ANCIENT SCULrxURED STONES. 119 



3. The Iowest stone is defaced on the north sitle. On the 

 south are the lower extremities of two monsters common 

 on Saxon crosses. On the east are inscriptions m characters 

 i-esembling Irish Oghams, and frequently found on Irish and 

 Scotch monuments. These have been engraved in an essay 

 on Cryptic Inscriptions on the Gross at liacliness, in York- 

 shire, by the Rev. D. H. Haigh, who observes that it 

 is eilt upon the fragment which bears the name of Trecea, 

 and therefore must be of the eighth Century, and although it 

 differs from Ogham inscriptions in wanting their essential 

 characteristics of the stem line, and the vertical direction 

 of the writing, it agrees with them in having its characters 

 composed of simple strokes, varying in number from one to 

 five, and of the groups thus composed there are five, tvvo 

 characters at its commencement which do not belong to 

 any of these groups being possibly monograms. The inter- 

 course which existed in the seventh Century between the 

 monasteries of England and Ireland will readily account for 

 the existence of an Ogham inscription in one of these monas- 

 teries in England. 



I may here observc with reference to these characters 

 that a stone bearing Irish Oghams has lately been found 

 in Devonshire, and a drawing of it was placed in the 

 Museum of the Archteological Institute at Gloucester, 

 July, 1860. 



4. On tlie west side occurs the foUowing inscription : 



TRECEA ORA (PRO EO) 

 ABBATISSA 

 OEDILBURGA ORATE PRO 



"Trecea pray for h im, Abbess Oedilburga pray for" 



Amongst the epistles of St. Boniface there is one from 

 Trecea to St. Lul, St. Boniface^s successor in the episcopate 

 of Mayence, written about A.u. 756. This is probably the 



