Mr. George Tate on Ancient Sculptured Rocks, Sfc. 177 



family or temporal circumstances, and the tract from the 

 centre through them may indicate his exit from this round 

 world and its employments. The Druids were astronomers 

 and sun worshippers." 



Did the ancient Britons possess letters of their own ? 

 Csesar says the Druids did not commit their instructions to 

 writing, though in other things they used Greek characters. 

 No inscriptions in letters have ever been even discovered, 

 unless we regard the Ogham characters as the Celtic alphabet. 

 Oghams are lines upon or through another horizontal or 

 perpendicular line ; and the number and position of these 

 lines determine the letter power. Inscriptions of this cha- 

 racter occur chiefly in Ireland, and some few in Scotland. 

 Our symbolical figures are not letters, though they may have 

 a hieroglyphic power ; they are sufficiently numerous for this 

 purpose, for there are about one hundred and fifty different 

 forms distinguishable on the Northumberland rocks. On 

 one of them, there are lines similar to an Ogham ; nine 

 straight lines, appearing like rays, are incised above the outer 

 circle of one of the figures on the Routing Linn rock — Plate 

 XL, fig. 11. 



There is an Ogham inscription around a circle on a stone 

 at Logic, on which is also incised the symbolical figures 

 peculiar to Scotland ; and on the Dowth sepulchral chamber 

 there are circles, around which are lines similar to what we 

 have at Routing Linn — Plate XI., fig. 12.* 



More approaching to letter characters are the strange 

 figures on Cuddy's Cove ; one of these resembles a mediaeval 

 M. A cross appears among them ; but from this it does not 

 follow that these figures are of the Christian era, for the cross 

 in one form or other was used as a symbol prior to the birth 

 of Christ. Though doubtful whether they are of the same 

 age as the other inscribed rocks in Northumberland, I yet 

 believe them to be archaic ; and I am still more inclined to 

 this view, from observing some general resemblance between 

 them and sculptures on Brittany sepulchres, which are un- 

 doubtedly of great antiquity. No light can I throw on their 

 meaning. — Plate XII., fig. 2. 



Those who are not content unless every mystery is fully 

 explained may feel dissatisfied, that after all the labour and 



♦ Professor Simpson informs me he had detected a rayed or fringed figure, 

 Bimilar to the Routing Linn form, on the rocks in Argyleshire. 



