KING authük's kemains. 135 



even in a woodeu sepulclire — an oak trank, hoUowecl out 

 for the purpose ; and this, moreover, sunk sixteen feet or 

 more Underground, a mode of interment, for so great a 

 prince, indlcating haste rather than honour, according to 

 the exigencies ofthose troubled times."*' 



The value of this testimony to the principal facts does 

 not seem to me to be at all vitiated by the few errors and 

 discrepancies which raanifestly present themselves in the 

 account. Thus the inscriptions on the two obelisks are 

 Said to be in " memory of Arthur," though all the most 

 authentic records represent thera as of purely Saxon origin. 

 Again, the inscription on the leaden cross, as given in the 

 Liber Distinctionum, contains the words cum wennevereia 

 UXORE SUA SECüNDA, which do not occur in the engraving 

 of the cross as given by Camden. And lastly, Giraldus 



* The original text of the passage is as follows :— Notandum hie 

 etiam quod licet abbas prsenotninatus aliquain habuerit ad corpus Ar- 

 thuri quserendum ex scriptis antiquis et chronicis notitiam, nounul- 

 lam quoque ex literis pyramidum inscriptis quamquam antiquitatis 

 et fere omnino vetustate deletis, maximam tarnen habuit per dictum regem 

 Henricum ad hoec evidentiam. Dixerat enim ei pluries sicut ex gestis 

 Britonum et eorum cantoribus historicis rex audierat quod inter pyramides 

 qu£e postmodum erectse fuerant in sacro cemeterio sepultus luit rex 

 Arthurus valde profunde propter metum Saxonum quos ipse ssepe expugna- 



verat Propter eundem etiam metum in lapidem quodam 



lato tanquam ad sepulchrum a fodientibus invento quasi pedibus Septem 

 sub terra, quum tarnen sepulchrum Arthuri novem pedibus inferius inven- 

 tum fuerit reperta fuerit crux plumbea non superiori sed potius inferior! 

 parte lapidis inserta literas has inscriptas habens Hic jacet sepultus 



INCLITUS EEX AETHUEUS IN INSULA AVALLONIA CUJI WENNEVEEEIA 



UXOEE SUA SECUNDA. Crucem autem hanc extractam a lapide dicto 

 abbate Henrico ostendente perspeximus et literas has perlegimus. Sicut 

 autem crux inferius lapidi inserta fuerit sie et crucis ejusdem pars literata 



ut oecuitior esset versus lapidem versa fuit Sic Arthuri 



corpus inventum fuit: nou in sepulchro marmoreo ut regem decebat 

 eximium, non in saxeo aut Pariis lapidibus exsecto, sed potius in ligneo ex 

 quercu ad hoc cavato, et sexdecim pedibus ant pluribus in terra profunde 

 propter festinam potius quam festivam tanti principis humationem, 

 tempore nimirum turbationis urgentis id exigente. 



Liher Disiincltonum, Giraldi Cambrcnsis. 



