NOTE ON PIG OF LEAD IN CHESTER MUSEUM.

WE extract from The Western Mail the following correspondence, which arose out of a notice in that paper of the Association's visit to Chester, as containing a discussion of several important points not touched upon at Holywell, and as elucidating the topographical history of the district within which we recently met :

"SIR,-In your issue of Friday, the 22nd instant, the statement of Archdeacon Thomas' discovery in the Chester Museum on Thursday the 21st instant, requires correction. It is there stated that 'the inscription upon a pig of lead found at Flint has hitherto been given as Deceango. The correct reading was found to be Deceangi.' The facts are that the reading has hitherto been Deceangi, which has been taken by some to stand for De Ceangis ('from the Ceangi'), but that Archdeacon Thomas discovered that the letter hitherto read as i in the word on one of the pigs of lead in the Museum (for there are two) was unquestionably an l. Subsequently I examined the other identically inscribed pig, where the 7 of the word is still clearer than in the first. Moreover, it appeared to me that there was no trace whatever, in the last letter but one, on either of the pigs, of the vertical bar which distinguishes a g from a c, and that the word is to be read Deceancl. If this stands for the modern Tegeingl, as I presume it must do, we should, of course, expect a c, not a g, in the first century A.D.; but, unfortunately, the incrustation of the lead in both pigs makes this point less certain than it might be.

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Finally, Tegeingl was not 'the Welsh name of the present county of Flint', but only of the northern portion thereof; the portion, however, in which lead is mostly found.

"P.S.-I have had squeezes taken of the word Deceancl from both pigs, which entirely confirm the reading now given of the last two letters."

"SIR,-In regard to the letter of Mr. Egerton Phillimore in your issue of the 29th of August, correcting two words in the Report of the Association's visit to Chester, I beg to state that the errors are those of the telegraphist, and not of your Correspondent, as an examination of the 'copy' handed in will at once indicate.

“Mr. Phillimore observes that there are two pigs of lead bearing the word Deceangl or Deceancl, and conveys the impression that he was the discoverer of the right reading of the stamp upon the

second pig. This is not so. Both pigs had been examined, and squeezes taken, before Mr. Phillimore's attention was expressly drawn to them. Mr. Phillimore may possess some occult information to prove that "Tegeingl" was not the Welsh name of the present county of Flint. I assert that there is some evidence to show that it was. YOUR CORRESPONDENT."

"I am, etc.,

"SIR,-Circumstances have prevented me from previously answering the letter of Your Correspondent' in The Western Mail of September 1, on the subject of the two inscribed pigs of lead at Chester. He may be assured that I had and have not the slightest desire to make a claim to the discoveries of others. As a matter of fact, I did not know, when I previously wrote to you, whether the correct reading of the inscription on the pig No. 2 had or had not been noticed by any one before I saw it; but I accept Your Correspondent's' statement that it had.

I was not present at the earlier part of the meeting in the Chester Museum, and when I arrived the pig No. 2 was in such a position that the inscription on it could only be read with difficulty, and could not be rubbed or squeezed at all; so I hastily concluded that it might not have been turned over so as to enable a reading, rubbing, or squeeze, to be taken previously to my arrival. I may add that before I inspected the pigs I was only informed that the inscription read Deceangl, and not Deceangi; and that my remark that the g of this word might equally well, or better, be read a c was original; i.e., it was not suggested to me by any other person, even if it was anticipated by any such person, which I am not yet aware that it was.

"Your Correspondent' further states that there is some evidence to show that Tegeingl was the name of the present county of Flint', in reply to my assertion that Tegeingl was only the name for the northern portion of that county. I beg to state that I have examined all the chief authorities on this question, viz., the three old lists of the cantrefs and commotes of Wales, of which one is printed in Rhys and Evans' volume containing the Bruts from the Red Book of Hergest, and very inaccurately in the Myvyrian Archaiology, where it forms the second of the two lists there printed; another in Y Cymmrodor, vol. ix; and the third in Leland's Itinerary, vol. v. Four more modern lists, one forming No. 1 of the Myvyrian, and wrongly supposed to come from the Red Book of Hergest; the second in Sir J. Price's Description of Wales; and the third and fourth in two seventeenth century MSS. in my possession; the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291, as given in Archdeacon Thomas' History of the Diocese of St. Asaph; the Plwyfau Cymru in the Myvyrian; Archdeacon Thomas' above cited work; and Leland's Itinerary. These authorities are at one on the following points: "(1.) They confine the ancient cantref or hundred of Tegeingl,

represented in 1291 by the Deanery of Englefield, in 1535 by the Deanery of Tegeingl, and since 1844 by those of Holywell and St. Asaph, to that part of the present county of Flint which is to the north of the ancient parishes of Mold (which included the present ones of Mold, Nerquis, and Treiddyn) and Hope.

"(2.) They place these parishes of Mold (co-extensive with the old commote of Ystrad Alun, or Moldsdale) and Hope (alias Easton, Estyn, Llangyngar, or Llangynfarch) in one of the hundreds of Powys Fadog; the rest of which hundred, except the township of Bodidris in Yale, is now in Denbighshire. This hundred was subsequently represented by the Deanery of Yale and Stratalun, except Hope, which was in the Deanery of Maelor, corresponding to the hundred next to be mentioned.

"(3.) They place the detached portion of Flintshire known as Maelor Saesneg, or English Maelor, which contains four parishes, and projects into Cheshire and Shropshire, in another of the hundreds of Powys Fadog, which was sometimes known as the hundred of Maelor. English Maelor was in 1291, and till 1849, included in the Cheshire Deanery of Malpas.

"I should add that the parish of Hawarden was not included in the ancient Deaneries of Tegeingl or Englefield. Whether it was part of the ancient cantref of Tegeingl I cannot say.

"It appears from the above that out of the twenty-six parishes which (omitting Hawarden) constitute modern Flintshire, only eighteen were in Tegeingl; the remainder not being even in the same division of Wales, for they were in Powys, Tegeing in Gwynedd.

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"Thus my y'occult information to prove that Tegeingl was not the Welsh name of the present county of Flint', which Your Correspondent' condescendingly insinuates that I may possess, turns out to be only occult from those who have not studied the A, B, C, of Welsh historical topography. I am quite ready to prove my point in detail, if called upon to do so; meanwhile, the onus of showing Ystrad Alun, English Maelor, and the township of Bodidris in Yale (all now in Flintshire), to have been in Tegeing, rests with Your Correspondent.' If he can overthrow the authorities I have adduced, I shall be prepared to admit his claim to speak with authority on the historical topography of Wales. 'As at present advised' I am unable to make that admission.

"I am, etc.,

EGERTON PHILLIMORE."

"SIR,-In your issue of the 18th instant appears a letter from Mr. Egerton Phillimore, which is an elaboration of a previous letter written in reply to a communication of mine. The correspondence originated thus.-Telegraphing hurriedly an account of the recent visit of the Cambrian Archæological Association to Chester, I wrote, inter alia, that the ancient name for the present county of Flint was