In Ireland, as we have already seen, this monumental art is chiefly exhibited in the recumbent cross-bearing slabs at Clonmacnoise and other ecclesiastical sites, while its later development assumes the form of free standing crosses of the Celtic pattern carved with the interlacing ornaments characteristic of the style, or with figure sculptures enclosed in panels, each panel representing a Scriptural or symbolic subject. The Scottish sculptured monuments, although bearing a general resemblance to the Irish, have several peculiarities. The earliest form of sculptured monuments in Scotland, as in the other Celtic divisions of Britain, consists of rude upright stones, engraved with an equal-armed cross enclosed in a circle, accompanied with an inscription in debased Roman capital letters, generally comprising the formula “hic jacet” and the chi-rho symbol. The carving is invariably incised in the stone. We have already met with examples of this class of monument, probably of the fifth century, in the South-West of Scotland, in connection with the _Candida Casa_ of St. Ninian. (See Fig. 1.) Certain peculiar forms of sculptured symbols, carved on undressed upright stones, seem to have originated amongst the Northern Picts. These symbols (Fig. 3) consist of the well-known symbol of (_a_) the “crescent and sceptre,” (_b_) the “double disc” or “spectacles,” (_c_) the above with sceptre, (_d_) the oblong with sceptre, (_e_) the “elephant,” and other forms which are very common in the East of Scotland north of the Forth, but are unknown anywhere else. The meaning of these symbols has never been satisfactorily explained. In the earliest monuments the symbols and occasional figures are the only ornaments found on the stones. They are invariably incised and plain, containing no interlaced or other ornament. It has been pointed out by Dr. J. Anderson that these simple incised symbols probably belong to the period before the beginning of the eighth century, when the Columbans were expelled from Pictland by King Nectan, while the later form of decorated monuments which succeeded them possibly dates from the return of the Columban clergy from Ireland in the middle of the ninth century, when they were re-established in the land by King Kenneth. That period probably marks the later style of ornamentation which is found on the monuments. The original idea of an upright stone with sculptured symbols is retained, but the monument is no longer a rough unhewn block. It is now a shaped slab, dressed on both sides and on the edges, and the ornamental work is no longer incised, but carved [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Symbols. (From Stuart’s _Sculptured Monuments_.)]