Ferguson — On Evidences corroborating Biliteral Key. 185 



" Various interpretations have suggested themselves. Some of these I shall mention 

 and leave the reader to determine for himself. 



" The grave-stone — ' of Dobunnius Faber, the son of Enabarrus.' 



' of Dobunnius the smith,' &c. 



' of Faber, one of the Dobuni,' &c. 



" If, instead of being a variety in spelling, the reduplication of N signifies the gen. 

 pi., namely Duboniorum, the figure " might purposely be used for two instead of II, 

 lest the latter should be taken for the gen. sing, of a person. As there seems to be some 

 trace of letters at the end of the first line, these might indicate that he was of the second 

 cohort of the Dobuni. 



" Whether, therefore, the name on this stone be that of an individual or of a nation, 

 it certainly is of British origin. It is by no means improbable that the spot near which 

 it stands (in the vicinity of Roborough rock) might have been a military station for the 

 Romans or their auxiliaries and allies, as, from its elevation, it commands an extensive 

 horizon, including the beacons of Brent Tor, and other Tors on Dartmoor, and is also 

 within a few miles of Tamerton, probably the ancient Tamare. ; 



" In order to get what, I believe, is technically called ' a rubbing,' I have gone over 

 and over again to the spot where the stone is situated, amply provided with silver paper 

 (it ought, I am told, to have been tea paper), black-lead, and brushes of various kinds. 

 But, sometimes owing to the wind, and sometimes to the rain, I was never able 

 to take anything like an impression, and was forced, therefore, to content myself with 

 different sketches in pencil, of which I have tried to select the best. 



" With a hope of succeeding better at my leisure, and perhaps, also, with the assist- 

 ance of the sim, when at a certain point in its course, it would illumine only the surface 

 and throw the letters into shade .......... 



I set on foot a negotiation for its transfer to my garden, as a companion to my two other 

 stones. But though antiquarian covetousness was seconded by beauty, in the person of 

 one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Buller, who resides near the spot, the farmer was 

 inexorable, and it there remains as a gate-post to his field. 



" I must be allowed to state that on the reverse of the inscription may be seen G. C. 

 It will add but little to the presumption of my former conjectures, if I venture to suggest 

 whether this may not stand for Galba Csesave." 



Following the indications given by Mr. Bray, I found that the 

 stone was no longer in the place described, and what had become of it 

 was unknown ; but it was known that another Buckland Monument, 

 bearing the inscription Sarini fill Maccodecheti also described by him, 

 (and of which hereafter) had been removed to the vicarage grounds 

 at Tavistock, and as the latter had even greater interest for me than 

 the stone of Dobunnus, I proceeded thither. In the vicarage grounds 

 I was fortunate enough to find both, and while examining the Mac- 

 codecheti legend, my companion — Mrs. Ferguson in fact, to whose better 

 eyes I owe almost all my discoveries in this way — detected the remains 

 of the Ogham hitherto unnoticed on the "biliteral.'' The stone is 

 greatly worn, but the substantial part of the nime Enalarr is still 

 traceable both in the Roman epigraph and in the associated Oghams 

 on the arris. Here then was the long sought completion by the 

 Rosetta process of the values of all the letters of the Oghamic alphabet 

 as formerly in use in South Britain. 



The inscription is remarkable as being all in Roman capitals, a 

 criterion thought to bespeak a higher antiquity than where capitals and 

 minuscules are intermingled, as is the case in most of the " biliterals " 

 of South Wales. 



I present a cast and photogram of this interesting monument. 



