THE SECOND WINTER MEETING. xli. 



he called par excellence " the Fordington Stone " a large slab of 

 Purbeck marble, 2ft. i lin. by 2ft. 4^in., and 6in. thick. It was 

 discovered on February 5th, face downward, beneath St. George's 

 Church, where it formed the foundation stone of the south-east 

 corner of the porch, having evidently been laid there in Norman 

 days. The partially effaced inscription may read when restored 

 as follows : 



G(AIO) ARI(S)T(O.) 



CTVT. (E)OM. 



AN(NIS) L 



RVFINVS ET 



(M)AKINA ET 



AVIIA FILI EIVS 



E(T) (R)OMANA VXO(E). 



This may possibly be translated : 



To Gaius Aristus, a Eoman citizen, aged 50 years, Rufinus and Marina and 

 Avea, his children, and Romana his wife (or his Roman wife), (set up this stone). 



Mr. Bartelot said that his impression was that when the Norman 

 builders of St. George's put in the tympanum they removed some 

 old Roman stones which had formed the lintel over a narrower 

 Saxon doorway, and when they found that the tympanum needed 

 the protection of a porch they simply used this Roman slab as 

 a foundation stone, turning it face downward. Unfortunately, 

 it was broken right across the middle by the weight of the porch. 

 The absence of any heathen superscription and the extremely 

 large size of the O in the second line, which apparently encircled 

 a cross, led him to believe it to be a Christian memorial. The 

 stone was at present in the Vicarage. The experts at the British 

 Museum had expressed the opinion that the stone was of the 

 first century. The Rev. S. E. V. FILLEUL remarked that it 

 was the first inscribed Roman stone ever found in Dorchester. 



ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF PYDELTRENTHIDE. The Rev. 

 C. W. H. DICKER read the following paper on this subject : 



The name appears in the following forms : (Domesday, Pidrie.}. 

 A.D. 1298. Richard de Puddletrenthyde was presented to the Hospital of St, 

 Leonard atRuston. 



