424 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



LXVII. — Comparison- of the Earliest Inscribed Monuments of 

 Britain and Ireland. By the Bet. D. H. Haigh. 



[Read November 13, 1876.] 



The earliest edition of the " Historia Britomim " (represented hy the 

 Paris MS.) has the following passage : — 



" Istor et Istorinis films cum snis tenuit Dalrieta. 



"Builc autem tenuit cum snis Euhoniam. insulam et alia circiter 

 loca. 



" Filii autem Liethan obtinuerunt regionem Demetorum, et alias 

 provincias, Gruoher et Cetgueli, donee expulsi sunt a Cuneda et a filiis 

 eius ab omnibus regionibus Brittannicis." 



This edition elates from a. r. c. 647, i. e. a. d. 675, and the reading 

 is certainly better than those of the later editions. The original work, 

 however, dates from a. d. 471, and is the work of Gildas, a man inti- 

 mately acquainted with British and Irish affairs. 



The Irish editions add the name of the father of t/i&c&n, eiic&L ;: 

 and they have these variations of the name of Cuneda: — CohetTOA., 

 (quasi ConeiTOxs), Ciixmtox\, CtiAnnA. The notes added to this 

 history by JNennius, about a. d. 796, fix the time of Cuneda's arrival 

 in Wales, and tell us whence he came. 



"Mailcunus magnus rex apud Britones regnabat, id est in regione 

 Guenedotse, quia atavus illius id est Cunedag, cum filiis suis, quorum 

 numerus octo erat, venerat prius de regione sinistrali, id est de regione 

 quae vocatur Manau Guotodin, cxlvi annis antequam Mailcun regnavit, 

 et Scottos cum ingentissima clade expulerunt ab istis regionibus, et 

 nusquam reversi sunt iterum ad habitandum." 



In the system of chronology which I endeavoured to establish in 

 my " Conquest of Britain," and which has since received important con- 

 firmation, I fixed the accession of Mailcun, or Maglocun, to supreme 

 power, a. d. 500 ; he having enjoyed the royal dignity in Gwynedd 

 some years previously. Nennius, however, contemplated the date of 

 his supremacy ; so reckoning back 146 years, we obtain a. d. 354 as 

 the date of Cuneda's coming with his sons into North Wales. The- 

 complete expulsion of the Scots from South Wales — Dyved, Gower, 

 and Kidweli, — was effected in the next generation by the grandson of 

 Cuneda, therefore some years later. Thus the occupation of certain 

 districts of the west of Britain by the Scots is a fact, as certain as 

 any particular of British history can be. Of this occupation we have 

 a curious note in the " Sanas Chormaic " : — 



"When great was the power of the Gael in Britain, they divided 

 Alba between them into districts, and each knew the residence of his 

 friend : and not the less did the Gael dwell on the east side of the sea 



