been deposited amongst the antiquities in the Royal Institution at Swansea. It bears the inscription, as given by Col. Francis:

IMP
МСРІЛ

VONIO

VICTOR
INOAVG°

the name of Victorinus recording one of the thirty tyrants slain A. U. c. 1019. A number of coins of Victorinus were found at Gwindy near Llansamlet in June, 1835 (Dillwyn's Swansea, p. 56; Numism. Il. i. 132).

The figure in Plate XXVII is copied from a rubbing by Col. Francis-reproduced in Journ. Archæol. Instit. vol. iii. p. 275. It was probably erected by the Legion which happened to be at Boverton at the time of the usurpation of Victorinus in Gaul (A. D. 265, in the time of Gallienus), whose inscriptions (like those of his contemporary, Tetricus, of which all that are known are published in the Winchester Volume of the British Archæological Association) are of the greatest rarity and interest.

The present stone must not be confounded with the stone near Scethrog, which also bears the name of Victorinus.

PLATE XXVII. FIGS. 2, 3, 4.

MILIARY STONE FOUND NEAR ABERAVON.

These three figures represent the three inscriptions upon a Roman miliary stone which I found lying in a carpenter's work-shop near Aberavon, which had then quite recently been discovered on the line of the Via Julia Maritima, on the western side of the New Cut at Aberavon by which the river is discharged into Swansea Bay. It is about 5 feet in length; its sides have not been brought to a face before cutting the letters, which have been inscribed with a round-headed chisel. The front, back, and one side of the stone bear inscriptions, much effaced. Portions of an interment were found below the stone, so that, like the votive stone of the Emperor Maximinus, discovered near the same spot in 1839-1840 (Plate XXVI. Figs. 1, 2), it had probably served for a grave-stone in the ancient Christian adjacent burying-ground, known under the Welsh name of Plattau yr hen Eglwys, and owes to this its preservation.

In the Rev. H. H. Knight's third memoir on Newton Nottage (Arch. Camb., 1853, p. 231), it is recorded that the stone inscribed to the third Gordian on one side and end, and to Diocletian on the other, was brought from Aberavon after a voyage into Swansea Bay as ballast in a pilot boat. It was set up on the lawn before the [Rector's] house for safe preservation; the exact spot was chosen because it once formed the angle of the level platform on Jacklow's Hill, extending to the southward of the present highway, and some bones were found there in embanking.' In a footnote it is added that 'the letters of this inscription are rudely cut with

G

a round chisel. A is engraved like an inverted V. About twelve o'clock on a sunny day is the best time for reading it as it is now placed, it may then be easily deciphered as follows:

IMPC
MAGOR
DIANVS

AVG

There are traces of two other inscriptions on this stone. Gordianus III, as he is called, was Emperor for six years: his affairs were directed by the wise counsels of Misitheus, whose daughter, Tranquillina, he married. He was treacherously put to death A.D. 244, by Philip the Arabian, who succeeded him, and buried him on the banks of the Euphrates, near Dura (Zos. lib. iii. c. 14; Eutropius, lib. ix. c. ii).'

In the temporary Museum formed at the Cambrian Archæological Association Meeting at Caermarthen in 1875, Col. G. G. Francis exhibited drawings of the inscriptions on this stone, which were read as follows:

The figures in Plate XXVII are drawn from rubbings taken by myself in 1846; they are very indistinct in some parts of the inscriptions, the first agreeing with Colonel Grant's reading rather than with that of Mr. Knight.

The letters in these three inscriptions differ considerably in size and thickness of the strokes, as will be seen by inspecting my three figures, which were drawn by the camera from my rubbings, the largest letters in the Gordianus inscription being four inches high, and those in the Diocletian inscription being only two inches. The three also differ considerably in the rudeness of the letters, which are all Roman capitals, some exhibiting a tendency to the rustic type.

The casts of this stone exhibited at the Abergavenny Meeting of the Archæological Association of Wales in 1876, were taken by Col. Grant Francis immediately after its discovery at Port Talbot, and prior to its purchase by the Rev. Henry H. Knight (Arch. Camb., 1853, p. 231), and belong to the Swansea Museum. Another set were given by him to the Society of Antiquaries, and they, on their removal from Somerset House, were with others of like kind transferred to the British Museum in 1874-5.

PLATE XXVIII.

BASE OF CROSS AT LLANGYVELACH (BETWEEN NEATH AND PONTARDULAIS).

I am indebted to Col. G. Grant Francis for a notice of this elegantly carved but hitherto unnoticed stone, and for the rubbings by which I have been able to complete the sketches made on the spot by J. D. Francis, Esq.

This stone is sculptured on all its four sides, partly with the interlaced ribbon pattern, and partly with the Chinese-like pattern not uncommon in Irish and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the seventh to the tenth century, to which latter date, or possibly to the preceding century, I should be inclined to refer the execution of this sculpture.

It is cut out of a large block or mass of native sandstone, but owing to the water lodging in the oblong hole cut into its upper surface for the socket of the cross, and which is large enough to contain at least a couple of gallons of water, which in winter freezes, the stone has become cracked by the force of the ice, so that the whole is likely to be ruined by splitting into pieces. To prevent this, Col. G. G. Francis has suggested the boring of a hole to let the water through the bottom. Possibly a safer plan would be to fill the hole with strong cement, a plan which might also be adopted with good result in other stones with a socket-hole, as in the Penn-yr-Allt stone (Plate XXX).

There is a tradition on the spot that this cross was erected in the fifth century, whilst by others it is regarded as a font, because it has always water in it, not perceiving that that is just the reason why it is not a font.

In the MS. Life of St. David or Dewi (Brit. Mus., Bibl. Cott. Titus D. XXII. and in Bibl. Coll. Jesus, Oxford) a church is stated to have been built by the saint at Llangyvelach in Gower, and in the second Life of St. David (Bibl. Cott. Vesp. A. XIV. and Nero E. I.) a monastery is stated to have been founded at the same place, in which he afterwards placed the altar sent by Pepiau with which he had cured the blind king of Erging by restoring sight to his eyes. This consecrated altar in which the body of our Lord had lain, powerful in performing innumerable miracles, is stated in a later portion of the same Life to have been sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to St. David by the hands of an angel. Can the stone here represented have been transformed by the writers of these Lives of St. David into the consecrated altar sent from Jerusalem?

The stone is an oblong block 43 inches long by 26 inches wide, and 26 inches high. The socket-hole is 19 inches by 12 inches, and 13 inches deep. The sculptures do not extend to the bottom of any of the sides (from which we may infer that it was intended to be sunk to a certain depth in the ground). My upper figure represents the ornamentation of the south side of the stone, the left-hand ornament of which has been ingeniously reduced in width in consequence of the sloping top of the stone at that end: the left-hand middle figure represents the west, and the right-hand one the east end, whilst the larger bottom figure represents the north side and top of the stone. It will be noticed that the interlaced ribbons are, contrary to the usual design, not continuous in several places.

Over the north door of the tower of the church of Llangyvelach is placed a slab (on which is carved a large plain Latin cross, 30 inches high, resting on a broad step or base) in lieu of an arch; the sculpture has however become so greatly defaced by the weather, even during the memory of Col. Francis (to whom I am indebted for a rubbing), that I have not thought it necessary to publish a figure of it. It appears to have had some kind of ornament between the arms of the cross.

PLATE XXIX. FIGS. 1-4.

STONES CARVED WITH CROSSES AT MERTHYR MAWR CHURCH.

During the rebuilding of the church at Merthyr Mawr various fragments of sculptured stones of an early period were found, together with numerous mediæval grave-stones, which have been carefully preserved, and at present (1877) lie in the churchyard adjoining to the east end of the church. As however some additional building is contemplated for a vestry, &c., it is to be hoped that an opportunity will be afforded for affixing them upright in the walls of the new building, so as to insure their more perfect preservation.

Amongst these stones is the inscribed one already published in this work, Plate II. fig. 5, page 8, and those represented in Plate XXIX. Of these, figure 3 represents the upper half of a wheel-cross, about 2 feet in diameter, with a small circular boss in the centre, and with eight spokes, the spaces between them being sunk and alternating in size, the narrower ones being rounded at the base, while the broader spaces have the bases truncated.

This cross is in fact very similar to the fragment of the wheel-cross represented in Plate X. fig. 1. The latter has however scroll-work round the margin, of which I perceived no trace on the fragment here figured.

Figures 1 and 4 represent two smaller stones, the former about 16 inches and the latter about 14 inches square. The ornamentation of these two stones is unusual, and their date consequently uncertain. Possibly, however, they may be assigned to the twelfth century.

Figure 2 represents a very plain wheel-cross sculptured at the top of an oblong block of stone about 5 feet high and 6 inches thick. The spaces between the four spokes, which represent a Maltese cross, are sunk, and the circle occupied by the cross has been surrounded by an incised circular line, nearly defaced, except on the under side of the cross. There are also two other incised, slightly curved lines dividing the base of the stone into two equal parts. The stone now stands against the eastern wall of the churchyard, near to its southern extremity, where it was pointed out to me recently by the Rev. Charles R. Knight.

PLATE XXIX. FIG. 5.

SMALL CROSS AT TYTHEGSTON.

I am further indebted to the Rev. Charles R. Knight for a notice and rubbing of a small crossed stone recently dug up in the neighbouring churchyard of Tythegston. It is only 30 inches high by 15 wide, the upper half ornamented with a cross of the Maltese form, with a small raised boss surrounded by a narrow raised circle in the centre, the spaces between

the four arms of the cross being occupied by four small round bosses, each surrounded by a circular impressed line. The lower half of the stone is formed into a square panel by sunk lines, at the lower angles of which are two small round bosses, each with a circular impressed line.

PLATE XXIX. FIG. 6.

STONE WITH INCISED LINES IN LLANGONOYD CHURCH.

I am indebted to the Rev. R. Pendrill Llewelyn for rubbings of a stone with incised lines upon it now lying in the chancel of the church of Llangonoyd. It is 28 inches long, 13 inches wide, and about 8 inches thick. On its upper surface is an oblong hole with rounded ends, 12 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 5 inches deep. This hole, I presume, formed the socket in which the base of a cross was fixed, of which there are no remains.

The stone was found about 25 years ago in the middle of the chancel wall, which is presumed to have been built about the year 1688, as that was the date when the church was restored, as inscribed upon the wall-plate. The stone is extremely hard, and does not appear to occur in the neighbourhood. The lines are cut very sharply, and the tools with which they were made must have been of excellent quality.

6

In the Archæologia Cambrensis, 1860, p. 374, is a notice of a stone with marks which had been doubtingly regarded as Oghams, found in a field near the summit of Penmaen Mawr; and in the same work, 1863, p. 331 et seq., and 1864, p. 315 et seq., are published two notices by Mr. E. Owen on other stones in Caernarvonshire with similar marks which agree very closely with those on the Llangonoyd stone, with which one of them further agrees in having a circular depression on the upper surface, which is evidently filled with water from the first rain-cloud passing over the hill. Nothing, then, would be more convenient for the sharpening of weapons or tools than a thing of this kind; and if the length and form of the incisions be studied, it will be found that they correspond to the length of the convenient play of a man's hand moving an edge tool backwards and forwards.'

Supposing then the cross to have been broken and thrown down, and the base with its socket filled with water remaining lying on the ground, it would afford a very convenient means for the sharpening of tools for use or defence. Certainly the marks on this stone and the very similar ones figured in Mr. Owen's articles can scarcely be regarded as letters of any kind, nor can they be considered as exhibiting any affinity with the archaic circular markings on stones in the north of England and Scotland, admirably illustrated by the late Sir J. Y. Simpson and other northern antiquaries.

PLATE XXX. FIGS. 1 & 2.

EFFIGY OF BISHOP DE BREWSA IN LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL.

In a paper on Monumental Effigies in Wales which I published in the Archæologia Cambrensis, vol. ii. 1847, p. 240, was the following passage accompanied by a woodcut reproduced in Plate XXX of this work: