114 The Ruth well Cross and the Story it has to Tell. 



ciples, was opened in the little parish of Ruthwell just a century 

 ago this year — in the month of May, 1810. But, in any case, it 

 was through Dr Duncan's instrumentality that our ancient cross 

 was re-discovered to the world, and placed beyond the reach of 

 further injury, except from wind and weather. Thus ended the 

 second act of this strange, eventful historw An act scarcelv less 

 strange, and not less important, was soon to follow. 



Runes of the Anglo-Saxons. 



This was the publication, in 1840, by Mr J. M. Kemble, of 

 the British Museum, of his epoch-making work, entitled " The 

 Runes of the Anglo-Saxons," in which he gave, for the first time 

 in recent centuries, the true rendering of the Runes on the Ruth- 

 well Cross. More than one attempt had previously been made 

 to decipher, and translate into modern English, the Runic charac- 

 ters, or "rune-staves " as they are more correctly called. The 

 Cross had hitherto obstinately refused to yield up its secret or 

 to tell its story. The Runic writing appears to have been a 

 secret language used only for sacred purposes, which came into 

 general use about the fifth and fell into disuse in the twelfth 

 century. In the course of the centuries which had elapsed since 

 that time the key with which to unlock its secrets had been com- 

 pletely lost. But the translation furnished by Mr Kemble, 

 seventy years ago, has held the field from that day to this. No 

 scholar now" entertains a doubt as to our being in possession of 

 the true story which the Cross has to tell. Two years later, 

 in 1842, the same scholar published a translation into modem 

 English of the complete poem, " The Holy Rood: A Dream," a 

 manuscript copy of which had been accidentally brought to light 

 in the monastery of Vercelli in Piedmont. He found tliat the 

 Vercelli parchment and the Ruthwell stone had handed down 

 the same poem, and that they contained between them almost the 

 earliest extant specimen of our Engli.sh literature, the famous 

 "Lay of the Holy Rood," sung at the ancient Abbey of Whitby 

 by the shepherd-poet, Caedmon. 



Erected Inside the Church. 



We now arrive at the latest date which it is necessary to 

 mention in this connection. This is so recent as the month of 

 October, 1887, when our ancient Cross once more found shelter 



