1852.] Northern Antiquities. 129 



interesting in existence : they abound in Forfarshire, and in the South- 

 eastern portion of Perthshire, they abound in Aberdeen and Ross-shires, 

 or generally over the region chiefly known as Pictland. There are 

 abundance of Danish crosses in Man, with Celtic Crosses in the He- 

 brides and Western Highlands, bearing a close general resemblance to 

 those about to be described, but sufficiently distinguishable from them 

 to any one who has studied the characteristic feature of Runic stones. 

 The crosses in Wales are of comparatively recent date — those in Ireland 

 so closely resemble the Scottish stones and their origin is so deeply 

 buried in the shades of antiquity, that, associated as they both are 

 with the Round Towers, a class of objects equally mysterious and per- 

 plexing to antiquaries, and which clearly owe their origin to a date 

 beyond that to which history, or even tradition extends, though we are 

 disposed to assign them a common age and origin. 



In a paper prepared for publication fourteen years since, and which 

 appears in the second volume of the transactions of the Bombay 

 Asiatic Society in 1843, I stated my belief that they had been brought 

 into existence within our sera, and had some connection with the 

 Christian faith, or with the going out of the old creed and coming in 

 of the new, I have since then seen reason to alter my views, and to 

 come to the conclusion that the class of monuments called Runic 

 stones came into existence more than two thousand years ago, and 

 were meant, in many cases, to represent Oriental animals or objects, 

 being sculptured at a time when there was some traditional or actual 

 connection betwixt this portion of Great Britain and the East, which 

 had ceased to exist long before the Norman invasion. It is on these 

 grounds I have taken the liberty of addressing myself to the Bengal 

 Asiatic Society, in hopes that by this means some glimmering of light 

 may be thrown on a matter of such interest and obscurity. 



It appears to me one of the strangest things in the history of archeo- 

 logical research that we should for years have been hunting out the 

 antiquities of Athens, Egypt, and Syria, and latterly should have 

 devoted ourselves to the collection of monuments of antiquity from 

 Central Asia and Assyria, while we leave a class of relics bearing on 

 the early history of our own country, neglected at our doors, and 

 perishing before our eyes. 



