A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



i foot 2 inches square, and the fir-cone is io| inches in diameter at the 

 bottom and 7 inches at the top. The Ogam inscription is on two 

 vertical stem-lines and reads from the bottom upwards thus : 



U *' I irm 



E B I C A T O (S) (MA Qu) I M U C O (I) 



' (The gravestone) of Ebicatus the son of the descendant of . . . ' 

 This stone was first described by Professor John Rhys, LL.D., in the 

 Academy (August 19, 1893), and blocks reproduced from photographs 

 by Mr. S. Victor White of Reading are given in the Illustrated Archceologist 

 (June, 1894), which show the state of the stele shortly after its discovery 

 and before it was affected by exposure to the atmosphere. 



According to Prof. Rhys the meaning of the name Ebicatus is 

 ' One who fights with arrows or with a javelin.' Maqui is known to 

 signify ' the son of because on the bi-literal and bi-lingual Ogam stone 

 at St. Dogmaels, 1 Pembrokeshire, its equivalent is given in Latin as Jilt. 

 The modern form is the familiar Scottish mac, which is rendered in 

 Welsh as map. The occurrence of the word maqui shows that Silchester 

 Ogams were cut by a Goidel (or ' Q Celt ') and not by a Brython (or ' P 

 Celt '). z The word mucoi is coupled with maqui in a great many of the 

 Ogam inscriptions in Ireland, and there has been much discussion as to 

 its exact meaning. Prof. John Rhys in his Welsh People (p. 52) trans- 

 lates maqui mucoi as ' son of the kin of,' and gives as an example the 

 Ogam inscription at Dunmore, 3 co. Kerry, which reads Maqqui Erccias 

 maqqui mucoi Dovinias, and means ' (The monument of) Mac Erce, son of 

 the kin of Dubinn.' 



The Anglo-Saxon headstone of Frithburga at Whitchurch, was 

 taken out of the wall of the north aisle of the church when the building 

 was restored in 1868, and the monument now stands on a new pedestal 

 in the nave near the north pier of the chancel arch. Attention was first 

 called to its existence by the late C. Roach Smith in the Builder (Nov. 1 1 , 

 1871), and it has been subsequently described by J. Romilly Allen in 

 his Christian Symbolism, and by the Rev. G. W. Minns, F.S.A., in the 

 Hampshire Field Club Papers (iv. 1899, p. 171). 



The headstone of Frithburga has a semicircular arched top. It is 

 i foot 10^ inches high, by i foot 8 inches wide, by 8 inches thick at 

 the top and 1 1 inches wide at the bottom. It is sculptured in relief on 

 the front with a bust of Christ having a cruciferous nimbus round the 

 head, and giving the benediction with the right hand, and holding a book 

 in the left. The sculpture on the back is incised and consists of elegant 

 scrolls of foliage issuing from a central stem and interlaced. The in- 

 scription which is in two lines of Anglo-Saxon capitals commences near 



1 4rchirokgiaCambrensii,stt. 3, rv. 155 ; the Latin inscription reads SAGRANI FILI CVNOTAMI, 

 and the Celtic Ogams SAGRAMNI MAQuI CVNATAMI. 

 1 See Prof. J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (S.P.C.K.), p. 21 1. 

 8 R. R. Brash's Ogam Inscribed Monuments of the Gadhll, pi. 17. 



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