STNTN/1

Following Westwood's original publication, Rhys, visited the stone in December 1880 to see if there was a Roman inscription as well as the Ogham, and there was (Rhys/1881, 36).

Caroe/1917, 127: `It was used, as I gather for the gravestone of the man who found it, by his request'.

Rhys/1918, 190--191: `A sketch of the cross and Ogam inscription on the bilingual stone at Steynton with the Latin legend down the perpendicular of the cross wholly omitted. The stone was not discovered in time for Hübner or for Westwood's `Lapidarium', but the latter visiting it later described it in Arch. Camb....However, his sketch of it shows that he did not detect the Latin lettering, but it gives the Ogham correctly, though blundering concerning it in his letterpress remarks at the bottom of p. 293...During the meeting of the `Cambrians' at Haverford West in 1897 a party of us visited Steynton...the Squire of Poyston has had it placed in the church, where the lichen must have died and become removable. So the stone should be examined again to see whether I have not been too imaginative'.

Macalister/1945, 432: `Found in the cemetery doing duty as a modern headstone...and has now been placed inside the church'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 217: `Rough round-headed pillar-stone. The face bears Ogam and Latin inscriptions, a later carved cross, and a modern epitaph'.

Westwood/1880, 293: `The western face of the stone has borne a cross with equal limbs united by a circle; but the sacred emblem, which was in relief, has been cut away, and nearly defaced, so that it is only when the sun is nearly due south that its position can be discerned. Below the cross the stone bears an inscription:

T. Harris

Died Jan. 30. 1876

Aged 84

shewing how recently this ancient stone (first used by the Celt, and subsequently by the mediaeval Christians), has been adopted as a modern gravestone'.

Rhys/1897, 326: `I found that the Editor of this Journal was at one with me, that the cross on the face of the stone was carved after the Ogam writing, since it cut into the Ogam for n ...the left arm of the cross is made to include the last score of the Ogam...Lastly, in a previous notice of mine of this stone, I find that I called attention to a sort of a semicircle on the other face of it: has anybody examined it carefully?'.

Macalister/1945, 433: `(C) An equal armed wheel cross in cavo rilievo on the face of the stone. The vertical stem nearly, but not quite, coincides with the line of half-uncials. The cross and the inscriptions are certainly not contemporary.

(D) Five signs, of meaning unknown to me -- seemingly modern, and cut symmetrically on the centre and arms of the cross. Perhaps contemporary with --

(E) The Harries epitaph, cut in a sunk panel prepared for it beneath the cross'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 219: `(b) Lightly carved plain Latin (?) wheel-cross (edged with grooved profile-lines), with straight square-ended arms projecting beyond the wheel as `ears' (see p. 129, n. 5). In the angular interspaces are four incised devices (? letters): N(?) / A // H / Q(?). On the arms and centre of the cross are five other incised symbols (?) symmetrically disposed: (top) small linear-cross, (left) K (?), (centre) star, (right) S (?), (bottom) `tectiform' (?). Meaning uncertain.[1] The cross is akin in style to that of the other `Monogram' cross-slabs (cf. Nos. 380--1, 392--4). 10th-11th century. (c) Beneath the stem of the cross is a faintly sunk truncated pyramidal panel (imitating a cross-base) containing an incised modern epitaph in three lines reading horizontally: T. HARRIES / DIED JAN. 30 1876 / AGED 84. Modern capitals.

[1] The practice of inserting letters and symbols (especially the sacred monograms) in the arms and interspaces of the cross was widespread on Early Christian monuments… For another possible instance of this practice in Wales see No. 387'.

Thomas/1994, 73, dates the cross to the 10th-11th century.

Macalister/1945, 432: `on the dexter angle and the shoulder...and cutting the cross (C) on the lower angle of its dexter arm'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 217: `The Ogam inscription is incised along the l. angle of the face reading upwards'.

GECLIDI

If read upwards, from the rounded back of the stone, the letters will be:

GENDILI

Either of those combinations of letters indicates, as I suppose, the genitive case of the name of the person commemorated by the stone'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 219: `The Latin inscription...is in one line reading vertically downwards'.

Rhys/1881, 217--219: `I made it a point to visit the old stone, and to my gratification I found that the Roman inscription was no mere imagination of mine, but that it could be traced along the perpendicular diameter of the cross...Now at the top of the diameter of the cross, near the top of the stone, the inscription begins with a capital G of the usual reaping-hook form, followed by a faint E. The rest of the diameter cannot be read until one comes near its lower end, where the man's name clearly ends with a horizontal I preceded by L. These letters evidently form part of the same name which we have in the Ogam; but I noticed that somewhat beneath and behind the L there was something like a horizontal stroke which I could not account for. After leaving the stone it occurred to me that it might be the remains of a previous L, in the bosom of which the one still perfect was cut ...

Postscript. -- I paid a second visit to the stone last June, when I failed to find the L suggested above as possibly preceding the L{I}'.

Rhys/1897, 326--327: `I understood him also to agree with me in reading at the top of the stone the letter G, followed by a faint E, and forming the beginning of the name GENDI[L?]L{I} which I thought I had detected on a former visit.[2] But there can be no doubt that the name was there in full in Latin letters, and possibly also that of the deceased's father, before the cross was carved, not to mention later things on this ancient monument[1].

[2] On comparing the photograph with my rubbing, I think there is no doubt about the sickle-shaped G, which is on the top arm of the cross, nor about the final I which is on the bottom arm of the cross near the right edge, and is placed vertical. There are very faint traces of the E after the G and the L before the I. The Latin inscription thus appears to be slightly askew, and runs from the centre of the top arm of the cross towards the second R in the name `Harries'. The cross and the ogams overlap in such a way that it is not easy to say for certain which was cut first, but as the Latin letters are obliterated by the cross, the most natural assumption is that the cross is of more recent date than the oghams and the Latin inscription. The form of the cross is an early one, and it is probably pre-Norman. -- Ed.

[1] A heather shaped shield (upside down), a star, and some small incised crosses, which come out clearly in the photograph'.

Macalister/1922a, 32--33: `Of the inscription on the face of the STEYNTON stone injured by the subsequent cutting of the wheel-cross, I was able to detect the whole gendili (corresponding to the same name in Ogham). Except the first I which is obliterated, as on the VENDOGNI stone, the letters are `Hiberno-Saxon' minuscules, not Roman capitals; the last i is, however, horizontal'.

Rhys/1918, 190--191: `Now as to the Latin letters I must admit that they are hard to read. During the meeting of the `Cambrians' at Haverford West in 1897 a party of us visited Steynton, and I understood Mr. Allen to agree with me as to the beginning of the legend GENDI[L?]L{I}. But the stone was so covered with hard lichen that the lettering does not appear in the photograph taken at the time by Mr. Mansel Franklen. See Arch. Camb. 1897, pp. 326--327, and the photo; also the volume for 1889, p. 309, where Mr. Allen had stated that he `could see nothing of the debased Latin inscription' which I thought I had detected. Since Mr. Mansel Franklen photographed the stone, the Squire of Poyston has had it placed in the church, where the lichen must have died and become removable. So the stone should be examined again to see whether I have not been too imaginative'.

Macalister/1945, 432: `one line of half-uncials (with the final I horizontal -- an unusual feature in this script)'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 219: `Roman capitals (?), with sickle-shaped G'.

Thomas/1994, 74: `in eroded but more or less capital letters (not `half-uncials'; Macalister)'.