EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



the bottom of the narrow edge on the left, and reads round the top and 

 down the other side as follows : 



HIC CORPVS FRIDBVRGAE REQVI 

 ESOIT IN PACE SEPVLTVM 



' Here lies the body of Frithburga, buried in peace.' 



The chief peculiarities of the palaeography of the inscription are 

 the use of the square c and square G, and the full-stop made with three 

 dots, thus : as in some of the Hiberno-Saxon MSS. and on some of the 

 early sculptured stones in England, Wales and Scotland. 1 The o is of 

 the round shape, and the Q is made like a P reversed thus, q. The third 

 letter of the name Frithburga may either be D (i.e. Dh) or the Greek 0, 

 and the last letter but one has a v cut over the A apparently through a 

 mistake on the part of the cutter of the inscription. It is not certain 

 whether the word which precedes ' sepultum ' is to be read ' pace ' or 

 ' pacem.' For ' requiescit ' there should be ' requiescat.' The meaning 

 of the name Frithburga is ' Pledge of peace.' 



The inscription in Breamore church, nine miles south of Salisbury, 

 is cut on the front of the voussoirs of the arch of the opening between the 

 part of the nave below the central tower and the south transept. This 

 is the only one of the original four arches beneath the tower now 

 remaining, the one on the north having been blocked up, and those on 

 the east and west replaced by arches of the fifteenth century. The south 

 tower arch is of Saxon date and is 4 feet 1 1 inches wide. On the face 

 of the arch inside the tower is cut the following inscription in Anglo- 

 Saxon capitals 6 inches high : 



HER SPVTELAB SEO GECPYDRXEDNESDE 

 ' Here the covenant becomes manifest to thee? 



When found the letters were filled in with plaster and coloured red, 

 with a red line above and below. The palsographical peculiarities of 

 the inscription to be noticed are the use of the square c and G, the 

 angular 8, the Saxon B for DH, and P for w and the joining together 

 of the letters HE and TE. It may here be remarked that the shape 

 of a letter is not always a certain guide to date, as in the present case 

 although one s is made angular the two others are of the modern 

 curved form. The language of the inscription is Old-English, pro- 

 nounced by Dr. H. Sweet to be not much earlier than the middle of 

 the eleventh century. It is probable that the inscription was continued 

 round the other arches, as a fragment of stone built into the adjoining 

 wall bears the letters DES. 



The discovery of the Saxon remains in Breamore church was first 

 published in the Athenceum (August 14, 1897), and a full account of the 

 building, by the Rev. A. du Boulay Hill, shortly afterwards appeared in 

 the Archaeological "Journal (Iv. 34). 



Having now concluded the examination of the early lapidary in- 



1 On the dedication stone at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire ; on the crosses at Llantwit Major, 

 Glamorganshire ; and on the ' Drosten ' cross-slab at St. Vigeans, Forfarshire. 



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