Funeral Resting-Cairns in Scotland: [copy typescript, 1961]

B. R. S. MEGAW

About this Item

8pp. 4to, with the author's numerous autograph corrections; together with an autograph letter signed to the author from Charles Thomas, 2pp. 8vo, Edinburgh, 8 June 1961 (with the recipient's extensive manuscript annotations), and an autograph letter signed to Thomas from the author, 2pp. 8vo, Edinburgh, 30 June 1961. Basil Richardson Stanley Megaw (1913-2002), archaeologist, Director of the Manx Museum, 1947-57, was the first Director of the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh, 1957-69. He solicits a follow-up piece from Antony Charles Thomas (1928-2016), Lecturer in Archaeology at Edinburgh 1958-67, Professor of Archaeology at Leicester 1967-71, Professor of Cornish Studies at Exeter 1971-91, who writes, "These cairns are very interesting. I think it's another pan-Celtic custom: very similar practice survives in Cornish tradition, the usual thing being to have roadside mounds with a stone cross, at something like mile intervals, on tracks connecting outlying parts of a parish with the parish church. The coffin was laid down at each mound/cross, a hymn sung, and the bearers continued . . ." He discusses at some length the cairns on Iona that Thomas Pennant was told were "the penances of monks" who were "to raise heaps of dimensions equal to their crimes: and to judge by some, it is no breach of charity to think that there were among them enormous sinners". Megaw's article was published later in the year in the school's journal, Scottish Studies. Seller Inventory # 3S100180

Bibliographic Details

Title: Funeral Resting-Cairns in Scotland: [copy ...

Binding: No Binding

Condition: Very Good

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