of that place. This relic, here figured, is now preserved at the Hotel de Cluny, where several very curious specimens of medieval tissues may be seen; a crosier, enameled in the style of objects assigned to the work of Limoges, and some other relics found in the tomb, have there likewise been deposited. Mr. Burges regards the tissue as of the class called Byzantine, with designs in imitation of those of Oriental stuffs. Mr. Vaux informs us that the characters on this fragment do not compose a word; he regards them as an example of Arabic letters used simply as ornament; if they formed part of a word, their style, as he observes, would belong to circa A.D. 1200, the period of some of the best buildings of the Al Hamra ; but they are undoubtedly only introduced here as ornamentation. De Laborde, in his Glossary appended to the Catalogue of Enamels, &c. in the Louvre, explains "Lettres de Sarrazin," or "de Damas," as signifying Arabic inscriptions in imitation of those with which tissues, vessels, &c. obtained from the East were decorated, but copied with so great an ignorance of the language as to present merely the forms and aspect of Arabic letters; in the Middle ages everything which had an oriental appearance, including objects of Greek, now conventionally termed Byzantine, character, was designated Saracenic. Such objects are sometimes described as "à ouvrage d'oultre mer," namely, in the style of the Levant, as brought back by the crusaders and imitated by all European nations. The second fragment of tissue, here figured, is a specimen of vestments found in the tomb of Henry VI., King of Sicily, deceased A.D. 1196, and noticed by Mr. Digby Wyatt, as before mentioned. Mr. Burges observes that it appeared on examination to have originally been of the colour termed diarhodon, signifying that it dazzled the eyes like fire. It has now, however, lost its brilliancy, and is of the colour of mulberries. The inventory of the Capella Reale, in 1309, comprises vestments ornamented with lions, antelopes, peacocks, parrots, &c.-"Cappam deauratam super seta rubea ad aviculos et alia opera;' a description which might apply to the tissue found in the sepulchre of Henry VI.; the design of the animals on that vestment is strikingly Oriental, and similar to that of the sculptures on the ivory horn in the Treasury at Aix-la-Chapelle, presented to Charlemagne, according to tradition, by Haroun-al Raschid.s

Mr. SMIRKE communicated the following observations on a slab inscribed in Roman letters, and also in Oghams, lately found at Fardel, in the parish of Cornwood, Devon, and now preserved in the British Museum.

"Since I had the pleasure of exhibiting in the temporary museum, formed during the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Gloucester, a drawing of a remarkable inscribed stone found in Devonshire, I have repeated my visit to the spot where it was brought to light, and have thought it desirable to preserve a short record of the circumstances under which it was discovered."

"My local inquiries have not enabled me to trace the existence of the stone beyond the period of its employment for the purpose of forming part

8 A more detailed notice of the portions of tissue above figured is given, by Mr. Burges, in the Mémoires de la Société Académique du Dep. de l'Oise, Tome iii., Beauvais, 1857, p. 266.

9 Sce the Catalogue of the Museum formed at Gloucester during the Meeting of the Archæological Institute, July, 1860, p. 41.

of the covering of a small rivulet called Fardel brook, on the road passing within a short distance, perhaps a quarter of a mile, from the farmhouse of Fardel. It had been long since noticed by a gentleman residing at Cadleigh, near Ivybridge, the Rev. S. W. Pearse, who is, in my opinion, entitled to the credit of the discovery. He had been in the habit of passing along this part of the road, and had observed the letters on the upper surface, forming the single word SAGRANVS or SAGRANVI. The under surface, inscribed with two other words in Roman letters, and also the lateral lines or scores at right angles to the edges of the stone, was, of course, invisible as long as the slab lay flat over the brook. I was informed that the two sides of the slab first became visible during some recent repairs on this part of the road.

Mr. Pearse lost no time in submitting copies of the letters and scores to those whom he thought likely to throw light on the inscriptions, but without success. Indeed, a mere transcript of the scores, without reference to the position which they occupied on each side of the angular edges of the slab, coupled with the recurring arrangement in groups of five lines, suggests to any one but an Irish antiquary the idea of arithmetical numbers and not of letters.

"I have verified the drawings exhibited in the museum at Gloucester, and made at Fardel by an intelligent person, and with his concurrence have introduced some modifications, or rather various readings, of the letters and characters. But I am happy to say that the kind consent of Captain Pode, of Slade, the owner of the stone, enables me to announce that the original will be presented to the British Museum. Since facilities will thus be soon afforded to inspect the original, any further description may be dispensed with.

46

With respect to the marginal characters which form the most interesting part of this rude relic, I will not venture to offer any interpretation. My friend, the Rev. Dr. Charles Graves, leads me to hope that he may be able to give efficient assistance in the matter,' and he expects that he shall be able to show some connection between the persons named on it and the historical names also found on the bilingual stone discovered in Pembrokeshire.'

"On inspecting the stone it will be observed that some cross lines of doubtful authority occur towards the upper part of the oghams on the margin and edge, to the left of the spectator who faces the double line of Roman letters, and the beviled edge at the top, on which the five upper scores occur, makes it open to question on which side of the medial line those scores are to be considered as drawn. I believe, too, that in some other parts of this coarse slab, accident, or rough usage, or the displacement of some crystals of felspar which characterise the granite of this district of Dartmoor, may have introduced irregularities in the inscriptions; these are, of course, reproduced by rubbings, and make it difficult to rely upon either a rubbing or a cast. That the stone, whatever may have been its past vicissitudes or its original site, is a stone of the district, is a proposition on which I can speak with confidence. In other words, I am satisfied that the monument is a local one, and not imported or adventitious.

66

With respect to the Roman letters and words, there is but little latitude for difference of opinion. I read the two words, FANONI MAQVIRINI, though the Q may possibly be read as a G. The varieties of form of the

Inscribed Stone, with Oghams on its edges, found near Fardel, Devon. Now preserved in the British Museum.

letter R in early epigraphy leave on my mind little difficulty in reading the penultimate syllable of the second word. With regard to the single word on the other side, I am disposed (if need be) to read the last letter as an s; for there is a notable difference, however slight, in the flexure of it as compared with the final letter I of the two other names.

"It is remarkable that this name (or word) occurs in another early monument found at St. Dogmael's, in South Wales, very lately,' and referred to by Dr. C. Graves, in the letter already cited. On another stone, found at Tavistock, and engraved in the Devon volume of Lysons' Magna Britannia, a word also occurs which, although given as NEPRANI, may prove on reexamination of the original to be SEGRANI; such a misplacement or malformation of the letter s as is there seen (so as to bear some resemblance to an inverted N) being not without example elsewhere.

"The stone, which is the subject of this notice, cannot fail to suggest very interesting trains of inquiry respecting the early identity or intermigration of the occupants of the east coast of Ireland and of the west of England. It is, I believe, the first known instance of the use of the Irish oghams in this part of England, the nearest approach to it being the stone at St. Dogmael's already referred to. Wales and the two western counties of England have already yielded to our researches several instances of socalled Romano-British vertical inscriptions, but ogham stones of the character of those at Fardel and St. Dogmael's are familiar only in Ireland, though not wholly unknown in Scotland.

"The intercourse between the occupants of Cornwall and the transExonian country on the one side, and the contemporaneous inhabitants of Ireland on the other, seems to be attested by traditions of long standing, and by a very perceptible affinity between the ecclesiastical dedications of the churches in the two districts; nor have there been wanting among us intelligent observers who have found a resemblance between the oldest vestiges of ecclesiastical structures in Cornwall, such as that of Perranzabulo on the north coast, and the extant remains of early date in Ireland. It is also by no means improbable that if a careful examination were made of the inscribed stones of the district already recorded, we might detect on some of them other instances of these mysterious scores, hitherto overlooked. It is much to be desired that some such experienced investigator as Mr. Westwood would collate and re-edit those monuments of pre-Saxon history.

"In Cornwall about ten of these stones, of various forms and ages, have been recorded by Borlase in the twelfth chapter of his work, and by Lysons, Mag. Brit., Cornwall, p. ccxxi. Some of them have been defaced or removed. Two or three have been re-discovered and re-copied by later observers, as at Padstow, Archæological Journal, vol. ii. p. 77, and at St. Cleer, vol. viii. p. 205. Another stone from the neighbourhood of Truro, in the same county, is described in vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.

"In the Devonshire volume of the Magna Britannia, p. cccix., we have three inscribed stones, engraved from drawings by the author's brother, the late Mr. Daniel Lysons; these are examples at Buckland, Lustleigh, and Tavistock, the first and last of which I have already referred to. A fourth and fifth, containing only fragments of inscriptions, were brought under the notice of the Institute in November, 1851 (Arch. Journ. vol. viii.

1 Archæologia Camb. vol. vi. Third Series. p. 128.