Volume II. Guth na Bliadhna ' leabhar II.]

1 nations of the continent. - On the whole, however, considering the utterances of Gaelic tradition on [this subject, it seems only reasonable to suppose Kthat some such correspondence there was, however Ismail in volume and intermittent and precarious in character; and that amongst its earliest fruits L-was some acquaintance with the highest branch lof the architect's art, that of building in stone. ■■Roughly speaking, however, the assertion no [doubt holds true enough, that stone architecture was a fine art introduced into Ireland from the ^^ment of Europe at the same time as the blessings of Christianity were first made effectually known to her through the channel of St. Patrick and his fellow missionaries. It is not to be supposed, however, that between that date and that of the [primitive wattled " bee-hive " dwelling which figures fon Antoninus's column no progress in the art of building had been made. The next step in the [evolution of Gaelic architecture was the substitu­tion of wooden buildings, of more or less sub­stantiality and durability, and possessing more or [less claims to architectural feature, for the primitive [habitations already briefly described. And that [our Gaelic ancestors had made considerable pro­gress in this branch of the art before they began [to acquire that of building in stone, we have [abundant means of knowing from written records. [The ancient descriptions left us of the great hall [at Tara of the kings, supply positive proof that khe more Scottorum—as Venerable Bede styles the jancient Scottish practice of building in wood— had attained to no inconsiderable dimensions, and

acquired no mean architectural features, in pagan Ireland. In his essay on the History and Anti­quities of Tara Hill the late Dr. Petrie went ex­haustively into that subject, and his learned and interesting description of the huge building alluded to above will be read with profit and satisfaction by all who take an interest in the subject of Gaelic architecture.The plain square houses such as we see to-day dotted in their hundreds over the fertile plains of Ireland, and, to a much lesser extent, over the low country of Scotland, are symbolic of Teutonic influ­ences in architecture. The houses, etc., of the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland were either round, oval, or oblong in shape —the square house being unknown amongst them. A curious feature of the ancient Gaelic residence was that each room of the house formed a separate building. The incon­venience of this arrangement does not seem to have struck our ancestors ; and though it points to very primitive influences, yet the obvious in­ference to be deducted from that circumstance is by no means borne out by fact. The richness and splendour of the houses of the Gaelic nobility are, indeed, favourite themes with our Gaelic poets; and allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration on the ground of poetic license, the accounts left us of the residences of some of the Gaelic kings and nobles are altogether too circumstantial and detailed to be dismissed as purely imaginary. In the Colloquoy, translated by Mr. Standish O'Grady,

¹

1 Keating, writing from ancient authorities, states in his History of Ireland that the dimensions of the great hall at Tara were as follow: length 300 feet, breadth 75 feet, height 45 feet. The interior of the hall was much carved and the exterior brilliantly decorated.

and published in his Silva Gadelica, there is a wonderful account of a Gaelic mansion of the period of St. Patrick. We read of green door-posts orna­mented with gold, silver and precious stones, of the roof composed of the variegated wings of birds, of couches encrusted with the precious metals, and of the ceiling and roof-tree similarly adorned and elab­orately carved. We know little, unfortunately, as to the architectural form, or rather value, if I may so express myself, of these fairy-like mansions; but from the description left us of the interiors it is at least permissible to argue that they showed con­siderable taste and skill on the part of the makers. However severe and simple the architectural form of these ancient buildings, they must, nevertheless, have presented a very imposing and picturesque, if not weird, appearance, with their rich interiors and gorgeously painted exteriors. The now fami­liar Celtic work seems to have been extensively used in the embellishment of the outside of the house—red, yellow, blue and green being appar­ently the colours most frequently employed to complete the exterior decoration of the dwellings of the Gaelic upper classes.

If we bear in mind the fact that houses made of wattles were in use by the poorer classes, at all events in some parts of the Highlands and Isles, even so late as the middle of the eighteenth century, the conservative attachment of the Gaels of Scot­land and Ireland to the mare Scottorum—an even later evolution—will not be wondered at. Again and again we read in the Annals of the Four Masters, and other similar compilations, of the de­struction by fire of this or that Dun or Eath in Ireland or Scotland. At least down to the time of Malcolm III. (Caenn ?nor), and perhaps later, the dun of wood seems to have been the favourite habitation of the Gaelic magnates of Scotland. In numerous cases the sites occupied by these wooden structures became those, in later years, on which famous feudal castles of stone were erected. The castles of Kildrummie (in Aber­deenshire) and Dunstaffhage (in Argyllshire), to cite but two, are certainly cases in point; and to the obstinate partiality of the Gael for his native perishable wood must undoubtedly be ascribed the lamentable dearth of early architectural Celtic remains—an observation which applies even more to the field of Gaelic domestic architecture than it does to the ecclesiastical.

It may be inquired, how came it to pass that so ingenious and artistic a people as the Gaels pre­ferred wood to stone as building material? So acute a nation as the Gaels, and one so ready to apply and so quick to improve foreign inventions, and customs introduced from without, must surely have recognised the superiority of stone over wood as building material, if but by reason of the former's greater durability and resisting powers. The solu­tion of this problem is, perhaps, less difficult than it seems at first. The Gael was, and is, intensely conservative in his likes and dislikes. We know, from many ecclesiastical authors, how obstinately he clung to the more Scottorum, long after the Latin or continental method of building in stone was familiar to him. His attachment to his own cus­toms was, in this respect, something remarkable; for we have it on good authority that the Scotic missionaries who flooded Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries almost invariably preferred to build in their native manner (even in France, Germany, Switzerland, etc.) than to adopt the

Latin method of building in stone—a manner which their country had been familiar with for some hundreds of years. Apart from inborn pre­judice, however, something must be allowed on the ground of political dislike to a radical change of this kind. There is evidence to show that the Latin civilisation was not everywhere acceptable; and certainly in the case of Scotland, the tendency of our kings to extend their dominions southwards operated to confirm and to foster the perhaps hereditary tendency mentioned above. But there is another and more important factor in the situa­tion, which yet remains to be mentioned. The Gael's love of bright colours and artistic decor­ation for art's sake alone, is well known, and requires no proof in these pages. Now the castle of stone afforded but few opportunities—or rather outlets—in this respect, so far at all events as exterior decoration was concerned ; and, as is well known, this was a feature to which very properly —for the house beautiful must, to be harmonious, be beautiful without as well as within—our Gaelic ancestors paid great heed. In spite, therefore, of its greater durability and substantiality, the fact that the stone house did not at all adapt itself to the peculiar method of external decoration practised by our ancestors is one and by no means the least of the various reasons, social and political, why the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland used wood long after stone had almost everywhere else expelled the more perishable, but by no means necessarily less artistic material. What might have happened had Scotland and Ireland been left free to work out their own respective political destinies it is, of course, impossible to say, and perhaps idle to speculate at any length. The group of " houses " would no doubt, in course of time, and in obedience to the inexorable laws of evolution, have assumed a composite form, and we should have had a dis­tinctively Gaelic style of architecture, just as we had, and have, a Norman and a Gothic. Under favourable political circumstances the Gaelic pre­judice against stone would, no doubt, have worn itself out as the years went on; and a school of architects would have arisen who would have frankly recognised the superiority, utilitarian and artistic, of the more durable material, and have accommodated their genius to the erection of grand and beautiful buildings in the manner first made known to this country through the channel of Latin civilisation. Nor is there any discoverable reason why the more Scottorum should not have flourished side by side with the continental method. The rich and beautiful effects that can be produced by wood are familiar to every student of architecture; and however unsuitable that substance may be— owing to its lesser durability and greater liability to destruction by fire, etc.—for edifices ecclesiastical and lay, which are designed to last for all time, and to serve the greatest ends which the mind of man can conceive, the artistic effect produced by wood is, in some respects, even greater than that which is the outcome of building in stone, and, generally speaking, is not much inferior to that which is the consequence of the exclusive use of the more durable material. If we could dissociate our minds from ideas springing from a consciousness of the perishable nature of wood, it would be found that the rival merits of the two materials—looking to their purely artistic effects—would, in the opinion of competent judges, be considered to correspond more than, owing to this prejudice, they do at present. Those to whom the rich and mellow interiors of some of our cathedrals, where wood is largely employed, especially in roofings, ceilings, rood-screens, etc., are familiar, must at all events incline to this opinion. Unfortunately, in this branch of art, as in almost all others, the Gaelic people were cut off and reduced to political and social subjection before their talents had time to mature, and to produce imperishable art-forms, stamped with the indelible impression of their rare genius. Their history resembles, in this respect, a gorgeous spring morning, whose bright promise it would appear to be the evil intention of a dark and stormy day, the posthumous offspring of winter, to defeat. " It is too bright to last!" we are accus­tomed sorrowfully to remark of so fair a beginning. It may be unfashionable to quote " Ossian " nowa­days ; but the following beautiful lines seem to me to be here charged with a double lesson and signifi­cance; so, with many apologies to the expositors of Macpherson, I venture to give them :—

"As a beam of the wintry sun swift gliding over the plain of Leno.

So are the days of Fingal's race, like the sun gleaming by fits through the shower.

The dark grey clouds of the sky have descended, •and snatched the cheering beam from the hunter.

The leafless branches of the wood are mourning, and the tender herbs of the mountain droop in sadness.

But the Sun will yet revisit the fair grove, whose boughs shall bloom anew.

And the trees of the young summer shall look up, smiling, to the son of the sky."

There are unfortunately no remains of Gaelic domestic architecture in Scotland to-day, a fact which must be ascribed to causes glanced at above. Even in Ireland, such remains as there ar'efifi&iram from purely ecclesiastical edifices, either belong to a period before the art was properly formulated upon true Gaelic principles, or are here interesting only as supplying evidences of the existence of Gaelic influences in architecture long after the political system had undergone radical change!; In Scotland, as I have said, there are no remains which might be described as distinctively Gaelic. Here, as in Ireland, the character of the political changes introduced was highly unfavourable to the development of native art. The Gaelic nobfiS seem to have shut themselves up, as it were, in their wooden palaces and to have thought to defy, by so doing, the irresistible inrush of the age of stone. In one or two castles yet remaining we have traces of Gaelic exterior decoration, such as-at Dunderave in Argyll, and at one or two others, but no such thing as Gaelic lay architecture, if we except the Round Tower at Brechin, exists to-day in Scotland.

The introduction of the Norman castle into the south of Scotland by David I. meant the ruin of native domestic architecture, just as the substitution of feudalism for the Gaelic system of government revolutionised Scottish contemporary politics. The example of David rapidly spread throughout the kingdom. It would even appear to have infected the semi-independent Lords of the Isles, who soon gave up their Raths and Duns for feudal strong­holds built of lime and stone. The "Norman Conquest," however, so far as Scotland is concerned, was limited to stone and mortar, but the changes-introduced by the Norman castles and keeps were scarcely less weighty and important than if they had been effected by force of arms. The Norman influence, however, like the Norman language, was. not destined to be an abiding force—even in archi­tecture, in Scotland, and the later entente cordiale* with England soon gave place to the French alliance,

^^M¹ to hatred of everything English.

Without in any way intending it, of course, the alliance with France profoundly influenced our domestic architecture, which, under the aegis of that arrangement, soon began to re-assert some of its latent original principles. The Franco-Scottish, or so-called Scots baronial style, undoubtedly owes some of its most pleasing and characteristic features, to Celtic influences. The round tower, and the-

Mfèndency to floriation in respect of ornamental detail so observable in some of the best specimens,, reveal at once their far-off Celtic affinities. Nor is this to be wondered at, if we consider for a moment, the source from which this imposing and agreeable style emanated. It was from the district of the Loire, and, generally, from the south of France— the most Celtic parts of that country—that the French style of architecture was brought to us; The warmth of its welcome in Scotland, and the rapidity with which it spread, testify to the exist­ence of inherent, though latent, corresponding^ tendencies in the inhabitants of Scotland. We do-not find that the French language ever became the speech of the Scottish court, which, considering the-intensity of the hatred for England and things. English, and the cordiality and strength of the French political connexion, it might reasonably be; expected to have done. The explanation of this seeming phenomenon lies in this, namely, that whilst the French language was not in the blood of: our people, no small part of the principles under­lying French domestic architecture was so. The oblong building flanked by turrets, and the " high-shouldered" ornate place of strength—modifications, and yet elaborations, of pre-existing Celtic archi­tectural forms—appealed to our ancestors with a force and to an extent which are not understandable save on the ground of affinity. I venture to think that in this case, at all events, imitation implied no flattery. It owed its existence to race-tendencies, which though sub-conscious, perhaps altogether unconscious, yet were bound to manifest themselves, whenever circumstances proved favourable to their appearance. On no other hypothesis, I venture to think, can our ancestors' attachment to French architecture, and the avidity with which they adopted it, be satisfactorily explained.

In my next paper I propose to treat of the application of Gaelic principles to modern archi­tecture, domestic as well as ecclesiastical.

G. L.
guth o thir nan og

Eath 6 ghrein agus ò ghaoith oraibh, rath 6 mhuir agus 6 thir oraibh, rath anuas agus rath anios oraibh, a shliocht na bhFiann. Buadh trèine, buadh fèile, agus buadh filidheachta agaibh, agus beannacht an fhir ghlègil Columcille, teachtaire an Biaraidhe Mhoir.

Mise Feargus mac Fhinn agaibh, a thainic ar cuairt chughaibh 6 Thir nan Og, agus seo dhuibh m' im th each ta.

Och monuar! an chead uair riamh a bhi me ins an tir aluinn seo bhi Fionn le m' chois, agus

Diarmuid O Duibhne, agus Oisin, agus Oscar, agus moran eile de'n Fhèinn. Bhi ceol agus aoibhneas againn, agus sealg ar sliabh, agus marcuigheacht ar eachaibh; agus do chlos duinn fuaim na h-adhairce agus guth nan gadhar imeasg nan gleannta. Agus do chuadhmar ar ais go h-Eirinn. Agus do thuit Fionn agus Oscar agus mise i gcath Ghabhra. Agus do chuadhmar sios as san go Tir an Uaignis. Och monuar!

Tri chead bliadhain dom i dTir an Uaignis, agus, an rae cèadna d' Oisin i dTir nan Og. Thainic Oisin ar ais go hEirinn, agus do chonnaic Padraic mac Alpruinn è. Agus do rug Padraic Oisin leis go Tir na Naomh. Bhi Niamh chinn Oir bean Oisin go dubhach bronach ag caoineadh Oisin, go bhfuair Oisin d' athchuinge ò Phadraic mise dh'fhuasgailt 6 Thir an Uaignis, agus leigint dom dul go Tir nan Og ag cantann laoi do Niamh chinn Oir, ar ghail agus ar ghaisge agus ar fhèil© na Fèinne. Agus tagaim ar an gcuairt seo uair ins na tri chead bhiadhain ar m' each caol bàn.

Ar mo chead chuairt 6 Thir nan Og bhi Suidhe Finn agus Dun Diarmuda 'n a bhfàsach. Thainic me ins an tir seo ar thuairisg na bhFiann, agus nior chualaidh me rosg catha na fuaim cloidhimh re sgèith, acht clèirigh agus maighdin ag cantann salm. Ba bhinn an ceol san, acht ba bhinne liomsa ceol cloidhimh ar mhachaire an air; agus, do chuaidh me ar ais go Tir nan Og.

Tri chead bliadhain eile dhorn annsan gur thainic me aris. Fuair me Brian agus Maoil-sheachlain ag cosgairt Danar in Eirinn, agus fuair me Maolcholm ag cosgairt Danar in Albainn, agus d' f hill me go meidhreach go Tir nan Og ag cantann laoi agus rosg catha do Niamh.


Rae tri chead bliadhain eile, agus chonnaic me cruadh chomhrac agus gniomhartha gaisge, agus an cath dà chur go dian ag Danair ar fhearaibh Eireann. Agus bhi iomarbhadh idir chlannaibh Baoisgne agus chlannaibh Mòrna. Thainic me anail thar Maoil do'n chor soin, agus chonnaic me Danair dà n-èirleach agus dà ruagadh as Albainn ag Roibeard Brùs; agus bhi adhbhar laoi agus rosg agam ag filleadh dhorn go Tir nan Og.

Tri chead bliadhain eile agus thainic me aris; agus bhi neul dubhròin os cionn Eireann agus Albann. Tir Chonaill agus Tir Eoghain ag caohv eadh na dtaoiseach a bhi ag imtheacht tar sàile, ag caoineadh na laoch a dh'imthig agus nar thainic. Agus bhi Fianna Albann go deorach ag caoineadh na mnà mania do cuireadh chun bais go grànda insa charcair iasachta. Ochon na treun-fhir, dà ndibirt as Eirinn. Ochon an choròin riogdha, dà leigint as Albainn choidhche.

Is troma-chridheach a bhi me an uair sin ag dul thar n-ais dom ; agus bhi rùn agam gan teacht ins na tiorthaib se go deo aris. Acht tar èis tri ■chead bliadhain eile ise do ràidh Niamh, "Sgeala Chlanna Gaedheal agat dom, a Fhearguis". Do ghluais me aris, agus mo bhuaireamh cad è seo ■dochim:—

Sliocht nan Gaedheal i ngèibhean chruaidh, Gan duan na dreucht, acht Beurla fuar, |

Qsa