V.—The Torrs Chamfrein

Abstract

The object of Early Iron Age metal-work hitherto known as the Torrs Chamfrein was found at some date before 1829 in a ‘morass’ (presumably a peat-bog and probably a drained loch) on the farm of Torrs in the parish of Kelton, about one mile east of Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. The identity of the finder and the date of discovery are unknown. The earliest record of the object is a full-size pencil drawing (pl. lxxi), lettered by parts, preserved among the Walter Scott papers in the National Library of Scotland. The drawing is the work of Joseph Train, a Galloway exciseman who had received preferment in his employment through the influence of Sir Walter Scott, and acted for him as an agent for the collection of antiquities and antiquarian information. How the chamfrein came into Train's possession is not recorded. The drawing was evidently made soon afterwards, and is of importance as a record of the fact that the chamfrein was already then in its present form, at least externally. The drawing was sent by Train to Sir Walter Scott, and was followed later by the gift of the chamfrein itself, after the latter had been mounted on a wooden stand with an inscribed brass plate, the better to display it.