The process used for producing the patterns on the leather satchels and shoes previously mentioned was probably of the same nature as that by which the _cuir bouilli_ cases of later times were decorated. Objects of wood, bone, ivory, and pottery and textile fabrics of the Christian Celtic period are so rare that there is really nothing to be said about the technical processes involved in their manufacture. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN GREAT BRITAIN Attention has been recently directed to the problem of how decorative art was evolved, in the first instance, by the primitive races of mankind in remote ages. Mr. Henry Balfour, Mr. C. H. Read, and Dr. Colley March have shown us how much light may be thrown on this difficult question by a critical examination of the various forms of ornament used by the savage—or, rather, the uncultured—peoples existing at the present day in countries where they have had only limited opportunities of coming in contact with modern civilisation. There is, however, at least as difficult a problem nearer our own doors awaiting solution, namely, that of the origin and development of early Christian decorative art in the British Isles. This problem is not one of a wholly uncultured race left to itself to work out its own ideas, as suggested by external natural objects or otherwise, but it is a problem of a race already in a state of semi-culture being brought suddenly face to face with a higher civilisation, through the introduction of a new religion, and afterwards influencing, or being influenced by, other conquering races—also in a state of semi-culture—whom they converted by missionary enterprise. That is to say, the Celts of Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Cornwall became acquainted with Italo-Byzantine art when they were first Christianised, about the middle of the fifth century. In the seventh century they came in contact with the Anglo-Saxons, and in the ninth with the Norsemen and Danes. It is the object of the present inquiry to determine in what measure the Christian art of this country before the Norman Conquest was affected by the absorption of these new racial elements. The style of art we are now dealing with was formerly, quite wrongly, called Runic, because some of the monuments on which characteristic forms of ornament occur bear Runic inscriptions. Later authorities have called the style Hiberno-Saxon, Kelto-Northumbrian, Celtic, and Irish, but this is simply begging the whole question. The term we have chosen, namely, early Christian, is scientifically correct, and does not commit us to the assumption of any unproved facts.