Notes on the Ruthwell Cross

Abstract

It has commonly been supposed that the first mention of the Ruthwell Cross was in these words of Hickes, on p. 5 of his edition of Jonas' Icelandic Grammar, published in 1703 as Part III of Hickes' Thesaurus: ‘Denique infra posui in quatuor tabellis .... æri insculptum nobilissimum monumentum Runicum, quod à se Ruthwelli, vulgo Revelli apud Scotos, descriptum ad me misit in Septentrionali literatura, præsertim in Runica, singulariter eruditus, Reverendus Wilhelmus Nicolsonus, Archidiaconus Carleolensis.‘ This must have been written before June 14, 1702, since on that day Nicolson was consecrated Bishop of Carlisle. No one seems hitherto to have inquired when Nicolson himself discovered the monument, nor what he thought of it. In the following pages I shall present Nicolson's own statement concerning his discovery, his references to the Cross at various subsequent times, and finally his detailed account of a collation of his transcript with the inscription on the Cross, made two years after Hickes had published the earlier transcript. This information is contained in the first volume of Nicolson's Letters on Various Subjects, edited by John Nichols, London, 1809. and in his unpublished diary for the year 1705.