Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/201

 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 165

with the inscription, " Maior Saxum, hie fuit victor Harald " ; and on another is carved a dome-shaped object, with the inscription, '' Magna Mole, O quot hie sepulte," obviously referring to the neighbouring mound.^

This would at first sight seem to support the idea of literary contamination, more especially as we know that towards the end of the seventeenth century the English language and English antiquities began to be seriously studied by the learned of this country. Still, we have no proof that the benefactor who erected this sundial was acquainted with Giraldus, and, if he were, I cannot think that even the most brazen antiquary would have had the courage to set up such an inscription on the sole authority of the general statement of Giraldus, (who, moreover, says nothing of the mound), had he not had some already-existing local tradition to go upon. I am therefore inclined to think that the connection of Harold v/ith the three stones of Trelleck is a piece of really independent tradition, emphasized and made permanent by an enthusiastic local antiquary. In this connection, I must remind you that there is more than one carved side to this curious and valuable monument. Giraldus Cambrensis made no mention of the mound delineated on the first side, and most certainly he ignored the object shown on the third side, which is to me the most interesting of all. We have here the round basin of a well, with cups, and the inscription, " Maxima Fonte " (the rest illegible), and this represents the Virtuous Wells — wells still resorted to for their curative powers, and as a wishing-well. There are not, I think, many such carvings of sacred wells known, so the man who

^See Plate XVIII. , kindly drawn by Mr. Henry Jewilt from my rough sketch. The whole inscription is apparently intended to be read thus : "Magna Mole, O quot hie sepulte !" (carving of mound) : "Major Saxum. Hie fuit victor Harald," (carving of stones) : " Maxima Fonte, Dom " illegible, (carving of well-circle with cups and flowers).