VII. ARMSTRONG'S PLATE, 1775.

[This plate is found in the London Magazine for August, 1775 (44. 388). From references in other places (for example, Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia, 1806, 3. 455, note 1), we learn that the plate was furnished by Captain Armstrong, a native of Bewcastle parish, who had served in the army as private, corporal, sergeant, and finally captain, retiring about 1764 (see Hutchinson's Hist. County Cumberland, 1794, 1. 80). Whether the accompanying description is by his hand I have no means of knowing. At the bottom of the plate stands: Publish'd by R. Baldwin Sep! 1st 1775-'] An Account of a curious OBELISK, of one Stone, standing in the Church Yard of Bewcastle, in the North East Part of Cumberland, about 16 Miles from Carlisle.

(Illustrated with an elegant Engraving.)

What is here represented is 15 feet high1; besides there has been on the top a cross,2 now broken off, part of which may be seen as a grave stone in the same church yard. The faces of the obelisk are not quite similar, but the 1st and 2d, and the 3d and 4th agree. The figures and carving are very fair, but the inscription which has been on the west face, is not legible. At the top of that face is a figure with a mitre; below that, another in priests habit; then was the inscription, and below that, the figure of a man with a bird, said to be St. Peter and the cock. On the 2d or south face has been a dial, and many other ornaments. The north face has much rich carving, and the chequers seem to point out the arms of some person, and probably to the name of Graham, that being part of their arms, and the present Mr. Graham of Netherby is lord of that manor, and the lawful heir of the last Lord Viscount Preston. On the east face is a running stem of a vine, with foxes1 or monkeys eating the grapes.

The whole carving has been done in a masterly manner, and beyond comparison it is the richest ornamented obelisk of one stone now in Britain: but by whom or on what account it was erected, there is not the least to be learned from history.

Cambden, and other historians, mention this stone, though none of them ever saw it. They would gladly have it to be Roman, but the figures and cross plainly speak it to be Christian, and very likely it was erected as a monument near the burial place of the chief man of that place, as the remains of a very large castle are close by it.

VIII. HUTCHINSON'S HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND, 1794.

[The following extract is taken from Hutchinson's History of the County of Cumberland 1. 85-87. The plate is much reduced from the original opposite p. 80.]

A friend, at our instance, before we had seen this monument, took some pains to gain the inscription on the north side, in a manner we have often practised with success, by oiling the stone and pressing in wax, and then with printer's ink, taking upon paper the character: it was very confused and imperfect, but appeared much in this form, fh WiK BARN 1 九WBNR几乎 of which, we confess, we are not able to give a

probable reading. The ornaments of knots, flowers, and grapes, evidently appear to be the effect of the sculptor's fancy 1; and we think it would be extending a desire of giving extraordinary import to works of antiquity, to suppose they were intended to carry any emblematical meaning: they are similar to the ornaments of the capitals and fillets in Gothic structures of the eleventh century, or near that time, and no one yet presumed to assert they were to be construed as hieroglyphics. Should we not attempt to object to the readings of the inscription on the north fillet, and admit it might imply that the ground was famous for royal sepulture; in our apprehension it doth not advance the antiquity of the monument the least. The inscription itself is uncertain; for the prelate and Mr. Smith took it variously, and the wax impression varied from both, and such, we conceive, would be most accurate; the copies taken by the eye being subject to the effects of light and shade.

Let us examine the work, and perhaps we may draw from thence a more convincing argument. The south front is decorated in the upper compartment with a [86] knot, the next division has something like the figure of a pomegranet, from whence issue branches of fruit and foliage, the third has a knot, the fourth branches of fruit and flowers, beneath which is a fillet with an inscription, copied thus by Mr. Smith, but now appearing irrecoverable by any device: Here is reproduced, but inexactly, the inscription on the left on page 14, above. Beneath this, in the lowest compartment, is a knot. The east front is one entire running branch of foliage flowers and fruit, ornamented with birds and uncouth animals in the old Gothic stile. The crown of the pillar is mortaised to receive the foot of the cross. The north side has, in the