178 ON THE PRE-NORMAN SCULPTURED STONES OF DERBYSHIRE. 



stone which I found, covered with dust and being chipped by the 

 stone propped upon it, proves to be this identical stone, and has a 

 very legible and bold runic inscription, in exceedingly well cut and 

 deep runes. I show it on Plate XIV. It is two lines, neither the 

 beginning nor the end of either being there. Professor Stephens 

 reads 



M I N G H O 

 H E L G 

 and it is not safe to differ from him. I think, however, that the I 

 and the NG are meant for one rune, the Anglian NG. There is 

 no sign of the cross lines required for M, and I doubt there having 

 been room for them. The upper H and the O are doubtful. And 

 the G is much more like an N, with its down stroke leaning as the 

 strokes of the upper H do. The lower H is, I believe, as I show 

 it, with a break in the down stroke. As the authorities were not 

 aware that they had this treasure, and I rescued it from destruc- 

 tion, I have asked them to allow me to present a cast of it to the 

 Derby Museum. It is the only runic inscription on a Derbyshire 

 stone ; I believe, the only one on a Mercian stone. 



At Spondon, near Derby, there is a very curious fragment, which 

 Mr. Kingdon, the vicar, most kindly had dug out for me. Dr. 

 Cox shews it as it appeared previously (Vol. iii., Plate xv.) It 

 is much perished, but enough remains to show that it was a 

 rectangular shaft with the corners rounded off, and the four faces 

 at the top were sculptured as in the case of the columns which I 

 am about to mention next. Below these faces a double line runs 

 round the stone, meeting corresponding vertical lines on each of 

 the four sides, and thus forming crosses ; this I had seen nowhere 

 else till I found it in the autumn on a cross in the churchyard of 

 Kirkby Malzeard (Yorks.). I show one face of this very curious 

 pillar on Plate XIV. 



There are two stones in the porch at Bakewell which belong to 

 a very interesting class. They are the upper portions of roughly 

 cylindrical pillars, with the four sides cut into faces at the top. A 

 face of one of these is shown on Plate XIV., Fig. 8 ; it has some 

 plain interlacing work on it. The other stone (Plate XIV., Fig. 7) 



