An ancient Runic cross of stone, 18 feet tall, dating from the 7th or 8th century, now in the church at Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. A portion of Cynewulf's poem, Dream of the Rood, in which the tree of the Cross is conceived of as telling its own story, is engraved upon it, and is said to be the earliest piece of written English extant. It was smashed in 1664, but restored in 1818 by Henry Duncan.