The earliest stone monuments in Ireland consist, as in Scotland, of rude pillar stones, bearing plain incised crosses, accompanied with inscriptions in debased Roman capitals. These are succeeded by sepulchral slabs, shaped and dressed, which were laid flat over the graves, and were carved with various forms of the cross extending over the entire surface, and sometimes covered with interlacing ornament. But the upright cross-bearing slabs, which we shall find are so common in Scotland, were almost unknown in Ireland. At Clonmacnoise there are 179 of these recumbent cross-bearing slabs, the ascertained dates of which extend from 628 to 1278; of these only sixty-seven bear any ornament except the cross. The earliest with ornament dates from 806, and many others belong to the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.[22] Free standing crosses of fine design are also numerous in Ireland. They are generally covered with pictorial sculpture of Scriptural subjects; they date from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. They usually bear on the obverse a representation of the Crucifixion,[23] and on the reverse a figure of Christ in glory. These sculptures occupy the principal place at the junction of the arms with the upright shaft, and the remainder of the cross contains figure subjects, arranged in panels, representing events symbolical of the Redemption, and leading the mind up to the principal subject. Amongst the most common are the Temptation of Adam and Eve, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Jonah and the Whale, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, &c. Symbolic sculptures, representing hunting scenes, grotesque animals, &c., so common on the Scottish monuments, are also occasionally found on the Irish crosses, but do not occur so frequently as on the former. The peculiar and unexplained symbols so universally found on the Scottish monuments are, however, entirely absent from those of Ireland. * * * * *