217 
cross at Irton, in Cumberland. From the traces which 
remain I believe it to be — 
+ GEBIDD^TH ^ 
FOR^GODM > Pray for Godmimd's soul. 
UND^SSAWLE j 
The Falstone inscription — 
{In Roman Minuscules) 
m 
+ EONAERTHET 
TAEAEFTAER 
HROETHBERT^ 
BECUNAEFTAER 
EOMAEGEBIDAEDDERSAULE 
{Li Runes) 
+ EOM^RTHCESCETTCE 
^FTyERROETBERH 
T^BECUN^FT^REOM^ 
GEBI DIDDERS AULE 
derives a peculiar interest from the fact that from time 
immemorial the population of North Tynedale has consisted 
of four clans — the Charltons (deriving their name from 
Charlton, near Bellingham), the Robsons, the Milbomes, and 
the Dodds ; and that Falstone is especially the home of the 
Robsons, who undoubtedly derive their name from an ancestor, 
Robert, or Hrothberht. At what time they assumed this 
patronymic we do not know, but it is certain that the popu- 
lation of the dales of the Northumberland border has been 
as firmly settled from a time of remote antiquity as that of 
the neighbouring districts of Scotland, and the person whom 
this stone commemorates, imdoubtedly a man of consequence 
in Falstone in the eighth century, may well be presumed to 
have been an ancestor of the Robsons, if not that one from 
whom they take their surname. 
