Although the Roman alphabet was introduced by
Augustine at the Canterbury school, it wholly failed to
have any effect on the native hand from that source. On
the other hand, when, in the seventh century, Northumbria
was converted by Irish missionaries, the new Christians
copied the Irish writing, so well, indeed, that the earliest
specimens extant can hardly be distinguished from the
beautiful penmanship of the Irish. The Book of Durham,
generally called the Lindisfarne Gospels, of about 700,
is an exquisite Northumbrian example of the Irish round
hand, in the characteristic broad, heavy-stroke letters.
Another good specimen of this style is the eighth century
manuscript of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, in Cambridge
University Library.

Irish illumination is as characteristic as the writing.
Pictures and drawings of the human figure are not so
common as in the work of other schools, and when they
do appear are not often good. Still, some of them, as the
scenes from the life of Christ in the Book of Kells, are quite
unlike the illuminations of any other school; while the
portraits of the Evangelists in the same book, in the Book
of MacRegol, and in the Lindisfarne Gospels, are singularly
interesting. Floral work is also rare. But in geometrical
ornament, beautifully symmetrical--diagonal patterns, zigzags,
waves, lozenges, divergent spirals, intertwisted and
interwoven ribbon and cord work--and in grotesque
zoological forms,--lizards, snakes, hounds, birds, and dragons'
heads,--the Irish school attained their highest artistic
development. Their art is striking, not for originality, not