The succeeding Gothic styles are also well represented in Scotland, and include a great variety of churches, monasteries, and cathedrals. These exhibit many fine examples of the various styles of Gothic art, and, although comprising certain local peculiarities, show a general correspondence with the arts of the different periods in France and England. The “first pointed” style is fully represented in Scotland during the thirteenth century; but, owing to the disastrous situation of the country during the fourteenth century, the number of “decorated” buildings is comparatively small. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the “perpendicular” style prevailed in England and the “Flamboyant” in France, the architecture of Scotland was distinguished by a style peculiar to the country, in which many features derived from both the above styles may be detected. While the Mediæval Architecture of Scotland thus corresponds on the whole with that of the rest of Europe, there exists in the Ecclesiology of the country an amount of native development sufficient to give it a special value as one of the exponents of the art of the Middle Ages. Its buildings further contribute largely to the illustration of the history of the country by showing in their remains the condition and growth of its religious ideas and observances at different epochs, and the manner in which its civilisation advanced. We observe striking evidences of the Irish influence in the relics of the primitive Celtic Church. The Norman and Early English influences are clearly traceable up to the invasion of Edward I., and the political and commercial connection with France and the Netherlands is distinctly observable in the period of the Jameses. Till comparatively modern times the early history of Scotland was involved in obscurity, but much light has within recent years been thrown upon it by the works of Robertson, Skene, and others. The religious and political conditions of the country have now been placed upon a reliable historical basis, while its archæology has been expounded in the works of the late Sir Daniel Wilson, and those of Dr. Joseph Anderson and Mr. J. Romilly Allen. The numerous prehistoric monuments of Scotland have been collected by the late Dr. John Stuart, in his great work on the Sculptured Stories, and the Sepulchral Slabs of the West Highlands have been beautifully illustrated by the late James Drummond, R.S.A.