OROLOGI VIATORUM.

On the left side is the following:—­

LOTHAN ME WROHTE A.

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

From the drawing given here the inscription is palpably incomplete, as though the writer had been suddenly stopped in his work.  Nothing is known of Lothan beyond the making of this sundial, so that the fixing of the date can only be by comparative reasoning.  At Kirkdale, on the other hand, we know that Tosti, Harold’s brother, became Earl of Northumbria in 1055, we know also that the Northumbrians rose against Tosti’s misgovernment and his many crimes, among which must be placed the murder of the Gamal mentioned in the inscription, and that in 1065 Tosti was outlawed, his house-carles killed, and his treasures seized.  After this we also know that Tosti was defeated by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, and having fled to Scotland, submitted himself to Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, who had arrived in the Tyne with his fleet early in September 1066, that they then sailed southwards, and having sacked Scarborough defeated Edwin and Morcar at Fulford near York only eight days before the landing of William the Norman at Pevensey.  Harold having made forced marches reached York on September the 24th, and defeated his brother and the Norwegian king, both being slain in the battle which was fought at Stamford Bridge on the Derwent.  Harold was forced to take his wearied army southwards immediately after the battle to meet the Frenchmen at Hastings, and the great disaster of Senlac Hill occurred on October the 14th.  This stone at Kirkdale is thus concerned with momentous events in English history, for the murder of Gamal and the insurrection of Tosti may be considered two of the links in the chain of events leading to the Norman Conquest.

A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built into the west wall of Kirkdale church.  At the time of its discovery the late Rev. Daniel H. Haigh[1] tells us that a runic inscription spelling Kununc Oithilwalde, meaning “to King AEthelwald,” was quite legible.  This would seem to indicate that the founder of Lastingham monastery was buried at Kirkdale, or that the site of Bede’s, “Laestingaeu” was at Kirkdale if the stone has not been moved from its original position.

[Footnote 1:  Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, v. 134.]

[Illustration:  Saxon or Pre-Norman Remains at and near Pickering.]

The inscription has now perished, but Bishop Browne tells us[1] that when he had photographs taken of the stone in 1886 “there was only one rune left, the ‘Oi’ of the king’s name.”  “I have seen, however,” he says, “the drawing made of the letters when the stone was found, and many of them were still legible when the Rev. Daniel Haigh worked at the stone.”  There seems little doubt that this most valuable inscription might have been preserved if the stone had been kept from the action of the air and weather.