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of the 14th or the 15th century." These authors say nothing of the de Queneys. The Normans who settled in Scotland were not so busy at building castles in the first century of their coming to Scotland as they were in England, and most of the fortresses which they did erect were remodelled in after times. Nevertheless, it would be difficult to distinguish a keep of the 12th century from one of the 14th century; and it is at least possible that the square keep may have been the donjon of the castle of these almost forgotten Norman lords.

In the Bull of Pope Alexander III. confirming the monastery of Inchcolme, dated on the 11th day of March 1178, there are mentioned among the possessions of the church of St Colme's Inch a thousand eels out of Strathenry, the gift of Robert de Queney. Strathenry is in the parish of Leslie by the river Leven. The Rev. William Ross adds further information. Later statements tell us that "along with the thousand eels, the convent had a right to two swine and a cow, yearly, out of the lands of Strathenry. This curious annual rent was the gift of Robert de Quency, whose name I find as a witness in many charters of the time of William the Lion." The monks did not let slip their thousand eels, and as Dr Ross tells us, innumerable quarrels arose regarding this annual tribute, until it was at length agreed that the payment should be commuted, and that instead of a thousand eels, two swine, and a cow, the proprietor of Strathenry should give the convent a yearly sum of 38 shillings sterling, payment to be made at the parish church of Fithkil, as Leslie was of old called. This payment was not regularly made, and was the subject of compromise between the Abbot and Walter of Strathenry on the 6th day of October 1354 forty years after the battle of Bannockburn.

It is also recorded that Seyr de Quency made a grant of the lands of Dunikeir to the monks of Dunfermline.2

Before parting with Mr Bain I ought to thank him for the additional

› Aberdour and Lachoulme, by the Rev. William Ross, LL.D.; Edinburgh, 1885, pp. 64 and 121.

Register, Dunfermline, N. 155.

light which he has thrown upon an obscure field of research. It is to be hoped that he may yet find time and opportunity to read the 200 charters relating to the de Quencys preserved in Magdalen College. An examination by so competent an archæologist would not fail to elicit facts of importance in illustrating the history both of Scotland and of England.

[My friend, Mr Christopher Aitchison, has, during the summer of 1900, examined these charters at Magdalen College, Oxford. They are described in the manuscript calendar of the College. Mr Aitchison has sent to me some extracts from these documents. The charters are principally grants to the hospital of St John and St James at Brackeley in Northamptonshire, for the maintenance of chaplains, and the burning of candles at the altar for the souls of Seyr and Roger de Quency and their wives and children. Amongst these are grants from the demesne of Gask in Perthshire, and other proofs of the extensive possessions of this family. There are two grants (dated 1240 and 1256), in which Roger de Quency provided for the burial of his body at Brackeley; but no record was found of his actual burial. If Roger de Quency died in Scotland, it would have been in accordance with the custom of those times that his heart alone should be sent to Brackeley.]

III.

NOTE ON AN INCISED STONE CROSS AT STRATHY, SUTHERLANDSHIRE. BY ALEXANDER MUNRO.

About a quarter of a mile west of the Established Church at Strathy, Sutherlandshire, resting in the moorland beside the old march dyke, there has lain for centuries, neglected and unnoticed, a rude stone slab (fig. 1) bearing an incised cross of a type which, if not altogether rare, is

[graphic][merged small]

yet absolutely unique among Scottish crosses. The slab, a rough, undressed sandstone-of the same kind as exists in the neighbourhood-is broken at certain points, but the central surface is intact. It is 54

inches in length, 8 inches in thickness, and the broadest part, from arm to arm of the cross, is 21 inches. In appearance it is somewhat coffinshaped; but this resemblance is clearly accidental-the result of recent breakage and not intended in the original design.

The cross from summit to base is 34 inches, and from arm to arm 181 inches.

The summit and the base, as well as the two arms, end in circles formed by the outer lines of the cross-the lines being 2 inches broad and nearly 1 inch in depth. Inside these again are hollows or cups; the one at the bottom slightly oval, the rest more or less round. The circles and cups at the top and foot are of the same dimensions-the circles 6 inches and the cups 3 inches in diameter. Those in the arms are inch less than these. In the centre of the cross are traces of a small and almost obliterated cup. On the vacant spaces in the cross-on the shaft, arms and summit- -are slight lines as indicated in the drawing.

As to the origin and age of this curious cross, tradition and topography are alike silent. All that we have therefore to guide us in this direction is the cross itself and its distinctive features. At first sight the work would seem, from the rudeness of its art, and the depth and clearness of the incised lines, to be of medieval or late Christian date. On the other hand, the cups and rings at the four extremities, and the central cup, evidently point to a much earlier period. Cup-marked stones have occasionally been found in connection with early Christian burials, and a cross, though not unquestionably the cross of Christianity, appears in conjunction with these symbols in the Lough Crew group of stones, and occasionally in Norway on the rock surfaces—both of which are usually assigned to the Bronze Age. If, then, the circles and hollows on the Strathy Cross could be supposed to have been intended to represent the 'cups and rings' of pagan times, we might, perhaps, be justified in assigning to it a very early age-an age of transition between Christianity and paganism-when the old forms were still current and exercised an influence on the rude art of the time. In any case, whether it be old or comparatively recent, whether it belongs to the 7th century or to the

13th, the cross is of much archæological interest as indicating in the Christian period the existence and use of a type of art that is peculiarly associated with paganism.

IV.

NOTE ON A BRONZE SCABBARD-TIP FOUND ON GLENCOTHO FARM, BY WILLIAM BUCHAN, TOWN CLERK, PEEBLES,

PEEBLESSHIRE.

F.S.A. SCOT.

The object to which this note refers was found in the month of June 1899, on the farm of Glencotho in Holms Water, Peeblesshire, by Mr Walter Smail, shepherd. He states that one showery day in the end of June he was passing an open grassy space amongst the surrounding heather near the head of Glencotho Burn, when he saw something

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Fig. 1. Bronze Chape of Scabbard for a Sword of the late Celtic period.

glittering in the sun on the top of a newly thrown-up molehill, about fifty yards from the burnside. He picked up the object here shown (fig 1.), which is the bronze chape or tip of a scabbard for a sword of

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