290 THE HENSBAREOW INSCRIBED STONE. 



stone at the same time, one facing in one direction, the other 

 in another. 



Their names may have been, for instance, Philip or 

 Richard Olver and John Cock, or some other such names with 

 the same initials, (the first letter being either P or R). 



Thus we behold the combination*' — qIC — cut by them, 

 each working from his own stand-point, or from where he was 

 reclining. 



The surrounding marks are more like experimental cuts 

 than letters, and may therefore have been done carelessly while 

 the picks happened to be in the men's hands. If one person 

 cut the four initials, they may have been those of himself and 

 of his sweetheart. 



In digging for tin afterwards, earth was thrown back, 

 burying the stone. 



Although, from the time-worn appearance of the rock and 

 its legend, I hoped to have been able to come to a different 

 conclusion, I must repeat that in my opinion the inscription is 

 not ancient. 



But whilst it would seem that the marks cannot claim 

 antiquity, they are evidently not recent. Our thanks are 

 therefore due to Mr. Payne and others for calling our attention 

 to them. 



On my enquiring of Mr. Payne whether he considered that 

 the letters were tinners' boundary marks, he replied that he 

 decidedly thought not. He pointed out small piles or pyramids 

 of stones which served to distinguish the different portions of 

 ground, and he expressed his belief that tinners never cut letters 

 for such a purpose. 



After full consideration, it appears that this inscription 

 must be relegated to the class typified by "Bill Stumps, -f, his 

 mark," in the familiar page of Dickens. 



Of course my theory on this point may be wrong, and if, 

 after all, IC **^ does mean " Hie [jacet]," some discovery may 

 yet be made, by raising the stone and digging under it ; but the 

 position of the rock and the general style of its characters, 



*0r SJC 



