«94 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



or wherever they came from, there 

 would have been some remains 

 either of inscriptions or manuscripts 

 in that country, unless they had all 

 romeover, to a niiui, and brought 

 with them all their books, and their 

 tomb-stones also. In no part of 

 Germany is there such a character 

 as the Saxon to be found. That 

 they invented the letters after their 

 arrival in Britain, is altogether im- 

 probable ; for, at all events, there 

 was at that time the Roman charac- 

 ter ready to their hands, and in 

 common use. The Irish historians 

 say that they borrowed them from 

 that country. It is probable that 

 the Irish had the letters, as well as 

 their language, in common with the 

 Britons ; but there was little neces- 

 flity for the Saxons to go over into 

 Ireland, to borrow m hat they would 

 find in their own island and neigh- 

 bourhood.* 



That the Britons used this alpha- 

 bet in the most remote periods, 

 seems also extremely probable, 

 even from an expression of Ca'sar, 

 in his description of the Druids, 

 " Graecis Uteris utuntur," ' they 

 'use the Greek letters:' — several 

 of those, now called the Saxon cha- 

 racters, have a great resemblance to 

 the letters of the old Greek alpha- 

 bet. INlany of the ancient British 

 manuscripts are also written in the 

 Saxon character, as part of the 

 Liber, Landavensis, and several de- 

 posited in the libraries in North 

 Wales. In one of the prefaces to 

 Lhwyd's Archasologia, there are 

 three stanzas of the ancient Pictish 

 poetry, which the author discovered 

 in the Highlands ofScotland. They 



were written on vellum, in this oI(f 

 character, or in one very nearly rr- 

 sembling it, and he believed thtin 

 to be above a thousand years old^ 

 There is yet to be seen on a stone 

 over the south door of the church 

 of Llaiiij;adwaladr, in Anglcsea, this 

 inscription, in the old character : 

 " Catamanus rex sapientissimus. 

 " opinatissinuis omnium rcgum.'' 

 Catamanus, or ("advan, died in tlie 

 bcgiuning of the seventh century. 

 The church was founded by his 

 grandson. About the reign of 

 Charles II. the sexton of Llanbabo, 

 in Anglesea, was digging a grave, 

 when he by chance discovered, at 

 the depth of several feet, an ancient 

 tomb-stone. It was taken out and 

 deposited in the chancel, where it is 

 yet to be seen. It has on it the 

 ligure of a man, in long robes, 

 with a coronet on his head, and a 

 sceptre in his hand. Round the 

 edge there is a Latin inscription in 

 these old characters, mixed M'ith the 

 Roman. It was designed- to com* 

 memorate Pabopost Prydain, Pabo, 

 the support of Britain, who lived 

 about the period when the Saxons 

 first entered Britain. He has been 

 celebrated for his valour in the con. 

 tentions with the Britons, against 

 the Picts and Scots :^he was the 

 founder of the church of Llanbabo. 

 There are many other monumental 

 in.scriptions in North Wales in this 

 ancient character. 



Another evidence that the Britons 

 had an alphabet previously to the 

 arrival of the Saxons, is adduced 

 from inscriptions on British coins 

 struck some centuries before. In 

 Dr. Stukeley's impressiotis from the 



coins 



" Camden agrees with Bede, that tlie Northumbrian Saxons ha<i Christianity 

 and letters from Ireland, when neither were known beyond the H«mher. There it ■ 

 a curious essay on this subject, in a iVIS. work, which is shortly to be published. 



I 



