LOTHAN ME WROHTE A.

[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Edstone. (From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly
Allen, F.S.A.)]

From the drawing given here the inscription is palpably incomplete, as
though the writer had been suddenly stopped in his work. Nothing is known
of Lothan beyond the making of this sundial, so that the fixing of the
date can only be by comparative reasoning. At Kirkdale, on the other hand,
we know that Tosti, Harold's brother, became Earl of Northumbria in 1055,
we know also that the Northumbrians rose against Tosti's misgovernment and
his many crimes, among which must be placed the murder of the Gamal
mentioned in the inscription, and that in 1065 Tosti was outlawed, his
house-carles killed, and his treasures seized. After this we also know
that Tosti was defeated by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, and having fled to
Scotland, submitted himself to Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, who had
arrived in the Tyne with his fleet early in September 1066, that they then
sailed southwards, and having sacked Scarborough defeated Edwin and Morcar
at Fulford near York only eight days before the landing of William the
Norman at Pevensey. Harold having made forced marches reached York on
September the 24th, and defeated his brother and the Norwegian king, both
being slain in the battle which was fought at Stamford Bridge on the
Derwent. Harold was forced to take his wearied army southwards immediately
after the battle to meet the Frenchmen at Hastings, and the great disaster
of Senlac Hill occurred on October the 14th. This stone at Kirkdale is
thus concerned with momentous events in English history, for the murder of
Gamal and the insurrection of Tosti may be considered two of the links in
the chain of events leading to the Norman Conquest.

A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built