th others a considerable space, being well displayed to shew the
inscriptions on both sides.[17] It is by the fact of both sides being
written upon that we assign to them the character of gravestones,
that is upright gravestones; but it is also well authenticated by
historical records that the memorial of a Pagan chief in Ireland was a
cairn with a pillar stone standing upon it, and there is little doubt
that the Irish invaders carried the practice with them into Scotland.
It is indeed in Scotland that a large proportion of these stones have
been discovered, and there are more than a hundred of them in the
Edinburgh Museum. In the Museum at Dublin there is also a good
collection, conveniently arranged; but the British Museum in London
has less than half a dozen--only five--specimens. The number in each
of the three museums fairly represents the relative abundance of
such remains in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Marked on a chart
the discoveries are thickly grouped in the North-Western parts of
Scotland, in the South of Ireland, and on the South-Western promontory
of Wales. In Cornwall and Devonshire, along the coast line, there have
been found a goodly few, and the others are dotted sparsely over the
whole kingdom--England, as just indicated, furnishing only a modicum.

[Footnote 17: The National Museum of Antiquities in Queen Street,
Edinburgh, is unequalled by any other collection of British and Celtic
remains. All these memorial stones are carefully catalogued, and
have, moreover, the advantage of being described at length, with
full illustration, in Professor Stuart's copious work (previously
mentioned) on "The Sculptured Stones of Scotland."]

[Illustration: THE BRESSAY STONE FIG. 100.

LUNNASTING AND KILBAR STONES. FIG. 101.

OGAM AND RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS.]

The inscriptions upon such stones, when they are inscribed, are
usually in Ogam or Runic characters. An example of the Ogam writing
is shewn on the edges of the Bressay stone (Fig. 100), and also on
the front side of the Lunnasting stone (Fig. 101a). The Ogam style
was used by the ancient Irish and some other Celtic nations, and the
"Ogams," or letters, consist principally of lines, or groups of lines,
deriving their signification from their position on a single stem,
or chief line, over, under, or through which they are drawn,
perpendicularly or obliquely. Curves rarely occur; but some are
seen in the inscription on the Bressay stone, which has been thus