The Cat-Stane, Edinburghshire : is it not the tombstone of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa? / by J. Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Cat-Stane, Edinburghshire : is it not the tombstone of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa? / by J. Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    inunicated to tbe Publisher from Mr John liicks of Trewithier, in Corn- wall.” The accompanying woodcut (fig. 2) is an exact copy of Mr Lhwyd’s sketch, as published in the “Philosophical Transactions.” In the very brief communication accompanying it, the Cat-stane is shortly described as “A Pictish monument near Edinburgh, In.oc tumclo jacit veta F. victi. This tbe common people call the Ket-stean; note that the British names beginning with the letter Gw began in Latin with V [and the three examples given by Lhwyd in his letter to Dr Rowland follow]. So I suppose (it is added) this person’s name was Gweth or Geth, of which name were divers kings of the Piets, whence the vulgar name of Ket- stoue.”1 2 In the course of the last century, notices or readings of the Cat-gtaue inscription, more or less similar to the account of it in the “ Philoso- phical Transactions,” were published by different writers, as by Sir Ro- bert Sibbald, in 1708,'-—by Maitland, in 1753,3—by Pennant, in his Journey through Scotland in 1772,4—and by Gough, in 1789, in the third volume of his edition of “ Camden’s Britannia.”5 All the four authors whom I have quoted agree as to the reading of the inscription, and give the two names mentioned in it, as VETTA and VICTI. But in printing the first of these names, VETTA, Mait- land and Pennant, following perhaps the text in the “ Philosophical Transactions,” carelessly spell it with a single instead of a double T; and Gough makes the first vowel in VICTI an E instead of an I. Sir Robert Sibbald gives as a K the mutilated terminal letter in the third line, which Mr Llwyd deciphered as an F. Sibbald’s account of the stone 1 Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxii. p. 790. 2 Historical Inquiries concerning the Roman Monuments and Antiquities in Scot- land, p. 50. 3 The History of Edinburgh, p. 508. 4 Tour in Scotland in 1772, Part ii. p. 237. When describing his ride from Kirkliston to Edinburgh, ho observes : “ On the right hand, at a small distance from our road are some rude stones. On one called the Cal-stean, a compound of Celtic and Saxon signifying the Stone of Battle, is this inscription: In hoc tumulo Jacet Veta F. victi ; supposed in memory of a person slain there.” 5 Camden’s Britannia, edited by Richard Gough, vol. iii. p. 317. Mr Gough cites also as Mr Wilkie’s reading, “ In hoc tum, jac. Constantin Vict.”