another folcmnity, of beheading the captives, had taken place : one of the heads i* 
diftinguifhed, as placed in a frame, fixed to a kind of arched canopy ■, which 
be an expreffion of refentment fimilar to its being hung in chains. And under 
that covering, whatever it may imply, the reft of the decapitated bodies ar3 
difpofed. 
It is obvious, that the actions and attitudes of the human figures, confidered 111 
this and the former ftriCture on Forres Pi lar , are in many refpeCVs very awkwardly 
defigned : and yet, when we reflect on its being the work of the tenth or eleventh 
century, it is rather a matter of furprife, that they are executed fo well. 
fculptures on it are perhaps fuperior to any performances of the fame age, eith el 
in England or on the continent. At that period the arts, and all Europe, were b° 
emerging from the dreadful fhade which the Gothic devaluations occafioned. 
the tenth century * many princes, and pontiffs, could not fubfcribe their nam es » 
and the reprefentations of emperors and faints, made by artifts on the windows o 
churches, and on miffals, do not far exceed in expreffion the copies of them m ac ^ e 
in the grotefque figures which form the motley pictures of the kings on cards* 
— Inftead of the remark that has been made, of thefe ftrictures on the monument 
not allowing an early enough date to the progrefs of literature in Scotland ; tht’t e 
may be now fome fallacy fufpeCted in the delineation of this and the other cohnv> n3 ’ 
becaufe they evince that the imitative arts had attained a greater degree of P ci " 
fefhon in Caledonia than in almoft any other part of Europe, in the periods im irie 
diately fucceeding what are called the dark ages. Rnt at fnfts, and not theork 3 ’ 
are all that are here eftablifhing, it is only requifite to mention, that where 
fomewhat obliterated parts of the obelifks are more accurately defined than wh at 
thefe weather-beaten fculptures may fuggeft to a fpeclator on curfory obfervati on'" 
they are either the effeCt of more attentive confideration ; or, if conjecture is && 
allowed to interpret any dubious veftige, it was rather in favour of a natural an 
rational, than quaint or abfurd idea ; a principle which, in all antiquarian or hift 0 ' 
rical fpeculation, is certainly philofophically juft. 
® Hiftory of the Emperor Charles V. 
s 
