CHAPTER VI.

INK OF THE WEST.

REMARKS OF ARCH-DEACON CARLISLE--WHEN READING
AND WRITING CEASED TO BE MYSTERIES--ORIGIN
OF THE WORDS CLERK AND SIGN--SCARCITY OF MANUSCRIPTS
--FOUNDING OF IRISH SCHOOLS OF LEARNING
IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY--MONKS NOT PERMITTED
TO USE ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN PREPARING
MSS.--OBSERVATIONS OF MADAN ABOUT THE HISTORY
OF WRITING DURING THE DARK AGES--INK-
WRITTEN MSS. TREASURES.

THE ancient history of the art of writing in more
northern sections of the Western world, William
Nicolson, Arch-Deacon of Carlisle, author of "The
English Historical Library," London, 1696, tells very
quaintly:

"The Danes register'd their more considerable
transactions upon Rocks; or on parts of them,
hewen into various Shapes and Figures. On these
they engrav'd such Inscriptions as were proper for
their Heathen Alters, Triumphal Arches, Sepulchral
Monuments and Genealogical Histories of
their Ancestors. Their writings of less concern
(as Letters, Almanacks, &c.) were engraven upon