A wide field has been explored through the patient and devoted labours of the late T. S. Muir, by his searching out the architectural fragments scattered over the land, and especially by bringing to light many unknown examples of the retreats and primitive oratories of the early Anchorites which still exist in the remote and in many cases uninhabited islands of the West. Similar explorations have been accomplished by Sir Henry Dryden in Orkney and Shetland, and by Captain White and Captain Thomas in Kintyre and the Hebrides. To all these authors we are indebted for much valuable information and guidance, as will appear in the following pages. The structures and monuments of the early Celtic inhabitants of Scotland have formed the special subject of careful investigation by Dr. Joseph Anderson, and the exposition of the history of the remarkable and previously mysterious Sculptured Stones has been successfully accomplished by him in his lectures on Scotland in early Christian times. In these lectures he has not only clearly explained the origin and significance of these monuments and their order of succession, but he has extended his view over the whole field of Celtic culture, both in this country and in Ireland, and has explained the relations of its different phases to one another, thus disclosing the unity and beauty of that remarkable and independent development of art culture which existed in these countries from the sixth to the twelfth centuries. We have also the benefit of Dr. Reeves’ and Dr. Petrie’s well-known works on Irish History and Archæology, and the magnificent volumes of Lord Dunraven on Early Irish Architecture, so ably edited by Miss Stokes. In the following introductory sketch of the Early History and Artistic Development of Scotland, free use has been made of the above and other works, in order to place before the reader a continuous account of the religious and artistic progress of the country from the earliest dawn of Christianity till the great Revolution of the sixteenth century, which severed the connection between mediæval and modern times. * * * * * The earliest trace of Christianity in Scotland is connected with the founding of a church, the name of which still survives in a structure of a much later date. This primitive church was erected by St. Ninian, a Briton, who seems to have settled in the end of the fourth century amongst the Picts, on the south coast of Galloway, with the view of there maintaining the Christian faith already introduced by the Romans.