519 
Now these inscriptions enable us to ascertain exactly the 
age of this monument. The long inscription contains three 
couplets of alliterative verse : — 
-f-This sigbecun This beacon of honour 
settae Hwaetred set Hwsetred 
im gserfse boldu and carved (this) monument 
aeftser barse after the ruler 
ymb cyning Alcfridse after king Alcfrid 
gicegaed deosum saulum pray for the souls, 
and commemorates Alcfrid, the eldest son of king Oswiu, 
who reigned in Deira from about A.D. 655 to 664 ; and the 
other inscriptions give us the names of his father, " Oswu 
cyning elt," i. e. Oswiu King the elder ; of his brother, 
" Ecgfrid cyning," of his uncle, " Oslaac cyning," of his 
stepmother, " Eanflsed cyningin," of his wife, the daughter 
of Penda, c< Cyniburug cyningin," of her sister, " Cyniswid," 
and of his friend St. Wilfrid, " Wilfrid preaster," elected, 
through his influence, Bishop of York, A.D. 664. This 
election was probably one of the last acts of Alcfrid' s life, 
and his name never appears again in history. The date of 
this monument, then is clearly fixed in the year 664. 
Mr. Hemingway, of Dewsbury, has in his possession a 
fragment which evidently formed part of the head of 
a small memorial cross, on which is the following inscrip- 
tion, perfectly legible :— RHTAE BECUNAEFTER 
BEORNAE GIBIDD ADDER SAULE, i.e. 
(N. this set 
rhtae after ) rht 
becun aefter beornae a beacon after his son 
gibiddad der saule pray for the soul. 
In the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of New- 
castle-on-Tyne, there is a fragment on which is an inscription 
quite perfect, and written in Roman minuscules, as well as 
in Runes, the only example that has yet been found of such 
