106 The Yarrow Inscription. By Miss Eussell. 



which follow, I think must have been made by the stone here 

 flying off under the chisel, for when the sculptor began the 

 joined double N further on, he seems to have used some sort of 

 drill instead. I mention this particularly, because the name so 

 interrupted is extremely curious and suggestive ; Finn is the 

 Gaelic form of the Welsh Gwynn, and this is presumably the 

 G-wynn ap Nudd who has become altogether mythical in the 

 Welsh tales, which contain little or nothing of the Cumbrian 

 traditions except the proper names. He must have been con- 

 nected with the Welsh conquests to the north of Dumbartonshire, 

 in the country which is called Uffern or Avernus in the ancient 

 Welsh poems, no doubt from the formidable character of the 

 mountains and their inhabitants ; for he is connected with Arawn 

 or Angus, who has become, in the tales, king of the under- world ; 

 Gwynn ap Nudd is a prominent personage in this ; and it is 

 curious to find him apparently recorded as a real man. I had 

 forgotten the circumstance, but I see it remarked lately, that 

 when Professor Daniel Wilson published his "Prehistoric 

 Annals," the second sentence only of the inscription having been 

 made out, it was supposed it might relate to the well-known 

 Ehydderch Hael — Eodarcus Liberalis — instead of to his first 

 cousin, Nudd Hael. Another son of Nudd Hael's, named 

 Dryan, is known to have fought in the great battle in the year 

 573, near the Moat of Liddel, which established Ehydderch as 

 king of Strathclyde or Cumbria. * 



It is possible the first sentence was not exactly intended to be 

 altogether without a verl ; my impression is, that the sculptor 

 may have had some confused idea of getting it in at the end, but 

 that the whole was even then so illegible, that he thought it 

 better to begin a fresh sentence. The slab is a natural flat stone. 



There is nothing whatever to indicate whether the two brothers 

 were killed in battle or not ; but one's impression is, that the 

 two standing-stones, somewhat to the north of which d think) 

 the inscribed stone was found, mark the places where they were 

 killed. There were formerly something like thirty cairns on the 

 moor round them, in one of which an iron spear-head was found 

 when the ground was ploughed. The inscribed stone is now 

 placed upright between the two standing-stones. 



* St Mungo's Well near Selkirk is of particular interest in connection 

 with this family, and the circumstances connecting Kentigem and 

 Ehydderch. It was under Bhydderch Hael's auspices that Kentigem was 

 established at Glasgow. I rather think this dedication always indicates 

 a British population. — H. J. M. B. 



