I must refer the reader to the detailed article on the stone above referred to for the reasons which led me to adopt the above readings in respect to several of the doubtful letters.

The Rev. J. Williams, adopting the supposition that there are two inscriptions on the stone as mentioned above, suggests that the first inscription is to be read in its modern orthography,

CYNGEN CELAIN AR TU RHWNG DYBYDD MARCIAU,

which may be translated, "The body of Cyngen is on the side where the marks will be,' and the second in like manner as

TANGRUG CYVAL TEDD GADVAN MARTH

MOLL CLOD Y DDAEAR TRIGED NID ANAV,

i. e. Beneath a similar mound is extended Cadvan. Sad that it should enclose the praise of the earth. May he rest without blemish.'

The detailed philological considerations which led Ab Ithel to adopt the preceding reading and translation of the inscriptions must be consulted in his portion of the memoir in the Arch. Camb. above referred to.

The late Mr. Thomas Wakeman, a very competent authority, shortly afterwards (Arch. Camb., 1850, p. 205) published an extended memoir on the question of the identity of the two persons Cyngen and Cadvan or Guadgan commemorated upon this stone, arriving at the conclusion that if the Cingen of the monument be identified with Cyngen ap Cadell, Prince of Powis, which appears very probable (and whose era is pretty well established by the recorded death of his son Brochvael early in the seventh century, which shows the father to have been living at the latter part of the sixth), it is probable that Cadvan was a nephew, sister's son of Howel Vychan and a first cousin by the mother of Alan Fayneant, who was the father of Llonio Llawhir, and whose death, according to Armorican account, happened in the year 594; and we shall perhaps not be far out if we fix the date of his kinsman's monument to about the same period, still leaving it the oldest in Wales' (Arch. Camb., p. 212). The account of St. Cadvan in Professor Rees' Essay on the Welsh Saints and in Arch. Camb., i. 167, may be referred to, as well as the extended philological memoir on the stone by Mr. Thomas Stephens of Merthyr Tydvil in Arch. Camb., 1851, p. 59.

Prof. John Rhys visited the stone in 1874, and gave the following notice of it in Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 243:-'I agree with Prof. Westwood's reading (A) Cingen celen (the body of Cyngen), nor can I improve on his reading of (B), the only intelligible portion of which is the name Adgan, which occurs in the Cambro-British Saints, p. 88, in the form of Atgan or Adgan. Ab Ithel tried to make Cadvan, which has hitherto been searched for in vain on the stone 1. As to (C) I have not much to say, excepting that I find traces of the former presence of an n finishing the line, so that the last word was, if I am not mistaken, Marciaun, the name which we now write Meirchion or Meirchiawn.

1 Prof. Rhys seems to have overlooked the terminal gu of the preceding line, which Ab Ithel read as = c.

That marciau (marks) could not be Welsh of the ninth century is evident to all who know anything about old Welsh1. On (D) I find traces of an a before nitanam2. This, with the word above it, would read tricet anit anam, "let him (or it) remain without blemish." The person's name is not intelligible to me, and a further difficulty arises as to whether anit, which would be now onid, could mean "without." Ab Ithel tried to make nit mean "without," which certainly looks impossible. Finally, it hardly need be remarked that this stone remains a crux.'

PLATE LXXVII. FIG. 8.

THE PASCENT STONE AT TOWYN.

In Gough's Camden, iii. p. 172, tab. V. fig. 7, and in Pennant's Supplemental Tables, tab. V. fig. 2, a stone is described and figured standing in the churchyard of Towyn, on which is described in debased Roman capitals the name of PASCENT, the second letter a having the cross-bar angulated and the E reversed. I find the name of Pascent among the great men and princes of Wales in the MS. of Nennius in the Harleian collection in the British Museum, and Pasgen as one of the sons of Brychan of Brecknock (Cotton MS. Brit. Mus. A xiv.); and in Rees' Essay on the Welsh Saints we read (p. 163), 'It has been suggested that this stone was a monument to the memory of Pasgen, son of Dingad, grandson of Brychan; and though the circumstance of other persons named Pasgen occurring in Welsh history may so far render the fact uncertain, the coincidence that Gwenddydd, a daughter of Brychan, is recorded as one of the saints of this place, seems to offer a strong confirmation of the supposition.' The inscription may in fact be as early as the seventh century.

PLATE LXXVII. FIG. 3.

THE CROSSED STONE IN TOWYN CHURCH TOWER.

This stone, for a notice of which I am indebted to W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., is built into the modern tower of Towyn church. It was brought from a place a quarter of a mile from the town, called Bryn Pederau, which may be translated the Hill of Pater Noster. From this spot persons coming in one direction to Towyn would obtain the first view of the church, as well as of the chapel of St. Cadvan. It is 8 feet long and 12 inches wide, and is marked near one end with a large simple cross with the arms of nearly equal length.

n

1 I am unable to find any trace of this final ʼn in the various rubbings and drawings before me. tion on the Bardsey Island stone (Plate LXXXI. fig. 1) must not be overlooked.

The inscrip

2 The crack across the stone before the word nitanam renders it difficult to determine the value of two marks preceding the first n, but a comparison with the form of both letters a in the word clearly disproves that the former can represent an a.

On another side of Towyn, at the distance of about three quarters of a mile, is a large upright stone about 7 feet high, neither inscribed with letters nor a cross, which is called Croes Faen (the Cross Stone). It is one of the boundaries of the township.

PLATE LXXVII. FIG. 7.

THE BEDD PORIUS STONE.

This stone was first noticed by Robert Vaughan, in the first half of the seventeenth century, in his MS. notes published in the Archæologia Cambrensis, 1850, p. 203. It was however first made known by Edward Lhwyd in Gibson's Camden, p. 6621, Gough's Camden, iii. p. 176; Pennant, ii. p. 101. It stands in a field near a large maen-hir called Llech Idris, about 10 feet high, about half way between Dolmelynllen and Trawsfynydd in the valley of the Afon Gain. In Pennant's time it was in a farmhouse, but is now placed in the middle of a field on the west side of the river, and is surrounded by a fence of stones to preserve it from injury. It was rescued from destruction about forty years since by W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., who found the farmer in the act of building it into a wall, and Sir W. W. Wynne, on being informed of the circumstance, took proper steps for its preservation. (Arch. Camb., 1846, p. 423, and 1847, p. 95.)

read

The inscription, which is of a very early period and in Roman capitals, is to be

PORIVS

HIC IN TVMVLO IACIT
HOMO XPIANVS FVIT
1245 E.

The word in the first line is clearly Porius, although read as PORUS by Pennant, EPOREUS by Robert Vaughan, and MORWYS by Dr. John Jones. In the second line the letters VMV in the word TUMULO are conjoined, with only six instead of eight strokes; and in the third line the word following HOMO has been variously read thus: .. RIANUS by Edward Lhwyd, XRIANUS by R. Vaughan, PIANUS by Pennant, MEIRIANUS (a native of Meirion) by Dr. John Jones (Hist. Wales, p. 336). The difficulty has arisen from the curious conjunction between the first two upright strokes not having been clearly understood. This conjunctional character represents in fact an x of the Anglo-Saxon form, whereof the left-hand portion also forms the loop of a P, the P and x and 1 following being equivalent to the monogrammatic contraction of the name of Christ, and enabling us to read the third line as Homo christianus fuit, 'He was a Christian man.' The numerals 1245 E are clearly a modern addition, since no notice is given of them by the older writers above mentioned, and Mr. Wynne informed me that the late Mr. John Lloyd of Cefnvaes had told him that when he first knew the stone the Arabic numerals were not upon it. (In litt., June 16, 1877, and Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 78.)

1 Also in his MS. correspondence from Oxford, 6th July, 1693. Arch. Camb., 1848, p. 246.

Y

Of Porius, Mr. Samuel Lysons suggested to me (in litt., March 24, 1865) that Peirio, one of the sons of Caw, called also Cato or Cadaw, was a saint of the congregation of St. Illtyd, to whom is dedicated a church in Anglesea. He was contemporary with St. Kebius or Kuby, circ. 360-400.

My figure of the stone was drawn by me from a rubbing communicated by the late Rev. H. L. Jones (Arch. Camb., 1846, p. 422). The stone is 3 feet 4 inches by 2 feet 4 inches, the lower corners being broken away, and about 8 inches thick 1.

PLATE LXXX. FIG. 5.

THE CELEXTUS STONE AT LLANABER CHURCH.

This stone, 7 feet 4 inches long, 1 foot 9 inches wide, and 9 inches thick, was formerly used as a foot-bridge over a brook, and afterwards lay on the sea-beach, just above highwater-mark, under the farmhouse called Kiel Wart, in the parish of Llanaber and hundred of Ardudwy, to the north of Barmouth, where it became buried in the sand and its locality lost. It was however removed to the church of Llanaber in August 1855, where it is now safely imbedded in the inside of the wall of the church close to the north door. It was first described in Gough's Camden, iii. p. 173, and by Pennant in his Tour in 1781, p. 109 (4to. edition).

Pennant read the inscription as follows, Hic jacet CALIXTUS MONEDO REGI2; and it was read by Mr. Jones Parry as CELEXTUS Monedo Regi, the first two words being no longer visible (in fact, they could never have existed), there being space above the name Calexti for several lines of writing, and the stone not appearing to be a fragment. (W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., Arch. Camb., 1850, pp. 229, 317, and 1853, p. 215.)

This is doubtless one of the stones in the sands of the Bay of Abermo, with inscriptions in Roman characters upon them, mentioned in Waring's Life of Iolo Morganwg, p. 202.

In the Arch. Camb., 1866, p. 369, an anonymous correspondent suggests the connexion of the stone with the Isle of Man-Mona, in the name Monedo Rigi.

The accompanying figure has been drawn from rubbings sent me by Mr. W. W. E. Wynne and the Rev. H. L. Jones, who read the last letter but two as I in Rigi, not Regi. The fourth and fifth letters of the second line are nearly effaced by the tread of feet when the stone was used as a foot-bridge. (H. L. J. in litt., Feb. 28, 1864.)

It closely corresponds with the figure given by Hübner (Inscript. p. 45, No. 128), except that in the last letter of the second line appears a mark like an x, and that a crack on the face of the stone renders the first letter of the third line incomplete.

Prof. Rhys (Arch. Camb., 1875, p. 195), referring to the connexion of this stone with Mona, the Isle of Man, and suggesting that Righmonaidh is the name of a monastery in Scotland, mentioned in the Irish MS. of the Felire Aengus, says, 'Righmonaidh probably meant

1 The gigantic dimensions of the stone given by Hübner, Inscr., p. 46, No. 131, are those of the Llech Idris. (See Arch. Camb., 1846, pp. 423, 424.)

2 The last two words have been read as intended for Moneta (rius) regi(s), the king's moneyer or coiner.

"king of the moor or of the mountain," and is exactly the analysed form of our compound Monedorigi on the stone of Calextis.' In his Notes (p. 11) he prints the name as CELEXSI MONEDORIGI, i. e. Cælex, king of the mountains, rather than king of the Isle of Man, as some seem to have supposed. But who was this monarch of the mountain?' In his Lectures (sub No. 24) he reads the first name correctly as Calexti. Hübner, however (1. c.), adds, nunc mecum (Rhys) putat simpliciter esse Cælexti pro Caelestis aut Calixti (filius) Monedorigi; patris nomen potest fuisse aut Monedorix aut Monedorigix. Rhys ipse comparat Dumnorix, Dumnorigis formas.'

Dr. John Jones (Hist. Wales, p. 38) has a surprising translation of the inscription, 'Here lies the boatman to King Gwynddo,-from which it appears the proper name of Garan Hir was Gwynddo, and not Gwyddno.'

PLATE LXXIV. FIG. 7.

THE LLANVAWR INSCRIBED STONE.

In the church of Llanvawr, near Bala, formerly affixed at one of the sides of the windows, but now in the wall of the porch of the rebuilt church, is an inscribed stone, first noticed in the first half of the seventeenth century by Robert Vaughan in his MS. account of the county as bearing the words CAVOS ENIARSII (the rest being lost). (Arch. Camb., 1850, p. 204.)

This stone is also mentioned in the Cambro-Briton, vol. i, and by Professor Rhys (Notes, p. 11), where the inscription is read Cavoseniargli.

At the Meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Association at Carmarthen in 1875, Mr. Howel Lloyd associated this stone with the bard Llywarch Hen, from his connexion with the district. The Rev. D. R. Thomas however, although admitting the traditions and adding that a spot adjacent to the church was called "Pabell Llywarch Hen," could not agree to Mr. Lloyd's interpretation of the inscription, which he rather read as Cavoseniargii, and in this opinion Mr. Rhys and Professor Westwood agree.' (Arch. Camb., 1875, p. 405.)

Prof. Hübner (Inscript., p. 46, No. 133) has figured the stone from a rubbing sent him by Prof. Rhys, with the reading Cavoseniargii, adding, 'Cavos Eniarsii Vaughan legit, Cavo Seniarsii legendum putavit ',' adding, 'Imago quamvis in fine li potius videatur exhibere tamen i probabilius est. Linea subscripta (beneath the last two letters) aut fortuita est aut interpunctionis vice fungitur.'

The inscription is 23 inches long by 4 inches wide, and is here represented from four rubbings communicated by W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., in 1849, and the late Rev. H. L. Jones. The crack under the last two letters is shown in them to extend under several of the preceding letters.

1 I do not know whence Hübner obtained this incorrect idea, as the letter following the R is a G, and not a s, as may be seen by comparing it with the s near the beginning of the inscription.