[Illustration:  Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale. (From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A.)]

Nothing remains of the buildings of this early monastery, and what happened to them, and what caused their disappearance, is purely a matter of conjecture.  We can only surmise that they were destroyed during the Danish invasions of the ninth century.

At Kirkdale church, which is situated close to the cave already described, there was discovered about the year 1771 a sundial bearing the longest known inscription of the Anglo-Saxon period.  The discoverer was the Rev. William Dade, rector of Barmston, in the East Riding, and a letter of great length, on the stone, from the pen of Mr J. C. Brooke, F.S.A. of the Herald’s College, was read at the Society of Antiquaries in 1777.

The sundial, without any gnomon, occupies the central portion of the stone, which is about 7 feet in length, and the inscription is closely packed in the spaces on either side.

It reads as follows, the lines in brackets having the contractions expanded:—­

[Transcriber’s Note:  The “|"s below are my best rendition in plain ASCII of a Saxon ampersand, which is a long vertical bar with a short horizontal bar at the top, pointing to the left.]

+ ORM .  GAMAL .  SVNA .  BOHTE .  SC[=S] [ + ORM .  GAMAL .  SUNA .  BOHTE .  SANCTUS]

GREGORIVS .  MINSTER .  EthONNE HIT
[GREGORIUS .  MINSTER .  THONNE HIT]

PES AEL TOBROCAN . | TOFALAN . | HE
[WES AEL TOBROCAN . & TOFALAN . & HE]

HIT IET .  MACAN .  NEPAN .  FROM GRVNDE
[HIT LET .  MACAN .  NEWAN .  FROM GRUNDE]

XPE:  | SCS GREGORIVS .  IN EADPARD
[CHRISTE:  & SANCTUS GREGORIUS .  IN EADWARD]

DAGVM C[=N]G | N TOSTI DAGVM EORL +
[DAGUM CYNING & IN TOSTI DAGUM EORL +]

Completed under the dial.

+ | HAPAREth ME PROHTE . | BRAND P[=RS]
[+ & HAWARTH ME WROHTE . & BRAND {PRAEPOSITUS]
{PRESBYTERS]

The modern rendering is generally accepted as:  “Orm, the son of Gamal, bought St Gregory’s minster (or church) when it was all broken and fallen, and caused it to be made anew from the ground for Christ and St Gregory in the days of King Edward, and in the days of Earl Tosti, and Hawarth wrought me and Brand the Prior, (priest or priests).”

Along the top of the dial and round the perimeter the inscription reads:—­

+ PIS IS DAEGES SOL MERCA
 THIS IS DAY’S SUNMARKER

AET ILCVM TIDE
AT EACH TIDE OR HOUR.

It is interesting to know that the antiquaries of a century or more ago rendered this simple sentence as:  “This is a draught exhibiting the time of day, while the sun is passing to and from the winter-solstice.”  They also made a great muddle of the words:  “& HE HIT LET MACAN NEWAN,” their rendering being “CHEHITLE AND MAN NEWAN,” the translation being supposed to read:  “Chehitle and others renewed it, etc.”  With Mr Brooke’s paper is given a large steel engraving of the stone, but it is curiously inaccurate in many details.  At Edstone church there is another sundial over the south doorway as at Kirkdale, and there is every reason to believe that it belongs to the same period.  The inscription above the dial reads:—­