IONA. ANTIQUITIES. 11 



the pillars in the church are cylindrical and plain, like 

 those of the Norman era. They are surmounted by short 

 capitals, often sculptured with grotesque and ill executed 

 figures, and separated from the shaft by the corded 

 moulding, which in some cases runs also through the 

 walls on the same level. These pillars support ranges 

 of pointed arches, of a curvature intermediate between 

 those of the first and the second styles which charac- 

 terize the two most beautiful periods of Gothic architec- 

 ture, their soffits being fluted with plain and somewhat 

 rude mouldings. A second and smaller tier of arches is 

 perforated in the wall above these, sometimes circular, 

 and at others terminating in a sort of trefoil head : a 

 kind of machicolated corbel table surmounts the whole. 

 I need not enumerate the other ornaments or circum- 

 stances which are found in this building; the object being 

 to describe these remains only in as far as is necessary 

 for ascertaining the limits of the dates of their erection. 

 The mixture of styles, of which the leading features have 

 thus been given, bespeaks a date near to that here 

 assigned to this building; which is confirmed by in- 

 numerable examples in England, where the same mixture 

 prevails and where the real dates have been ascertained. 

 I must nevertheless remark, while on the subject of dates, 

 that the evidence respecting them to be derived from 

 style in the ecclesiastical buildings of Scotland, is far 

 less satisfactory than from similar works in England, 

 uncertain as that often is; since in the former country 

 specimens occur in styles which had in the latter been 

 then abandoned, even for a century or much more, in 

 favour of more recent systems ; as may be proved by the 

 recorded dates. I may quote the Cathedral of Dunkeld 

 as a remarkable example of this fact ; nor are the causes 

 difficult to conjecture. From this consideration it is 

 possible that the Cathedral of lona may be even more 

 modern than the date to which I have referred it : we are 

 certain that it cannot be earlier. It is unnecessary to 



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