104 ANCIENT SLAB IN BODMIN CHURCH. 



expressed doubts as to the correctness of his original surmise with 

 respect to its letters and date. 



Being still unable to decipher it, Mr. Wallis continued to take 

 a great interest in anything likely to throw light on the subject, 

 and requested me to assist him in endeavouring to find a clue to 

 the age and meaning of the inscription. With this object in 

 view, copies of the stone were sent to archseologists, but nothing 

 satisfactory was elicited till after his death, when investigations 

 and enquiries began to be more successful. 



The entire slab must have measured about five feet by two feet. 

 The letters inscribed on its marginal borders are three inches in 

 height, with the heads inward. On the interior space a cross 

 rises from a moulded base (on which is the sacred monogram 

 i ^ 0). Proceeding from the shaft are two slender branches, 

 bending upward, one on each side, terminating in square quatre- 

 foils, set corner-wise, and having round centres. The letters are 

 all deeply and distinctly cut ; the difficulty of reading them arose 

 merely from many of them being of unusual form or character. 

 The monogram ( |) and the letters P and B were always clearly 

 apparent. The Rev. J. J. Wilkinson having been asked to inspect 

 the stone, detected on it the formula "Vx .... que dee" 

 (Uxor .... quse decessit). J. Maclean, Esq., F.S.A., who next 

 saw it, agreed with this reading, and deciphered the word " nup " 

 (nuper). 



All had now been read except the group of letters following a 

 large fracture, and mistaken by Eev. J. Wallis for GO VIII. On a 

 careful examination, it Avas clear to me that the first curved 

 member of the supposed GO was not connected with the perpen- 

 dicular stroke which followed it; and by comparing the latter 

 part of this letter with the initials on the cross-base, I was 

 enabled to see that the supposed GO was really two letters, C and f), 

 the latter being "^ crested " and " top-shoi-tened," in order that it 

 might be kept within the prescribed margin. The next letter 

 was evidently y not v, and somewhat shortened below for the 

 same reason that the f) was shortened above. Mr. Maclean being 

 convinced of the correctness of this reading of the letters, found 

 the next (consisting of three straight minims) to be a veritable VX, 

 Thus, all of the inscription known to exist was deciphered. 

 The next point to be ascertained was the probable date. 



