18 CUP-SHAPED AND OTHER LAPIDAEIAN SCULPTURES. 



tons weight, and known as "the Hag's Chair," has been described and 

 figured by Mr. James Fergusson.* Many of the stones forming the cham- 

 ber of the tumulus at Lough Crew are Hkewise ornamented with various 

 devices, as seen in the representations of two of them given by Mr. Fer- 

 gusson.f I present as Fig. 12 a copy of one of his designs. The sculpture 

 on this stone is even more characteristic than that on the Hag's Chair. 



Of a still more artistic character are the sculptures on the stones in the 

 celebrated cairns of New Gr£lnge and Dowth, in the neighborhood of 

 Di'ogheda. Here are seen graceful groups of double spirals, scrolls, math- 

 ematical devices, and even designs resembling palm or fern-like plants — 

 in general forms evidently belonging to a later period than the cup and 

 ring-cuttings previously treated. Mr. Fergusson takes occasion to draw 

 attention to the progressive development shown in Irish sculpture.J 



PRANCE. 



The dolmen-stones of Brittany likewise exhibit sculptures far superior 

 in design to those of Scotland and England, and doubtless belonging to a 

 more advanced stage of primitive art. Though we behold here curious 

 concentric circles and spiral lines, which bear a distant resemblance to the 

 sculptures of Great Britain, we also meet with real ornaments, snake-like 

 designs, and representations of hafted and unhafted celts. Some of the 

 sculj)tures of Brittany are raised and not incised. A very characteristic 

 outline of a celt in a plumed handle is seen on the roof of a dolmen called 

 "the Merchant's Table,'' near Locmariaker. It is here reproduced as Fig. 13. 



The tumulus on the Island of Gavr' Inis, in the Bay of Morbihan, a 



* Fergusson : Kude Stone Monuments in all Countries ; London, 1872, p. 215. 



tibid., p. 216. 



t Ibid., p. 222. In addition, bowever, be says on the same page : " It would bo an extremely dau- 

 gerous line of argument to apply this law of progressive development to all countries. In India, 

 especially, it is very frequently reversed. The rudest art is often much more modern than the most 

 refined, but in Ireland this apparently never was the case. From the earliest scratchiugs on iiillar- 

 Btoncs down to the English conquest her art seems to have been unfalteringly progressive." 



Illustrations of the sculptures of New Grange and Dowth are given by Simpson and Fergusson in 

 their works here quoted. 



