Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/485

 no The AncUnt Stone Crosses conveyed to the garden of the abbey house, and on the present vicarage being built for him in 1818, caused it to be taken there and set up where we see it now. The inscription, which is in two lines, reads — Nbprani Fili Condbvi (or Conbevi), showing us that the stone was originaly erected to the memory of Nepranus^ son of Condeims (or Conbevus). Its height is said to be five feet eight inches, and its width one foot eight inches. Of the stones from Biickland, one was brought to the place it now occupies by Mr. Bray in 1831, and the other by Mr, Hastings Russel], afterwards Duke of Bedford, in 1868. The first of these Mr. Bray found in 1804, serving as a coigne to a blacksmith's shop, near the churchyard at Buckland, having learnt of its existence from PoIwhele*s History of ComwaU^ Twenty-seven years later be saw it lying on the ground, the blacksmith's shop having been taken down, and on applying to the lord of the manor, Sir Ralph Lopes, the stone was presented to him, and Mr. Bray removed it to Tavistock on a waggon drawn by three horses. As it stood when set up in his garden its height was a little over seven feet, and its breadth at the bottom seventeen inches and at the top four- teen. The inscription on this stone, also in two lines, is Sabin m Fil ^ Maccodbchbt ^, of Sabinus^ son of Maccodecketns. The other Buckland stone Mr. Bray found with difficulty., having received no definite information as to its situation. It was serving as a gate-post in a field between Roborough Down and the village, and though Mr. Bray tried to obtain possession of it, he was unable to do so. Its height is less than that of its fellows, being only about four feet. The inscription which it bears is in three lines, and like those on the others, runs lengthwise. It reads— Dobunns Fabripili Nabarr — of Dubnnnius Faber, son of Nabarrus^ or Enaba9rus or it may mean, as Mr. Bray suggests, of Faber^ of the Dobunni^ son of Enabarrus, But what renders this stone particularly interesting is the fact of its not -only l^earing this inscription in the Roman character, but also in the Ogham* (anie» p. 33) so that we have here, as in the case of the Fardle Stone, proof that in this part of the country the symbol of the old Irish language was understood. Indeed, Mr. Brash, author of the learned work on inscriptions in the Ogham character, considers the first name on the stone, and also