ity between the sculptured
figures on the ancient stones and the architecture of the twelfth
century in Scotland.[185] The ancient font, probably of Norman date,
bowl-shaped, and of simple design, has been preserved in the church, and
St. Ninian's Cave--probably a place of religious retirement--about three
miles south-east of the village, contains some very old stone crosses,
and on its east wall some very old inscriptions, a number of which are
partly unintelligible by being covered with more recent ones.

The neighbourhood will always be associated with St. Ninian, the apostle
of the Britons and of the Southern Picts, and may be called the
historical fountain-head of the Scottish Church.

11. DIOCESE OF LISMORE OR ARGYLL

Lismore is an ancient settlement, and is the Epidium of Ptolemy, one of
his five Ebudae.[186] The island lies near the south end of Loch Linnhe,
and at a short distance from the mainland of Argyllshire.

The bishopric was formed about 1200 by the separation of the districts,
belonging to the bishopric of Dunkeld, which lay to the west of the
great range of Drumalban. Eraldus was the first Bishop of Argyll, and
had his seat at Muckairn, while his church bore the name of
Killespeckerill, or the church of Bishop Erailt.[187] It is possible
that some of the Keledei from Dunkeld may have accompanied the new
bishop and been established there. In 1236 the see was transferred from
Muckairn, on the south side of Loch Etive, to Lismore, where, long
before, a Columban monastery had been founded by St. Lughadh or Moluoc.
The see was afterwards known as the bishopric of Lismore, and contained
the following deaneries: Kintyre, with twelve parishes; Glassary or
Glasrod, with thirteen; Lorn, with fourteen; and Morvern, with
eight.[188] The cathedral was perhaps the humblest in Britain, and was
probably erected soon after the transference of the see in the
thirteenth century. It is said to have been a structure 137 feet long by
29-1/3 wide, but of this there only now survives an aisleless choir,
with traces of a chapter-house and sacristy; and, as re-roofed in 1749,
this choir now serves as a parish church. It has four buttresses of
simple form against the south wall, and two at each of the north and
south angles of the east wall. In the south wall, and in the usual
position near the east end, there are remains of a triple sedilia;
there is a piscina in a pointed recess, having a trefoil-headed niche in
the wal