ach obelisk, on the more important and strongly relieved
side, there always occurs a large cross, rather of the Greek than of the
Roman type, and usually elaborately wrought into a fretwork, composed of
myriads of snakes, raised in some of the compartments over half-spheres
resembling apples. In one of the Ross-shire obelisks--that of Shadwick,
in the parish of Nigg--the cross is entirely composed of these
apple-like, snake-covered protuberances; and it was the belief of my
friend, that the original idea of the whole, and, indeed, the
fundamental idea of this school of sculpture, was exactly that so
emphatically laid down by Milton in the opening argument of his
poem--man's fall symbolized by the serpents and the apples, and the
great sign of his restoration, by the cross. But in order to indicate
that to the divine Man, the Restorer, the cross itself was a consequence
of the Fall, even it was covered over with symbols of the event, and, in
one curious specimen, built up of them. It was the snakes and apples
that had reared, _i.e._, rendered imperative, the cross. My friend
further remarked, that from this main idea a sort of fretwork had
originated, which seemed more modern in some of its specimens than the
elaborately-carved snakes, and strongly-relieved apples, but in which
the twistings of the one, and the circular outlines of the others might
be distinctly traced; and that it seemed ultimately to have passed from
a symbol into a mere ornament; as, in earlier instances, hieroglyphic
pictures had passed into mere arbitrary signs or characters. I know not
what may be thought of the theory of William Ross; but when, in
visiting, several years ago, the ancient ruins of Iona, I marked, on the
more ancient crosses, the snakes and apparent apples, and then saw how
the same combination of figures appeared as mere ornamental fretwork on
some of the later tombs, I regarded it as more probably the right one
than any of the others I have yet seen broached on the subject. I dined
with my friend this day on potatoes and salt, flanked by a jug of water;
nor were the potatoes by any means very good ones; but they formed the
only article of food in the household at the time. He had now dined and
breakfasted upon them, he said, for several weeks together; but though
not very strengthening, they kept in the spark of life; and he had saved
up money enough to carry him to the south of Scotland in the spring,
where he trusted to find emplo