In some churches where work—supposed to be Saxon— exists, are to be seen Saxon and Latin dedicatory inscrip tions, in which the founders, and others connected with the church, are alluded to, and by this means we are enabled to form some certain judgment as to their date.
" In the church of Kirkdale, in Rydalc, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, over the south door, is a curious in scription in Saxon characters, of which a plate is given in the fifth volume of 'Arclueologia."fhe inscription is accom panied by an ancient dial, and is placed over a doorway with a plain semicircular arch. It is engraved on one entire free stone, 7 feet 5 inches long, and 1 foot 10 inches high, and is in perfect preservation, except a small part in the centre, where the inscription is disfigured, but not obliterated, by the weather. This seems in sonic measure to be owing to its being defended by the porch, which entirely covers it, except by two angles, and consequently must have been of later erec tion ; which is further improved by its having been formerly plastered over with lime, or some other cement, as appears by the remains of it in the interstices of the letters, and in the vacancy where the hand of the dial has been broken ott The inscription may be read thus : Ortn. Gamal. Suna. Bulge. Sanctus. Gregorius. Minster. Thome, I lit. West. it I. To. Brocan. And. To. Falan. Chehitle. And. Mau. Newau. From. Grunde. Christe. And. Sanctus. Gregorius. in. Ead ward. Dagum. Cug. In. Tosti. Daguin. Earl. " Orm, Gamal's son bought St. Gregory's church then it was all fallen down. and gone to ruin. Chehitle and others renewed it from the ground to Christ and St. Gregory, in Ea.dward's days, the king, and in Tosti's days, the Earl ;" and under the dial. And. Hawarth Me. Wroht. And. Brand. Prs. "and Hawarth me made and Brand the priest." "Tosti, who was fourth son of Godwin, earl of Kent, and brother to king Harold, was made earl of Northumberland, by Edward the Confessor, in 1050, on the death of earl Le ward. This earl was driven from his earldom by his oppres sion, and was killed at Stamford bridge, near York, in 1066.
The inscription must therethre be dated between those years. From Doomsday book it appears that Orm was the owner of Iiirkdale and the districts adjacent, in Edward the Con fessor's time ; and from Simeon of Durham we learn, that a certain thane in Yorkshire, by name Orm, the son of Gamal, married Ethelrith, one of the five daughters of Aldred, earl of Northumberland," &e.
"On one of the walls of the church of Aldborough in Yorkshire, is the following Saxon inscription :—` Ulf hit araeran eyries for Danum and for Gunthard saula;' i. e., Ulf commanded this church to be erected for the souls of lIanum and Gunthard." From many circumstances, this church is evidently the original Anglo-Saxon structure, with a few modern additions, as pointed windows, &c. The walls in general are made of round pebble-stones, supposed to have been gathered from the sea-shore in the neighbourhood, which kind of stones, by a strong cement, made very dur able buildings; but the lower part of the south wall of the chancel is built with hewn stone, such as was generally used in our most ancient cathedral churches, upon which there are some grotesque figures; and in the north wall is a narrow window, about 5 feet high ; the chancel door also, which is a south entrance, is low and narrow, and has over it an elliptic arch, ornamented with zigzag work. Ulf, who is mentioned in the inscription as its thunder, was lord of the whole of this part of the Saxon province of Deira, or the country bounded by the Humber and the Tees, about the time of Canute." Another inscription-stone was dug up at Deerhurst, and is now amongst the Amuck:Han marbles at Oxford : it com memorates the construction of a church there by earl Odda, who died A. D. 1056. The most ancient inscription, however, is probably that at Jarrow, which is apparently of the same date as the erection of the church, A. D. 6S4.
Our object in bringing these examples forward, is not so much to prove each example of Saxon origin, but rather to establish the date of a particular class of work ; for if in one or two cases this be indubitably proved to be Saxon, we have every right to conclude that the same kind of work is of the same origin wherever it may be found. It somewhat corroborates our position, that many churches in which such work has been discovered have been alluded to by the Saxon historians. Thus a probable inference may be deduced from the ancient chronicles of the monastery of Dover, that the old church near the castle was founded by Eadbald, king of Kent. The churches of Jarrow and Monk-Wearmouth, in which supposed Saxon work exists, are both mentioned as having been founded by Benedict Iliscopius, A. D. (381 : so also of the churches of Ripon and liexham.