preciated, a brief discussion took place, Mr. Milman noticing some of the forgeries in connection with old plate and plate-marks; Chancellor Ferguson pointing out that sometimes, without any fraudulent intent, old inscriptions had been renewed on later plate; and Mr. E. P. Loftus Brock, F.S. A., expressing a hope that illustrations of the more common modern frauds might be circulated among the different Societies. The last question was " Field-Names", upon which Dr. Cox (chief originator of these Congresses) read a brief paper, adding certain extemporary remarks and suggestions. The chief value of the paper lay in the information it gave as to the whereabouts of the old award, or enclosure-maps, as well as the later tithe-commutation maps, showing where duplicate copies are or ought to be kept, in case those that should be in the parish chest are missing or stolen. He showed how often, and how entirely illegally, these maps found their way to solicitors' offices, or to the agents of big estates. He recommended that the different county Societies should take up the highly important and most valuable question of field-names, marking them on the larger sheets of the Ordnance Survey. At the conclusion of Dr. Cox's paper and remarks he was asked by Mr. Seth Smith and others to publish that which he had stated, a course which it seems desirable should be followed. It was considered that the subject should be taken up specially at some future Congress when more progress had been made with the archæological surveys. Dr. Cox promised to produce next year maps of his own parish and of adjoining districts filled up in the way that he thought was desirable.- Athenæum, Aug. 1, 1891. CARDIGANSHIRE INSCRIBED STONES.-It gives me great pleasure to learn that the interest taken in the preservation of the early Christian and inscribed stones of Wales has induced a new worker in the field, Mr. J. W. Willis-Bund, to form a collection of photographs of those still existing in Cardiganshire; and I am happy to find that one at least not previously known is now recorded in the paper on that subject published in the July Number of the Archeologia Cambrensis, p. 233. I think it is unnecessary for me to say that I have always been ready to admit of correction in respect to my figures of these ancient relics published in the Arch. Camb., where and when any of them were found, on subsequent examination, to be incorrect; but in the case of the three stones mentioned in the report of Mr. WillisBund's researches I object to be thus criticised. 1. The Pont Vaen Stone (p. 234), described and figured in the Lapidarium Walliæ, p. 139, Pl. LXVI, fig. 2 (of which no description or figure has hitherto appeared in the Arch. Camb.). My short but careful description stated that it had been "found during the Lampeter Meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Association in August 1878, embedded into the wall of the south-west angle of the cottage at Pont Vaen, half a mile west of Lampeter, just where the road to Aberaeron branches from the Newcastle-Emlyn road. It is about 6 ft. high, half being buried' in the angle of the wall of the cottage, and the other half forming part of the wall of the adjoining enclosure, into which it had evidently formed one of the gate-posts, one of the staples still remaining on the north side of the stone, below which is the figure of a cross formed of simple, double incised lines, the left hand limb of which is hidden in the wall of the cottage. It is said to have been brought from the neighbouring Peterwell. It was first mentioned and figured by Mr. Worthington G. Smith in the Gardener's Chronicle, Sept. 21, 1878", in which, after speaking of the great yews in Lampeter churchyard, he says, "I was reminded of this tree again a day or two afterwards, on passing an inn called 'The Sexton's Arms.' Not far from the church is an early Christian stone from Peterwell, formerly used as a gate-post; and now, with its back to the road, it stands half embedded in an old cottage-wall. One half of an incised cross can still be seen, and it is by no means impossible that the stone bears some inscription on one of its hidden faces." (P. 369.) A woodcut is given of the stone, corresponding exactly, as will be seen on comparison with my figure, Lap. Wall., Pl. LXVI, fig. 2, 1. On comparing the above descriptions with the statement concerning the "Pontfaen" Stone2 given on p. 234, it is quite evident that Mr. W. Bund has, notwithstanding my very careful description, missed the stone figured by myself and Mr. Worthington G. Smith, and that the stone which he found lying on the roadside at Pontfaen has not previously been recorded, and that it is most probably the corresponding post of the entrance into the enclosure mentioned by me in my above quoted description, and miscalled by Mr. W. Bund a field. 2. The "Idnert", Llanddewibrefi, Stone (Lap. Wall., p. 140, Pl. LXVIII, fig. 3). Mr. W. Bund adds nothing to my description except that the letter "d" in "Idnert" is broken through, and that "after filius' the letter 'r' follows a mark which may represent AC or AG." In my description it is stated that "after the word 'filius' is the letter followed by marks which may possibly represent the letters AC or AG." The correction of this misquotation is of consequence with reference to the name IACOBI, suggested as that of a supposed saint, as doubtingly read by Dr. Hübner. The inscription. is read by Mr. W. Bund "Idnert filius [AP] It is to be hoped that the photograph will show us which is the correct reading. 1 Mr. Willis-Bund misquotes my description in stating that this stone is broken through the middle. 2 Not to be confounded with the Pontfaen stone, Fishguard. 3. The stone in Llanddewibrefi churchyard (copied by me in Lap. Wall., p. 139, Pl. LXVI, fig. 4, from the Rev. H. L. Jones' drawings) agrees with Mr. W. Bund's description, except that the cross is split through the middle, not on one side it, as there shown. Mr. W. Bund closes his observations with the remark that the stones which he described showed the necessity for a revised list of the Cardiganshire stones; and although he was afraid in many instances photographs will be hardly satisfactory, yet they will probably be more so than anything else. To which I must reply, from the experience which I have had in treating photographs artistically, that a good rubbing is superior to a photograph in representing the irregularities and marks on sculptured or inscribed stones. I. O. WESTWOOD. Oxford, 18 July 1891. QUERN FOUND NEAR LAMPETER.-The upper stone of a quern or handmill for grinding corn, here illustrated, was found in pulling down a wall at Cellars, near an ancient British camp. It is 1 ft. 2 in. diameter. REPUTED COFFIN OF CONAN MÉRIADEC.-The stone coffin here illustrated by Mr. Worthington G. Smith was seen by the members of the Cambrian Archæological Association on the occasion of their visit to St. Pol de Léon during the Brittany Meeting in 1889.1 This remarkable relic is placed against the south wall of the south aisle of the nave of the Cathedral, being supported on two rectangular pillars, one at each end. The coffin consists of a rectangular block of granite hollowed out in the usual way. It is 7 ft. 8 in. long by 2 ft. 3 in., to 2 ft. 4 in. wide, by 2 ft. deep, outside; and 6 ft. 1 in. long, by 1 ft. 5 in. to 1 ft. 8 in. wide, by 1 ft. 1 in. deep, inside. The 1 See Arch. Camb., 5th Ser., vol. vii, p. 162. |
