de Travelia, Turstanus Seiher, Radulfus de Mans, Robertus de Cerefi, Hugo de Turbevilla et plures alij."

John Pichard gives a rent of 12d. from land, which Vincent the Dean holds, to maintain the lighting of the church. (Date, early part of the thirteenth century.

"Carta Johannis Pichard.-Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes Pichard pro salute anime mee et Hawys uxoris mee et antecessorum et successorum meorum in puram et perpetuam elemosynam dedi et concessi et hac presenti carta meâ confirmavi Deo et Ecclesie Sancti Johannis de Brechonia et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus redditum xii denariorum de terra quam Vincentius Le Deyne tenet ad sustentationem luminariorum predicte Ecclesie. Et ut hec mea donatio rata maneat et inconcussa huic scripto sigillum meum apposui. Hijs testibus Matheo le Bret, Magistro H. de Cluna, Roberto Clerico et multis alijs."

John Pichard confirms all the donations of his grandfather and of Roger his father, viz., land and two parts of tithes of Ystradwy and Llansaintfread, and 8 acres at Eliveha:

"Carta Johannis Picard.-Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes Picard concessi Deo et Ecclesie Sancti Johannis Evangeliste in Brechonia et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus omnes donationes quas Picardus avus meus et Rogerus pater meus eidem Ecclesie dederunt in terris et decimis scilicet terram unam in villa Stradewi secundum terminos ab avo meo eis assignatos et duas partes decimarum totius dominij mei in Stradewi et in Lancefreit scilicet de annona,1 de fabis, de pisis de equorum pullis de vitulis de agnis, de porcellis de caseis de lana et lino et de pomis. Similiter concessi et confirmavi eidem ecclesie Sancti Johannis in Brechonia octo acras apud Sanctam Eliveham2 quas homines mei eidem Ecclesie dederunt scilicet quatuor acras quas Hugo filius Edwardi dedit. Et quatuor acras cum parvo prato eis adiacente quas Gillebertus filius predicti Hugonis dedit sepedicte Ecclesie pro animabus patris et matris eorum. Et quia hoc ratum et inconcussum esse volo sigilli mei appositione illud confirmo. Hijs testibus Radulfo de Baschavilla, Willelmo de Eoil de boeuf, Willelmo Francigena, Maelo, Waltero Cano, Waltero filio Llewini, Gregorio clerico, et multis alijs."

1 Grain.

2 The Chapel of St. Elived. 3 This charter is set out in the Inspeximus charter, 13 Henry IV, with the addition here of "in consecratione cimiterii Sancte Elivehe."

169

Obituary.

We regret to announce the death of the Rev. James Davies, an old member of our Association, and for some years a member of the Committee. Mr. Davies, who was the second son of Mr. Richard Banks of Kington, was born on the 29th May 1820; he received his education at Repton School during the head-mastership of the Rev. John Macaulay, a ripe classical scholar; he afterwards entered the University of Oxford, where he soon obtained an open scholarship at Lincoln College. He graduated in 1844, and proceeded in due course to his B.A. and M.A. degrees. In the following year he was ordained by the Bishop of Gloucester, and in 1847 he was appointed to the perpetual curacy of Christ Church, in the Forest of Dean; there he remained until 1852, when he was chosen head master of the grammar-school of King Edward VI at Ludlow, an appointment which he held until he succeeded, under the will of his great-uncle, Mr. Davies, in 1857 to the Moor Court estate, near Kington, shortly afterwards assuming, under the will, the surname of Davies. He there zealously fulfilled the duties, public and private, of a landowner, and provided for the welfare of his immediate neighbours by the erection of a chapel of ease, in which he officiated regularly until he was disabled by illness. In 1875 he was appointed a Prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. In addition to active duties in the diocese and attention to county business, he occupied himself with an ever increasing interest in literary pursuits, and was a frequent contributor to the Quarterly, Contemporary and Saturday Reviews, and author or editor of several works. He was elected a member of our Society at the Monmouth meeting in 1857, and always took a great interest in its success, notably in making arrangements for the meeting at Kington in 1863, and by frequent attendance at the yearly meetings. It is a matter for regret that his contributions to the Journal were few, when we refer to his valuable paper on Wapley Camp with reference to the last battle of Caractacus. Those who attended the Church Stretton Meeting in August 1881, will remember that his altered appearance was the subject of remark and anxiety on the part of his friends, although he was able to join in each day's excursion. In the following month he had a paralytic seizure, from which he never recovered; his decline was gradual and peaceful, with mental powers only lessened, until his death on the 11th of March.

4TH SER., VOL. XIV.

12

Correspondence.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARCHEOLOGIA CAMBRENSIS.

BWLCHYDDAUFAEN INSCRIBED STONE.

SIR, There is a well-known road leading from the village of Aber (Carnarvonshire) through a pass in the mountain range between Llanfairfechan and Aber, and the valley of the Conway River, which pass is called "Bwlch y ddaufaen". This road has always been considered to have been an old Roman road, but I have not hitherto seen or heard any direct evidence that it was formed or used by the Romans.

But now, about ten days ago, a remarkably fine stone has been found in a field adjoining a branch road which runs into the beforementioned "Old Roman Road" at a distance of about two miles from Aber; which clearly connects the road with the Romans. The field was being cleared by the owner of boulder and other stones, when the labourers came in contact with the fine Roman milestone, which I will describe. Fortunately for its preservation, it was entirely buried in the earth, with the exception of a small bos at the base of the stone which stood above the surface of the land. It has been very carefully and nicely exhumed. The inscription on the stone is as follows:

The interpretation seems to be

Imperator Cæsar,
Trajanus Hadrianus,

Augustus, Pontifex Maximus,

Tribunicia Potestate,

Pater Patriæ Consul III.
A Canovio

Mille passuum VIII.

which is the true distance to or from the Roman quadrangle, close to Caerhun Church, and the west bank of the River Conway, and called Canovium, as shown upon the map of the Ordnance Survey. The foregoing interpretation may not be in every particular correct, and I shall be much obliged if any of your members or

correspondents, skilled in Latin inscriptions, would make such corrections as may appear to them to be a truer interpretation.

I send you a slight sketch of the stone, drawn to a scale of 1 inch to a foot; the form is cylindrical, and slightly tapering. Its entire length is 6 feet 9 inches; diameter near the base, 19 inches; at the summit, which is not entirely circular, 17 and 16 inches; the circumference at or near the base is 5 feet, and at the top, 4 feet 7 inches. The letters are from 21 to 2 inches long, and the whole of the inscription is within 16 inches of the top; and it would appear that the base, for 16 inches, had been originally sunk in the ground.

The stone is conglomerate, or millstone grit, as also are the two stones in "Bwlch y ddaufaen." That kind of stone is not, I think, to be found in this neighbourhood.

Llanfairfechan, 2nd March 1883.

RICHARD LUCK.

SIR, In the first volume of the Archeologia Cambrensis (1846, p. 70) there is an account of an exploring expedition made by Mr. Longueville Jones, Mr. Dearden, and the Rev. Dr. Jones of Beaumaris, in search of the Roman road from Conovium (Caerhun) towards Aber, to Segontium; on which occasion they succeeded in identifying its course for some distance. But this in no way diminishes the interest or the value of the present discovery, inasmuch as, till the present time, no Roman inscription, or distinctly Roman relic, has been found in this section.

The date upon the stone, the third year of the consulship of Trajanus Hadrianus, corresponding with A.D. 119, and U.c. 872 (Urbis Conditæ from the foundation of Rome), is most interesting, as it coincides with the year of the Emperor's visit to Britain. It would be entirely in accord with his known ability and energy, that he should have inspected the station of Kanovium, as well as others where the Roman legions were settled; and it is not improbable that this milestone may indicate his visit. The following year we know he went northwards, and began the great Wall which still hands down his name, on the Northumbrian border.

The form of the name "Kanovium", here given, as compared with the more usual, not to say universal, Conovium, is noteworthy, because it shows by its contemporary and local witness (for the material is the local stone) that Kanwy or Canwy is an older form than Conwy; and in this it is also supported by the name of the earlier fortress of Deganwy, which Edward's beautiful castle so completely eclipsed and superseded.

Our thanks are due to Mr. Luck for sending so full and clear an account of the find; and it is to be hoped that he will keep a keen look out on the sites of the other mileages along the line, for other stones of similar character.

March 5, 1883.

D. R. T.

Miscellaneous Notices.

(Browne Willis, MS. 27, fol. 186.)

"Norwich, Nov. 16, 1719.

་

"My good friend!......To what you were told at St. David's now of an old chest of Records destroy'd by a Floud, you may add what I found since I writ last in a letter from... Ned Llwyd to me, dated from Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Apr. 12, 1698: Great part of our writings (meaning MSS. of British authors, which I had writ to him about) have, without doubt, been long since burn'd and destroy'd, and many of them of late years; for one Mr. Roberts, a Clergyman in this country, tells me he saw heaps of parchments, Books and Rolls, burn'd at St. David's during the late Civil Wars, and did himself, being then a schoolboy there, carry several out of the Library for the sake of the guilt letters.'.. (Notes on the Archdns. of Brecon, &c.)

"Your ... faith'll Serv't,

"To Browne Willis, Esq.

THOM. TANNER."

KERRY CHURCH, MONTGOMERYSHIRE.-This church must once have had a south aisle. When the south wall of the nave was taken down last December, the remains of three circular pillars, corresponding to those of the arcade, between the nave and north aisle, were discovered embedded in the wall.

A SOCIETY called "The Pipe Roll Society" has been formed. Its object is the printing of all the earliest Pipe Rolls, more particularly those belonging to the reign of Henry II, which stand alone as evidence of this early period. These Rolls contain the accounts of the revenues of the Crown, arranged under the heads of the several counties, and so afford most valuable information on a variety of subjects. Those who have availed themselves of the few volumes of the Patent, Close, and Charter Rolls, which were printed by the Record Commission, will readily estimate how much trouble and expense will be saved by the printing of the Pipe Rolls, and the ready reference which an index will afford to their contents. Mr. James Greenstreet, 16, Montpelier Road, Peckham, S.E., the Honorary Secretary, will be happy to receive the names of any who are willing to become members at a yearly subscription of one guinea.

It is proposed to establish a Society for the purpose of preserving copies of all our ancient seals. Arrangements have been made by which it would be possible to produce, for one hundred guineas, an annual volume containing from twenty-five to thirty antotype plates, with facsimiles of about four or five hundred seals. These would appear with descriptive letter-press. Mr. Walford D. Selby, Public Record Office, will gladly receive the names of those who would be willing to support the scheme.