, who helped by their faith and zeal almost to perpetuate into uninspired times the apostolic age. It is of an episode in this romantic, half-fabulous period, which has a charm to the imagination that never palls, that I have now to write.

At the western extremity of the Garveloch group there is a small island separated from its larger neighbor by a narrow strait. Its cliffs are lower, more broken and rugged; and far down over their beetling brows appear patches of grass and wild flowers, which give them a softer appearance. Fronting the mainland, the island rises abruptly in a wall-like face, but at the back it slopes gradually down to the level of the sea. In some places its trap-dykes have been isolated by the action of the tides, and project from the rocks like Cyclopean walls; while at the south end there are deep caves mantled with ivy and huge arches like the fantastic rock scenery of Carisaig, on the opposite shore of Mull. A fringe of rugged rocks, with sharp, teeth-like projections, standing out in the water, guards it on the western side; with tortuous channels, running in among them to the shore like the reef around a coral island. By the natives of the district this island is called Eilean na Naomh, or the Isle of Saints. It has been identified almost beyond doubt as the Insula Hinba or Hinbina, to which Adamnan refers in his "Life of St. Columba," as one of the islands on which the great Celtic apostle had founded his earliest monasteries. From time immemorial it has enjoyed a sacred reputation, a religio loci. Before the time of St. Columba it was probably, like Iona, the seat of so-called Druidic worship, or whatever kind of nature-cult the primitive But it is not of fiery eruptions and law- inhabitants had favored. St. Brendan, less human passions only that this region whose name is still commemorated in witnesses. At the present day the visitor that of the neighboring parish of Kilin bright summer weather sees only a brandon, had placed upon it a Christian paradise of surpassing loveliness reflected establishment, supposed to have been a in the mirror of a sea as blue as the sky college for training preachers of the gosabove; and the beauty and tranquillity of pel, previous to its occupation by the nature seem a fit background to that en- monastery of St. Columba; and this eschanting story of piety and devotion that | tablishment was in all likelihood swept

away in the severe struggle between the | the island was at a lower level and the Picts and the Dalriadic Scots in the year sea broke over it, we saw a series of grey 560, which ended in the defeat of the lat- walls ascending one beyond the other up ter. The old Gaelic word for college, viz., the slope. One could tell at a glance that aileach, is still preserved in the name of this spot had been long inhabited, for the Elachnave, by which the island is best grass on the terraces was green as an known in our guide-books. Between it emerald and smooth as velvet, contrastand Oronsay there was once a close eccle- ing strikingly with the bare rocks that siastical connection; its parsonage and everywhere came to the surface. The vicarage teinds having, previous to 1630. nettle and the dock, too, grew in the belonged to the celebrated priory of that sheltered places, those strange social island, which in its turn was an appanage plants that follow everywhere in the footof Holyrood Abbey near Edinburgh. steps of man, and indicate even in the Latterly it has been included in the parish loneliest wilderness where his home. has of Jura. For many centuries it has been been. Close to the shore, at the foot of uninhabited; and with the exception of the slope, we came upon the well, to which shepherds who pay an occasional visit to the reverence of ages has given the name it to look after their sheep, and a few of tobhair Columkill, the well of St. zealous antiquaries who land on its shores Columba. It was just beyond the reach at long intervals, its stern silence is never of the tide; but the winter storms doubtdisturbed by the presence of man. less often dashed the salt spray into it. Around its margin, almost touching the olive seaweeds, the products of another element, grew the wild thyme, crimsoning the turfy bank with its blossoms, and the little euphrasy with its mystic associa tions; and in the very baptism of the water was a bed of wild cress and a tuft of blue-eyed forget-me-nots, keeping alive at the same time the memory of the azure sky from whence their beautiful tints had come, and of the saintly men whose devoted lives had consecrated the spot. Like the patriarchs who encamped around a well in the desert, the Celtic hermits had built their monastery near this well, the only fresh water on the island. Still and quiet, deep and cool as that well was their own life here; like the margin of flowery verdure which its waters nourished was the influence which that monastery exercised amid the dreary pagan waste. All around had changed; but this silver link with the remote generations remained the same. We could drink from its clear, refreshing cup to-day, as St. Columba had done thirteen centuries ago.

Owing to this seclusion the island has almost entirely escaped the notice of the world; but next to Iona it is one of the most interesting places in Scotland to the student of sacred archæology. Having heard incidentally of its wonderful ecclesiastical ruins, I determined to see them for myself. Happening to be staying two summers ago at Easdale with Mr. Whyte, the hospitable and intelligent manager of the famous slate quarries there, he placed one of the company's steamers at my disposal. We went first to Oronsay, and spent the day in inspecting the interesting remains of the priory there, with its well-preserved cloisters, grand cross, and richly sculptured tombstones, not much inferior to those in the famous churchyard of Reilig Oran. Returning late in the afternoon to Elachnave, the steamer lay at the back of the island, at a safe distance from the jagged outer rocks, over which the swell of the sea broke in foam. | Descending into a small boat, we rowed a long way to shore, entering in between the rocks by a narrow lane of water which shallowed gradually, and was paved at the Above this well in a sheltered nook we bottom with white pebbles. The primi- found a cluster of ruins, which looked at tive wicker boats covered with hides, in first sight like the wrecks of a long-negwhich the early Scottish saints went from lected sheepfold, or a rude farm-steading. island to island to carry on their mis- But a closer inspection revealed their true sionary work, could land here without character. They were evidently ecclesirunning any risk from the surf of the astical remains of great antiquity. NearAtlantic. Landing on the soft turf we est us was the largest and most perfect saw before us, looming vaguely through building, beyond doubt a primitive chapel the evening shadows that were beginning or oratory. The walls were roofless and to fall, the objects of our quest. In a wide destitute of gables, but were otherwise hollow, between two parallel ridges of almost entire. They measured twentyrock that stretched across the middle of five feet by fifteen, and were fringed at the island, formed by the erosion of sev- the top with large hanging tufts of sea eral closely contiguous trap-dykes, when spleenwort and polypody, and shaggy

with masses of grey filamentous lichen, | dwellings of the saints clustered around
such as grows upon rocks at the sea- it were mere wigwams. Adamnan speaks
shore. They were built without mortar, of St. Columba sending forth his disciples
in the most compact and admirable man-
ner, of squared pieces of slate, procured
from one of the neighboring islands.
Nothing could exceed the simplicity of
the structure, presenting no architectural
detail except a square-headed doorway in
the west end, a small window, splayed on
both sides, in the east end, and on the
south side a projecting shelf, which prob-
ably indicated the site of an altar. To
the east of the chapel were several square
enclosures, communicating with each
other, which formed in all probability the
domestic part of the establishment. A
little way beyond, on the rising ground,
we found a very curious building in a
good state of preservation, with one end
semicircular and the other square and
gabled. It had a doorway on each side,
but no traces of windows. In the inside
the floor of the semicircular part was con-
siderably raised above the rest; another
had a round hole in the centre communi-
cating with a small chamber below. This
has been identified as a kiln for drying
corn. Below the chapel in the middle of
the green sward we nearly stumbled into
what seemed an underground cell of irreg-
ular oval shape and very small dimen-
sions. Its roof was formed by heavy
slabs of stone laid across the walls and
covered with turf, and the entrance was
by a hole almost level with the ground.
In rainy weather it is often half full of

water.

We examined this little group of build-
ings with profound interest; for there is
every reason to believe that they are the
very ruins of the first monastery which
St. Columba himself founded after that of
Iona. Upwards of thirteen hundred years
have passed quietly over them in this
forgotten ocean solitude. They are
among the
very oldest ecclesiastical
remains in Scotland; and their preserva-
tion is owing not only to the seclusion
and loneliness of their situation, but also
to the fact that, contrary to the custom of
the time, they were constructed of stone.
The religious edifices which St. Colum-
ba and his followers had erected in Iona
were built of oaken planks, or consisted
of strong wooden stakes driven into the
ground, intertwined with wands, and plas-
tered on the outside and inside with clay.
The monastery was called by an old writer
gloriosum cœnobium; but its glory cer-
tainly did not lie in its architecture. The
church was simply a log house, and the

on one occasion to gather bundles of twigs, and to cut down stakes to build his hospice. St. Ninian had, indeed, a hundred and sixty years earlier constructed at Whithorn in Galloway, by the aid of masons whom he obtained from St. Martin of Tours on his way home from Rome, a little church and monastery of stone, called candida casa from the whiteness of its walls. It was built twenty-three years before the final departure of the Romans from Britain, and could not therefore have been the first stone building erected in this country, for the houses and temples of the Romans were all constructed of solid stone or brick. But it was in all likelihood the first native structure built of stone, and must have been a great wonder in those days of wattled huts and wooden stockades. St. Kentigern originated the cathedral of St. Asaph in Wales in the sixth century as a wooden church, after the manner of the Celts. And even the missionaries who went abroad carried with them this custom of building churches of wood. In the wooden oratory of Bobbio, afterwards famous for its collection of ancient manuscripts, St. Columbanus, early in the seventh century, reproduced in classic Italy the rude type of Scottish and Irish ecclesiastical architecture. The Celts were woodlanders, finding in the extensive forests that covered the country their houses and their food. Occupied with the chase, and supported by the spontaneous produce of the earth, they never dreamed of stone edifices or felt the want of them. The first Christian missionaries therefore endeavored to estrange the minds of the natives from their old idolatry by building wooden churches after the model of the native dwellings, differing from them only in being larger and more substantial. And when afterwards the fashion of building them of stone came in, the innovation was resented by a large conservative party. Constructed of such perishable materials, the primitive ecclesiastical buildings speedily disappeared, being set on fire in those troublous times, or yielding to the natural process of decay. No trace can now be seen in Iona of the original monastic buildings which St. Columba had founded; their very site can only with the greatest difficulty and uncertainty be made out, and the grand cathedral ruins which now dignify the spot are the remains of stone buildings, constructed at a

.

much later date and specially adapted to | reason to believe, was a primitive seat of the Romish ritual. The ecclesiastical pagan worship long before the time of St. remains on Elachnave which have sur- Brendan or St. Columba, then the buryvived to our own day are therefore important as indicating what must have been the nature and relative position of the parent institution at Iona, upon the plan of which they were modelled.

ing-ground beside the oratory must have been the consecrated part of the island. And in all likelihood the Celtic saints erected their own structures on it because of its immemorial sacredness, displacing To the west of the oratory there are two the original dark superstitions by the large square enclosures covered with long, blessed rites of Christianity. Only a few coarse grass. The walls that surround rude stones covered with grey lichens, them in most places are embedded in the without date or inscription, now mark the turf, and only rise a foot or two above the spot where some unknown dust reposes. ground. The one nearest the church was The cross is carved on some of them; and evidently an old garden where the monks its simple shape, contrasting so strikingly cultivated the few simple herbs which with the elaborate sculptures of the Iona they required for food. The fact that tombstones and the sepulchral monuthere was a kiln for drying corn in con- ments in the priory of Oronsay, shows nection with the buildings indicated that that this graveyard is of far more anthe brethren cultivated this grain, a task cient date than anything that can now which must have been attended with con- be seen in those famous haunts. On a siderable difficulty, considering how subsequent occasion we took with us a scanty was the arable soil on the island, pick and shovel and excavated some of and how rainy and boisterous the climate. the most promising graves, when we came Agriculture and the tending of cattle were between two and three feet below the the principal out-door pursuits with which surface upon more ornate headstones they diversified their sacred exercises. of slate of a later date, some of which With the labor of their own hands they had the Celtic cross and the other wellprocured their food — which was very known Iona sculptures. There is one simple, consisting of oaten or barley large massive slab of slate lying near the bread, milk, eggs, and fish, enriched on oratory, unfortunately broken in two, with festal days, or on the arrival of special the tree of life and some other elaborate guests, by an addition of mutton or beef patterns carved upon it, which must have to the principal meal. The enclosure be- been taken from the burying-ground, yond was undoubtedly an ancient church- where it doubtless covered the grave of yard. This was an essential feature in some prominent dignitary of the Church. the monastic establishments of St. Co- Macculloch mentions that when he visited lumba. Every one of them, like the the island there were numerous richly original one at Iona, had its cemetery ad- sculptured stones standing in the place. joining the church. And while all else These must either have been removed or belonging to the primitive Celtic Church have sunk out of sight in the soil during has disappeared, the numerous old bury- the interval, for there are now none above ing-grounds throughout the country which ground. Rank grass mixed with luxuri. it had consecrated beside the cells of its ant bracken and the common weeds of the saints remain to this day hallowed by the waste cover the enclosure, which is indeed memories and affections of many genera- God's acre, for it has long passed out of tions. Some of these burying-grounds, the keeping of man, and no human hand however, have a history of their own, and for ages has tended the graves of the foran antiquity far more venerable than that gotten dead. We can hardly suppose that of the saint's cell or the church connected the use of the cemetery was restricted to with them. They were hypethral tem- the members of the monastic institution ples consecrated to pagan mythology long on the island. It is filled from end to end before the introduction of Christianity; with graves, and it seems improbable that and in Christian times they were open-air so many interments could have been fursanctuaries in which our forefathers wor- nished by the monastery alone during the shipped centuries before any of our parish comparatively short period of its history. churches were built. The oldest archi- The holy reputation of the place would tectural erection upon them was the cross make it widely attractive; and it would be of wood or stone, which the wandering eagerly sought as a burying-place by the preacher set up as a rally-point for the inhabitants of the mainland and of the people, and to hallow the place of their surrounding islands, just as Iona was meeting. If Elachnave, as we have every | sought. Island churchyards besides were