which was discovered when the old chancel-arch of the church was pulled down. It is 2 feet in length, 10 inches in width, and 2 inches in thickness. On the face is a rudely-designed cross, formed of double incised lines, the head of the cross being inclosed within an ill-cut circular line. On either side of the stem of the cross are rude attempts at interlaced ornamental ribbon-patterns much defaced, apparently from the irregular surface of the stone. On the right edge of the stone are two inscriptions, in early characters, probably of the ninth or tenth century (if not earlier). They are evidently to be read—

+ gurci + bleDru(?)s

and are two distinct proper names cut in different characters and in very different sized letters, those of the first word occupying the whole width of the edge of the stone, whilst those of the second word are only about of an inch high, being exactly of the size of the detached figure given below fig. 3. The first word offers a certain analogy with 'gurmare' of the Penarthur inscription in Pembrokeshire, whilst the second word is a curious mixture of small and capital letters, the b and e being minuscules, the 1, d, and s capitals, and the r of the true Anglo-Saxon form, whilst the following letter is doubtful. (J. O. W. in Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 232.)

The name Gurci is preceded by a small +, and Prof. Rhys (Arch. Camb., 1875, p. 370) states that this is also the case with the second name; but in two rubbings before me I cannot satisfactorily perceive the second +. He also asserts that the second name is bledrus, and not bledrys, as I had read it in 1874. There is, however, a circular chipping in the stone cutting off the bottom of the penultimate letter, which may be either u or y.

The late Mr. R. Rolt Brash (Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 335) recognises the first word of this inscription as a well-known Irish name in the genitive case, Cure or Corc, a celebrated Munster king Core having lived in the fifth century, and a writer of the same name is asserted in the 'Annals of the Four Masters' as having been one of the compilers of the Book of Rights.' It also occurs in several Ogham inscriptions mentioned by Mr. Brash. Prof. Rhys, however, states that Gurci is a common Welsh name, occurring frequently in the 'Liber Landavensis ' under the forms of Guorcu, Gurcu, Guurci, Gurci, and later it became Gwrgi (Arch. Camb., 1875, p. 186), all which Mr. Brash (Op. cit., 1875, p. 285) considers as unmistakeably showing the Gaedhelic origin of this common name. The name Bledruis is stated by Prof. Rhys (Arch. Camb., 1873, p. 106) to occur in the Liber Landavensis,' pp. 211, 212; and in the same volume, 1873, p. 207, the same writer states that one of Howel Dda's advisers was Bledrws vab Bleidyd, and in the Myvyrian,' p. 549, Bledrws tywysawe Kernyw is mentioned.

PLATE XXXVI. FIG. 1.

THE INSCRIBED AND OGHAMIC STONE AT TRALLONG.

The church of Trallong, between Brecon and Devynock, having been rebuilt about twenty years since, a stone was found at the side of one of the windows of the old church bearing an inscription with a cross and a series of Oghamic characters on one of its edges. The

inscription had been built inwards, and consequently its existence was unknown until thus suddenly brought to light. One end of the stone had been broken off and some of the Ogham letters injured, but, on the whole, it was in a state of excellent preservation. This information and figure are derived from the memoir which the late Rev. H. L. Jones published on this stone in the Arch. Camb., 1862, p. 52, in which it is stated that the stone was carefully placed within the church in the part at the west end screened off as a vestry; but in the same work (1872, p. 389) it is mentioned that the stone had been moved, (it is hoped only temporarily,) by the Rev. Garnons Williams to his grounds at Abercamlais for the convenience of the members of the Cambrian Archæological Association during the Brecon Meeting in 1872.

The stone is about 6 feet long and 18 inches wide at the upper part, but tapering down to a point at the lower, uniformly about 6 inches thick, and is from one of the hardest beds of the Old Red or Silurian series. The cross within a circle, with the lower limb extending downwards to about the length of the cross itself, is formed of double fine incised lines cut with great precision, and still quite sharp, as is also the inscription,—

CVNOCENNI FILIUS

CVNOCENI HIC JACIT1.

The letters are carefully formed, evenly spaced, of nearly equal size, and not much debased, resembling those of the Sagranus stone at St. Dogmael's, and which is assigned by the Rev. H. L. Jones to the period between the fifth and seventh centuries. It will be noticed that the first name is written with two N's at the end, and terminates with the letter 1, apparently in the genitive, which occurs in many of the Welsh stones, the next word, filius, showing however it to be in the nominative. In the second line the first name is repeated, but only with one penultimate N, the false Latinity of the terminal word IACET showing that the knowledge of the sculptor was defective.

The Oghams are equally clear and well defined, and are to be read as usual in the opposite direction to the Roman letters, as shown in the detached figures below the stone in Plate XXXVI. They were read by the Rev. H. L. Jones as there represented, with doubts as to two or three of the equivalents of the central letters,

CUNACENNI(?) FI(?) ILFFETO

the first word being identical with the first of the Roman inscription, except that ▲ is inserted in place of o, a peculiarity of which a similar instance occurs in the Sagranus stone.

The identical name of the father and son does not appear to occur in the Welsh records, but the Rev. H. L. Jones considered it to be connected with CYNOG, who is said to have met with his death at Merthyr Cynog, a few miles off.

The bilingual character of this stone renders it of great interest with reference to the question of the origin and date of the Ogham letters.

In the second line there is an oblique impression on the stone at the bottom of the second c, which gives it the appearance of a G.

In a paper on the Ogham Stones of Wales (Arch. Camb., 1869, p. 162) the late R. R. Brash considers that the broad end of the stone was manifestly the bottom when used as an Ogham monument, but was certainly made the head when it was turned into a Christian monument by the engraving of the cross upon it. The stone was selected and inscribed with a Gaedhelic inscription, as usual, on the angle, and leaving a space at the broad end of about 16 inches to secure it in the ground; subsequently a Roman inscription, embodying a portion of the Gaedhelic one, was inscribed on the stone as it stood, from the top downwards, as we find the custom in all such examples, after which the cross was engraved on the broad part and the stone reversed. The Oghams were read by Mr. Brash CU NACEN NI FI IL FETO,' i. e. Cu Nacen, a warrior pierced (by) many wounds, (lies) beneath in silence;' 'a rendering in accordance with our knowledge of the Gaedhelic language, and without violence to the original, neither adding to, taking from, or altering a single letter.' In the same work, 1871, p. 327, Mr. Brash adds that although the word NI does signify a warrior, it is here the genitive case of the preceding proper name. He further mentions the discovery in the cave of Dunloe, near Killarney, of another Ogham stone bearing the name Cunacena, another link in the chain of evidence which connects the province of Munster with South Wales at a remote prehistoric period.' Prof. Rhys, however, read the Celtic letters Cunacenni Viilveto; the latter has as yet not been explained' (Early Inscr. Stones of Wales, p. 9). Subsequently he admits this reading to be incorrect, and that it can only be Cunacennivi Ilvveto, where Cunacennivi may be regarded as the equivalent of Cunacenni filius Cunaceni, and Ilvveto as an epithet not. rendered in the Latin version, the same person being commemorated in both.' (Arch. Camb., 1875, p. 371.) A third reading is also suggested by Prof. Rhys (Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 92), that the FIIL is the Oghamic equivalent of the FILII of the Roman inscription.

PLATE XXXVI. FIGS. 2 & 3.

FRAGMENTS AT YSTRADGYNLAIS CHURCH.

The first of these stones (fig. 2) forms one of the steps of a staircase on the south side of the church of Ystradgynlais, in the Vale of the Tawe, at the south-west angle of the county of Brecknock. It measures 4 feet long and 8 inches wide. The letters are large and coarsely cut, measuring about 3 inches in height. There appears to be a crack across the stone between the first and second letters. The inscription, in its entire state, has, as it seems to me, been intended to be read ADIVNE: from its standing thus alone I take it to be a sepulchral slab inscribed with a name terminating not in the genitive I as usual, but in E, probably intended for the diphthong E, and thus indicating a female as intended to be commemorated. The first stroke of the A and v are nearly upright, the curved stroke of the D is slightly detached at each end from the upright first stroke, as are also most of the strokes of the other letters. I suppose this inscription to be not much more recent than the sixth or seventh century.

The second of these stones (fig. 3) is built into the outside of the east wall of the same church, near the south-east angle. The inscription is simply HIC IACIT, but it cannot have

been part of the preceding inscription, as the letters are much smaller (being only 24 inches high, and much better formed). Possibly some other part of the inscription is built into the church walls, with the letters placed inwards. The inscription is in good Roman capitals, except the terminal T, which has a more minuscule form, the bottom of the vertical stroke being a little angulated to the right; the A has the cross bar angulated, and the usual false Latinity IACIT is adopted. These peculiarities indicate a somewhat more recent date than that of the Roman occupation of the Principality.

PLATE XXXVI. FIG. 4.

THE ABERCAR STONE.

In one of my rambles in Brecknockshire I found this stone (to which I had been directed by the late Taliesin Williams of Merthyr Tydfil, and which had not previously been recorded) forming the lintel of a beast-house at Abercar, on the west side of the road from Brecon to Merthyr, about 100 yards north of the thirteenth mile-stone from the former place and two miles south of Capel-Nant-ddû. The adjoining farm-house abuts on the turnpike-road, on the south side of a small rivulet, and a long barn and cow-house close adjoining are on the north side of a small brook (Cwm-Car) which crosses the road.

The stone has one end built into the wall, so that the beginning of the inscription containing the name of the person commemorated is hidden, and the stone is cracked across the middle of the doorway (the inscription being on the under-side of the stone). Since my visit, the doorway, as we learn from Prof. Rhys, has been walled up, and a building made adjoining it (Inscribed Stones of Wales,' p. 9). The visible part of the inscription is

S

CVRI IN hoc TVмVLO

The letters are tolerably good Roman capitals, with the exception of the minuscule h; the U is written v, and the м with the first and last strokes splaying outwards beneath. The exposed part of the stone is 32 inches long, and the letters about 2 inches high. (J. O. W. in Arch. Camb., 1858, p. 162.)

PLATE XXXVII. FIG. 1.

MAEN MADOC.

A strange inscription upon a tall stone (as represented by Strange in the Archæologia, vol. iv. tab. 1, fig. 3, and in Gough's Camden, ii. pl. 14, fig. 3, copied in Jones's 'Brecknockshire,' ii. pl. 12, fig. 2, without any attempt at its elucidation) led me to hunt for the Maen Madoc in one of the bleakest and most unfrequented parts of South Wales in September 1846. The Roman road called Sarn Helen or Lleon joins the ordinary road from Devynock to Ystradfellte, about 1 miles to the south of the Maen Llia, a great block of stone marked on the Ordnance

Map near the spring of the little river Llia. The Maen Madoc stands at about half a mile along and close to the south side of the Sarn Helen. It is a tall rude stone, 11 feet high, 2 wide, and 14 thick, inclining southwards, with the inscription on its western side. The desolate bleakness of the spot is equalled by the extreme rudeness of the inscription.

My figure is made from a sketch taken on the spot, corrected by my rubbing, which has been reduced by the camera, and the inscription is to be read DERVACI FILIVS IVSTI IC IACIT1.

The first letter D is reversed, the R with the bottom right-hand stroke horizontal, both the a's turned upside down, the I at the end of the first word horizontal, and evidently indicating the nominative case, to agree with the next word FILIUS, in which the F and I are conjoined, both the L's with the first stroke obliquely slanting, the terminal s reversed and of the capital form: the third letter of the second line, which I had regarded as L, disagrees with the two L's in the preceding word, and agrees with the last letter s in the first line; the following letter, which I had considered as a prostrate I, notwithstanding the short unconnected vertical stroke, is most probably a reversed T, as suggested by Prof. Rhys; the next character is a prostrate I (completing the word IVSTI), the H is wanting in the next word HIC, and the last word is misspelt IACIT as usual.

PLATE XXXVII. FIG. 2.

THE DEVYNOCK INSCRIPTION.

The beautifully situated church of Devynock is interesting on account of the inscribed stone inserted in the south-west angle of the outside of the tower, as well as of the font, mentioned in a subsequent page. The stone is placed at a considerable height from the ground, but I have been able to obtain several rubbings of it, which have been reduced by the camera in the accompanying figure. It is placed upside down, and the ornamental details occur at the end of the inscription instead of preceding it as usual.

In my description of the stone (Arch. Camb., 1858, p. 164) I stated that I could only satisfactorily make out the letters VGNIA in the upper line, the first of which was preceded by a letter which in my figure I delineated as a P, the A being followed by strokes which appeared to me to be intended for CIO, which were however nearly effaced. The second line is clearly LIVENDONI.

The letters are for the most part tolerably good Roman capitals. The & in the top line is however of the uncial form, and the L at the beginning of the second line is unusual, from having the bottom angle rounded so as to resemble an upright minuscule 1.

It has subsequently suggested itself to my mind that the commencement of the second line has, like part of the ornamental work, been chiselled away, and that the LI are portions of the word FILI, leaving the remainder, VENDONI, as the proper name of the father of the person commemorated. A repeated examination of my rubbings (confirmed by a visit

1 In my notice of this stone in the Arch. Camb., 1858, I gave the third word as IVLII, but here gladly accept the reading of Prof. Rhys as IVSTI (Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 332).

K