In metals they seem to have been skilful workers. Adamnan tells us that, on one occasion, St. Columba had blessed a certain knife, and said that it would never injure man or beast, and that thereupon the monks had the iron of which it was made melted, and a number of other tools in the monastery coated with it. The ceard or artificer seems to have been a regular official in the monasteries, and specimens which have come down to us in the decoration of shrines, cases for books, bells, &c., show that they had acquired a proficiency in art work of this description which has never been surpassed.

Another branch of art in which they have never been excelled was the ornamentation and illumination of their Bibles and service books. The only manuscripts which have come down to us, and which can be traced to the hands of Columban monks in Scotland, are the Book of Deer and one of the manuscripts of Adamnan's life of St. Columba, and these are not highly ornamented. But there are numerous examples in Ireland, some of the more elaborate of which can be almost traced to the hands of St. Columba, and there can be no doubt that the art which produced the Irish specimens was the common property of both Churches, if, indeed, some of the books now existing in Ireland were not actually produced in Iona. One of these books was seen in Ireland by Geraldus Cambriensis, who accompanied some of the first Norman and Welsh invaders in the twelfth century, and he thus describes it :

"Among all the miracles in Kildare, none appears to me more wonderful than that marvellous book which they say was written in the time of the Virgin [St. Brigit] at the dictation of an angel. It contains the Four Gospels according to St. Jerom, and almost every page is illustrated by drawings illuminated with a variety of brilliant colours. In one page you see the countenance of the Divine Majesty supernaturally pictured; in another, the mystic forms of the evangelists, with either six, four, or two wings; here are depicted the eagle, there the calf; here the face of a man, there of a lion; with other figures in almost endless variety. If you observe them superficially, and in the usual careless manner, you would imagine them to be daubs, rather than careful compositions; expecting to find nothing exquisite, where, in truth, there is nothing which is not exquisite. But if you apply yourself to a more close examination, and are able to penetrate the secrets

of the art displayed in these pictures, you will find them so delicate and exquisite, so finely drawn, and the work of interlacing so elaborate, while the colours with which they are illuminated are so blended, and still so fresh, that you will be ready to assert that all this is the work of angelic, and not human, skill. The more often and closely I scrutinise them, the more I am surprised, and always find them new, discovering fresh causes for increased admiration."

And art critics of our own day speak of the work in terms of equal commendation.

Such was the first Christian Church established among us, and such the mode of life and state of culture of its clergy. It existed in full vigour among us for about two hundred years, and then, partly from external causes, and partly from internal, it began to decay; but it was not finally superseded by a system of diocesan episcopacy under the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, until the time of King David the First. To trace the process of its decay would be interesting, but this paper has already extended to too great a length.

YACHTING AND ELECTIONEERING IN THE

HEBRIDES.

II.

ON Monday, 7th September, we began the serious business of our trip-electioneering. Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh was then pursuing his candidature for the representation of the County of Inverness, and he had deemed this the best and easiest method of addressing near their homes the voters in the Western Isles and on the West Coast. On that day, accordingly, we left LochDuich for Benbecula, where a meeting had been called for four o'clock in the afternoon. I came on deck just as we were passing through Kyle Rhea, and, leaving the pretty Bay of Kirkton, Glenelg, on the left, we soon passed the village of Isleornsay, and the old ruined Castle of Knock, once a residence of the Macdonalds of Sleat. The next object of interest was Armadale Castle, the modern family seat of Lord Macdonald. This beautiful Gothic building was erected about 1815 by Sir Alexander Wentworth Macdonald, second Lord Macdonald of Sleat. As we rounded the Point of Sleat, a beautiful scene burst upon the sight. The whole range of the Cuchullin Hills unfolded itself before our eyes. The jagged peaks of Sgur-nan-Gillean were wreathed in everchanging, but almost transparent mists, now creeping down the sides of the mountain, and anon uplifting and giving us a glimpse of the fantastic pinnacles which formed the summit. The view on all sides was grand. Behind us were the mountains of Kintail, Glenelg, Morar, and Arisaig, in distinct and endless varieties of outline; on our right, the bold coast of Skye, from Dunvegan Head to the Point of Sleat; on our left, the picturesque islands of Eigg, Muck, Rum, and Canna; while, in the distant front, the whole of the Long Island, from Harris to Barra, was visible. we skirted the western coast of Skye, we saw numbers of whales disporting themselves quite near to the yacht, whisking their great tails, and spouting up briny fountains on every side; while porpoises also were in abundance. Large flocks of guillemots

As

hovered round our little vessel, ready to pick up anything which might be dropped overboard, whilst now and then a solan goose would swoop down upon some luckless fish and sail high overhead with its glittering prize.

The Captain took advantage of a light breeze to hoist the mainsail and two jibs, which made a considerable difference in our rate of speed. Leaving the flat Island of Soay upon our right, we soon passed the opening of Loch-Bracadale, and then made across the Little Minch for Benbecula. It was about six o'clock

P.M., when we again neared land. Our Captain had doubts as to whether the land straight ahead of us was Benbecula or the Island of Wiay. It afterwards turned out to be the latter. The whistle was sounded for a pilot, but without effect, and, after half-an-hour of anxious manoeuvring, we managed to enter the Sound of Benbecula, where we cast anchor. We then set off in the boat to try and discover Creagorry. After about half-an-hour's hard rowing, we descried another boat coming to meet us, and, as the two boats neared each other, the melodious strains of the bagpipes were borne along to us by the breeze. As soon as the other boat was within hailing distance, its occupants raised cheer after cheer, and the piper in its bow played with might and main a weird and beautiful Hebridean air. When within a few yards of us, the people in the other boat saluted by holding up their oars, whilst one enthusiastic individual tossed his cap high in air as he shouted, "Three cheers for Fraser-Mackintosh." The other boat then turned about, and preceded us towards the landing-place on the Benbecula side of the South Ford. As we entered the narrowest part of the Sound, a dense crowd was observed upon the South Uist side of the Ford, whilst another waited on the Benbecula side. The boatmen who preceded us kept cheering vociferously all the way, and soon an answering cheer burst from the crowds on both sides of the Ford. As we touched the little quay, dozens of willing hands were stretched forth to help us ashore, whilst cheer after cheer for the People's Candidate arose from the multitude which lined the shore, echoed no less heartily from the South Uist side. It was a good sign of the enthusiasm displayed that these people had waited patiently from four o'clock till seven, and some of them much longer, to give a hearty welcome to their

future Member of Parliament. Led by an ecstatic individual, who, in the exuberance of his joy, kept dancing something between the Highland Fling and a sailor's hornpipe, escorted on either side by the worthy priest of Benbecula, Father Mackintosh, and his genial colleague from the other side of the Ford, Father MacColl, and followed by a crowd of some two hundred people, we wended our way some two miles and a-half to the school, where a most hearty meeting passed a vote of confidence in the candidate. The earnest faces of the audience, as they listened to the speakers' words, were lighted up with an enthusiasm and a look of determination which boded ill for the prospects of Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh's opponents. Local references were keenly relished, and any bit of humour was at once observed and appreciated.

By the time the meeting was over, it was quite dark, but a dog-cart had been procured for us, and we were driven down to the quay, and across the Ford, now, by the receding tide, almost dry, to Iochdar, on the South Uist side, where we found that the people, after waiting several hours, had concluded there would be no meeting there that night, and gone home. By means of a message, however, a good meeting was soon formed, presided over by the genial Father MacColl of Ardkenneth, which passed a vote of confidence in. Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh at the unearthly hour of 11.30 P.M. This concluded our day's, or rather our night's, work, but we had still to regain the yacht, whose lights we could faintly see at the east end of the Ford. The boat which had brought us from the yacht was nowhere to be seen, and we conjectured that it had gone back to the vessel to avoid being stranded by the ebbing tide. There was a chance, however, that it might have managed to remain afloat in one of the channels which, even at the lowest states of the tide, connect both ends of the Ford. As many of our readers may be unacquainted with the locality, it may be well to give some description of it.

The Island of Benbecula is separated from South Uist by a narrow strait about half-a-mile in width, called the South Ford, which, at low tide, is capable of being crossed on horse or foot. It is never perfectly dry, however, being intersected by a number of channels which, being lower than the surrounding sands, are