The civil engineer and archaeologist John Romilly Allen (1847-1907) delivered the Rhind lectures of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1885, and published them in book form in 1887. The art of pre-Norman Britain and Ireland had long been a subject of fascination for him, and in this highly illustrated book he considers the wider European context of British art, and the chronology of Christianity from the Romano-British period onwards. There is a particular focus on the Celtic crosses of Ireland, and the meaning of the sculpture on their faces, shafts and bases. Allen continues his...