N. M. M. H. E. P. N. C."
He reads the first three letters "Deo Optimo Maximo," and says the subsequent line contains the initials of the following hexameter:
"Nunc mea, mox hujus, et postea nescio cujus,"
alluding to the successive descent of property from one generation to another.
Perhaps one of your readers may be enabled to tell me whether the above line be original, or copied, and from whom.
P. H. Fisher.
Stroud.
The agreement referred to is no other than the famous treaty of peace between Alfred and Guthrun, whose name, by the substitution of an initial "L." for a "G.," among various other inaccuracies for which your correspondent is perhaps not responsible, has been disguised under the form of "Lvthrvnvs." The inscription itself forms the commencement of the treaty, which is stated, in Turner's Anglo-Saxons, book iv. ch. v., to be still extant. It is translated as follows, in Lambard's Αρχαιονομια, p. 36.:—
"Fœdus quod Aluredus & Gythrunus reges ex sapientum Anglorum, atque eorum omnium qui orientalem incolebant Angliam consulto ferierunt, in quod præterea singuli non solum de se ipsis, verum etiam de natis suis, ac nondum in lucem editis (quotquot saltem misericordiæ divinæ aut regiæ velint esse participes), jurarunt.
"Primo igitur ditionis nostræ fines ad Thamesim fluvium evehuntor: Inde ad Leam flumen profecti, ad fontem ejus deferuntor: tum rectà ad Bedfordiam porriguntor, ac denique per Usam fluvium porrecti ad viam Vetelingianam desinunto."