PICTOU 



in the time of William Rufus, it 

 owes its name to William de 

 Picton, a Norman knight, and 

 passed in the 16th century to 

 Thomas ap Philip, whose descen- 

 dant, Sir Richard Phillips, de- 

 fended it on behalf of Charles I. 



Pictou. Seaport of Nova Scotia, 

 Canada. It stands on a harbour, 

 an inlet of Northumberland Strait, 

 118 m. by rly. from Halifax. The 

 manufactures include shipbuilding, 

 and coal is exported. Pop. 3,200. 



Picts. Name of a people formerly 

 inhabiting northern Scotland. Di- 

 vided into two nations, the North- 

 ern Picts, or Dicaledonae, inhabited 

 the country between the Pent- 

 land Firth and the Grampians ; the 

 Southern Picts, Vecturiones or 

 Verturiones, that between the 

 Grampians and the Firth of Forth. 

 The Verturiones represent the Bry- 

 thons inhabiting the kingdom of 

 Fortrenn. 



From the 3rd century A.D. the 

 Picts are recorded as resolute and 

 harassing foes of the Roman occu- 

 pation, allied sometimes with the 

 Scots, the N. Irish race who peo- 

 pled Argyll and Kintyre, and they 

 were never definitely subdued by 

 the Romans. S. Ninian and S. Co- 

 lumba were among the mission- 

 aries who worked to convert the 

 Picts. Oswald of Northumbria 

 held temporary sway over Pictland 

 in the 7th century, and there were 

 constant wars with the Scots and 

 with the Dalriadic kingdom during 

 the 8th century. The peculiar sys- 

 tem of royal succession, by which 

 the rule passed to brothers or the 

 son of a sister, led to much con- 

 fusion, which ended with the es- 

 tablishment of Kenneth MacAlpin, 

 the Scottish chief from Kintyre, but 

 a Pict by maternal descent, as ruler 

 of Scots and Picts together in 844. 



Picti, the name used by Latin 

 writers, probably identical with 

 that of the Pictones or Pictavi of 

 Poitou, is held to be a Brythonic 

 (Welsh) designation for this people, 

 who, in fact, called themselves the 

 Cruithni or Cruithnig. There has 

 been much complicated contro- 

 versy as to who the Picts were, and 

 what their racial stock and lan- 

 guage. Skene maintained that 

 names of early Pictish kings were 

 purely Gaelic, though later ones 

 showed a Brythonic origin, but of 

 Cornish and not Welsh dialect ; and 

 it is known that the Damnoni 

 settled both in Cornwall and in 

 Fortrenn (Menteith and the 

 Mearns). Sir John Rhys con- 

 tended that the Picts were non- 

 Aryan, as their custom of matri- 

 arch}' (q.v.) indicates, and brought 

 forward evidence to show that the 

 extant Pictish place-names are of 

 Brythonic and not Gaelic origin. 



6143 



Cruithni means pictured or fig- 

 ured, and the habit of painting the 

 body with figures of birds and 

 beasts was probably widespread. 

 The word Cruithni may well be 

 identified with Brython, Brittones, 

 and Britannia, the Welsh name for 

 Pict being Prydyn. But the ques- 

 tion is still obscure, although the 

 old view of the Teutonic (Gothic) 

 stock of the Picts, fostered by 

 Pinkerton and Sir Walter Scott, is 

 abandoned. See Gaelic ; Scotland : 

 History ; consult also Chronicles 

 of the Picts, 1867 ; Celtic Scotland, 

 3 vols., 1876-80, W. F. Skene; 

 Keltic Researches, E. W. B. Nichol- 

 son, 1904 ; Celtic Britain, J. Rhys, 

 4th ed. 1908. 



Picts' Houses. Name in popu- 

 lar use in Scotland for primitive 

 underground structures of the 



PICTURE 



can be removed by resin and 

 friction with the fingers, but copal 

 requires the liquid treatment. 

 Where the wood, canvas, or plaster 

 ground of a painting is seriously 

 damaged, it may be necessary to 

 transfer the latter to a new ground. 

 This is effected by glueing a paper 

 . plaque, backed with gauze, to the 

 surface of the painting, removing 

 the wood, etc., by means of instru- 

 ments or chemicals until only the 

 surface of colour and priming re- 

 mains, and remounting the latter 

 on fresh material ; the paper being 

 afterwards unglued. A painting so 

 transferred generally requires re- 

 touching with dry colour. Great 

 skill and knowledge are demanded 

 of the restorer at every stage of 



Rets' Houses. Ground plans and sections of earth-bouses. Left, Cairn 



Conan, Forfarshire ; right, near Broomhouse. Berwickshire. In both cases 



the letters against the sections indicate their positions on the plans 



By courtesy of William Blaekwood & Sont 



early metallic age. Their erection 

 is attributed to the Picts, although 

 they may be of earlier date, and 

 the theory is that they were used 

 as refuges in times of danger. 

 There are several in the Orkneys, 

 but the greatest number are in the 

 western part of Aberdeenshire. 

 They are also found in Forfarshire 

 and other counties N. of the Tay, 

 while there are a few in Berwick- 

 shire and other southern counties. 

 See Earth-house ; Mousa. 



Picture (Lat. pingere, to paint). 

 Originally a representation of any- 

 thing produced by painting. It is 

 now used in a somewhat wider 

 sense, including a representation 

 produced in other ways, a mind 

 picture and a word picture, for in- 

 stance. The pictures is a popular 

 synonym for the cinematograph. 



Up to the 19th century picture 

 restoration in the modern sense 

 was unknown. Pictures, before 

 glazing came into common use, 

 were protected by a coating of 

 transparent varnish, and this in 

 time became so encrusted with 

 dust as to be no longer transparent. 

 The first step in restoration is to 

 dissolve this varnish with a wash 

 of vinegar, brandy, or other alco- 

 holic liquid, tempered with oil 

 applied by a separate sponge or 

 pad, to prevent harmful action 

 on the colours. Mastic varnish 



the process, or considerable 

 damage may be done. See Art ; 

 Cinematography ; Painting. 



Picture Palace. Hall or the- 

 atre used for the exhibition of cine- 

 matograph films. Buildings so used 

 are licensed by local authorities, 

 and conditions are laid down regu- 

 lating their structure, so that fire 

 risks may be reduced to a mini- 

 mum. Most picture palaces hi 

 Great Britain are in private hands, 

 fewer being owned by film manu- 

 facturing companies than in other 

 countries. There are upwards of 

 4,000 picture palaces in Great 

 Britain. Many of them are build- 

 ings erected expressly for the 

 purpose, but a number of theatres 

 and other existing buildings have 

 been adapted fore-showing films. 

 See Cinematography. 



Picture Post Card. Card sent 

 through the post bearing a printed 

 or photographic picture. The pic- 

 ture may be a view, a portrait, a 

 scene, a figure, a humorous draw- 

 ing, or a reproduction of a painting. 

 The first pictorial card, officially 

 issued, was that sold at the Royal 

 Naval Exhibition, London, July, 

 1891, having on it an outline sketch 

 of Eddystone lighthouse. The first 

 commercial cards were sold in 1894 

 on the summit of Snowdon, a small 

 photograph of which was pasted on 

 them ; but these had to bear a 



