‘Travelled stone’
Date
1821
Creator
M S Baird (British) , Printmaker
Object type
Library reference
RCN32515
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 210mm
width (print): 125mm
width (print): 125mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Topographical study of a glacial erratic, which was moved by ice and wind from its original location in 1799. It is here described as the ‘Travelled Stone near Castle-Stuart’ and elsewhere as the ‘Travelled Stone of Petty’. The rock is shown with two figures in Scottish dress, one kneeling on the rock with a plumb-line; the other behind, holding a boat-hook.
Plate 13 accompanying the paper ‘Account of the Travelled Stone near Castle Stuart, Inverness-shire’, by Thomas Lauder Dick, Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, v.3 1817-1820, pp.251-259 (Edinburgh, 1821). Inscribed above: ‘PLATE XIII Wern. Mem. Vol.III.’ [page trimmed]. Inscribed below: ‘M.S.Baird Fecit.’
According to the accompanying text, the rock described ‘is a large mass of conglomerate…As it is too ponderous to have been moved by human power…it must have been originally deposited in that, its first place of rest, by causes similar to those which have covered whole countries with boulders…’ However between 10 and 20 February 1799, the rock was frozen: ‘bound round by a vast cake of ice…which…must have proved an admirable means for its elevation, for which purpose it afforded an extensive raft…the wind began to blow a hurricane…perfectly unparalleled in the memory of the oldest men living...[the stone] was in reality gone from the spot it had occupied the previous day, and that it had been removed much nearer to the low-water mark ’
Sir Thomas Dick Launder, seventh baronet (1784–1848), author [?].
Plate 13 accompanying the paper ‘Account of the Travelled Stone near Castle Stuart, Inverness-shire’, by Thomas Lauder Dick, Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, v.3 1817-1820, pp.251-259 (Edinburgh, 1821). Inscribed above: ‘PLATE XIII Wern. Mem. Vol.III.’ [page trimmed]. Inscribed below: ‘M.S.Baird Fecit.’
According to the accompanying text, the rock described ‘is a large mass of conglomerate…As it is too ponderous to have been moved by human power…it must have been originally deposited in that, its first place of rest, by causes similar to those which have covered whole countries with boulders…’ However between 10 and 20 February 1799, the rock was frozen: ‘bound round by a vast cake of ice…which…must have proved an admirable means for its elevation, for which purpose it afforded an extensive raft…the wind began to blow a hurricane…perfectly unparalleled in the memory of the oldest men living...[the stone] was in reality gone from the spot it had occupied the previous day, and that it had been removed much nearer to the low-water mark ’
Sir Thomas Dick Launder, seventh baronet (1784–1848), author [?].
Associated place