318 



THE SLAUGHTER-BRIDGE, WORTHY VALE, INSCRIBED 



STONE. 

 "LATINUS." 



To the Editor of the Journal of the Royal Institution of Gornv)all. 



Sir, 



The following observations, supplementary to your Excursion 

 notes, will shew that the reading — LATIN — Avhich we have therein 

 adopted (instead of Dr. Borlase's CATIN), though original as far 

 as we are concerned, is in accordance with investigations com- 

 menced more than 125 years ago. 



(I). Mr. Joseph Pomeroy, dating from Camelford, May 28, 1745, 

 published a representation of the Inscription ; commencing it, 

 as we do, with L. 

 (II). After this, Dr. Borlase issued his engraving and account of 

 the stone. He ably corrected all that was unintelligible in the 

 previous version of the legend, but went too far, we con- 

 sider, in altering the initial letter into a c. 

 (III). Many years afterwards, an anonymous writer, " Viator," 

 June 11, 1799, noted this variation, and spoke in disparaging 

 terms of Mr. Pomroy's attempt. 

 (IV). Subsequently Mr. Wrey I'Ans (as Sir John Maclean has 

 found) wrote thus to Lysons from Whitstone House, Laun- 

 ceston, Dec. 28, 1811: — "... Borlase (at page 391 of his 

 Antiquities) I submit . . . has mistaken the first letter ; for after 

 careful examination, instead of C (for Catin) I presume it to 

 be an L — precisely the same shape as the L in Filius which 

 follows." 



Lysons seems to have neglected this hint; and con- 

 sequently, the Inscription is now for the first time published 

 herewith in its entire correctness, at page xxxix of our 53rd 

 Annual Report. Our reading, which is there shewn, is based on 

 repeated inspection and on a careful rubbing of the surface of 

 the stone, and (as will be seen from the foregoing remarks) is 

 now found to be supported by anticipation. 



I am. Sir, yours truly, 



WILLIAM lAGO. 



References to the above : — " Gentleman's Magazine," vol. 15, p. 304. 



„ vol. 69, p. 571—2. 

 " Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall," p. 391 — 6. 

 British Museum — "Lysons Correspondence." 

 " Viator" alleges that another stone at Slaughter-bridge, placed with its 

 face downward to the water, is also inscribed. 



NETHEBTON, PBINIER, TKDKO. 



