LTWIT/3

After I had heard this traditional account I had a great desire to dig for this stone, and many times endeavoured to engage the attention of several, and their assistance; but my idea was always treated with ridicule.

In the year 1789, being at work in Lantwit Church, and being one day unable to go on with my business for want of assistance, it being the height of the corn-harvest, and not a man to be found, I employed a great part of one evening in digging in search of this stone, and found it. Evening brought the farmers and workmen home, and Mr. Chrisr. Wilkins and Mr. David Jones, two very respectable gentlemen farmers. On seeing the stone they ordered their men to assist me. We with difficulty got it out of the ground...It lay on the ground where it had been risen out of the grave, till Aug. 28, 1793, when I procured assistance to erect it against the east side of the porch, where it now stands. It must have been buried in the ground before the continuator of Camden took a copy of the inscriptions on Iltutus etc.; otherwise he would certainly have copied this also, as he likewise would have the stone placed by Thomas Morgan, before the church door, had it been there'.

Rhys/1873, 9: `Aug. 30. -- The rector kindly accompanied me to Llantwit-Major, where we knew there were several inscriptions'.

Westwood/1879, 12--13: `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 raised and erected against the east side of the south porch of Llantwit Church, where it now stands.

[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, 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, be 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'.

Allen/1889, 119, `The pillar of Samson, King Juthael, and Artmal, erect against the east wall of the south porch of the old western church outside'.

RCAHMW/1976, 58: `Shaft of pillar-cross originally standing in the churchyard of St. Illtud's Church just E. of the porch, and having fallen was re-erected near that spot in 1793; in 1900 it was re-set within the W. nave of the church.[1]

[1] Arch. Camb., 1893, pp. 328--9; 1900, p. 248'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Local Rhaetic sandstone from the Bridgend-Pyle area'.

RCAHMW/1976, 58: `local sandstone'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 140: `All the Llantwit Major monuments are preserved in the church at the W. end of the nave'.

Westwood/1879, 13: `It is 6 feet 6 inches high, 3/4 of a yard broad at the bottom, and 1/2 of a yard at top, and nearly 1/2 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'.

Allen/1889, 125: `The pillar of Samson, King of Juthael, and Artmael, is a splendid monolith, 9ft. in length, of which 6ft. 6in are now above ground. It is of rectangular section, and may have been surmounted by a cross'.

Macalister/1949, 156: `the shaft of a cross...The horizontal dimensions here given are at the bottom; there is a slight taper toward the top'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Quadrangular shaft (? of a composite free-standing pillar-cross), with a hollow socket in the top (? for the attachment of a separate head). 90 +" h. x 28" w. and 15 1/2" t. at bottom, diminishing to 17" w. and 6" t. at top...Inscription on the main face and vestiges of carved decoration on one edge (both weathered). Front. Moulded vertical panel containing a Latin inscription in twenty-two lines'.

RCAHMW/1976, 58: `The block of local sandstone, four-sided with rounded angles and tapered towards the head, is 2.75m tall (visible height 2.36m) and 72cm wide at the base, tapering to 40cm); its thickness, 40cm, is uniform but reduced by partial fracturing of the upper third. There is trace of a socket for a cross-head in the upper surface, but the shaft was set in the ground without a pedestal'.

Westwood/1879, 13: `On the narrow north edge is a narrow compartment filled in with a plain ribbon pattern intersected by circles, much rubbed'.

Macalister/1949, 156: `On the sinister side of the inscribed face there is an interlacing pattern, and apparently another, much worn, on the dexter side. As far as can be seen, the back of the stone, which is close up against the church wall, is uninscribed'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Right. Panelled decoration disposed vertically: (a) four-cord double-beaded ring-twist;[2] (b) plaitwork (?).

[2] A late motif, not found in pre-Viking Age work.'

RCAHMW/1976, 58--59: `The part of the main face that was originally exposed (the S. face as now re-set) is entirely filled by a panel containing an inscription, the panel being defined by a plain roll-moulding within the rounded angle-mouldings...The E. (or right-hand) side has a narrow vertical panel framed by a rounded moulding and filled with double-beaded plaitwork formed of an eight-lobe open twist incorporating six (or possibly seven) rings.[2] At the base, and probably concealed when the stone was erected, is a weathered square panel containing traces of plaitwork within a moulded frame.

[2] An identical panel occurs on the North Cross, Castledermot (Co. Kildare), of 9th-century date (A. K. Porter, The Crosses and Culture of Ireland (Newhaven, 1932), pp. 59--60; Henry, Irish Art, II, pp. 147--8)'.

Macalister/1949, 156: `The inscription is on the face turned outward'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Moulded vertical panel containing a Latin inscription in twenty-two lines, untidily set out, reading horizontally'.

Macalister/1928, 313: `Now Artmail, Mouric, Rhodri, Rhys and Iudon are enumerated as sons of a King Iuthail in a document in the Book of Llandaf. Another son of Iuthail, by name Fernmail, is recorded in Annales Cambriae as having died in the year 775; we may presume that he was already dead at the time of the Llandaf document. This suggests a date late in the eighth century for Abbot Samson, who probably erected his monument after Iuthail and Artmail had also died'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Manuscript influence is also evident in the dedicatory formula In nomine Dei...incipit crux, which echoes the introductory phrase commonly used in the contemporary manuscript Gospels.[1]

[1] Cf. FASIM, p. 7 (Utrecht Gospels---Incip(iunt) in nomine dni ni Ihu Xpi evangelia, &c.). The variation in form of the double letters (MM) in l. 3 is also a manuscript feature. See CLA, [Lowe/1934--72] No. 159; Lindsay, Early Welsh Script, p. 4'.

Allen/1889, 121: `The most remarkable letter in the Llantwit inscriptions in the m on the cross of Samson and King Juthael. It consists of three vertical strokes and a transverse bar across the middle, -- a peculiarity occurring in the Irish MSS. of the best period, such as the Lindisfarne and St. Chad's Gospels, and on inscribed stones at Jarrow, co. Durham, at Vaenor, Newborough, and Llangadwaladr, in Anglesey. The full stop, made with three dots...on the pillar of Samson and King Juthael, should be noticed. The same form of stop is used on inscribed stones at St. Vigeans (Forfarshire), Jarrow (Durham), on the cross of Grutne at Margam, in the Psalter (Vesp. A.1) in the British Museum, and in St Chad's Gospels'.

Rhys/1899, 147: `Among the peculiarities of the lettering may be mentioned the form of the D, which reminds one of that occurring twice on Crux Crizdi. The first m in summi is made with the bar, which should be at the top of the three perpendiculars, drawn through them, giving the letter the appearance of an H with three perpendiculars, or two H'S made into one.[1] The R is rather more like a capital H than we have been able to have it represented here. The P has the lower end of the curve seldom joined to the perpendicular. The S is always of the tall or gamma kind, and overshadows the u in [Gamma]u, while in [Gamma]ua it branches like the first s on the cross which bears Iltut's name. The et consists in each instance of E with the t indicated by a tag, or imperfect t attached to the horizontal bar of the [cursive-E]. Where I have only given one or two points, there were at first probably three, though it is hard or impossible to detect them now'.

Macalister/1928, 313: `Old readings made [the last name] TECAM or TECAIN: I can see TEC, after which there seems to me to be a `G', but I can find nothing more'.

Macalister/1949, 156: `The ET which Rhys shews after ARTMALI is worn but traceable: I cannot, however, follow him in reading the last word TECANI. I cannot see the ANI; the G which I substitute, though it makes a much more awkward reading, is to my eyes, quite clear'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 144: `Round half-uncials...with the early compendium for ET. Some of the letters have forked serifs. The inscription is interpunctuated, in the manner of contemporary manuscripts, with single and multiple points variously grouped'.

RCAHMW/1976, 59: `The lettering is crude half-uncials with such common manuscript features as ligatured forms of et and -ex, punctuation dots (single, double or triple), and the use of both majuscule and minuscule forms in a word in which the letter is repeated (M in summi, and S in Samsonis)'.