Ferguson — On Evidences corroborating Biliteral Key. 183 



farther confirmation is at hand. It was primarily in search of a monu- 

 ment offering the same form of patronymic as last observed on, that I 

 visited Tavistock last Autumn, when I had the good fortune to 

 discover the missing b in the unexpected legend on the stone of Dobrunn, 

 son of Enabarr. Mrs. Bray's " Borders of the Tamar," had acquainted 

 me with the fact that a monument bearing the name Maccodecheti 

 existed there in the grounds of the vicarage. I extract the interesting 

 account of its preservation and removal, from the same agreeable letter 

 of Mr. Bray, " From the library to the drawingroom," already used for 

 a like account of the stone of Enabarr: — 



" Having learnt from Polwhele's ' History of Cornwall ' (for I had not then seen 

 his History of Devon), that an inscribed stone existed at Buckland Monachorum, dis- 

 tant from Tavistock about four miles, I went thither on the 28th of September, 1804, 

 with no other clue to its discovery than that it was close to the ' churchyard.' On my 

 arrival at the village I inquired for the sexton, thinking that he was the most likely 

 person to give the information. He smiled, and said, ' I suppose, 



sir, that must be it behind your back.' I turned round and perceived, within a few 

 paces from me, the subject of my inquiry. It served as a coigne to a blacksmith's shop, 

 adjoining the entrance to the churchyard. 



" In the course of the year 1831 (for I have mislaid my memorandum of it), on again 

 visiting Buckland, I found that the blacksmith's shop had recently been taken down, 

 and the stone in question was lying with its inscription exposed towards the street, with 

 the possibility of it being worn, if not obliterated, by every passing wheel. On apply- 

 ing to Sir Ralph Lopez as lord of the manor (intimating that I had in my posses- 

 sion already a stone of probably the same era), he most kindly made me a present 

 of it. I sent, therefore, a waggon with three horses, together with what is here called 

 a jack, an engine for lifting it. But I nearly ran the risk of sending them in vain ; for 

 the tenants then assembled at the Court Baron refused to let my servant touch it, till, 

 fortunately, the lord himself arrived, and removed the embargo. It was brought 

 by a circuitous route of more than five miles to avoid some precipitous hills, and erected, 

 as before noticed in my garden. . . . Polwhele is of opinion that (as well 



as many other of the same description) it originally stood within the precincts of a pagan 

 temple, where, in consequence of the reputed sanctity of the spot, was subsequently 

 erected a Christian church. I hope, however, that I may not be accused of the guilt of 

 sacrilege in removing it, for it certainly deserves a better fate than to be applied to such 

 ' base uses ' as to be a ' buttress ' or a ' coigne of vantage ' to the ' castle ' of any modern 

 Mulciber ; nay, what is worse, than to be laid prostrate in the street. It might, even at 

 best, have been appropriated to the purpose of a gate-post, as is actually the case with 

 another inscribed stone in the neighbourhood ; and, indeed (of which more hereafter), 

 this, or something of a similar description, seems to have been its original destination : 

 for even in the midst of the inscription is a cavity, in the form of an oblong square 

 which possibly may have been cut for the reception of a latch or bar. Its obelisk form 

 is more apparent when viewed laterally; as, at the back, which is of smoother and 

 blacker surface (probably caused by the contact of a contiguous stratum), it is rather 

 acutely gathered to a point; seemingly, however, more by nature than by art. 



"Polwhele, even in his 'History of Devon,' presents us only with some few particu- 

 lars as to the nature and dimensions of the stone, but not with the inscription. As he 

 is not quite exact in the dimensions, I here give them. Its height, as it at present stands, 

 is 7 feet 2\ inches. Its breadth at the bottom is 17, at the top 14 inches. From the 

 top to the beginning of the inscription are 2 feet 1^ inches. And the cavity is 8 inches 

 long and 1\ deep. 



" This, and other similar monuments, he imagines to have been Romano-British, 

 and to have been erected to the memory of ' a Christianized Roman.' I should rather 

 consider it as the memorial of a Romanized Briton, previous perhaps to the introduction 

 of Christianity into this island. There is no cross, nor any request to pray for the soul 



