A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Only three inscriptions belonging to the early Christian period 

 have been found in Hampshire, namely, (i) on the Ogam pillar from 

 Silchester, now in the Reading Museum ; (2) on the Anglo-Saxon head- 

 stone of Frithburga at Whitchurch, between Basingstoke and Andover ; 

 and (3) on the south transept arch of Breamore Church, on the outskirts of 

 the New Forest. The Silchester Ogam stone has already been mentioned 

 by Mr. F. Haverfield, 1 but although dug up on a Romano-British site, it 

 belongs to a class of monuments which, taken as a whole, are certainly 



stones dating from about A.D. 450-650. Next come Anglo-Saxon capitals and Anglian Runes. These 

 were employed contemporaneously and sometimes on the same monument, say from A.D. 650850. 

 Anglo-Saxon capitals are found at a later date, with some slight modifications in the forms of the letters, 

 but after the Viking invasions the place of the earlier Anglian Runes was taken by a later kind of Runic 

 'futhorc' or alphabet, similar to that used in Scandinavia at the same period. Hiberno-Saxon minuscules 

 occur chiefly on the elaborately decorated crosses from A.D. 750-1050. 



A study of the geographical distribution of the inscriptions in different kinds of letters shows that 

 the Ogams and debased Roman capitals are confined to Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and 

 those parts of England where Celtic influence was strongest in pre-Norman times, namely in the coun- 

 ties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hants and Northumberland. Anglo-Saxon capitals and 

 Anglian Runes are found most frequently in Northumbria and Mercia. Hiberno-Saxon minuscules, 

 although common in lapidary inscriptions in Ireland and Wales, are comparatively rare in England. 

 The later Runes belong more especially to the districts where there were Norse settlements in the tenth 

 and eleventh centuries, as the Isle of Man and the coast of Cumberland. 



There almost always exists a definite relation between the class of letter in which the inscription is 

 written and the language. Thus all the Ogam inscriptions are in the language of the Goidelic Celts ; 

 the earlier Runic inscriptions are in Anglo-Saxon ; the later Runic inscriptions are in Norse or Danish ; 

 the inscriptions in debased Roman capitals are in illiterate provincial Latin ; the inscriptions in Anglo- 

 Saxon capitals and Hiberno-Saxon minuscules are generally in Latin, but sometimes also in the vernacu- 

 lar of the district. 



Lastly a few words as to the leading characteristics of the alphabets used in the early Christian 

 epigraphy of this country. 



The Ogam alphabet was in all probability invented by a Goidelic Celt in the south-west of 

 Ireland or in South Wales somewhere about A.D. 400, and is obviously derived from the Roman alphabet 

 by dividing it into four groups of five letters, each of which was represented by straight strokes varying 

 from one to five in number. The Ogams are either cut on the angle of a stone or on each side of a 

 stem-line, and the alphabet or ' Bethluisnion ' is as follows : 



HOT 



B L F S N 



/////?// 



///////?////// 



MGNgStR AOUEI 



The Runic futhorc or alphabet was possibly derived from the Greek alphabet in early Byzantine 

 times. It resembles the Ogam alphabet in two respects (i) that the letters are formed of straight 

 lines ; and (2) that they are arranged in groups, but in three groups of eight letters instead of four 

 groups of five letters. The Anglian Runic futhorc is as follows, the four last being extra letters : 



f I) t F H IX P Htl MCTh 



FUThORKGW HNIAEoPXS 



t & H fH 3 H ft F F ft t 



TBEMLNgDO AOeYEa 



The later Runic Scandinavian futhorc was derived from the Old Northern Runic futhorc by 

 modifying the forms of some of the letters and discarding others altogether. It is given below : 



1 Victoria H'utory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, i. 279. 

 234 



