The archaeology and prehistoric annals of Scotland . ^ of Bede for the fact ah-eady referred to,—that the first churches of the Britons were constructed of timber. Thecathedral of St. Asaj)!!, founded by St. Kentigern in the sixth cen-tury, was a wooden church, after the manner of the Britons, and soalso we may believe was the first cathedral of Glasgow, the work ofthe same founder. The first ca-thedral of the Isles seems not evento have aspired to the dignity of awooden church, but to have beenonly a wattled inclosure, not un-suited to the simplicity of the pri-mitive apostle of the Picts. Si
The archaeology and prehistoric annals of Scotland . ^ of Bede for the fact ah-eady referred to,—that the first churches of the Britons were constructed of timber. Thecathedral of St. Asaj)!!, founded by St. Kentigern in the sixth cen-tury, was a wooden church, after the manner of the Britons, and soalso we may believe was the first cathedral of Glasgow, the work ofthe same founder. The first ca-thedral of the Isles seems not evento have aspired to the dignity of awooden church, but to have beenonly a wattled inclosure, not un-suited to the simplicity of the pri-mitive apostle of the Picts. Similarerections were probably employedat a much later period, for thetemporary accommodation of thefirst phalanx of the newly foundedmonastery. A very curious seal,attached to one of the older char-ters of Holyrood Abbey, repre-sents a structure so entirely differing from all the usual devices ofthe earliest ecclesiastical seals, that I am stronglv inclined to look. PRIMITIVE ECCLESIOLOGV. 58S upon it as an attempt to represent the original wooden church, rearedby the brethren of the Ilolyrood Abbey, on tlieir first clearance inthe forest of Drumselch. It manifestly represents a timber struc-ture. The round tower is also curiously consistent with the olderScottish style, which the Romanesque was then remodelling orsuperseding, but bears no analogy to that of the Abbey of St. contemporary seal of St. Andrews, which has for its device thevenerable metropolitan church of St. Rule, proves that such por-traiture was actually attempted and successfully practised at Viewed in this light the old Holyrood seal is one of the mostinteresting ecclesiological relics we possess, figuring, it may be, theprimitive structure first reared on the site which is now associated withso many of the most momentous occurrences both in the ecclesiasticaland civil history of Scotland. The earliest charter to which it hasyet been found attached is a not
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidarchaeologyp, bookyear1851
