New-York tribune., 1903-06-07
IONA ISLAND AND MONKS OF GRANDE CIIARTR
ST. COLUMBA,S HOME AND BURIAL PLACE or SCOT
TIsH KINGS MAY PASS INTO NEW HANDS.

snaaks in English first and then repeats his
discourse in Gaelic, or ne reverseS tnaI oiU
and for both sermons he has an audience III
was my good fortune to hear him on SEPTEMBER
q, together with about fifty other persons seat
ed on wooden benches in a whttewasned roolll'
and have never heard preacher more devouI'
earnest, sincere and simple
Mr.. Winter speaks of the grant OF the IsIdil9 ~
by Charles I to the family OF the Duke oI
Argyll, and adds:
Before that time it had long been held by
the chieftans of the great house OF Maclean
When Dr. Johnson came here with Boswell, IN
1913, Maclean was his companion-then the Ior6
of the clan-and both Johnson and BosWeI
have borne fervent testimony to the unstlhted
hospitality with which they were received not
withstanding that the Campbells were in pos
session of the land The sturdy doctor was
obliged. indeed. to sleep on the hay in the barn,
with his portmanteau a pillow; but that was
the best accommodation in the island, and the
Maclean slept beside him.
1T is, perhaps trite history that COLUMBIA
came from Ireland to Iona in the year oo5'
bringing Christianity to the Picts OF the West
ern islands and that he made Iona the fountain
head of religion and learning for Northern Eu-
rope, dying there A d. 59l at the age OF sev-
enty-six. No can speak Of Iona, though
without speaking of her saint His spirit IS
indelibly stamped upon the place, and whoso-
memory and hallow his name The monastlc
remains however. that the traveller finds In the
island the ruins of red granite buildings or
a much later period than that of Columbia
structures that his pious labor had rendered
possible, but which his eyes never beheld The
nunnery St Oran's Chapel, the cathedral and
its adjacent fragments of monastery, all roof
less. and all the sport of time and decay, are
relics Of about the twelfth century. Parts Gf
those ancient fabrics possibly of date stlll
earlier, the noble cathedral tower Cup which
you may ascend by a spiral stone staircase OF
forty-two steps, the arches of its north tran
sept. and the simple form and massive and beau
ttful arched doorway of st. Grams Chapel bear
Ing architectural traces of essentially remote
antiquity The church that COLUMBIA erected
die stand upon the site OF the present
cathedral ruin, but was situated further to the
north and nearer to the sea: while the place OF
Pnl hnr N tic nil
heart shaped stone now preserved in the ruined
ehancel-is believed to have been the site of a
cottage under the friendly shelter Of Dun-i. a
little northward from the Argyll Cross
THE ravages equally of barbarian hordes and
OF relentless time have left scarcely anything in
its place, whether of statue or carving, or IN
scription symbol, brass, or picture, or
memorial stone. But of their general character
and of the sublimity which they must have de-
rived. as well as from their sacred purpose, it
is not difficult to judge. Imagination supplies
every defect of knowledge. and the spirit that
gaZes upon those remnants OF vanished great
ness is lifted far above this world.
''In the precincts of the cathedral. there. at
the foot Of Oran's chapel was the burial ground
of the kings of Scotland-Releig Oran- The grass
grows thick upon it, No stone remains in it's
original place. The rude letters and symbolic
carvings have been blasted by time and storm
The dust of the humber dead has mingled with
the dust of warriors and of princes in its royal
soil. What colossal forces of human
strength and feeling lie hushed and cold be-
meath that humble sod; what heroes of forgotten
battles: what heroines of old romance; what
murderers: what busy brains of crafty, schem-
ing statesmen. toiling ever through tortuous
courses for the power that they never could
long maintain"
It is stilI mooted point whether the body OF
Macbeth was buried at Iona or in meadow Of
Ieempphanan Iona however had been the
royal sepulchre from the time of Kenneth Ill
9I4. 1t the custom to bring the imperial
coffins hither from Corpach. Loeb Ell. The
burial of Duncan. the victim of Macbeth's am
bition, at Iona, according to Shakespeare
in the words of MacDuff which quoted above.