54 ANCIENT INSCKIBED STONES. 



bestowed on her son has attached to her. * Davidstow, near Camel- 

 ford, in the immediate neighbourhood of Altarnun, is the only 

 Church in Cornwall dedicated to him, and it is curious that his 

 "Welsh name, Dewi, is preserved in the local pronunciation, Dew- 

 stow. In Devon, he is considered the patron Saint of the two 

 Churches of Thelb ridge, E,., and Ashprington, E.., and of the Chapelry 

 of St. David's, in the City of Exeter. There are only three religious 

 edifices dedicated to St. David in the rest of England, and those 

 were consecrated to his memory long after the conversion of the 

 Saxons. Mr. Rees remarks that "though none of his ancient bio- 

 "gi-aphers have noticed that he passed any portion of his life in 

 " Devon and Cornwall, the circumstance that he visited these counties, 

 " probably in the early part of his life, is intimated in the poetry of 

 "Gwynfardd, f who says that he received ill treatment there, at the 

 " hands of a female, on account of which the inhabitants suffered 

 "his vengeance." 



This inscribed stone was, no doubt, originally of greater length, 



* Nonna was admitted into the Kalendar of the British Church. — Wil- 

 liams, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Cymry, p. 301, &c. 



The title of Saint in the early Welsh Church, does not appear to 

 involve the pretensions attached to it in the Eomish Kalendar, into which 

 very few Welsh Saints, it is said only six, have been admitted. There are 

 but few notices in the Welsh language of miracles performed by them, and 

 few of them have been dignified with the title of Martyr. The character in 

 which, more especially, their names have been handed down to posterity, is 

 that of Founders of Churches. Many of them had more than ordinary 

 opportunities of conferring this blessing upon their country ; for they were 

 related to its Chieftains, and the Churches they founded were often situate 

 within the territory of the head of theu" tribe. In nearly all cases, the 

 assumption of their names is attributable to local causes. The consecration 

 of a place seems to have been effected by the residence of a person of jDre- 

 sumed sanctity, who for a given time performed certain religious exercises 

 upon the spot. Such a founder would be afterwards considered the Saint of 

 the Chiirch which bore his name. — Rees, Op. cit., pp. 61 — 72. 



f Eees, Welsh Saints, p. 199. Mr. Eees gives the following translation 

 of Gwynfardd's lines : — 



" He endured buffetings, very hard blows, 

 From the hands of an uncourteous woman, devoid of modesty, 

 He took vengeance, he endangered the Sceptre of Devon (Diffneint), 

 And those who were not slain were burned." 



The conclusion indicates, no doubt, rather what the poet thought befitting 

 such a Saint, than St. David's will or power, assuming that he really en- 

 dured the clapperclawing and knocks described, and proved by sad experience, 

 '^furens quid fceinina possit." 



