212 THE RUTHWELL CROSS 



"HI 



local antiquaries (may their names for ever live in story !) 

 concerned themselves to get the relic put under shelter, 

 and collected funds for the purpose. The result has 

 been that it now stands safely within the ugly little 

 parish church. Now, a sculptured cross, seventeen feet 

 high, set in a Presbyterian place of worship to be 

 honoured of all men, supplies a commentary on Scottish 

 ecclesiastical history almost as pungent as did the 

 recent restoration of one of the side chapels in St. 

 Giles' of Edinburgh in memory of Montrose. 



There remains to be told how, before all this happened, 

 the wise men interpreted the Runic inscription. Good 

 Dr. Duncan made careful drawings of the cross, which 

 remain unto this day a monument of his fidelity, with 

 only one slight but pregnant exception. The worthy 

 man, knowing nothing about Runes, copied that part 

 of the inscription which is in those characters, with 

 rigid accuracy ; but when it came to transcribing Latin 

 marry ! he was at home there, and in order to carry 

 out his interpretation thereof, in reconstructing the 

 cross he fitted into the Runic characters a few words 

 of his own in Roman, with doleful results, as will 

 presently be shown. 



Next came Mr. Thornleif Repp, an Icelandic scholar 

 of renown, to whom Runes were, literally, ABC. 

 Assuming, as was most reasonable, that the language 

 was Old Norse, he interpreted the inscription faultlessly, 

 unfolding a really thrilling narrative. It was a plain 

 statement how 'a vessel of Christ, of eleven pounds 

 weight, with ornaments, made by the Therfusian fathers, 



