Early Christian art in this country is essentially decorative, and to a lesser extent symbolic. The figure subjects are obviously barbarous copies of Byzantine originals, for no matter how they are disguised by bad drawing or incrusted with ornament, the conventional grouping and accessories still remain to prove their origin. The miniature of the Temptation of Christ in the Book of Kells is perhaps the most remarkable instance of a Byzantine design Celticised, if one may use the expression. Comparing this with a miniature in the Psalter of Misselinda (A.D. 1066) in the British Museum (Add. 19,352), we find all the essential features of the scene the same, even to the black Devil; but in the Book of Kells the Temple with its Byzantine cupolas has been converted into an Irish stone-roofed oratory, shaped like a metal shrine of the period, and covered with ornament; the Devil, too, has been decorated with spiral curves after the Celtic fashion. The miniatures of the Evangelists, with their symbols, which form the frontispieces of the Irish Gospels, are also taken from a Byzantine source and similarly disguised, although not so effectually as to conceal their derivation. The Irish illuminator put as much local colour into his copy as a Chinaman or a Japanese would, but in a different way, if told to make a replica of an English picture. In distilling the original Byzantine idea through the alembic of the mind of the Irish scribe it has absorbed so much of his individuality that it assumes an archaic and semi-barbarous appearance which is very misleading at first sight. We hope to be able to show that some of the elements of the ornament may be traced to a Byzantine source, and that the only obstacle in the way of our at once recognising whence the Irish designer received his inspiration is his marvellous power of adaptation and skill in evolving fresh combinations of simple elements. The ancient Irish artists appear in some respects to have resembled the Japanese in the rapidity with which they absorbed new ideas and turned them to good account in their decorative designs. The materials available for the study of early Christian art in Britain consist of illuminated MSS., ecclesiastical and other metalwork, sculptured monuments, and a few miscellaneous objects. I propose now to direct attention chiefly to the sculptured monuments, because they afford a much more certain means than any other of determining the characteristics of the various local styles throughout the country.