Welsh Journals

Within sight of this church, overlooking the ancient settlement of Llanborth, there stands what is, perhaps, one of the most puzzling archaeological remains in Cardiganshire. The Corbalengi stone, as it is now generally known, is no particular object of beauty. When Professor Macalister addressed the Society in 1927 he referred to it as a fine block of grit', but I suspect that this was a wry thrust of Scots humour. For the stone is a roughly-shaped object, and the lettering, though sufficiently regular to mark its inscription as being very near to the time of the Roman occupation, is certainly not particularly artistic, Corbalengi IACIT Ordovus. The name is in the genitive case, following a very wide-spread practice. (' The Stone) of Corbaleng- (us ? ') The false Latin Iacit for the Classical Latin Iacet is again almost universal on the stones of this period. It is the last, apparently abbreviated, word which has been the cause of so much speculation- Ordovus. Apparently Corbalengus was a member of the Ordovician tribe. It is the simple recording of that fact, from an age when our store of facts is so pitifully small, that has furrowed many a scholar's brow, and has given rise to some ingenious theories. I think we can be fairly sure that the stone rests more or less where those who first erected it intended it to be. The worthy inhabitants of Penbryn have not, perhaps, always treated this archaeological relic with the respect which it deserves, but it is too massive a piece to be treated with the disrespect shown to so many similar relics. There is no evidence that it has been used as a gate post When it is first mentioned in the 1695 edition of Gibson's Camden it is referred to as a rude stone in Penbryn parish not far from the church.' Later references speak of a cairn of stones with which this stone was associated in a saddle-backed field formerly known as Parc Carreg y Lluniau. It was not until about 1804, it would seem, that the accompanying cairn of stones was disturbed as a preliminary to the re-erection of the stone. This brought to light an urn full of ashes and some silver coins and a few gold coins of the time of Vespasian'. It is very uncertain 1An address delivered to the Society at Penbryn Church, 2 July 1960. Mr. Walrond regrets that when the address was given he had not had an opportunity of reading Mr. G. Melville Richards's valuable contribution to The Journal of the Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland (Vol. XC, Part II, 1960) entitled The Irish Settle- ments in South-West Wales A Topographical Approach,' which had appeared only a very short time previously. Had he been able to do so, certain parts of the address would, he writes, have been expressed in different terms and with a different emphasis. -ED.