196 
might supply for it, or ashen tablets might be used for the 
rune. It is clear that the Barbaric (i.e., Theodisc) rune was 
as much a recognized system of writing as the Latin, the 
Hebrew, or the Persian cuneiform, at the close of the 6th 
century ; and we are now in a position to assert that each 
family of the Teutonic race was in possession of its own 
futhorc ; and that these futhorcs differed each from the other 
in the forms of some of their runes, as does the Gothic from 
the English, yet presented so strong a resemblance as to 
establish the certainty that they were derived from a common 
original in times of very remote antiquity. For this we have 
the authority of monuments, few, indeed, but sufficient for 
our purpose, discovered from time to time in different parts 
of Grermany during the last thirty years. 
Of these I will say nothing further now. My concern, at 
present, is with the Runic inscriptions of our own !N"orthum- 
bria, in which more monuments have been preserved, in- 
scribed with these old characters, than in all England besides, 
and in which it is probable that many more may remain 
unnoticed, or buried, yet to be brought to light. When my 
attention was first directed to this subject, the crosses at 
Bewcastle, in Cumberland ; Euthwell, in Dumfriesshire ; and 
Lancaster ; the font at Bridekirk, in Cumberland ; two grave- 
stones at Hartlepool, in Durham ; some letters on the coffin of 
S. Cuthbert ; and a ring or two, were all that had been noticed. 
A double inscription at Falstone, in Northumberland, and 
some single {i.e., purely Eunic) ones at Leeds, Collingham, 
and Bingley, came under my own observation, or were com- 
municated to me, and the three first of these were in part the 
subject of my former communication to this Society. Since 
then Mr. Franks, of the British Museum, most fortunately 
acquired in Paris portions of a very interesting casket of 
whalebone, of Northumbrian origin ; Mr. Dotchon, of Whitby, 
has found a comb in a kitchen-midden there ; excavations at 
