182 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



firmed: for I observe that the discovery of two new " biliterals," in 

 Denbighshire and Pembrokeshire respectively, into each of which the 

 Latin v enters, is announced in the October number of the Archceologia 

 Cambrensis ; and, so far as my knowledge extends, the only probable 

 equivalents would be either t or b aspirated. But I have never seen an 

 OghamicH on any lapidary monument, either of the South British or of the 

 regular Irish type; so that the elements of an aspirated b — if that were 

 the equivalent, — do not, so far, appear to exist. I may add this absence 

 of h, so far observed, as an additional difficulty in deriving the Ogham 

 from the Latin alphabet; but with the caution, that the negative in- 

 ference, " de non apjjaretitibus," is presumption in its weakest form, 

 and is liable to be displaced by the discovery, at any moment, of positive 

 evidence to the contrary. 



The other pretermitted example exists at Cilgerran, about three 

 miles north of Clydai, on the south bank of the Teivy ; a spot which 

 will always be interesting to the lover of elegant literature, as the sub- 

 ject of one of Sir William Jones' lyrics : — 



" How gay is the circle of friends round a table 

 Where stately Cilgerran o'erhangs the brown dale." 



Here, as at Clydai, Professor Westwood had already noticed the fact 

 that faint traces of Ogham exist on the arris of the great pillar in the 

 churchyard, which bears on its flat the Roman legend Trenegussi filii 

 Maccutreni icjacit. In the summer of 1872 I had this pillar raised, 

 and took the cast of it, of which I now present a photogram. The 

 Ogham is exceedingly faint, even in the fragmentary parts of it that 

 remain. But these fragments are of some value. Pirst, the remains 

 of g iD the principal name, confirm the sagacious conjecture of Pro- 

 fessor Westwood, that the Latin name is Trenegussi, although the g 

 there is all but illegible. Secondly, enough exists to show that the 

 Oghamic form is, in this case, the short, or, as I may say, the colloquial 

 Trengus, as Angus, Hungus, Congus, while the ceremonial form, if I 

 may so express myself, of the name is presented in the inflated Latin 

 Trenegussus. This seems an exception to the ordinary practice in 

 Oghamic writing, in which the frequency of such forms as, for 

 example, Cunagussos for Congus, Cunacenna for Cyngen, has led 

 the Bishop of Limerick to regard such suffarcinations as peculiar 

 to the system. The form Maccutreni in this legend will strike 

 most ears as Irish-Celtic ; and in this connection I may observe that, 

 in presence of the historic evidences tending to establish an early Irish 

 occupation of this region of South Wales (Hist. Nennii, c. 8, Pet. 56), 

 considerable difficulty will probably attend the efforts of those scholars 

 who would ascribe the disappearance of such forms from Welsh litera- 

 ture to the operation of abstract philological laws. 



After the direct identifications so far established, it may be thought 

 that corroborative proofs are hardly necessary. But (considering how 

 reluctant some of us still are to admit that a demonstration has been 

 effected) it is better to leave as little room for doubt as possible, where 



