172 Mr. George Tate on Ancient Sculptured Rocks, 8fc. 



chipped out the inscriptions. Probably the metal was bronze, 

 which seems to have been in considerable use at the period. 



XI. WHAT MEAN THESE SCULPTURES ? 



What then mean these sculptures ? Are they merely 

 ornamental ? or are they symbolical, and if so what kind of 

 thought or sentiment do they represent ? 



If they were ornaments merely, still they would be of great 

 interest, as the first efforts of infant art among its aboriginal 

 inhabitants. The scroll, zigzac, and lozenge figures at New 

 Grange and in Brittany are probably only ornamental, and 

 the work of a later age. 



When the earliest public notices were given of the North- 

 umbrian inscriptions, they were supposed to be plans of 

 camps. Mr. Greenwell suggested this view, Dr. Johnston 

 echoed it, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson and others adopted 

 it. In 1853 I proposed a diiferent view, and advocated the 

 notion that they were symbolical figures, representing re- 

 ligious thoughts, and remarked — " I cannot regard them as 

 the amusements of an idle soldiery, nor as plans of camps, 

 nor as • exercises of incipient engineers ; for their wide 

 distribution, and, nowithstanding differences in detail, their 

 family resemblance prove that they had a common origin, 

 and indicate a symbolical meaning representing some popu- 

 lar thought ; and though I cannot spell the rude lettering, I 

 fancy, since they are associated with the last remains of 

 Celtic heroes and sages, they tell of the faith and hope of 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of Britain."* Mr. Greenwell in 

 1863 adopts a similar view. " It cannot, I think, " he 

 says, " be questioned that their import is religious." f Sir 

 Gardner Wilkinson in 1859 says, " I am not disposed to 

 maintain the opinion which at first suggested itself to me, 

 that they related to the circular camps, and certain disposi- 

 tions connected with them." J The camp fancy may there- 

 fore be considered abandoned ; indeed the wonder is that it 

 should ever have been entertained, for few indeed of the 

 figures represent the arrangements of a camp ; both are 

 more or less circular, but the resemblance ends there. 



Strange indeed would it have been, if the people of this an- 

 cient period had from one end of the country to the other been 



* History of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vol. iii., p. 130. 



f Transactions of the Tyneside Club, vol. vi., p. 21. 



J On Rock-basins in Dartmoor, p. 117. 



