became the ground of much contention (see Rees, Essay on the Welsh Saints, pp. 228, 253). Much information on this subject was collected by the late Thomas Wakeman, and is published as a supplement to the Liber Landavensis at the end of Rees's Lives of the Cambro-British Saints; but from the most reliable authorities it would appear that he was a pupil of Iltutus at the College of Llantwit, and that he died at the end of the sixth century. It appears that he was present at the Council of Paris in 557. The miracle by which Samson confined the birds which attacked the corn of his master, St. Iltyd, is recorded in the Liber Landavensis, p. 291, and in the Lives of the Camb. Brit. Saints,' p. 480; the transport also of his dead body from Britanny to Llantwit, and its deposition 'in medio quadrangularium lapidum erecte insistentium in cimiterio, cruce lapidea supposita et depicta sub pontificali inditio.' Vita S. Iltuti, e Cod. in Mus. Brit. Bibl. Cott. Vespasian, A IV; Rees, Lives, p. 171. Can this crux lapidea be the cross represented in Plates III and IV? In the Life of St. Cadoc, MSS. Cott. Bibl. Mus. Brit. Vespasian XIV, and Titus D 22, Samson is mentioned as a witness to a document and described thus: Samson Abbas altaris sancti Eltuti.'

Of Samuel and Ebisar, two of the names inscribed on the reverse of this stone, I have not been able to find any notice.

This stone was first mentioned by Edward Lhwyd in Gibson's Camden, p. 618. Strange, in the Archæologia, vol. vi (1782), p. 22, pl. 2, fig. 1-2, gives a very insufficient engraving of it, copied in Gough's Camden, iii. p. 130, pl. 7, fig. 2. In Hubner's work (p. 22) an engraving is given of the inscription of the front of the stone in which the word 'anmia' is misprinted 'anima,' and with the m of the usual minuscule form.

PLATES V & VI.

LLANTWIT. THE CROSS OF HOUELT.

This elegant work of early art is preserved in the porch of Llantwit Church, and is elaborately ornamented on both its faces with patterns not unusual in MSS. of the latter part of the seventh, eighth, and first half of the ninth centuries. The head of the cross has unfortunately been broken off, but the piece has been preserved. It measures 4 feet in height, the middle of the basal portion 28 inches, and the middle of the top cross 31 inches wide, and is 6 inches thick. The edge itself of the top part is likewise ornamented with a Chinese-like pattern found commonly in the best MSS. of the period. The lower part of the basal part of the stone has been chipped off to make it more square, so that several of the letters at the beginning of the lines of the inscription are lost, but sufficient is left to allow the whole to be read thus:

(i)n inomine di patris et
(s)peretus santdi anc

(cr)ucem houelt1 prope

(ra)bit pro anima res pa
(tr)es eus.

1 Mr. Rhys (Notes on the Early Inscribed Stones of Wales, p. 9) misreads this name houeint, and gives an incorrect reading of two other of the letters; and Hübner gives the name as 'Hovelt (Hovient?).'

that is-In nomine dei patris et spiritus sancti hanc crucem houelt preparavit pro anima res patris ejus.

This inscription is entirely written in Anglo-Saxon minuscule letters, the r, s and d's being especially remarkable. In this respect a marked difference exists in comparison with the cross of Samson above described, which I should thence conclude was older than Houelt's cross. It will scarcely be believed that in one of my visits to Llantwit I found this fine monument used as a bench on which a stone-mason was chipping a modern gravestone.

We are indebted to the late Thomas Wakeman for some notes on this cross, from which it would appear that its erection must be referred to the close of the 9th century (Arch. Camb. iv. p. 18). The inscription on this monument,' observed Mr. Wakeman, informs us that it was erected by Howel for the soul of his father Rhys, and the character, in my opinion, is decidedly of the ninth century, and that is the precise period at which the only Howel ap Rhys, of whom we have any certain account, was living. One genealogy, called the Coychurch MS., mentions another whose place in the pedigree would show him to have lived two centuries earlier. No such person however is mentioned in the Liber Landavensis or any other document that can be depended upon. The prince to whom I think this cross must be referred stands the tenth in descent from Prince Meuric ap Tewdric, who from various circumstances related of him must have died about the year 575. Asser, in his Life of King Alfred, mentioned Howel as one of those Welsh princes who voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of the Saxon monarch. The exact year is not given, but apparently it was before 884. Asser's words are as follow: Illo enim tempore (viz. 884) et multo ante omnes regiones dexteralis Britanniæ partis ad Elfred regem pertinebant et adhuc pertinent: Hemeid scilicet cum omnibus habitatoribus Demeticæ regionis sex filiorum Rotri vi compulsus regali se subdiderat imperio. Houil quoque filius Ris rex Gleguising et Brochmail atque Fernmail filii Mouric reges Guent vi et tyrannide Eadred comitis et Merciorum compulsi suapte eundem expetivere regem ut dominium et defensionem ab eo pro inimicis suis haberent,' &c. (Asser, p. 49, Oxford Edit., 1772.) Gleguising, or Glewisseg, of which Howel was sovereign, appears to have comprised parts of the present counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth. Brochmail and Ffernmail, sons of Meuric ap Arthfael, were first cousins of Howel. They were all three contemporary with Cyfeiliawg, Bishop of Llandaff, who was consecrated in 872, according to the notes in the Liber Landavensis.

This stone was erroneously mentioned by Mr. Strange in the Archæologia (vol. vi. p. 25) as serving as the foot-bridge before Court David House, near Margam. His figure of it, Pl. III. fig. 6, is extraordinarily imperfect. Donovan gave a better figure in his Tour in Wales, i. p. 343, and plate annex.

PLATE VII.

LLANTWIT. THE INSCRIBED PILLAR OF SAMSON.

This tall quadrangular shaft in the middle of the last century stood in the churchyard, but in digging a grave near its base it fell into the hole,1 where it lay till 1793, when it was

1 Donovan gives the following details of this accident (Tour in S. Wales, i. 345):—‘Many years ago a tradition prevailed in this part of the country that a large sepulchral stone, which recorded the memory of two kings,

raised and erected against the east side of the south porch of Llantwit Church, where it now stands. It is 6 feet 6 inches high, of a yard broad at the bottom, and of a yard at top, and nearly a yard thick. At its top, of which the back and sides are much chipped, is an excavation, probably to receive the base of a wheel cross. The front face is nearly occupied by an oblong panel, edged with two incised lines, within which is the following inscription :

in nomine di suмmi incipit crux
falvatoris quae preparavit fam
foni apati PRO anima sua et

PRO anima iuthahelo Rex .:

et pro artmali teca n(?)

With the exception of one m in the word summi, and all the R's, which have the first stroke carried below the line, the whole of this inscription is written in minuscule letters. On the narrow north edge is a narrow compartment filled in with a plain ribbon pattern intersected by circles, much rubbed.

Figures of this stone were published by Donovan, 'Tour in Wales,' vol. i. p. 347, and tab. annex, and by Sharon Turner, in his Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems,' in the Appendix to his History of the Anglo-Saxons,' vol. iii. p. 575, and ed. 7, 1852, iii. p. 516; also by Taleisin Williams, in the 'Iolo Manuscripts,' p. 364.

We are indebted to the late Thomas Wakeman for the following observations on this inscription:This cross, which the inscription informs us was erected by Samson for his own soul and the souls of Juthahel and Arthmael, has been referred to the sixth century, simply because there was a bishop of the name of Samson at that period, who emigrated to Armorica, and became Bishop of Dole. In fact, however, it is very little older than the one before noticed (i. e. the cross of Howel ap Rhys). The character of the inscription is very similar, and commemorates either Arthmael, the grandfather of Howel and Juthael, or Ithel, his second son, who was killed about the year 846; or otherwise the latter and Arthmael the brother of Howel ap Rhys. Samson appears as a witness to a grant of Meuric ap Arthmael to Bishop Cerenhire, together with Brochmael and Ffernmael, sons of the donor [as mentioned in the account of Howel's cross]. Meuric ap Arthmael was killed in 843. He appears to have been

had been accidentally buried in the grave of "Will the Giant." This was a young man, so called on account of his extraordinary stature, being 7 feet 7 inches in height when he died, although he had only then attained his seventeenth year. Will had desired to be interred near this stone, which then stood erect against the wall, but in preparing the grave of sufficient dimensions to admit his remains, the sexton incautiously dug so close to the foot of the stone, that just as the body was laid into the earth it gave way, and falling from the wall into the grave with prodigious violence, it was found impossible, or at least inconvenient at that time to remove it, the stone was therefore left in the position in which it fell, and the grave being filled up, it was completely covered over with earth. This transaction had taken place so long ago that the recollection of it had nearly faded by degrees away. But Mr. Edward Williams, who resides at the village of Flemingstone, only a few miles from the spot, remembered having heard the story when a boy, and proposed at some future day to search for the stone. An opportunity at length offered to this intelligent mason to gratify his curiosity, he began by clearing the ground in the spot described to him so many years before, and discovered it at a small depth below the surface, after which he obtained assistance to raise it from the earth and place it against the wall where it now stands.'

the elder brother of Juthahel and Rhys, who were all three sons of Arthmael. Samson, in all probability, was some relation of the parties, although he does not appear in the genealogies. The name seems to have been rather a common one. As this monument was not erected till after the death of Ithahel, in 846, its date may be fixed about the middle of the ninth century, and that of Howel ap Rhys a few years later.' 'I think,' he adds, the foregoing observations must set the question at rest as to the age of the Llantwit crosses. At no other period are the names thereon recorded to be found contemporaneously in the history of Wales. Those of our associates who, from the characters of the letters and ornamentation, conjectured the date to be the ninth or tenth centuries, are fully borne out in their opinion.' Arch. Cambr., vol. iv. p. 21.

6

The terminal letters of the last word of the inscription are very indistinct. Sharon Turner read them tecani, the i being inserted within the n. Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs read the last word as tecain-(=decani), converting the initial t into d and reading the in backwards, and thus turning Arthmael into a dean, with the observation, The last line must be read backwards. Juthael King of Gwent was killed A.D. 848. (Ann. Camb. and Brut y Tywysog.) But Arthmael or Arthfael was probably from his office [of dean], not the king of that name who was Howel's grandfather, nor yet the king (probably of Gwent) who was contemporary with Bishop Cyfeiliawg of Llandaff, 872-927, and therefore with Howel (Lib. Landav. 227). Neither was Samson of course the Bishop of Dol, who preceded his namesake in the text in the abbey of Llantwit by some 300 years, and who died in Brittany. Both names are not unusual. The office of Decanus, however, cannot have been that of a Cathedral Dean, there being no such office at all in the old S. David's, nor at Llandaff (apparently) until the 10th century.' Councils, i. p. 627.

It may also be observed that Ithel Hael, an Armorican prince, migrated to Wales in the sixth century, and that amongst his sons (to whose memory several churches in different parts of Wales are dedicated) was Tegai, the founder of Llandegai, Caernarvonshire (Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 223). Have we not here the Juthahelo rex and the teca recorded in the last lines of our inscription? Again, it seems scarcely probable that the same Samson who erected this stone' pro anima sua' should also have stated upon the large cross figured in Plates III and IV that he placed it 'pro anima ejus.' I am hence induced to consider this latter stone as earlier than the tall quadrangular shaft.

It has still further been suggested by Dr. Carne (Arch. Camb., 1869, p. 437), that the Samson of this inscription is the Archbishop of Dol of that name who migrated thence from Wales, and whose rescue of Indual, a Breton prince, is recorded in his Life (Liber Landav., p. 303: 'The similarity between Juthahel and Indual is singular').

PLATE VIII.

LLANTWIT. THE CYLINDRICAL PILLAR.

This stone, unique of its kind in against the north wall of the church.

Wales, stands in the churchyard of Llantwit, leaning
It is nearly 2 yards high, and 14 inches in diameter in

the middle, tapering slightly from the bottom to the top, which is injured. The side next the wall has a small groove extending throughout its whole length, with which some strange notions were attached in former days, as we learn from Donovan's Tour. It is divided into four portions by transverse bars, each composed of three narrow ribbons. The bottom compartment is ornamented with straight lines forming a series of zigzags, and the other three compartments are filled with interlaced ribbon patterns, which are represented in full detail in the detached figures of the Plate.

This stone has been figured, but inaccurately, by Strange in the Archæologia, vol. vi. pl. 2, fig. 3, and by Donovan in his Tour in Wales, vol. i. p. 339, and tab. annex. I have not been able to learn anything, traditional or otherwise, concerning this elegant relic, which in its complete state was most probably surmounted by a cross.

PLATE IX.

LLANTWIT. THE SHORT QUADRANGULAR SHAFT.

This quadrangular stone, which measures 11 yard high, 14 inches wide, and 10 inches thick, stands in the porch of Llantwit Church, and has been cracked across near its top. It is ornamented on all its sides with ingeniously arranged interlaced ribbon designs in sunk panels, which will be seen on examination of the Plate to form never-ending patterns, but which are not easy to describe in detail. There is no inscription on the stone, nor have I been able to meet with any account of it. It is figured imperfectly by Donovan in his Tour in Wales, vol. i. p. 339. It probably bore a cross at the top when in its complete state.

This fragment of a wheel cross measures 30 inches in diameter, and is now in the churchyard at Merthyr Mawr. It is drawn from a rubbing sent me by the Rev. H. L. Jones in 1855. The base, with a small portion of the cross in its socket, stands close to the south gateway of the modern churchyard. The wheel cross was composed of eight spokes, the intervening spaces forming sunk panels. Around the edge of the stone appears a series of scroll-like patterns of an unusual character, but evidently too imperfect to be clearly made out.

This stone, which doubtless originally supported a cross on its top, stands in the garden of the mansion of J. C. Nicholl, Esq., at Merthyr Mawr, about two miles from the Bridgend Station. It is 4 feet high, 2 feet broad, and varies in thickness from 14 to 12 inches. On its front face it