The Phœnician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons : discovered by Phœnician & Sumerian inscriptions in Britain, by preroman Briton coins & a mass of new history : with over one hundred illustrations and maps

PHGNICIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN BRITAIN 17 traces of the extensive workings of these mines in “ prehistoric’ times are still abundantly visible near Penzance and elsewhere in The Duchy—many of which I have personally examined several times—no specific Phoenician inscription seems hitherto to have been reported either in Cornwall or elsewhere in the British Isles. Yet this unique ancient historical monument does not appear to be under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act.

The following description of this rude stone pillar and its site and environments embodies the results of my personal examination of the monument itself and its neighbourhood, supplemented by local enquiry and the chief published references to the stone.

Its former, and presumably its original site where it stood before its removal to its present site about 1836, was recorded from personal knowledge by the famous archeologist Prof. J. Stuart as being at (see sketch-map) :—

“a spot surrounded by a wood, close to the present toll-gate of Shevack, about a mile south of the House of Newton. From its proximity to the Inn and Farm of Pitmachie it has occasionally been called the Pitmachie Stone. When the ground on which it stood was in course of being trenched several graves were discovered onasandyridgenearthestone . . . graves made in hard gravel without any appearance of flags at sides or elsewhere.’’} This information was supplemented by the late Lord Aberdeen, who wrote that the Stone originally stood on an open moor . . . a few paces distant from the high road near Pitmachie turnpike of the Great Northern Road recently opened, the old road having been on the opposite side of the Gady.’””

The spot, thus indicated (see sketch-map) by these authentic contemporary records, stands in the heart of a romantic meadow encircled by picturesque hills and dominated by the beetling crags of Mt. Bennachie, crowned with the ruins of a prehistoric fort, rising on the west. It is within the angle of the old moorland meadow (now part of the richly cultivated Garrioch vale of old Pict-land) between the Shevack stream and the Gadie rivulet, which latter formerly,

1SSS i, 1-2. 2 Jb. i, 2.