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Title: Old Crosses and Lychgates

Author: Aymer Vallance

Release date: November 27, 2017 [eBook #56059]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD CROSSES AND LYCHGATES ***

[i]

OLD CROSSES
and LYCHGATES

[iv]

[Frontispiece

1. NORTHAMPTON

ELEANOR CROSS

[v]

# OLD CROSSES
and LYCHGATES

BY

AYMER VALLANCE

LONDON

B·T·BATSFORD, LTD 94, HIGH HOLBORN

[vi]

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT
THE DARIEN PRESS, EDINBURGH

[vii]

## PREFACE

The genesis of this book was an article on "Churchyard Crosses," written by request for the Burlington Magazine, and published therein in September 1918. It was at a time when the hearts of the British people were being stirred to their innermost depths, for the European War was yet raging, and the question of the most suitable form of memorials of our heroic dead, sacrificed day by day, was continually present to us. Nor, though hostilities happily ceased when the Armistice was agreed upon within a few weeks thereafter, has the subject of commemorating the fallen on that account declined in interest and importance. Nay, its claims are, if anything, more insistent than ever, for, the vital necessity of concentrating our energies on the attainment of victory having passed away, the nation is now at leisure "to pour out its mourning heart in memorials that will tell the generations to come how it realised the bitterness and glory of the years of the Great War." Such being the case, it was hoped that it might prove useful to gather together a collection of examples of old crosses and lychgates, as affording the most appropriate form of monuments for reproduction or adaptation to the needs of the present. Too many of the manifestations of modern so-called art betray its utter bankruptcy, because having broken with tradition, it has no resource left but to express itself in wayward eccentricity and ugly sensationalism, the very antitheses of the dignified beauty which the following of time-hallowed precedent alone can impart.

To obtain a sufficiently representative series there has been no occasion to go beyond the confines of England and Wales. Within those limits a very large number of types is to be found, every one of which is illustrated in the following pages. I do not pretend to have treated the subject exhaustively, but I do claim that never before has so manifold a range of crosses been depicted within the compass of a single volume; nor has so systematic an analysis and classification of the various types of crosses, tracing the course of their historic evolution, been attempted by any previous writer in the English language. My classification, based solely upon the study of anatomical form and structure, is original, and presents the subject in an entirely new aspect.

Without the generous co-operation of friends and strangers alike, my task would have been impossible. A considerable amount of material had been collected by my friend, the late Mr Herbert Batsford, and of this I have gladly[viii] availed myself. To my dear and revered friend, the late Sir William St John Hope, I, for one, am more indebted archæologically than I can find words to express. No sooner did he learn that I had undertaken this work than he remarked to me, "You must quote documents," and, by way of giving practical effect to his advice, he offered, with his wonted liberality, to place at my disposal some important notes he had made from the original accounts of the royal expenditure on the Eleanor Memorial Crosses. These notes, to my profound regret, I never received, because St John Hope, being shortly afterwards stricken with his fatal illness, had not the opportunity to look them up for me. My pages in consequence are the poorer for lack of his invaluable material. I have, however, been able to quote in full the historic description of Nevill's cross from the Rites of Durham (Surtees Society, 1902), of which St John Hope was Joint Editor.

Among my innumerable obligations I desire to record my indebtedness to the following for facilities given, and for help in divers ways:—

The authorities and assistants of the British Museum, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and of the Guildhall Museum; the President and Council of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society; the Burlington Magazine, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Provost of Eton (who kindly went to Oxford expressly to examine the Jews' cross for me), Mr F. T. S. Houghton (who journeyed from Birmingham to Halesowen in order to photograph the remains of the cross-head at the latter place), and Dr F. J. Allen, of Cambridge (for photographs and much valuable information); also to Miss E. K. Prideaux, the Rev. G. C. Richards, F.S.A., the Revv. F. and F. R. P. Sumner, and C. Eveleigh Woodruff, Major C. A. Markham, and Messrs Harold Brakspear, F.S.A., G. C. Druce, F.S.A., Reginald A. Smith, F.S.A., J. H. Allchin, and H. Elgar, Maidstone Museum; Oxley Grabham and W. Watson, York Museum; H. St George Gray, Taunton Museum; Frank Woolnough, F.R.Met.S., Ipswich Museum; Richard Scriven, George Clinch, F.G.S., F.S.A.(Scot.), W. Plomer Young, P. M. C. Kermode, G. Granville Buckley, M.D., F.S.A., F. H. Crossley, F. E. Howard, Arthur Hussey, F. C. Elliston-Erwood, Robert Richmond, George H. Widdows, F.R.I.B.A., R. P. Stone, Oswald Stone, P. Bedford, Alfred Watkins; and last, but not least, my publisher, Mr Harry Batsford and his assistant, Mr A. W. Haggis, whose constant and ready co-operation has lightened many hours of laborious research in museum libraries and of industry at High Holborn.

AYMER VALLANCE.

Aymers, Lynsted,

February 1920.

[ix]

## CONTENTS

[xi]

## TOPOGRAPHICAL LIST OF SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATED

CHAPTERS I. to VII.—CROSSES
Subject. | Source. | Illus– tration No. |  | Page Referred to in Text.
Aldborough | Photo, Frith & Co. | 193 |  | 158
Alphington | Del., J. Buckler | 199 |  | 161
Ampney Crucis do. do. | Photo, Rev. F. Sumner do. Rev. F. R. P. Sumner do. F. T. S. Houghton | 97 98 99 |  | 50
Axbridge | Gentleman's Magazine | 148 |  | 128
Bakewell | Engraving by F. L. Chantrey, R.A. | 39 |  | 32
Bedale | Photo, Frith & Co. | 119 |  | 54
Bewcastle do. do. | do. Gibson & Sons do. do. do. do. do. do. | 3 25 26 |  | 32
Bingley | do. Frith & Co. | 182 |  | 125
Bisley | do. do. | 197 |  | 163
Bishop's Lydeard | do. Dr F. J. Allen | 20 |  | 42, 44, 46
Blakemere | Del., J. Buckler | 15 |  | 13
Blanchland Abbey | Photo, Gibson & Sons | 44 |  | 41
Bleadon | do. Dr F. J. Allen | 89 |  | 48
Bonsall | do. Frith & Co. | 120 |  | 54
Bristol | Engraving by S. and N. Buck, 1734 | 9 |  | 123
Brigstock | Photo, B.T.B. | 122 |  | 54
Bungay | do. do. | 187 |  | 157
Castle Combe do. do. do. | Del., J. Buckler Photo, Frith & Co. Del., W. G. Allen do. do. | 173 174 175 176 |  | 157
Carlton | Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 63 |  | 43
Charlton Mackerel | Photo, Frith & Co. | 19 |  | 42, 44
Charing Cross, nr. London do. do. do. do. | Engraving by Ralph Agas, 1792, Crace Collection, British Museum Crowle Pennant Collection, British Museum Crace Collection, British Museum | 135 136 137 |  | 108
Cheadle | Photo, W. Watson | 35 |  | 37
Cheapside Crosses, London[xii] do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. | Photo, B.T.B., Guildhall Museum do. do. do. Water Colour Drawing at Society of Antiquaries, after Mural Painting at Cowdray Drawing in Pepysian Library, Cambridge Photo, G. Clinch, from Contemporary Woodcut | 130 131 132 133 134 |  | 102
Cheddar | do. Frith & Co. | 165 |  | 146
Cheshunt, Waltham do. do. | Vetusta Monumenta Del., J. Buckler Vetusta Monumenta | 127 128 129 |  | 95, 101
Chester, High | Pen Drawing by Randle Holme, Harleian MSS. 2073, British Museum | 24 |  | 24, 158
Chichester do. do. do. | Del., J. Coney (lent by F. H. Crossley) Photo, J. Valentine Print, Victoria and Albert Museum do. do. do. | 11 161 162 163 |  | 137
Child's Wickham | Photo, B.T.B. | 7 |  | 54
Coventry | Dugdale's Warwickshire | 8 |  | 111
Cricklade Churchyard do. Town Cross | Photo, Rev. F. R. P. Sumner do. Rev. F. Sumner | 116 117 |  | 54
Croxden | Del., J. Buckler | 88 |  | 47
Crowcombe | Photochrom Co. | 118 |  | 46, 54
Cumnor | Del., J. Buckler | 59 |  | 43
Derwen do. do. | Photo, Aymer Vallance do. do. do. do. | 110 111 112 |  | 52
Doncaster | Vetusta Monumenta | 191 |  | 158
Dorchester | Del., J. Buckler | 65 |  | 44
Doulting do. do. | Dr F. J. Allen do. do. do. do. | 74 75 76 |  | 43, 44
Drayton | Del., J. Buckler | 54 |  | 46
Dundry | do. J. K. Colling | 78 |  | 43
Dunster | Photo, J. Valentine | 177 |  | 156
Elstow | Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 194 |  | 158
Eyam do. | Photo, J. Valentine do. do. | 27 28 |  | 32
Eynsham | Del., J. Buckler, 1820 | 50 |  | 45
Fletton do. | Print, Victoria and Albert Museum do. do. do. | 40 41 |  | 37
Geddington do. | Vetusta Monumenta Photochrom Co. | 124 125 |  | 95, 96
Glastonbury | Hearne's Antiquities | 164 |  | 138
Gloucester | Vetusta Monumenta | 138 |  | 108
Gosforth | Lysons' Magna Britannia | 33 |  | 34
Great Malvern[xiii] | Photo, Frith & Co. | 16 |  | 13
do. Grimsby | Del., J. Buckler | 49 |  | 45
Halesowen | Photo, F. T. S. Houghton | 82 |  | 47
Hardley | Knight's Norfolk Antiquities, 1892 | 18 |  | 13
Headington do. | Del., J. Buckler Photo, H. Taunt | 69 70 |  | 44
Hedon | Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 79 |  | 46
Hereford, Whitefriars do. do. | Del., J. Buckler Photochrom Co. | 72 73 |  | 44
do. Preaching Cross | Photo, Frith & Co. | 143 |  | 122
Hexham | do. Gibson & Sons | 42 |  | 37
Higham Ferrers | Markham's Old Crosses of Northamptonshire | 55 |  | 46
Holbech | Engraving by W. Stukeley | 10 |  | 123
Horsington | Del., after J. Buckler | 53 |  | 46
Ipswich do. do. do. | Diary of Sir James Thornhill Photo, Frank Woolnough, F.R.Met.S. Aquatint by Geo. Frost, 1812 Photo, Frank Woolnough, F.R.Met.S. | 169 170 171 172 |  | 152
Irtlingborough | Markham's Old Crosses of Northamptonshire | 56 |  | 46
Irton | Lysons' Magna Britannia | 32 |  | 34
Iron Acton | Photo, Rev. F. Sumner | 144 |  | 122
Keyingham, Yorks. | Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 64 |  | 44
do. (from Lincolnshire) | do. do. | 80 |  | 47
Lanteglos Juxta Fowey do. do. | Photo, Frith & Co. do. F. T. S. Houghton | 94 95 |  | 49
Leicester | Nichol's Leicestershire | 12 |  | 152
Leighton Buzzard do. | Engraving in Lyson's Bedfordshire Del., J. Buckler | 146 147 |  | 124
Lichfield, Dean Dentons | Old Engraving, Victoria and Albert Museum | 154 |  | 142
London, West Cheap | (see Cheapside, supra) |  |  |
do. Charing Cross | (see Charing Cross, supra) |  |  |
do. Paul's Cross do. do. | Engraved from Drawing in Pepysian Library, Cambridge Panel Painting by John Gipkyn at Society of Antiquaries | 141 142 |  | 113, 120
Lymm | Photo, Frith & Co. | 183 |  | 157
Madley do. | Photo, Alfred Watkins, F.R.P.S. do. do. | 101 102 |  | 51
Maidstone | do. H. Elgar, from Drawing by E. Pretty | 167 |  | 146
Malmesbury do. do. | do. Dr G. Granville Buckley, F.S.A. Old Print, Victoria and Albert Museum do. do. do. | 156 157 158 |  | 133
Maughold, Isle of Man do. do. | Photo, J. Valentine do. Frith & Co. | 86 87 |  | 46, 48
Mawgan-in-Pyder (Lanherne House Nunnery)[xiv] | Photo, J. Valentine | 38 |  | 37
Mawgan-in-Pyder (Churchyard Cross) Mawgan-in-Pyder (Churchyard Cross) | Lysons' Magna Britannia Photo, Frith & Co. | 106 107 |  | 50
Mildenhall | do. B.T.B. | 13 |  | 154
Milverton, Somerset | Del., J. Buckler, 1841 (per H. St. G. Gray) | 185 |  | 156
Mitton do. | do. do. do. do. | 194 195 |  | 161
Mitchel Troy | do. do. | 57 |  | 45
Nether Stowey | do. do. 1837 (per H. St. G. Gray) | 184 |  | 156
Newmarket, Flintshire do. do. | Photo, F. T. S. Houghton do. do. | 90 91 |  | 48
Northampton, Eleanor Cross do. do. | do. H. Cooper & Son Britton's Architectural Antiquities | 1 126 |  | 95, 98
Northampton, Old Market Cross | Water Colour in British Museum (MSS. Dept.), copy of Bridges' Northamptonshire | 150 |  | 142
North Petherton | Del., J. K. Colling | 77 |  | 42
North Hinksey do. do. | Del., J. Buckler do. do. do. do. | 83 84 85 |  | 48
Norwich | Blomfield's Antiquities of Norfolk (T. Sheldrake) | 153 |  | 138
Nottingham | Stretton MSS. | 186 |  | 157
Oakham do. | Photo, B.T.B. do. do. | 178 179 |  | 156
Ombersley do. do. | do. Frith & Co. Instrumenta Ecclesiastica do. do. | 66 67 68 |  | 44
Oundle | Markham's Old Crosses of Northamptonshire | 168 |  | 156
Oxford, Jews' Cross do. do. do. do. | Photo, B.T.B. do. do. | 21 22 23 |  | 19
Paul's Cross, London | (see London, Paul's Cross, supra) |  |  |
Pocklington do. | Old Print, Victoria and Albert Museum do. do. | 114 115 |  | 50, 54
Poulton-le-Fylde | Photo, Sir B. Stone | 6 |  | 24
Raglan | Del., J. Buckler | 71 |  | 44
Raunds | Markham's Old Crosses of Northamptonshire | 45 |  | 42
Repton | Photo, Photochrom Co. | 123 |  | 54
Ripley | do. Aymer Vallance | 196 |  | 162
Rocester do. | Del., J. Buckler, 1832 do. do. | 47 48 |  | 45
Rothersthorp | Markham's Old Crosses of Northamptonshire | 46 |  | 47
Salisbury[xv] do. | Del., J. C. Buckler Photo, Photochrom Co. | 159 160 |  | 137
Sandbach do. do. | Dr Ormerod's Cheshire do. do. J. Valentine & Co. | 29 30 31 |  | 32
Shepton Mallet do. | Photo, Dr F. J. Allen Gentleman's Magazine, 1781 | 151 152 |  | 128
Sherburn-in-Elmet | G. B. Bulmer, Architectural Studies in Yorkshire, 1887 | 113 |  | 46, 53
Somersby | Instrumenta Ecclesiastica | 81 |  | 47
Somerton | Photo, Frith & Co. | 166 |  | 146
St Columb Major | do. do. | 37 |  | 37
St Ives, Cornwall | do. do. | 96 |  | 50
St Michael's Mount do. | Del., J. Buckler do. do. | 104 105 |  | 52
St Donats do. | Photo, Aymer Vallance Del., J. Buckler | 108 109 |  | 46, 52
Stalbridge | Photo, R. Wilkinson | 58 |  | 43, 44, 46
Stanway | Del., J. Buckler | 60 |  | 43
Steeple Ashton | do. do. | 121 |  | 54
Stevington | Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 17 |  | 43
Stringston, Somersetshire | Architectural Association Sketch Book | 5 |  | 43
Swaffham | Photo, B.T.B. | 188 |  | 157
Taunton | Drawing in British Museum, King's Collection | 155 |  | 142
Thatcham | Del., J. Buckler | 61 |  | 43
Tottenham do. | Old Engraving, 1788 do. Victoria and Albert Museum | 139 140 |  | 111
Tyberton do. | Photo, Alfred Watkins, F.R.P.S. do. do. | 100 103 |  | 51
Wakefield | Del., J. Buckler | 190 |  | 157
Waltham Cross, Cheshunt | (see Cheshunt, supra) |  |  |
Waterperry, Oxfordshire | Del., J. Buckler | 4 |  | 43
Whalley | Photo, Gibson & Sons | 34 |  | 37
Wells | Sime's Map of Wells, British Museum, King's Collection | 149 |  | 125
Wheston, Tideswell do. do. | Engraving by F. L. Chantrey, R.A. Photo, F. Chapman | 92 93 |  | 49
Whitford | do. W. Marriot Dodson | 36 |  | 35
Wicken | Del., J. Buckler | 62 |  | 43, 44
Winchester | do. do. | 145 |  | 124
Witney | Photo, Henry Taunt | 14 |  | 156
Wolverhampton, Dane's Cross | Old Print, Victoria and Albert Museum | 2 |  | 37
Wonford, St Loye's | Del., Miss E. K. Prideaux | 198 |  | 161
Woodstock | Paul Sandby, 1777, The Antiquarian Repertory | 189 |  | 157
Wooler | Scott's Border Antiquities | 43 |  | 37
Wymondham[xvi] do. | Photo, B.T.B. do. do. | 180 181 |  | 156
Yarnton do. | Del., J. Buckler, 1821 do. do. | 51 52 |  | 44, 45
CHAPTER VIII.—LYCHGATES
Anstey | Del., J. Buckler | 210 |  | 167
Ashwell do. do. do. | B.T.B. do. do. | 215 216 217 218 |  | 165, 167
Beckenham do. do. | Album at R.I.B.A. Del., J. Buckler Spring Gardens' Sketch Book | 205 206 207 |  | 165, 166
Boughton, Monchelsea | Del., J. Buckler | 231 |  | 168
Bray do. | Photo, Aymer Vallance Peart Collection, R.I.B.A. | 202 203 |  | 164
Chalfont, St Giles | Photo | 204 |  | 164
Chiddingfold | do. W. Plomer Young | 227 |  | 164
Clodock | Del., J. Buckler | 228 |  | 167
Clun | Photo, F. H Crossley | 235 |  | 164
Goring | do. Henry Taunt | 226 |  | 165
Hartfield | F. Frith & Co. | 201 |  | 164
Hayes | Mills' History of the Parish of Hayes | 200 |  | 164, 165
Heston do. | J. Drayton Wyatt, Anastatic Drawing Society Spring Gardens' Sketch Book | 213 214 |  | 164, 165
Isleham do. do. | Drawing after J. Buckler do. do. do. do. | 223 224 225 |  | 167
Lenham do. do. | Photo, Aymer Vallance Spring Gardens' Sketch Book do. do. | 220 221 222 |  | 165, 167
Llandrillo-yn-Rhos | Photo, F. Frith & Co. | 233 |  | 168
Llanfillo | do. P. Bedford | 229 |  | 167
Morwenstow | A. P. S. Dictionary | 219 |  | 165
Monnington-on-Wye | Photo | 237 |  | 167
Pattingham | Shaw's History of Staffordshire | 234 |  | 167
Pulborough | Source unknown | 236 |  | 167
Rustington[xvii] | Del., J. Buckler | 230 |  | 168
Staple do. | Instrumenta Ecclesiastica do. do. | 208 209 |  | 166
Tal-y Llyn | Photo, Sir B. Stone | 232 |  | 168
West Wickham do. | Thomas Garratt, Transactions of St Paul's Ecclesiological Society, Vol. II. Spring Gardens' Sketch Book | 211 212 |  | 167

[xviii]

## ADDENDUM.

Page 9, line 11 from the bottom, after "extant" add:—

One example, removed from its site, is in existence. In the collection of the Kent Archæological Society at the Museum at Maidstone is a much mutilated head of a churchyard cross found at West Malling. The work, very rude and uncouth, appears to be of the fourteenth century. On one side is a crucifixion, unattended, and on one end a single figure, which may possibly represent St. John Baptist.

[1]

OLD CROSSES AND
LYCHGATES

## I. INTRODUCTION

IN pursuance of the Christian policy of instituting an innocent practice to take the place of each of the old, vicious customs of heathendom—the substitution of the festival of Christmas for the former orgies of the Saturnalia is perhaps the best known instance in point—the Emperor Constantine (324 to 337 A.D.) caused crosses to be erected along the public ways at various points where previously had been situated terminal statues. Thence are believed to have originated the shrines and crucifixes, conspicuous by the roadside at the entrance of towns and villages in the Catholic countries of the Continent. Nor throughout the Middle Ages, until the sixteenth century, when the English people were torn from the unity of the unreformed faith, was our own country behind any other in its pious observance of the ancient traditional usage. The reason thereof is explained by a passage in Dives et Pauper, a popular treatise on the Ten Commandments, which was printed by Wynken de Worde at Westminster in 1496. The purpose of the erection of standing crosses is therein expounded as follows:—"For this reason ben Crosses by ye waye, that whan folke passynge see the Crosse, they sholde thynke on Hym that deyed on the Crosse, and worshypp Hym above all thynge."

2. WOLVERHAMPTON

DANES' CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD
MONOLITH TYPE

3. BEWCASTLE, CUMBERLAND

MONOLITH TYPE

4. WATER PERRY, OXFORDSHIRE

5. STRINGSTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH PLAN

SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE

6. POULTON-LE-FYLDE, LANCASHIRE

MARKET CROSS. SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE

The process of the evolution of the standing cross may be traced through certain well-defined stages. Its most rudimentary form is that of the menhir, a vertical monolith rising direct from the ground (Figs. 2 and 3); next, the shaft is raised on steps, and becomes a tapering stem, while its head grows on either side into the arms of a cross (Fig. 16), or expands into a lantern-like ornament, quadrangular or polygonal on plan, enriched with sculptured figures and tabernacle work (Figs. 4 and 5). The shaft-on-steps persisted to the last as the favourite type for churchyard crosses, notwithstanding the introduction of other varieties. The cross gained greater dignity[2] by being mounted on an enlarged socket or foot, interposed between[3] the shaft itself and the steps underneath. Thirdly, the shaft takes the form of a pinnacle or spire, generally of[4] diminishing tiers or storeys, the whole crowned with a small cross or finial. To this type the important group of Eleanor crosses belongs (Figs. 1 and 8). Hitherto the cross had been simply spectacular and monumental. It next developed in a utilitarian direction, and became a preaching cross (Figs. 9 and 10), its lowest storey, formerly closed and solid, being opened out and made to consist of a ring of standards (with or without a shaft in the middle), to carry the soaring superstructure. The last type, the market cross (Figs. 11, 12, 13, and 14), may be regarded as an expansion of the preaching cross, the latter being intended to shelter but one occupant, or at any rate only a very small number, whereas the market cross is designed to shelter many persons. In the fully matured market cross the whole structure is one organism, planned as such from the outset; but there are, on the other hand, some obvious instances of adaptation, where the encircling umbrella is, as it were, an after-thought, having been built up to and about a previously existing cross of the shaft-on-steps type. In either case, however, the result ultimately obtained is identical. A number of handsome market crosses, principally belonging to the seventeenth and[5] eighteenth centuries, were constructed of timber framing, with stone, slate, or tiled roofs. The latest development was the introduction of[6] an upper chamber above the open ground-floor stage. But when, later still, the circular or polygonal plan was abandoned for an oblong plan in order to provide[7] the utmost accommodation in the upper chamber, all recognisable resemblance to the structure in the form of its origin was lost; in a word, the market cross had become extinct, and had given place instead to the market house or hall.

7. CHILD'S WICKHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

VILLAGE CROSS. SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE

8. COVENTRY, WARWICKSHIRE

ELEANOR CROSS TYPE

9. BRISTOL

PREACHING CROSS TYPE

10. HOLBECH, LINCOLNSHIRE

PREACHING CROSS TYPE

It may be assumed that, for the sake of durability, stone would be the most usual material to choose for the construction of standing crosses. But there were exceptions, as a memorable incident in the career of Jeanne d'Arc is sufficient to show. The authority is a letter from two of Jeanne's contemporaries, Jean and André de Laval, grandsons of the famous Bertrand de Guesclin. The scene was Selles; the date 6th June 1428. On that occasion, the maid's horse, a fine black charger, being brought to the door of her lodging, proved so restive that he could not be controlled. "Lead him to the Cross," said Jeanne. And there he stood as quietly as though he had been bound, while she mounted. The cross was a wrought-iron one, and was situated about fifteen paces from the north door of the church. An historical memorial, this cross might have been standing yet, had not the surrounding cemetery been cleared and levelled to make a site for a market place.

Again, standing crosses might be made of wood. Thus, Joan Wither bequeathed a sum in 1511 for the restoration of the wooden cross in the hamlet of Reding, in Eboney, Kent; and John Netheway, of[8] Taunton, Somerset, whose will is dated 4th August 1503, directed his executors to "make a new crosse of tree in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalyn, nigh the procession-way"; a[9] provision which is interesting from another point of view, viz., that it unmistakably connects the churchyard cross with outdoor processions.

11. CHICHESTER

THE MARKET CROSS

12. LEICESTER

MARKET CROSS, WITH PLAN

A phenomenon in regard to churchyard crosses at the present day is the inequality of their distribution, which, however, must not be taken as a criterion of their number and situation in former times. Indeed, their existence was very general; and the fact of their preservation or destruction depends on local conditions. Some counties, like Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, and Northamptonshire, for example, contain numbers, while other counties contain scarcely any at all. Thus, Charles Fowler, F.R.I.B.A., writing in 1896 concerning the Diocese of Llandaff, which comprises Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire, says: "In nearly every churchyard there are remains of a cross of some kind. These crosses were placed midway between the enclosure entrance and south porch, to the east of the principal path.... Many of the steps and bases of these crosses are to be found in the diocese, but the tops have mostly all disappeared; also very many of the shafts." On the other hand, in Hertfordshire there are but two specimens, both incomplete; and again, in Kent, with the exception of the ancient bases in Folkestone and Teynham churchyards, there is not another example extant. And yet numbers and numbers of Kentish churchyard crosses are positively known, through mention of them in wills, to have been standing in the Middle Ages.

In churchyard crosses a certain feature, occurring more particularly in the southwestern district of England, has proved somewhat of a[10] puzzle to archæologists, to wit, the presence of a little niche or recess (Figs. 15 and 16), sunk in the side of the socket or, more rarely, in the lower part of the shaft. Instances have been noted[11] at Wonastow and Raglan, in Monmouthshire; Lydney and Newland, in Gloucestershire; Blackmere, Brampton Abbots, Colwell, Kingdon, St[12] Weonards, Whitchurch, and Wigmore, in Herefordshire; and at Broadway and Great Malvern, in Worcestershire. At the last named (Fig. 16) the niche is hollowed out in the shaft itself. It has been supposed[13] that the purpose of the niche was to contain a light; but a much more probable suggestion, of the late Sir William St John Hope's, is that the niche was designed as a receptacle for the pyx, enclosing the Sacred Host, in the course of the Palm Sunday procession.

13. MILDENHALL, SUFFOLK

MARKET CROSS

14. WITNEY, OXFORDSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

15. BLAKEMERE, HEREFORDSHIRE

SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE, WITH NICHE

16. GREAT MALVERN, WORCESTERSHIRE

CROSS, WITH NICHE, IN THE PRIORY CHURCHYARD

17. STEVINGTON, BEDFORDSHIRE

SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE

There can be no doubt that, whatever else their uses, churchyard crosses in mediæval England figured prominently in the ceremonial of Palm Sunday. So indispensable, indeed, did they become for this purpose, that it may be taken for granted that no parish was without one, at any rate of wood, if not of stone. In the Constitutions, issued in 1229 by William de Bleys, Bishop of Worcester, he ordered that there should be, in every churchyard of his diocese, "crux decens et honesta, vel in cimiterio erecta, ad quam fiet processio ipso die Palmarum, nisi in alio loco consuevit fieri."

At Hardley, in Norfolk, Henry Bunn, by will dated 1501, directed that a cross should be set up in the churchyard for the offering of boughs on Palm Sunday. It would be interesting if the above named could be identified with the cross now standing (Fig. 18). The latter, however, is not only of later date, but is not a churchyard cross at all, being a secular landmark, dating from 1543. In that year, it is recorded, a new cross was made, sculptured with the crucifixion on one side, and the arms of the city of Norwich on the other; and being painted, was conveyed to Hardley and erected there, "where the Sheriffs of Norwich yearly do keep a court." The "place," says Francis Blomefield, "was the extent of the liberties of the city on the River Wensum."

But, to resume, so intimately was the churchyard cross associated with the Palm Sunday solemnities, that the former is very commonly referred to in documents as the "Palm Cross." As such the churchyard cross at Bishop's Stortford is mentioned in the parish accounts for the year 1525—the same cross which was ultimately demolished in 1643. The Palm Cross is so named in the parish accounts of Morebath, Devonshire, as late as the year 1572-73. For the rest, it is enough to cite a number of Kentish wills, in which the churchyard cross is specifically named the Palm Cross, viz.—at Addington in 1528; Ashford in 1469; Bidborough in 1524; Boughton-under-Blean in 1559; Boxley in 1476 and 1524; Eboney; Erith in 1544; Faversham in 1508, 1510, and 1521; Hastingleigh in 1528; Lenham in 1471 (as having then been newly erected); Lyminge in 1508; Lynsted; Margate in 1521; Preston-by-Faversham in 1525; Reculver in 1541; Old Romney in 1484; St Peter's, Sandwich, in 1536; Southfleet in 1478; Strood in 1482; Wittersham in 1497; and Woolwich in 1499 and 1515.

In some cases the shaft of the churchyard cross is drilled with holes sloping downward. An instance of this is to be found at Tredington, in Gloucestershire. Charles Pooley thinks that these holes were for the affixing of some such object[14] as a scutcheon or a figure. That the suggestion is not unfeasible is shown by the will of Alice Findred, widow, who in 1528 left £2 "for making of a stone cross, called a Palm Cross, with a picture of the Passion of Christ of copper and gilt ... to be set upon the head of the burial" of her husband and children in the churchyard of Hastingleigh, Kent. But there is an alternative explanation of the drilled holes, viz., that they were meant to hold the stems of flowers or branches for adorning the cross on certain occasions, e.g., Palm Sunday, or at the old Lancashire ceremony of "flowering," on St John Baptist's Day, 24th June. According to the eminent ecclesiologist, Dr Daniel Rock, in The Church of our Fathers, it was at the churchyard cross that the outdoor procession of palms, having wended its way thither, would always halt, and, the cross itself being wreathed and decked with flowers and branches, the Blessed Sacrament, solemnly borne in procession, was temporarily deposited before it upon some suitable throne, while the second station was being made. This done, the procession reformed and proceeded to the principal door for the third station, before passing again within the church.

18. HARDLEY, NORFOLK

BOUNDARY CROSS

A certain peculiarity, occasionally to be found in churchyard crosses, is the scooping out of a cavity or cavities in the base or steps—cavities resembling nothing so much as the hollows in the beheading block at the Tower of London. An instance of this feature, believed to have been designed as a receptacle for offerings, occurs in the churchyard cross at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. 20) in the second step from the lowest one. Possibly the basin-like cavities, which here[15] and there occur in village and roadside crosses, may have been meant to hold water or vinegar, to disinfect the coins paid for food in times of plague, as mentioned below (page 22).

A curious post-Reformation use for churchyard crosses is referred to by Miss Curtis in Antiquities of Laugharne and Pendine, 1871. The passages are quoted for what they may be worth. At Eglwyscummin, Carmarthenshire, "there is a cross in the churchyard to which wolves' heads were attached.... In ancient times, when it was a necessity to exterminate certain animals, as foxes, wolves, etc., a reward was given to those who captured these animals, and it was usual to attach their heads to the cross in the churchyard for the purpose of valuing them. Generally, the heads remained on the cross for three church services, and after that the reward was given. For a wolf's head the same sum was awarded, as was given for the capture of the greatest robber; for (dog) foxes, 2s. 6d., and (vixens) 1s. 6d. In the register of Laugharne church is an account of the sums given for the different animals." Again, both at Llansandurnen and at Marrôs, in the churchyard, is "a part of the ancient cross ... to which wolves' heads, etc., were attached. It is but a few years ago that a farmer in Marrôs hung foxes' heads on it. In the churchyard of Amroth (Pembrokeshire) is a cross to which they used to attach wolves' heads, etc."

The iconoclastic movement seems to have begun earlier than is commonly imagined. In 1531 or 1532, according to John Foxe in his Actes and Monuments, "there were many images cast down and destroyed in many places, as the image of the crucifix in the highway by Coggeshall (Essex). Also John Seward, of Dedham, overthrew a cross in Stoke Park."

The spirit of sacrilege and profanity having been aroused, many gross excesses were committed by fanatical persons. Thus one Simon Kent writes on 27th May 1549, to inform the Bishop of Lincoln that a young man had nailed up a dead cat on the market cross at St Ives, Huntingdonshire.

At South Littleton, Worcestershire, the "staff and head" of the cross in the churchyard were disposed of by the churchwardens in 1552. In another Worcestershire parish, on the contrary, that of Badsey, the churchwardens in 1557 expended 7s. on the churchyard cross.

At Winchester, Bishop Horne, an inveterate innovator, in the injunctions which he drew up for his cathedral church in 1571, ordered "the stone cross in the churchyard" to be "extinguished".

At Prestbury, Cheshire, the churchwardens' accounts for 1576 to 1580 record the price paid "for cuttynge (down) the crosse in the churcheyard, and the chargs of one with a certyficat thereof to Manchester" (whence, presumably, the order for the demolition came), and also the amount (14s.) received for the sale of "iron which was aboute" the same cross. This would perhaps refer to the railing for protection, required no longer when once the cross itself had disappeared.

On the other hand, according to Thomas Fuller's Church History of Britain, Abbot Feckenham built a cross at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, during the period of his imprisonment in Wisbech Castle, i.e., from June 1580 to[16] his death in 1585. At Fyfield, Berkshire, at the expense of William Upton, a churchyard cross was erected as late as 1627.

Thus individual cases of destruction (as also of repair and reconstruction) no doubt occurred from time to time; but if any particular locality was denuded, it would have been due to the prejudice and bigotry of some individual bishop, archdeacon, or churchwarden, rather than to any systematic iconoclasm authorised by the central government. On 28th August 1643, however, the Puritan party having virtually gained the ascendancy in the kingdom, an Act was passed in Parliament, entitled "Monuments of Superstition or Idolatry to be demolished." This ordinance provides that "all crosses upon all and every ... churches or chappels, or other places of publique prayer, churchyards, or other places to any of the said churches ... belonging, or in any other open place, shall, before the ... first day of November (1643), be taken away and defaced, and none of the like hereafter permitted in any such church ... or other places aforesaid." Local committees were constituted for carrying out the orders of Parliament. Seven eastern counties were entrusted for purgation to the Earl of Manchester, who appointed, as Parliamentary visitor under him, the notorious William Dowsing. This person, though unsurpassed in vandalism, has yet been maligned so far as churchyard crosses are concerned. In 1643 and 1644 he visited, in person or by deputy, 149 churches in Suffolk, keeping a minute record of each day's proceedings; but, strange to say, among all the quantity of objects defaced, his Journal does not specify one single instance of a churchyard cross having been injured or destroyed by him.

In some cases the official despoilers met with popular opposition. Thus Richard Baxter relates how, in obedience to the order sent by the Parliament for the demolition of all images of the Holy Trinity and of the Virgin Mary to be found in churches or on the crosses of churchyards, the churchwarden of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, determined to destroy the crucifix upon the churchyard cross there, and accordingly set up a ladder to have reached it. But the ladder proved too short, and whilst he (the churchwarden) was gone to seek another, a crowd of the opposition "party of the town, poor journeymen and servants, took the alarm, and ran together with weapons to defend the crucifix"; and even purposed to wreak their vengeance upon Baxter himself, supposing him to be the prime instigator of the iconoclasm.

Numbers of places, and they not necessarily of first rank nor of special size, possessed more crosses than one. For instance, Liverpool, in the Middle Ages but an insignificant village, as compared with its present extent and importance, had its High Cross, White Cross, Red Cross, Town-End Cross, and St Patrick's Cross—five in all.

At Brackley, in Northamptonshire, "there were," writes Leland, circa 1535 to 1545, "three goodly crosses of stone in the town, one by south[17] at the end of the town, thrown down a late by thieves that sought for treasure; another at the west end of St James' Church; the third very antique, fair, and costly, in[18] the inward part of the High Street. There be divers tabernacles in this, with ladies and men armed. Some say that the staplers of the town made this; but I think rather some nobleman, lord of the town."

19. CHARLTON MACKEREL, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

20. BISHOP'S LYDEARD, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH RECEPTACLE FOR OFFERINGS

At Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, there were six crosses, viz., the churchyard cross (taken down in 1643); the potter's cross, in the middle of the town, and one in each of the four roads leading therefrom. The respective names of these were Collin's Cross, Crab Cross, Wayte Cross, and Maple Cross.

Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, had two crosses standing respectively at the two principal entrances to the town. In 1584 the "stock stone" at Thorpe Cross was sold for 2s. 2d. to John Wythers, who, as part of the bargain, had to undertake to plant an ash, or a thorn tree, in place of it. In the same year, 1584, the "stock stone at Kettelby Cross, with one stone standing," was sold to William Trigg for 5s., the purchaser undertaking, as in the last named case, to plant a tree to mark the site.

In addition to the principal cross—the High Cross—of Chester, there was one near St Michael's church. Another cross stood at Barrs, one at Northgate, and another at Spittal Boughton. All three were pulled down in 1583 by order of Archbishop Sandys' visitors. A contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1807, says: "The only remains of any cross at this time," in or near Chester, "is upon the Roode, where races are run." The said meadow, otherwise Roodee, or Roodeye, is situated by the River Dee, not far west of Chester. In former days, down to about 1587, this meadow used to be submerged at high tide, all except one little island, upon which stood an ancient cross of such venerable repute, as an object of pilgrimage, as to give its name to the isle itself. This cross is identical with "the swete rode of Chester," referred to in the ribald verses, entitled "The Fantasie of Idolatrie" printed under the date 1540 in Foxe's Actes and Monuments. When Dr George Ormerod wrote his Chester (finished in 1819), the base of this cross, he said, "is, or was lately remaining, and was a few years since replaced."

In and around London, besides the well-known crosses of St Paul's, Cheap, and Charing, there were at one time and another three more crosses which may be mentioned. One, called Le Broken Cross, was erected by the Earl of Gloucester in the reign of Henry III. (1216 to 1272), but it did not stand very long. Its site is said to have been the "place of the meeting of the Folkmote ... near St Martin's-le-Grand, about midway between the Northgate of the precinct (of St Paul's) and the church of St Vedast." On 5th September 1379 agreements were drawn up for letting the stations about the Broken Cross to five divers persons. The cross was bodily taken down in 1390. Another was the Cow Cross at Smithfield, a monument referred to by Stow as no longer standing when he wrote. Another instance was the Strand Cross, near Covent Garden. This cross was hexagonal on plan, and comprised four stages. It was standing in 1547, but was ultimately removed, its site being occupied by the Maypole, which was spoken of in 1700 as new.

[19]

21, 22, 23. OXFORD

SOCKET OF JEWS' CROSS, PRESERVED IN ST FRIDESWIDE'S CHURCH

At Oxford there were at least two crosses, viz., the Jews' cross (Figs. 21-23), and also a noted wayside cross, which the city records show to have been in existence in 1331. It stood without the east gate of the city, in front of the door of St John's Hospital, on or near the site of the present entrance to Magdalen College. As to the monument called the Jews' cross, its origin is historic. In 1268, on Ascension Day, "as the usual procession of scholars and citizens returned from St Frideswide's," and was passing the Jewish synagogue in Fish Street (now St Aldate's), "a Jew suddenly burst from the group of his friends ... and, snatching the crucifix from its bearer, trod it underfoot." Part of the penalty exacted by the Crown was that the Jews of Oxford had to erect, at their own cost, a cross of marble on the spot where the outrage had been committed. The sentence, however, was eventually modified to the extent that, instead of having to endure a perpetual reminder of their humiliation and punishment opposite to the very door of the synagogue, the Jews were allowed to set up the expiatory cross in a less obnoxious position, an open plot by Merton College. Such is the site where it used to be believed that the cross stood. But a certain passage in the city records seems, as the late Herbert Hurst pointed out, to contradict any previously received identification of the site of the Jews' cross, and to locate it[20] rather on some spot near the north side of St Frideswide's church. The passage in question is as follows: "In 1342, Adam Blaket was indicted before John Fitz Perys and William le Iremonger, bailiffs of Oxford, for that he, on the Thursday next before Palm Sunday, feloniously entered by night the enclosure of the cemetery of the Church of St Frideswyde, and there stole and carried off one arm," or other portion (vana) "of the great (capitalis) cross of the cemetery, of the value of half a mark, and afterwards broke it into four parts." The purloined fragments were subsequently "found and seized. He (Blaket) confessed to the taking, and pleaded that he was at the time a lunatic and not compos mentis."

Anyhow, if the precise site remains uncertain, there is extant a sculptured socket, which, though it is only of stone, not marble, Mr Hurst pronounced to be "an undoubted part" of the original Jews' cross. This socket was described by Dr James Ingram in 1837 as having been then "recently discovered, on the removal of a quantity of rubbish from the foundation of the walls" of St Frideswide's, embedded in the base of the diagonal buttress at the south-east angle of St Lucy's chapel in the south transept. It is now preserved in the gallery at the south end of the same transept. The four sides are sculptured with what appear to be Old Testament subjects, although only two are now identifiable. The first is the temptation of Adam and Eve, with the serpent coiling round a tree between them; and the second is the sacrifice of Isaac. The third appears to be the sacrifice of an ox or calf; but the whole is much mutilated. Nothing remains of it but the lower part of a human being on the left, and the headless body of a cloven-footed quadruped, the forelegs of which are in a kneeling posture. Above, a hand, issuing from a cloud, lets down a pair of small tablets, or an open book. The subject of the fourth side is a puzzle which has hitherto defied elucidation. It represents three figures, the middle one seated between two upright figures turning away, both having grotesque heads like apes. Below the right foot of one of the figures is what appears to be a dragon or demon, with its leg on the ground. At each angle of the stone is a winged dragon, head downward, the tail terminating in characteristic thirteenth-century foliage. The stone is 1 ft. 11 in. high, by 2 ft. 3 in. square at the bottom, decreasing to 1 ft. 9 in. square at the top. The greatest dimension, inclusive of the figures, is 2 ft. 6 in. in width.

It goes without saying that, so long as the land of Britain continued to be open, i.e., not subdivided by enclosures—a process which dates back no earlier than the fifteenth century—boundary stones for defining the limits of contiguous parishes, as also of the properties of individuals, assumed much greater importance than would be attached to such marks in later times, after hedges had grown up and fences come into use. The ancient boundary mark might sometimes be a plain post or pillar, or it might take the form of a cross. The latter practice is illustrated by the will of one John Cole, of Thelnetham, Suffolk, dated 8th May 1527. The testator leaves 10s. for erecting a new cross at the[21] spot "at Short Grove's End, where the gospel is said upon Ascension even," and, moreover, expressly directs that this new cross is to be made on the model of one already standing, named "Trapett Crosse at the Hawe Lane's End." The will further provides for an income, arising from certain landed estates, sufficient to yield annually a bushel and a half of malt "to be browne," and a bushel of wheat to be baked, "to fynde a drinking" on the said day in perpetuity, for the parishioners of Thelnetham "to drink at the crosse aforenamed." Here, then, is an instance of a boundary cross explicitly designed for the observances of the Rogation, or gang days.

But later on in the sixteenth century, the old order of things was reversed, and the authorities proceeded to stamp out the former time-honoured usages, one after another. Thus Bishop Parkhurst's Injunctions for the diocese of Norwich in 1569, Grindal's for the province of York in 1571, and Sandys' Articles for the diocese of London in the same year, alike prohibited the popish ceremony of "staying at any crosses" during the perambulation of parish bounds on Rogation days.

Other ancient customs connected with standing crosses are illustrated by the terms in which prelates of the reformed Church condemn them. Thus, Bishop Bentham's Injunctions for the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in 1565 forbid bearers to set "down the corpse of any dead body by any cross by the way, as they bring it to the burial"; and again, later, Archbishop Grindal's Injunctions for the Province of York in 1571 order that none shall "rest at any cross in carrying any corpse to burying, nor shall leave any little crosses of wood there." In 1585 the Bishop of St David's issued an Injunction to his diocese, among the directions whereof, under the head of "Burial," it is ordered: "First, that there be no crosses of wood made and erected where they use to rest with the corpse; and especially that no wooden crosses be set upon the cross in the churchyard." These strenuous prohibitions only prove that the custom of placing wooden crosses for the dead upon wayside or churchyard crosses must have prevailed in ancient days, and was still tenaciously observed by the people in spite of the drastic change of religion. It may possibly be that the holes, sometimes found drilled in churchyard crosses, were provided, among other purposes, for holding the pegs on which the small wooden memorial crosses could be suspended.

Crosses, again, were employed to define, in any given locality, the extent of the right of sanctuary, that powerful safeguard of the age of faith and charity against summary vengeance and injustice. Thus, at Ripon inviolable security was assured within the radius of about a mile around the shrine of St Wilfrid; and accordingly a stone cross was placed close by the edge of each of the five roads leading to the city, to mark the sanctuary bounds. Of these five crosses; the only one whereof any appreciable remnant survives, is that of Sharow. It consists of a massive stone step, with the broken stump of the old shaft.

At Wansford, in Northamptonshire, the River Nene is crossed by a four[22]teenth-century stone bridge; and there, embedded in the ground, in one of the refuges, formed by the triangular space on the top of a cutwater, may be seen the socket of an ancient wayside cross. The upper bed of the stone is barely above the level of the roadway, but its rectangular outline, with the round mortice-hole in the centre, is plain and unmistakable. There seems no reason to doubt that this singularly interesting relic stands in situ, and the cross must thus have borne as direct a relationship to the bridge, as a bridge chapel would have done.

Near the road leading to the north entrance of Ravenshelm (now Ravensworth) Castle, County Durham, is an old cross, known as the "Butter Cross." The story is told of this, as of many other crosses and landmarks, that the country people used to leave their produce here for the citizens of Newcastle to fetch at the time when the town was stricken by the plague in the sixteenth century. The structure consists of two steps, a massive socket, and a lofty shaft, surmounted by a "four-hole" cross.

Halfway between York and the village of Fulford are the remains of a mediæval cross, at which, during the plague in 1665, the country folk used to leave food, to be fetched by the citizens, so avoiding the risk of contagion. This cross served in the same way again, as late as the year 1833, during the cholera epidemic.

24. CHESTER

HIGH CROSS

Historically important as having been erected to commemorate the battle between English and Scots, and the defeat of the latter, on 17th October 1346, Nevill's Cross has an added interest, inasmuch as a very full and graphic description of it has been preserved from the pen of one who was evidently well acquainted with the monument. In fact he had been, previously to the Dissolution, a monk in the great Benedictine community at Durham. The following is his account, extracted from the Rites of Durham, which he wrote in 1593: "On the west side of the city of Durham there was a most notable, famous, and goodly large cross of stone work, erected and set up to the honour of God and for the victory had thereof, shortly after the battle of Durham, in the same place where the battle was fought, called and known by the name of Nevill's cross, which was set up at the cost and charges of the Lord Ralph Nevill, being one of the most excellent and chief in the said battle and field. Which cross had seven steps about it every way, four squared to the socket that the stalk of the cross did stand in, which socket was made fast to a four-squared broad stone, being the sole or bottom stone of a large thickness that the socket did stand upon, which is a yard and a half square about every way, which stone was one of the steps and the eighth in number. Also the said socket was made fast with iron and lead to the sole stone in every side of the corner of the said socket stone, which was three-quarters deep, and a yard and a quarter square about every way. And the stalk of the cross going upward contained in length three yards and a half up to the boss, being eight square about (octagonal), all of one whole piece of stone, from the socket that[23] it did stand in to the boss above, into the which boss the said stalk was deeply soldered with lead and solder. And in the midst of the stalk, in every second square, was the Nevill cross (saltire) in a scutcheon, being the Lord Nevill's arms, finely cut out and wrought in the said stalk of stone. Also the nether end of the stalk was soldered deep in the hole of the socket that it did stand in, with lead and solder, and at every of the four corners of the said socket below was one of the pictures of the four Evangelists, being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, very finely set forth and carved in stonemason work. And on the height of the said stalk did stand a most large, fine boss of stone, being eight square round about, finely cut out and bordered and marvellous curiously wrought. And in every square of the nether side of the boss in the masonwork was the Nevill's cross in a scutcheon in one square, and the bull's head, having no scutcheon, in another square; and so contained in every square after the same sort round about the boss. And on the height of the said boss, having a stalk of stone, being a cross standing a little higher than the rest, which was soldered deeply with lead and solder into the hole of the said boss above; whereon was finely cut out and pictured on both sides of the stalk of the said cross the picture of our Saviour Christ, crucified with His arms stretched abroad, His hands nailed to the cross, and His feet being nailed upon the stalk of the said cross below, about a quarter of a yard from above the boss, with the picture of our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the one side of Him, and the picture of[24] St John the Evangelist on the other side, most pitifully lamenting and beholding His torments and cruel death, standing both on the height of the said boss. All which pictures were very artificially and curiously wrought altogether, and finely carved out of one whole entire stone, some part thereof (being) through carved work, both on the east side and the west side of the said cross, with a cover of stone likewise over their head, being all most finely and curiously wrought together out of the said whole stone, which cover of stone was covered all over very finely with lead. And also, in token and remembrance of the said battle of Durham, and to the perpetual memory and honour of the Lord Nevill and his posterity for ever, it was termed by the title and name of Nevill's Cross; which so did there stand and remain, most notorious to all passengers, till of late, in the year of our Lord God 1589, in the night time, the same was broken down and defaced by some lewd and contemptuous wicked persons, thereunto encouraged, as it seemeth, by some who love Christ the worse for the cross' sake, as utterly and spitefully despising all ancient ceremonies and monuments." On the above vivid description of Nevill's Cross no comment is required; but it may not be amiss to append the note by the editors of the reissue by the Surtees Society in 1903: "The socket is all that remains ... The usual symbols of the four Evangelists are still to be seen on the four corners," presumably beneath the places where the statues themselves formerly stood, round about the shaft. The socket "has recently been removed to a new mound some yards distant from the old site. An old milestone stands where the stalk has been. Dr Raine (St Cuthbert) states that documents in the Treasury refer to an earlier Nevill's Cross in the same place; but he gives no references."

Six and a half miles south of Durham, in the modern village of Ferry Hill, is the fragment of an old stone cross, named Cleve's Cross. This monument, according to tradition, commemorates the valour of one, Roger de Ferry, who slew a monster wild boar, which had been the terror of the whole countryside.

At Wigan, Lancashire, are the rude remains of an ancient stone cross, concerning which the following tradition is told. While Sir William Bradshaigh was engaged in the holy wars or in travelling overseas, his wife Mabel, weary of waiting for his return, bigamously married a Welsh knight. After an absence of ten years, however, Sir William came home again and, notwithstanding his pilgrim's habit, was recognised by his wife. Whereupon the Welsh knight fled from the outraged husband, who pursued, and, overtaking, slew him. Dame Mabel's confessor enjoined her to walk barefoot once every week for the rest of her life to do penance at a certain cross on the outskirts of Wigan. The cross is the same which is situated at the end of Standishgate, and has borne the significant name of "Mab's Cross" from the fourteenth century to this day. The romantic story was used by Sir Walter Scott as the basis of his novel, The Betrothed. This tradition of employing crosses as places of public penance survives in the shape of the old-fashioned stocks situated at the foot of village and market crosses (Fig. 6).

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Of Banbury Cross, Oxfordshire, immortalised in nursery rhyme, it is much to be regretted that no vestige remains. John Leland, between about 1535 and 1545, writes in his Itinerary: "At the west part of the street," which runs east and west through the town, "is a large area, having a goodly cross with many degrees (steps) about it. In this area is kept every Thursday a very celebrate market."

As the churchyard or village cross was the centre of the life of the smaller community, so also the market cross became the centre of the municipal life of towns and boroughs. Thus, it was the custom, at the close of the civic year, for the mayor and electors, being summoned by the blowing of a horn, to assemble at the churchyard cross at Folkestone, and at the market cross (now but a gaunt obelisk) at Ripon, for the election of a mayor for the ensuing year of office.

At Chester, "the High Cross (Fig. 24) was the scene of all great civic functions. Here, again and again, royalty was received.... Here proclamations were read out with due formality, and here the (famous) mystery plays were represented." Among the official uses to which market crosses were put was that of a recognised place for public proclamations. Thus, it was at the market cross at Darlington, in 1312, that the Bishop's order, prohibiting a tournament, which had been announced to take place, was read. This particular market cross, by the way, no longer exists, but its site is perpetuated by a plain cylindrical column, surmounted by a ball, erected at the cost of Dame Dorothy Browne in 1727.

At Wells it was a time-honoured custom that public proclamations should always be read and published first at the High Cross. It was from the cross at Lyme, Dorset, where he landed on 11th June 1685, that the declaration of the rebel Duke of Monmouth was read; and it was from the crosses of Taunton on 20th June, and Bridgwater, a day or two later, that, emboldened by his reception in the west, he caused himself to be proclaimed King of England—only to meet with crushing humiliation and defeat from the forces of King James II. at Sedgemoor on 6th July 1685.

The strangest and ghastliest of all uses to which a village cross could be put is that of a gallows; but, unless tradition lies, the notorious Judge Jeffreys actually hanged a man on the cross at Wedmore, Somerset. This identical cross, with its tall shaft and sculptured head, still stands, though removed from its original site beside the shambles to the garden of the house in which Judge Jeffreys himself is believed to have lodged, presumably during the Bloody Assize in the autumn of 1685, following the collapse of Monmouth's rebellion.

At Louth, Lincolnshire, a market cross was erected by the parish in 1521-22. That this structure was in the form of a roofed shelter, with a lofty shaft rising from the midst, is evident from the circumstances of the rebellion in 1536. The malcontents, it is recorded, had seized a number of the official books, and were about to burn them unread, when they came face to face with a certain priest, named William Morland. Upon his remonstrating with them,[26] they dragged him under the High Cross and compelled him to examine the said books before consigning them to the flames. Meanwhile, others of the crowd brought the registrar, "and caused him, by a ladder, to climb up to the altitude, or highest part, of the cross," who, in abject terror for his life, sought to appease the mob by consenting to the destruction of the books in his charge. A portion of this cross, being, perhaps, so much of it as was adjudged to be superstitious, was taken down in 1573. Three stones were purchased for mending the cross in 1632, and further repairs, including tiling, were carried out in 1639. The "cross pales," presumably the railings or posts about the cross, were removed in October 1753; but a proposal for enclosing the structure, "to keep it clean and decent," was carried by the parish in November 1769. Another cross was situated at a spot in Louth, known as Julian Bower. This cross, according to the churchwardens' accounts, was renewed in stone in 1544.

At Peterborough the old market cross, long since swept away, was a covered cross, as is evident from the town accounts, which note, in 1649, a sum of money "received under the market cross by several fellows for the use of the poor"; and, again, a further sum in 1652 "from the standers under the cross."

In parts of Wales it was formerly the custom for labourers offering themselves for hire to congregate at the village cross, bargains made at such a spot being regarded as of more binding nature than those made elsewhere. It was indeed considered peculiarly dishonourable and impious to break a contract made at the cross. The village cross of Rhuddlan, in Flintshire, was so much frequented for hiring purposes, that the amount of the wages prevailing there became the standard for the time being for the whole district. There was also this distinction, viz., that labourers, hired at Rhuddlan, were hired for a week, during which term the rate agreed upon could not be altered; as distinguished from the crosses of other places where the custom was for the labourer to be hired by the day only—the scale of his pay being liable to fluctuate accordingly from day to day.

In addition to the several kinds of crosses above enumerated, some writers name "weeping crosses." What is meant by a weeping cross is not clear, nor has anyone pretended to assign to such edifices, if indeed they ever existed except in popular fallacy, any characteristic features by which they may be recognised as distinct from other crosses. For all practical purposes, then, the weeping cross is not. Or again, it might well have been in any given case that a cross was provided in order that a preacher might deliver his sermon from its steps. But unless such a cross was constructed with the architectural features of a pulpit cross (like those, for instance, at Iron Acton (Fig. 144) or the Blackfriars' Cross at Hereford (Fig. 143)) then surely it must only be reckoned with the normal type of churchyard or village cross, from which it differs in no particular whatever. In a word, the one standard by which the various crosses in the following pages are grouped and classified is not their respective use and purpose, real or imaginary, but their structural shape.

[27]

## II. MONOLITH CROSSES

THE peculiar form of many crosses of Cornish type, among others, viz., a thick, rude monolith, with rounded head, is accounted for by some authorities, who pronounce such crosses to be nothing else than primeval menhirs. These venerated stones, then, it is stated, instead of being demolished on the conversion of the populace from paganism, were retained, and, after having the crucifixion or some other Christian device incised, or sculptured in bas-relief, upon the upper portion of the shaft, pressed into the service of the newly adopted faith.

Such, at any rate, was the practice of St Patrick, in the fifth century. It is true that if in any place he found the old superstitious worship too deep-rooted and perverse to admit of transformation, as it befell at Magh Sleacht, in County Cavan, where he encountered a group of thirteen pagan menhirs, he could not do but overthrow them without ruth; but whenever, on the other hand, as beside Lough Hacket, in County Galway, he found other menhirs, the popular regard for which was capable of being diverted into Christian channels, he spared the pillar-stones, sanctifying them with holy names and emblems.

The cutting away of certain portions of the top of the stone would result in a short-armed cross; or, again, a little shaping, combined with piercing, would produce the four-holed cross, so-called, viz., a cross within a ring or circle. It should be remarked at the outset that the dating of these early monuments is a study which has hitherto been strangely neglected. Antiquaries, like the late J. Romilly Allen, for example, have analysed and codified the ornamented motifs of early crosses with methodical precision; but the chronological side of the subject is still a matter of debate. So widely do experts differ that sometimes it happens that the same monument will be assigned by some to the fifth or sixth, and by others to later dates ranging to the twelfth century. Even when the cross happens to be inscribed with runes, which might be expected to afford an authentic clue as to its date and origin, the readings and interpretations propounded by connoisseurs are so irreconcilable as to make one sceptical of arriving at truth or finality through their guidance. The whole question of chronology yet awaits investigation by some competent authority. It must be understood, therefore, that the dates attributed to the several examples in this section cannot pretend to be anything else but approximate, although every care has been taken to obtain the most approved estimate.

[28]

25, 26. BEWCASTLE, CUMBERLAND

TWO VIEWS OF MONOLITH IN THE CHURCHYARD

[29]

27, 28. EYAM, DERBYSHIRE

VIEWS OF CROSS IN CHURCHYARD, SHOWING FRONT AND BACK

[30]

29, 30. SANDBACH, CHESHIRE

DETAILS OF CROSSES, WITH PLAN, SHOWING HOW THEY STAND

[31]

31. SANDBACH, CHESHIRE

[32]

South of the church, in the churchyard at Bewcastle, Cumberland, stands an obelisk or shaft of an early cross (Figs. 3, 25, and 26), strikingly like the famous cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire. The head of the latter is fairly complete, but in the case of the Bewcastle cross "the head was broken off long ago," wrote Bishop G. F. Browne. "About the year 1600, it was sent ... to Lord Arundel, and, beyond a description in Camden, with an attempt at a representation of the Runic inscription it bore, nothing has been heard of it since." The height of the surviving part is 14 ft. 6 in. It is incised with Anglian runes, which, however, are so much worn, and have been so variously rendered, that no reliance can be placed on their alleged authority. Scholars also differ widely as to the date of the cross, some placing it as early as 665, and others even as late as 1150. The west face comprises three standing human figures, in three tiers, the lowest depicting a man with a hawk, while the middle one, a nimbed figure, has been identified as Christ setting His feet upon the heads of monsters. On the east face is one long uninterrupted vine scroll, with birds and beasts in the volutes. The north and south faces are subdivided into panels containing chequers, interlaced knots, and scrollwork. In one of the scrolls on the south face is the oldest detached dial in existence, as distinct from dials on the walls of buildings. It presents a combination of the old 24-system and the octaval system; but the gnomon is missing.

In the churchyard of Eyam, Derbyshire, is a peculiarly handsome cross, of Anglo-Saxon workmanship, of about the year 700 (Figs. 27 and 28). The cross now measures 9 ft. 4 in. high; but the head is detached and obviously incomplete, if indeed it belongs to the shaft at all. Assuming, however, that it does belong, the existing lines and proportions would make the cross in its original state attain a total height of some 11 ft. 6 in. The width across the arms is 3 ft. 3 in. Both faces of the cross-top are sculptured with four angels each, that one at the intersection being encircled with a ring. All that part of the head below the central medallion is missing. The obverse of the shaft has two panels of figure-subjects above a very rich and elaborate interlaced knot-ornament. The edges have an interlaced pattern derived from a six-cord plait. The reverse of the shaft is occupied with the volutes of a "vine scroll."

In the churchyard of Bakewell, Derbyshire, stands the relic of a monolith with short-limbed cross-head (Fig. 39). It dates from about 800 to 900; and, exclusive of the boulder which forms the base, stands 7 ft. 10 in. high, by about 2 ft. wide over all at the widest part. One portion is sculptured with four compartments of figure-subjects, presumably scriptural, the uppermost one being apparently a crucifixion, though the stone is too much curtailed, and the ornament too broken, for certainty on the point. The other face and the sides are occupied with so-called vine scroll, an adaptation of debased classical Roman work.

32. IRTON, CUMBERLAND

CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

The two mutilated crosses standing side by side in the market square at Sandbach, Cheshire (Figs. 29, 30, and 31), have had an eventful history.[33] Dating from the ninth century, it is on record that they were still standing in 1585; but, since they are not mentioned by Webb in 1621, the assumption is that they had been broken up in the interval. Anyhow, the different parts became dispersed. Some were taken, by Sir John Crewe, to Utkinton Hall, where they remained until his death in 1711. They were subsequently removed to Tarporley rectory. Thence, after Cole, the antiquary, had seen and made drawings of them in 1757, they were taken to Oulton Park, where they were seen and drawn by S. Lysons. Other portions, however, of these crosses never left Sandbach, some of the lower parts being built into a wall by the town well, while the summit was found to have been buried in a garden. Lastly, through the zealous instrumentality of Dr George Ormerod, the various fragments were[34] collected, and re-erected at Sandbach in September 1816. "The two crosses stand on a substructure of two steps, with two sockets, in which the crosses are fixed. At the angle of each stage of the platform are stone posts, on which figures have been rudely carved." The head of either cross had been broken off, so that their proper height has been reduced. "The crosses are now of unequal height.... The taller one is 16 ft. 8 in. high; the shorter one, 11 ft. 11 in." high. Both crosses are of rectangular section, and tapering. It is not easy to convey in words an adequate idea of the extraordinary richness and variety of their sculptured ornament, which includes patterns derived from three-cord, four-cord, and eight-cord plaits, and figure of eight knots, as well as "much the finest series of figure subjects ... probably in all England." On the larger cross the Crucifixion amid the Evangelistic symbols, and beneath it the Nativity, with the ox and ass adoring, are clearly discernible; but the identification of other subjects is in many cases only conjectural. "The smaller cross bears a variety of human figures placed within ... lozenges." The stone of the crosses is of lower Silurian formation, practically indestructible by the natural action of the weather, a circumstance which accounts for the remarkable preservation of those parts which the wanton hand of man has spared.

The monolith cross in the churchyard at Irton, Cumberland (Fig. 32), stands 9 ft. 8 in. high, and, with the exception of the cross-head, the surface of which is much worn, is a singularly perfect specimen. Its edges are ornamented with quasi-classic vine scrolls. The obverse and reverse are covered with interlaced ornaments and key patterns. The uppermost panel on one face is a diaper formed by a repetition of small Greek crosses, set diagonally. The date of this cross is approximately 950.

The tall sandstone cross, now in the churchyard of Gosforth, in Cumberland (Fig. 33), is classed by the late Mr J. Romilly Allen as belonging to a well-known type, Mercian in origin, in which the shaft is cylindrical below and rectangular in the upper part. It may be dated from about 1000 to 1066. A second cross, which is recorded to have stood at a distance of 7 ft. from the first named, disappeared, probably in the year 1789. In the extant cross the four flat faces of the upper part of the shaft gradually die off into the round surface of the lower part, giving a semicircular line of intersection, which is emphasised by a roll moulding, forming a continuation of the mouldings on the four square angles. The four flat surfaces exhibit a great variety of human and animal forms, with zoomorphic ornament and abstract plaits. Some of the subjects have been interpreted as illustrating the stories of Heimdal and Loke, from Norse mythology, though the whole is actually surmounted by a Christian four-holed cross for head. The round part of the shaft in crosses of this type is not, as a rule, ornamented. The Gosforth cross, therefore, is in this respect exceptional. Its height is 14 ft. 6 in.

33. GOSFORTH, CUMBERLAND

CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

Within Whitford parish, Flintshire, about a mile from the village, on[35] open ground, and quite unprotected, stands an ancient monolith cross, known as Maen y Chwyfan (Fig. 36). The name can be traced back at least to the year 1388. The first part of it is identical with the first syllable of the word menhir. The last part of the name is of doubtful signification. Some have thought that the whole means "St Cwyfan's stone." The precise age of the cross is likewise doubtful, but it may be dated from about 950 to 1000. Its total height above ground is 11 ft. 3 in., by 11 in. thick, the stem diminishing in width from 2 ft. 5 in. at the base to 1 ft. 8 in. at the neck of the solid wheel-head, the diameter of which is 2 ft. 4 in. The flat stone, through which the stem passes for support, measures 4 ft. 11 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. The cross is incised on the edges, as well as on both faces; though almost all the ornament of the lower half of the reverse, or[36] west face, has perished. The condition of the obverse, or east face, is by far the most perfect, and exhibits a wonderful combination of patterns—crosses, knots,[37] osier-plaits, and other devices. In the head, the Triquetra, or three-cornered knot, is conspicuous. Altogether the Maen y Chwyfan is the most important and striking monument of its kind in North Wales.

34. WHALLEY, LANCASHIRE

CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

35. CHEADLE, CHESHIRE

CROSS, NOW IN YORK MUSEUM

Writing in 1872, Mr J. T. Blight described the early twelfth-century cross (now in the cemetery of Lanherne House Nunnery, Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall) (Fig. 38) as having been "removed several years since from the Chapel Close of the Barton of Roseworthy, in the parish of Gwinear." The crucifix, sculptured in low relief, is of the rudest and most primitive character, while the cross itself belongs to the class known as "four-holed." It is of Pentewan stone. Interlaced work forms the greater part of the ornament, and on the lower portion of the shaft, on either face, is an ancient inscription. The shaft has an unmistakable entasis.

The head of another four-holed cross, the holes having the shape of rough trefoils, is to be seen in the churchyard of St Columb Major, Cornwall. Both faces of the cross are similarly sculptured with the Triquetra (Fig. 37). The height is 3 ft. 1½ in. by 2 ft. 9 in. wide, over all, the material granite.

At Cheadle, Cheshire, in 1875, there were dug up, in a brickfield opposite to the Convalescent Hospital, the fragments of an early cross, probably of the tenth century, of Anglo-Saxon type (Fig. 35). In each limb of the cross, as well as at the intersection, is a convex boss. The material of the cross is a coarse grit stone. The dimensions are 1 ft. 4 in. wide at the greatest width, by 2 ft. 8 in. in height. It is now preserved at the Museum at York.

In the parish churchyard of Whalley, Lancashire, stands a cross (Fig. 34), which was, no doubt, originally a monolith, but has been broken across, and appears to have had its fractured edges trimmed and squared. At any rate, part of the stem, perhaps as much as 2 ft. of the height, where the cross-head rests upon it, is obviously missing. The arms also are missing, but the cross was originally of much the same outline as that of the cross at Irton and that from Cheadle. The ornament of the Whalley cross, however, is of much more refined execution. The date of it may be about 1000.

In the churchyard of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, opposite to the south porch, stands an ancient shaft, 14 ft. high, traditionally known as the Danes' cross (Fig. 2). It rises from a round stone, 7 ft. in diameter, and its form is that of a cylinder, 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter, tapering toward the neck. Almost the entire surface of the shaft is covered with sculptured ornament of about the year 1150 to 1175. There is, or was, a somewhat similar example in the churchyard of Leek, in the same county.

Another twelfth-century cross is that inscribed in memory of Ralph's son, William, at Fletton, in Huntingdonshire (Figs. 40, 41). This cross is a monolith, though the continuity of the design is interrupted by a heavy fillet, forming a horizontal band round the middle of the shaft.

[38]

36. WHITFORD, FLINTSHIRE

EAST SIDE OF CROSS, NAMED MAEN Y CHWYFAN

37. ST COLUMB MAJOR, CORNWALL

HEAD OF A CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

38. MAWGAN-IN-PYDER, CORNWALL

LANHERNE HOUSE NUNNERY, CROSS FROM ROSEWORTHY, GWINEAR

[39]

39. BAKEWELL, DERBYSHIRE

CROSS IN CHURCHYARD

40, 41. FLETTON, HUNTINGDONSHIRE

FRONT AND BACK OF CROSS

[40]

42. HEXHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND

CROSS AT ST GILES' HOSPITAL

43. WOOLER, HEDGELEY MOOR, NORTHUMBERLAND

PERCY'S CROSS

44. BLANCHLAND, NORTHUMBERLAND

CROSS IN THE ABBEY CHURCHYARD

The remains of the cross in the grounds of the Spital at Hexham (Fig. 42) offer an instance of vine scrollwork, derived from debased late-classic ornament.[41] Another side of the shaft is sculptured in low relief with a primitive representation of the Crucifixion between two figures, which, however, bear but slight resemblance to the Mary and John of post-Conquest tradition.

On the plain of Hedgeley Moor, near Wooler, in the north part of Northumberland, stands a monolith, commonly known as Percy's Cross (Fig. 43), because it is alleged to mark the spot where, on 24th April 1464, Sir Ralph Percy fell in a desperate attempt, on the part of Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI., to recover the throne for her demented husband. So rude and primitive is this monument that it is hard to believe that it could have been executed in the technically skilled period of the fifteenth century. It displays conspicuously, however, the badges of the house of Percy—the luces, or pike, the mascles, and the crescents, sculptured on its eight sides. The pillar stands on a plain, rugged socket. This cross became the rallying point, where the men of the north, opposed to the religious innovations of Henry VIII., gathered under the banner of the Five Wounds, badge of the ill-starred Pilgrimage of Grace, in 1536-7. Percy's Cross, on Hedgeley Moor, must not be confounded with the Percy Cross at Otterburn, erected to commemorate the battle of Chevy Chase, fought on 19th August 1388. The latter cross is a simple monolith, which has a decided entasis, and is mounted on a pile of masonry, resembling but roughly a flight of circular steps.

The cross in the churchyard of Blanchland Abbey, Northumberland (Fig. 44), is an interesting example of Gothic design applied to a monolith. From the style of its head this cross can scarcely date back any earlier than the late-thirteenth, or early-fourteenth century.

[42]

## III. THE SHAFT-ON-STEPS TYPE

THE average form of standing cross, and such to which the vast majority of them, not in churchyards only, but also on village greens and squares, or by the wayside, belongs, is that of the shaft-on-steps type. The fully developed cross of this sort consists of steps or calvary, socket, shaft or stem, capital or knop, and head. The latter, it should be remarked, is that part of the cross which, no doubt on account of the sacred or legendary significance of the figures sculptured upon it, is now most commonly absent. The remaining elements consisting of such simple units, it is truly wonderful how great variety of treatment is to be observed in crosses of the kind. The resources of their design may almost be said to be unlimited. It rarely happens that any two examples are found quite alike in all respects. For though the simplest of motifs be adopted, yet a minute change of detail, such as a hollow chamfer instead of a plain, flat bevel, or the setting of an angle pedestal diagonally instead of squarely with the side it adjoins, or some such other slight divergence, if insignificant in itself, will not fail to produce, by consistent repetition, a widely different result in the aggregate. The parts which lend themselves more appropriately than the rest to ornamental treatment are the socket, the knop, and most of all, the head. The steps, whether circular, rectangular, hexagonal, or octagonal on plan, are not made the subject for ornament, except rarely, and then it is confined to a moulded overhanging drip, or a moulded set-off in the angle between the tread and the riser, as for example, at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. 20), Charlton Mackerel (Fig. 19), and North Petherton, in Somersetshire (Fig. 77), and Raunds, in Northamptonshire (Fig. 45). Raunds cross has two steps, and the riser of the upper one is enriched with late-Gothic quatrefoil panelling. Such treatment, however, is altogether exceptional; and even in this case can scarcely be authentic, seeing that the quatrefoils are not properly spaced, as they must have been spaced, had they been designed for the position they now occupy.

45. RAUNDS, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

On the other hand, the stone block or socket, into which the shaft is mortised (and furthermore, as a rule, secured with lead), was regarded as a thoroughly appropriate place for ornament. It is most usually square on plan, and its upper bed made octagonal by means of steps or broaches, in the shaping of which a very great variety is manifested. The commonest form of step is diamond-pointed, but there are others which take the shape of a sort of round hump.[43] Examples of plain diamond steps occur in the sockets of Thatcham (Fig. 61) and Water Perry (Fig. 4) crosses. The socket at Stanway, Gloucestershire (Fig. 60), with its severely geometrical triangles and lozenges, is of most unusual form. It measures 1 ft. 10 in. high, exclusive of the fractured stump of the shaft. Convex angle-stops occur at Carlton (Fig. 63), Cumnor (Fig. 59), Stringston (Fig. 5), and Wicken (Fig. 62). The socket of the last-named cross is 2 ft. 6 in. square by 1 ft. 8 in. high. Its octagonal shaft is 11½ in. square at the foot, with pointed stops reaching up to a height of 9 in. Some of the round stops, at the corners of sockets, have a diagonal ridge extending to the outer angle, as at Carlton (Fig. 63), Stevington (Fig. 17), and Stringston (Fig. 5). The knop of the last-named, it may be mentioned, consisted of four demi-angels, holding shields, but their heads have been broken off, and themselves made almost unrecognisable through defacement. To resume, the sockets of the crosses at Elmswell in Suffolk, at Bradford Abbas and Stalbridge (Fig. 58), both in Dorsetshire, and of at least a dozen crosses in Somersetshire, including Doulting (Figs. 74, 75, and 76), Evercreech, Minehead, North Petherton (Fig. 77), West Pennard, and Wraxall, have angle-pedestals on every alternate cant of the octagon. These pedestals may have been designed for statuettes of the four Evangelists. Whatever the subject of the figures, the effect of the whole group, with the tall shaft in the middle, must have been very handsome. At Dundry (Fig. 78) and Wick St Laurence, both in Somersetshire, instead of detached[44] or engaged pedestals, there are, at the angles of the square socket, clasping buttresses with mouldings. The plan of Dundry, Wraxall, and Yatton is made extra elaborate and complex by means of a plinth, forming an eight-pointed figure, inserted between the socket and the topmost step of the calvary.

At Headington (Figs. 69 and 70), Ombersley (Figs. 66, 67, and 68), Raglan (Fig. 71), and Wicken (Fig. 62), the sockets are handsomely panelled with late-Gothic tracery ornament, principally quatrefoils. The sockets of Doulting (Figs. 74, 75, and 76) and West Pennard crosses, in Somersetshire, have emblems of the Passion carved on the sides; that at Charlton Mackerel (Fig. 19) has the Evangelistic symbols in the same position. More rarely, as at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. 20) and Long Sutton, both also in Somersetshire, and at Rampisham and Stalbridge (Fig. 58), both in Dorsetshire, and Yarnton, Oxfordshire (Figs. 51 and 52), the panels of the socket contain sculptured figure-subjects. An octagonal socket at Westcote, Gloucestershire, has a standing figure under a trefoiled niche on each side. This is an early example, since its date is the thirteenth century. At Didmarton, in the same county, is a fourteenth-century socket, octagonal on plan, having a half-length figure sculptured on every alternate side.

The churchyard cross at Dorchester, Oxfordshire (Fig. 65), had lost its original head by the time that Buckler made his sketch in 1813. According to him, the lower step was 6 in. high, and the next one above it 10 in. high. The socket was 1 ft. 7 in. square on plan, by 1 ft. 6 in. high; the shaft being a monolith 8 ft. 6½ in. high from socket to head. As to the socket, the transition from square to octagon, by means of stops, is very effective. The cross has since suffered drastic "restoration." The treatment of the stops on the socket may be compared with that at Keyingham, Yorkshire (Fig. 64), and Headington, Oxfordshire (Fig. 69).

The Whitefriars' cross (Figs. 72 and 73), so-called, about a mile from Hereford, is believed to have been built, shortly after the great plague at Hereford in the fourteenth century, by Lewis Charlton, Bishop from 1361 to 1369. On the summit of a lofty flight of seven steps rises a high pedestal, hexagonal on plan, each side of which has a sunk panel, sculptured with a shield charged with a lion rampant. The cornice is embattled, and the whole was crowned with a moulded socket. Such was the state of the monument in 1806, the shaft and cross-head having completely disappeared, thereby reducing the total height to some 15 ft. A new shaft and cross, disproportionately large, were "restored" by the year 1875. The peculiar feature of this cross is the lofty pedestal, which scarcely has any parallel, with the exception of the crosses of Helpston, in Northamptonshire, and of Aylburton and Clearwell, both in Gloucestershire.

As to the shaft, whether it be cylindrical, clustered, square, or octagonal, it usually tapers, but is very seldom ornamented, beyond having a stop near the[45] foot of each alternate cant in an octagonal stem. A few crosses may now be described, illustrating different treatments of the shaft.

The cross in the churchyard at Rocester, Staffordshire (Figs. 47 and 48), has three steps, each 6 in. high. The socket is 2 ft. 4 in. high, and the tapering stem, which is 1 ft. square over all at the bottom, is 11 ft. 9 in. high, exclusive of the capital. The stem, in the form of four keel-moulded shafts, with a vertical strip of dog-tooth ornament between them, must be of early date, possibly as early as 1230.

The socket of the Great Grimsby churchyard cross (Fig. 49) may be earlier still, although the stem or shaft itself might be somewhat later, perhaps about the middle of the thirteenth century. On plan the stem consists of four engaged shafts, each with a keel-mould on its outermost projection. The step is 3 ft. 8 in. square by 9 in. high. Next is a socket, 2 ft. 7 in. square on plan, consisting of two stages, the lower having a trefoiled arcade on each of its four sides, the upper one octagonal, with mouldings. The shaft is 6 ft. 2 in. high, including the capital. The total height is 10 ft. 3 in.

The village cross at Harringworth, Northamptonshire, has, not unlike the last example, a shaft composed of a cluster of eight engaged columns. It is apparently of late thirteenth-century date.

Two Oxfordshire examples, both of about the same date, 1290, viz., the churchyard cross at Yarnton (Figs. 51 and 52) and the market cross at Eynsham (Fig. 50), are adorned with sculpture, notably with canopied figures in low relief surrounding the foot of the shaft. Both shafts are much weather-worn, and that of Yarnton has lost its upper half, but the design of the two crosses appears to have been very similar. Yarnton cross stands upon two circular steps, the lower one of which has a diameter of about 6 ft. 9 in. or 7 ft. The socket has a circular plinth cut out of the same block of stone, and is on plan a quatrefoil of four circles, with the corners of a smaller square occupying the inner angles. The moulded capping is also cut in the same block. On each of the four semicircular faces is a niche incised with a figure in armour, kneeling, except on the eastern face, which exhibits a figure reclining somewhat in the familiar "Dying Gaul" attitude. The figure on the south face has a shield on the left arm. The bottom of the shaft is square on plan, with beaded angles, while the other part is on plan a circle, surrounded by four smaller engaged circles, or segments of circles. The figures round the shaft are four saints, now too much worn to be identified, under steep gables, with crockets. The cross at Eynsham differs from that at Yarnton more in the socket than in any other part. The Eynsham socket is a square block, with a figure sculptured at each angle, and gabled panels between. The upper part of the shaft is complete, and shows what must have been the form of the portion now wanting from Yarnton cross.

Another instance of an ornamented shaft is that of Mitchel Troy (Fig. 57). There the stem, a monolith of reddish sandstone, about 1 ft. by 8 in. on plan at[46] the foot, tapers to about half the above dimensions at the point where it is broken off, at a height of about 11 ft. The angles are chamfered, and the chamfers are ornamented with ball-flowers alternating with shields, sixteen ball-flowers on each chamfer. The date of this cross is the fourteenth century. Two Northamptonshire crosses, those of Higham Ferrers (c. 1320) and Irthlingborough (c. 1280) respectively (Figs. 55 and 56), are ornamented with sculptured decorations throughout the whole height of the shaft. At Ashton-under-Hill, Gloucestershire, the face of the shaft of the cross, about a third of the distance up from the bottom, is ornamented with a scutcheon. A certain number of Somersetshire crosses has a figure under a niche on one side of the shaft. In cases where, as at Burton St David, Broadway, Holford, Montacute, and Wiveliscombe, the niche and figure are sunk into the body of the monolith itself, there can scarcely be any objection to the device. But where, on the contrary, the statue, set on a bracket, stands prominently forward beyond the face of the shaft, the effect is anything but happy. For then the shaft looks so weighted down in one direction as almost to overbalance. The crosses at Bishop's Lydeard (Fig. 20) and Crowcombe (Fig. 118) are particularly exaggerated instances in point; others only less marked being the crosses at Drayton (Fig. 54), Fitzhead, Heathfield, Hinton St George, and Horsington (Fig. 53). But this peculiarity is not confined to Somersetshire. Thus, at Stalbridge, Dorsetshire (Fig. 58), a conspicuous statue and niche occur on one side of the shaft, while at Bradford Abbas, in the same county, the churchyard cross, though much decayed, affords unmistakable traces of having had a statue sculptured on each of the four sides of the shaft. A similar arrangement is to be found in Langley Abbey cross, Norfolk.

46. ROTHERSTHORP, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

HEAD OF CROSS

The knop, though richly sculptured, is rarely the pronounced and distinctive feature that it is at Maughold (Figs. 86, 87), St Donat's (Figs. 108, 109), and Sherburn-in-Elmet (Fig. 113), or in the so-called Ravenspurne cross, a monument now standing at Hedon, Yorkshire (Fig. 79). The chamfers of its shaft have traces of figures about midway, and the head is large and imposing, but too ill-defined for the subject to be identified. It has, however, been described as having "curious sculptured emblems of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary." The cross is said to have been erected to commemorate the landing of Henry IV. in 1399 at Ravenspur, near Spurn Head, in the East Riding. Edward IV. also landed there in 1471. Ravenspur was a well-known seaport in former times, but its site is now completely submerged. The cross stood on the seashore at Kilnsea until 1818, when it was removed further inland, for safety from the encroaching sea. It was eventually set up in the town of Hedon.

[47]

Usually the knop is reduced to a mere bead, or at any rate is nothing more prominent than the expanding cove beneath the actual head, as at Ampney Crucis, Derwen, and in the two crosses at Cricklade. A factor of immense importance in preserving the organic coherence between shaft and head (wherever the latter takes the form of a cross) is that the lines of the shaft below the knop and of the lower limb of the cross above the knop, should be absolutely continuous, as though passing through, but not interrupted by, the knop. This requisite is satisfactorily exemplified by two very fine Lincolnshire specimens, viz., the well proportioned cross at Somersby (Fig. 81), and one, now at Keyingham, Yorkshire (Fig. 80), known, from the name of him who set it up there, as the Owst cross, since the exact place from which it originally came in Lincolnshire has not been recorded. In both these instances, the handsome knop, moulded and embattled, is but a surrounding band or ring, which occasions no sort of break in the composition, nor interferes at all with the even trend of its upward lines. At Somersby the motif of the crenellated knop is admirably followed up in the battlements of the gabled roof over the head of the crucifix. The shaft is octagonal, and the cross stands altogether 15 ft. high.

The crown and glory of the cross is the head, and it was upon this that the choicest art of the sculptor was lavished; and it is instructive to trace the development from the rudimentary crudities of the thirteenth to the perfect maturity of the late-fifteenth century.

In pulling down an old barn in the village of Rothersthorp, Northamptonshire, in 1869, there was found the head of a cross (Fig. 46), which was placed in the parish church in about 1890. The stone is 2 ft. 9 in. high by 1 ft. 3 in. wide. The crucifix, which is surrounded by a ring, springs from a mass of thirteenth-century foliage, the capital beneath being surrounded with a belt of foliage of similar kind.

At Halesowen, Worcestershire (Fig. 82), in or about 1915, there was found, built into the walls of a cottage, the sculptured head of a cross, which may date as far back as 1300 to 1320. It is of red sandstone, and much weatherworn, besides the deliberate defacement which it has undergone. On plan it is an oblong square, 10 in. by 6 in., the extreme height being 1 ft. 7½ in. On one side is a crucifixion without attendant figures; and, on the opposite side, the Blessed Virgin enthroned, holding her Divine Son on one arm and an apple in the other hand. The ends of the cross-head contain unidentified figures, one a female saint, conjectured to be St Agatha, the other an ecclesiastic, vested in amice and chasuble, and holding his crosier in his left hand. That which he wears on his head is broken, but it looks more like a tiara than a mitre. This cross-head is a peculiarly interesting example, not only because of its early date, but also because its existence is hardly known.

The cross-head found among the ruins of Croxden Abbey, Staffordshire (Fig. 88), and sketched by Buckler in the first half of the nineteenth century, is of a somewhat unusual type for its purpose, with handsome crocketing. The Christ has the feet crossed and fastened with a single nail in the newer fashion,[48] though the arms are, in the ancient mode, perfectly horizontal. The work dates probably from the closing years of the fourteenth century.

How widely individual treatment might vary within a comparatively short space of time is illustrated by the fragments of the cross-head, found built into the east gable of North Hinksey church, in Berkshire, near Oxford (Figs. 83, 84, and 85). The cross is of rich floriation, overlaid upon which is a perfectly plain narrow cross, bearing the image of the Crucified, Whose feet are crossed, as at Croxden; while, on the contrary, the arms and hands are dragged upward in the fashion that prevailed at a much later period. This cross-head belongs to about the middle of the fourteenth century. The shaft and steps still stand in the churchyard, to the south of the chancel. The shaft is fractured at a height of 8 ft. 9 in. from the socket; the total height, including socket and steps, is 13 ft. 8 in.

At Bleadon, Somersetshire, "a few years ago," wrote C. Pooley in 1877, during the restoration of the church, in removing the plaster, there was found embedded in a recess in the east wall of the porch, the sculptured stone head of a cross of the time of Edward III. (Fig. 89). The side exposed, the reverse, portrays the Blessed Virgin and Child between two donors, a man and woman, kneeling. The remarkable feature of this cross-head is the gilding and polychrome decoration, of which considerable traces had survived. The crucifix, on the obverse, being turned inward to the wall, is hidden from view; but, since this particular cross belongs to the same group as those, for example, of Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Stringston, and Wedmore, in the same county, in which the upper part of the figure-sculpture is pierced through from front to back, the arms and upper limb of the cross remain clearly visible from the reverse side.

In the churchyard of Newmarket, Flintshire (Figs. 90, 91), stands a remarkable cross, with octagonal socket and shaft, both having diamond-pointed stops. The shaft is 6 ft. 5 in. high, and surmounted with a massive capital or knop. The head is tabernacled on all four faces, but its end niches are empty. The niches of the obverse and reverse have each a crucifixion, the one unaccompanied, the other between Mary and John. This curious anomaly of a double yet divergent representation in one and the same cross-head occurs also at Mitton, Yorkshire. The cross-head at Newmarket measures 3 ft. 6 in. wide at its widest, by 1 ft. 6 in. from front to back. The date of the work is about the middle of the fourteenth century.

At Maughold, Isle of Man (Figs. 86, 87), just outside the churchyard gate, and at a distance of about 90 ft. from the north-west angle of the church, stands a cross of very remarkable design, quite unlike the distinctive Manxland type. It is, in fact, of middle-Gothic, belonging, to all appearance, with its blunt cusps and its turgid crockets and finial, to the approximate period of 1330 to 1340. Some authorities, however, assign it to a date some hundred years or more later. The head and knop are in two pieces, which, being of St Bees sandstone, a material foreign to the island, must have been imported thither, perhaps already[49] carved complete, ready for fixing. The knop is square, measuring 14 in. every way. The head is 2 ft. 7 in. high, by 18 in. wide at the widest part, by 8 in. thick. Both head and shaft are tenoned into the knop. The shaft, 5 ft. 1 in. high, is octagonal throughout the greatest extent of its length, but the alternate sides have stops, so that the shaft is actually square on plan at top and bottom. The head is of most unusual shape, the principal panel on either side presenting a sort of rough resemblance to a pointed spade; and containing, on the west, a Madonna and Child, and, on the east, a crucifixion, with the arms spread out quite horizontally, after the manner of earlier tradition. On the knop, under the crucifix, is a heater-shaped shield, bearing, alone of the six shields in the composition, a heraldic charge, viz., the Three Legs of Man (only reversed), with huge rowels to the spurs. The shield on the knop beneath the Madonna has a rose encircled by a ring, which has a bezel in the form of a cross. The north side has, at the top, a shield with a double rose. Lower down, on the same edge of the head, are rude representations of oak leaves, pointing downward; and below, on the knop, is a shield with a chalice, which has the invected foot with points, characteristic of the fourteenth century. The shield at the top of the south edge is per fess, a bud or flower with two wavy leaves on either hand; while underneath are three oak leaves on the shield itself, and one below the shield. Beneath the last-named leaf is a sunk panel with the representation of a warrior on his knees (no doubt the donor), turning, with hands upraised, toward the Madonna in the adjoining panel. On the knop, below the kneeling figure, is a shield with an unidentified charge, a square object entirely composed of vertical flutings, above an oak leaf. The top surface of the head is almost flat, and appears to have borne a capstone, the dowel holes for attaching which yet remain. The shaft is let into a plain square socket. The cross, though weathered, is in wonderful preservation, and is now protected by an iron railing. It is not known ever to have stood on any other than the present site.

At Wheston, a hamlet in Tideswell, Derbyshire, is a roadside cross of stone, of the late-fourteenth century, with octagonal, tapering shaft, culminating in a cusped rood, the uppermost limb of which is appreciably shorter than the arms (Figs. 92, 93). On the obverse is a crucifix with the arms horizontally outstretched. The figure is bared to the waist, but the remainder of the body downwards is missing. On the reverse is a Virgin and Child, a Gothic rosette being sculptured near the end of each limb of the cross. The figure-sculpture is coarse and primitive. The shaft is mounted on four steps, the topmost one of which forms the socket, and, by means of diamond stops, assumes an octagonal plan.

The cross in the churchyard at Lanteglos juxta Fowey, Cornwall (Figs. 94, 95), was discovered, about the year 1850, "buried deeply in the trench which runs round the wall of the church." After having lain prostrate for two or three years more, it was at last raised and placed erect, with a disused millstone[50] for base, near the church porch. It is of granite, encrusted with lichen. The shaft, 8 ft. high, is octagonal, and tapers slightly from 14 in. at greatest width across the bottom; the four alternate sides being sculptured with sunk panelling, wheels, and rosettes of Gothic character. The head, about 2 ft. high, is an oblong square on plan. The widest sides have double canopies, with the Crucifixion, unattended, on the north, and the Blessed Virgin and Child on the south. The ends, being narrower, have each a single canopy, enshrining an unidentified figure. Mr J. T. Blight supposed them to represent Saints Peter and Paul; but Mr F. T. S. Houghton believes that one of the two is meant for St Tecla. So far as one may venture to judge from the extremely rude and unskilled figure-sculpture, the work seems to be of the late-fourteenth century. The above cross is typical of a certain number of Cornish crosses belonging to the matured mediæval period, in which the head is set direct on to the shaft, without intervening neck, or knop. Besides this feature there should be noted another characteristic in the crosses, for instance, at Callington, St Ives (Fig. 96), and Mawgan-in-Pyder (Figs. 106, 107), to wit their disproportionately thick and sturdy stem, as contrasted with the moderate size of the head.

At St Ives the cross-head was unearthed in the churchyard in 1832, and re-erected on a new base in 1852. The height of the cross, as now standing, is 10 ft. 6 in. The reverse of the sculptured head portrays the Madonna and Child, with a kneeling figure, most likely meant for the donor. The obverse is remarkable because the Crucifixion is introduced not, so to speak, per se, but rather incidentally, as constituting part of the Holy Trinity group. The crucified Son, then, is placed between the knees of the Eternal Father, Whose hands upraised on either side, the right in benediction, may be observed above the arms of the crucifix. All and any representations of this nature, depicting the Trinity, were peculiarly obnoxious to the reformers, and are yet commonly objected to as being "anthropomorphic." Similar representations of the Trinity occur on one side of the cross-head, with the Crucifixion on the other side, at Cogenhoe, in Northamptonshire, and Pocklington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire (Figs. 114, 115). There is also a Trinity in the head of the cross at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

The same subject again is sculptured in the head of another Cornish cross, that in Mawgan-in-Pyder churchyard (Figs. 106, 107). It is made of Catacluse stone, and is a late-Gothic example, with very rich tabernacle-work in the head. In fact, it was singled out by the late J. T. Blight as "the most elaborate specimen of the kind in Cornwall." On the opposite side to the Trinity is a subject of uncertain identity, most likely the Annunciation. A single figure, vested in pontificals, occupies either end of the head. The shaft is hexagonal, with diamond-pointed stops, now much overgrown and practically hidden from view. It stands 5 ft. 2 in. high.

At Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire (Figs. 97, 98, 99), the churchyard cross was overthrown at some unknown period. In January 1854 the head of it was[51] discovered, built up amid a heap of rubbish in the cavity of the rood-staircase. Taken thence, it was reinstated in its proper place in the churchyard about 1860. There are two stone steps, which measure respectively 7 ft. 6 in. and 5 ft. square, and an octagonal socket. The shaft is square on plan, changing, by means of stops, into an octagon. The stops, however, instead of terminating in diamond-points, or otherwise dying away into the chamfer, are crowned with engaged pinnacles, extending some way up the canted sides, a most unusual and charming device. It is a misfortune that the effect of this fine cross is spoilt by the faulty, modern treatment of the upper portion of the stem, which, being made too short, is obliged to contract much too abruptly to the junction with the head. Instead of tapering truly, with a series of straight lines converging gradually upward, the shaft is pared away in a concave outline, which results in very serious disfigurement. The total height is only about 10 ft. The head is in excellent preservation, and, though not elaborate, an exceedingly beautiful specimen. It is an oblong square on plan, and thus has two wide sides (occupied respectively by the Blessed Virgin and Child, and by the Crucifixion between Mary and John) and two narrow ends (one occupied by an unidentified ecclesiastic, the other by an unidentified warrior). The canopies are severely plain, being no more than cusped trefoils; while the top is coped in the shape of a gabled roof. The work is of the latter part of the fourteenth century.

Two interesting Herefordshire examples, brought to light a few years ago, have been reinstalled under the auspices of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (as recorded in the Committee's Report, dated June 1916). These two crosses, which are at Madley (Figs. 101, 102) and Tyberton (Figs. 100, 103), respectively, bear a striking resemblance to one another. The heads of both are gabled, with a crucifixion on the obverse, and on the reverse a Virgin, crowned and throned, with her Child standing, fully draped, on her knee. The Tyberton cross-head is by far the more perfect of the two. It had been misused as a finial, or hip-knob, at the end of the brick church. The head of the Madley cross is so badly defaced that the figure of the Madonna is all but obliterated. This cross-head was found among the effects of a private gentleman, Mr Robert Clarke, of Hereford, after whose death it was "restored to the very complete base and shaft, which stand in the churchyard." The shafts of both crosses (monoliths, evidently from the same quarry) stand complete. They are of octagonal section, with long pointed stops on the four alternate sides, so that the foot of the shaft is square on plan. The chamfer-stops of the two crosses differ slightly. Both shafts had a similar moulded knop at their junction with the head. The Madley cross-head is executed in a coarse, soft sandstone, which has suffered much from disintegration. But the Tyberton head owes its better preservation not a little to the fact that it is executed in stone of more durable quality. Both these crosses seem to be of approximately the same date, viz., the late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century.

[52]

In the courtyard of the castle, St Michael's Mount, Cornwall, is a fifteenth-century cross (Figs. 104 and 105). The head is an oblong square on plan, measuring 1 ft. 4 in. by 1 ft., by about 3 ft. 3 in. high to the top of the pinnacles at the angles. On one side is a seated Madonna and Child; on the other a crucifix between Mary and John. At one end is a male figure wearing a cap and civilian gown; at the other a crowned figure holding what appears to be a sword. The knop is octagonal and moulded, with Gothic square pateras round the neck, just above the junction with the octagonal shaft.

At Derwen, in Denbighshire, there stands, immediately opposite to the south porch of the nave, a churchyard cross, which is not only the most perfect one in the district, but also "one of the finest in the Principality" (Figs. 110, 111, and 112). Unfortunately, its effect is marred by the fact that the shaft leans much out of the perpendicular, towards the east. There are two oblong steps. "The lower portion of the basement," writes the Rev. Elias Owen, in 1886, "has only some of its stones remaining in position." It "measures 7 ft. 4 in. by 8 ft. 3 in. In height the step is 8 in., in breadth 1 ft. The second part measures 6 ft. 1 in. by 5 ft. 6 in. In height the step is 10 in., in breadth 1 ft. 4 in. The stones forming these steps are large." The socket, or "pedestal, is a ponderous stone, 2 ft. 9 in. square at the base, and 2 ft. 4 in. high. The upper bed is brought to an octagon by broaches of convex outline, and the upper edge is slightly canted. The shaft, which is mortised into the pedestal, is 13 in. square at the base, but by sculptured heads, which serve as broaches," or stops to the chamfering, "it becomes octagonal." The chamfers are enriched with sculptures in relief, equidistant from one another, representing angels, human heads, and foliage; and, at the top, oak leaves underneath the bead moulding. Heads and quatrefoils ornament the cove which forms the neck of the shaft. The height of the latter is 6 ft. 1 in.; and the total height of the cross, including the steps, is 13 ft. 1 in. Originally, when complete, it was higher still, but the top of the head, which now measures 2 ft. 10 in. high, has vanished. The result is a somewhat blunted and ungainly appearance. The head is oblong on plan, its four faces sculptured like tabernacled niches, enshrining sculpture. The east and west faces, 1 ft. 9 in. wide each, have double canopies, while the ends, being no more than 1 ft. 1 in. wide, have each a single canopy. The subjects, though much worn, can be identified as follows: North face, the Blessed Virgin, with her Child on her left arm; south face, St Michael, treading on the dragon, and weighing souls in a pair of scales; east face, the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, with two kneeling donors, the Dove at the top of the group sadly mutilated; west face, the Crucifixion, flanked by Mary and John. Much of the ornamental detail suggests late-fourteenth century work, but it is tolerably certain that it is not earlier than the second half of the fifteenth century.

[53]

To south of the church, in the churchyard of St Donat's, Glamorganshire, stands a cross admirable in preservation as it is also in its proportions and detail (Figs. 108, 109). If there is a fault to be found in it, the arms of the Christ are dragged upward in too oblique a position. The canopy-work is superb, and, regarding the structure as a whole, it must be pronounced an exquisite and refined specimen of the very perfection of Gothic design. Its date is the end of the fifteenth century.

In the south aisle of Sherburn-in-Elmet church, Yorkshire, may be seen what looks like a pair of churchyard cross-heads (Fig. 113) of identical design, viz., a crucifixion between Mary and John, under a crocketed gable, the extremities of the cross ornamented with emblems of the Passion, and the interspaces filled with exquisite late-Gothic pierced tracery. The history of these two sculptures is a strange one. The head of the cross had been cast down and buried at some unknown date in the past. But it was dug up in the latter part of the nineteenth century amid the ruins of a small chantry chapel in the corner of the churchyard. The owners of the chantry disputed the possession of the cross-head with the churchwardens; and, incredible as it may seem, the dispute was settled to the satisfaction of both parties by a method which recalls the judgment of Solomon. The head of the cross being, Janus-like, of identical design on both sides, was sawn asunder down through the middle, so that each of the rival claimants received a similar sculptured ornament. One section was then erected against the wall of a chapel on the east side of the church porch at Sherburn, while the other section was built into a stable wall at a farm house called Steeton Hall. Since 1887, however, the two sundered halves, though not yet attached together as they ought to be, have been set up close to one another in Sherburn church, a puzzle to all who are unacquainted with their story. It should be added that the cross-head rises out of a richly-moulded knop, below which, though the shaft is wanting, enough remains to show that the original stem of the cross was octagonal.

In the basement of the west tower of Pocklington church, Yorkshire, is a beautiful late-Gothic cross-head (Figs. 114, 115), fitted on to a modern stem and base. On the obverse is sculptured the Crucifixion between Mary and John; on the reverse is the Trinity, while a single figure occupies either end. Beneath is the inscription: Orate pro aia(top parenthesis over word), Iohis(top parenthesis over 'his') Soteby.

At Cricklade, Wiltshire, are two crosses of the fifteenth century, one in St Mary's (Fig. 116), the other in St Sampson's churchyard (Fig. 117). The latter example, however, was not originally in the churchyard, but stood, at least down to 1807, as the market or town cross. Both these crosses must, as built, have closely resembled one another, but that at St Mary's is now much the more complete of the two. It stands on steps. The head is lantern-shaped, an oblong on plan, the overhang being corbelled forward by means of a demi-angel at each angle. The tabernacling is rich, and the figure-sculpture[54] within it almost intact, though weather-beaten. The subject on the west is the Crucifixion between Mary and John; on the south, the Assumption; on the north, a bishop; and on the east, a queen with a knight. The cross now at St Sampson's has no steps, but the socket is handsomely panelled with sunk quatrefoils round its sides. All the figure-sculpture from the lantern head, which was formerly corbelled on angels, like the other, has been missing at least from 1806 onwards, if not earlier.

47. ROCESTER, STAFFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, PLAN AND SECTIONS

The village crosses of Crowcombe (Fig. 118), Bedale (Fig. 119), Bonsall (Fig. 120), Repton (Fig. 123), Brigstock (Fig. 122), and Child's Wickham (Fig. 7), especially those which stand on high flights of steps adapted to the fall of the ground, all illustrate how charmingly such structures group in with their surroundings, and how great an ornament they contribute to the village landscape, even though they may have been robbed of their original head. The cross at Brigstock is comparatively intact. It bears the royal arms (quarterly France modern and England), and the initials E.R., with the date 1586. The cross at Child's Wickham dates from the fifteenth century. It is, unfortunately, disfigured by an eighteenth-century urn in place of the mediæval cross-head. In many cases the original heads have been replaced by square blocks with sundials. At Steeple Ashton (Fig. 121), however, the classic column and sundial-block and globe are no doubt all of one date, the late-seventeenth, or the eighteenth century.

[55]

48. ROCESTER, STAFFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[56]

49. GREAT GRIMSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

50. EYNSHAM, OXFORDSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[57]

51, 52. YARNTON, OXFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS AND PLAN

[58]

53. HORSINGTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

ROADSIDE CROSS

54. DRAYTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[59]

55. HIGHAM FERRERS, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

56. IRTHLINGBOROUGH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[60]

57. MITCHEL TROY, MONMOUTHSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

58. STALBRIDGE, DORSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[61]

59. CUMNOR, BERKSHIRE

REMAINS OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

60. STANWAY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

SOCKET OF CROSS

61. THATCHAM, BERKSHIRE

REMAINS OF CROSS IN THE STREET

[62]

62. WICKEN, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

SOCKET, AND FOOT OF SHAFT

63. CARLTON, BEDFORDSHIRE

SOCKET, AND FRAGMENT OF THE SHAFT, OF THE CHURCHYARD CROSS

[63]

Elevation of the Base

Plan

64. KEYINGHAM, E.R. YORKSHIRE

SOCKET AND STEPS

65. DORCHESTER, OXFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, BEFORE RESTORATION

[64]

66, 67, 68. OMBERSLEY, WORCESTERSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF SOCKET, AND ALSO THE PLAN

[65]

69, 70. HEADINGTON, OXFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER RESTORATION

[66]

71. RAGLAN, MONMOUTHSHIRE

BASE OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

72. HEREFORD

WHITEFRIARS' CROSS, BEFORE RESTORATION

[67]

73. HEREFORD

WHITEFRIARS' CROSS, AFTER RESTORATION

[68]

74, 75, 76. DOULTING, SOMERSETSHIRE

SOCKET OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

[69]

77. NORTH PETHERTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[70]

78. DUNDRY, SOMERSETSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[71]

79. HEDON, E.R. YORKSHIRE

THE RAVENSPURNE CROSS

[72]

80. KEYINGHAM, E.R. YORKSHIRE

OLD CROSS FROM LINCOLNSHIRE, RE-ERECTED BY THE LATE MR OWST UPON HIS PRIVATE GROUND AT KEYINGHAM

[73]

81. SOMERSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[74]

82. HALESOWEN, WORCESTERSHIRE

REMAINS OF CROSS-HEAD, SHOWING ALL FOUR SIDES

[75]

83. REMAINS OF CROSS-HEAD

83, 84, 85. NORTH HINKSEY, BERKSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, IN PERSPECTIVE AND ELEVATION

[76]

86, 87. MAUGHOLD, ISLE OF MAN

THE VILLAGE CROSS, FROM TWO POINTS OF VIEW

[77]

88. CROXDEN, STAFFORDSHIRE

CROSS HEAD FROM THE ABBEY RUINS

89. BLEADON, SOMERSETSHIRE

HEAD OF CROSS

[78]

90, 91. NEWMARKET, FLINTSHIRE

HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

[79]

92, 93. WHESTON, TIDESWELL, DERBYSHIRE

ROADSIDE CROSS, SHOWING FRONT AND BACK

[80]

94, 95. LANTEGLOS JUXTA FOWEY, CORNWALL

CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

96. ST IVES, CORNWALL

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[81]

97, 98, 99. AMPNEY CRUCIS, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS OF HEAD

[82]

100. TYBERTON, HEREFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

101. MADLEY, HEREFORDSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[83]

102.: MADLEY

HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

103. TYBERTON

REVERSE OF HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS

104, 105. ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT, CORNWALL

HEAD OF CROSS IN THE CASTLE COURTYARD

[84]

106, 107. MAWGAN-IN-PYDER, CORNWALL

CHURCHYARD CROSS

[85]

108, 109. ST DONAT'S, GLAMORGANSHIRE

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF HEAD

[86]

110, 111, 112. DERWEN, DENBIGHSHIRE

THE CORONATION OF OUR LADY CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS ST MICHAEL, WEIGHING SOULS

[87]

113. SHERBURN-IN-ELMET, W.R. YORKSHIRE

HEAD OF THE OLD CHURCHYARD CROSS

114, 115. POCKLINGTON, E.R. YORKSHIRE

CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF HEAD

[88]

116, 117. CRICKLADE, WILTSHIRE

ST MARY'S CHURCHYARD CROSS THE TOWN CROSS, NOW REMOVED TO ST SAMPSON'S CHURCH

[89]

118. CROWCOMBE, SOMERSET

VILLAGE CROSS

[90]

119. BEDALE, N.R. YORKSHIRE

120. BONSALL, DERBYSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[91]

121. STEEPLE ASHTON, WILTSHIRE

VILLAGE CROSS

[92]

122. BRIGSTOCK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[93]

123. REPTON, DERBYSHIRE

VILLAGE CROSS

[94]

## IV. SPIRE-SHAPED, OR ELEANOR CROSSES

ON 28th November 1290 the Queen-Consort, Eleanor of Castile, died at Harby, in Nottinghamshire. Edward I., prostrated with grief—the sincerity of his devotion to his wife was perhaps the most favourable trait in his character—resolved to perpetuate her memory by erecting crosses at the various stopping-places of the funeral procession on its way to London. The route chosen, though not the most direct one, was arranged expressly so that the body might rest, each night of its journey, at some large and important town, or else at some conventual house, for the fitting celebration of the solemn offices for the dead. A stone cross was built, if not upon the exact spot, in the near neighbourhood of the spot, where the body had reposed on each occasion, viz., at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, or rather Hardingston (reached on 9th December), Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans (13th December), Waltham, or rather Cheshunt, London (where the body lay for the night, probably in St Paul's Cathedral, a cross being afterwards erected in West Cheap), and, finally, Charing village, which was the last halting-place on the way to the entombment in Westminster Abbey on 17th December. There were set up altogether twelve Eleanor crosses. Some have reckoned the number at fifteen, supposing that similar crosses were erected also at Harby, Newark, and Leicester, but of these there is no evidence.

So far as can be judged from documents and existing remains, it would seem that certain principal features were common to the design of all the crosses of the series, although they varied in minor details. The general outline was borrowed from that of a spire of diminishing stages. A statue of Queen Eleanor occupied each of the niches in the middle storey; a notable peculiarity being the multiplication of the effigies of the person commemorated. Three or four statues of the queen occur in one and the same monument, standing, backs to the central shaft, their faces looking forward in opposite directions. The lowest stage or storey was carved with blind tracery, so designed as to divide, with a vertical moulding, each side, or cant, into two panels, with trefoil cusping in the head, having heraldic shields, one in each panel. The shields respectively bore the arms of (1) England (three leopards only, for the kings of England had not yet arrogated to themselves the sovereignty of France); (2) quarterly, Castile and Leon, the arms of Queen[95] Eleanor's father; and (3) Ponthieu (three bendlets within a bordure), the arms of her mother, Joanna, Countess of Ponthieu, in Picardy.

Not the slightest remains of any of the original crosses exist in situ, except at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham. Regrettable as is the disappearance of all but three crosses of the series, it is yet a matter for congratulation that those which do happen to survive represent each of them an individual variety of treatment; for, however much they may resemble one another in details, or even in their main scheme and proportions, the difference of plan is a fundamental factor, and such that necessarily results in striking divergences. Geddington cross is triangular, Waltham cross hexagonal, and Northampton cross octagonal on plan. Of these three there can be no question that that at Geddington (Figs. 124 and 125), on account of its triangular section, is the least satisfying aesthetically; indeed, its optical effect is, in certain aspects, decidedly unpleasing. Not only does it look as though part of the fabric were missing, or the whole structure lop-sided, but the anomalous position of the shafts, or standards, rising at each outer angle right before the face of the figures, gives the latter a caged appearance, and, by intercepting a direct view of them, infallibly detracts from the prominence which is their proper due. The triangular shape, then, is more diverting as an ingenious planning experiment than admirable as a model for reproduction. In plain words, it is an architectural eccentricity. Again, Geddington cross, encrusted as is the entire surface with sculptured diaper patterns, and lacking as it does the dignified reticence of contrasted plain spaces, such as occur in Northampton (Figs. 1 and 126) and Waltham (Figs. 127, 128, and 129) crosses, must compare unfavourably with either of them. Whoever the designer of Geddington cross may have been, it is certain he was not the artist that Battle or Crundale was, to whose genius the crosses of Northampton and Waltham respectively are owing.

Royal account rolls, extant down to the year 1293, throw considerable light on the progress of the work, the identity of the artists engaged on it, and the cost of their services, as well as of the material used. But the particulars of the several undertakings are not always kept distinct, so that it is difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle the precise amount of the cost of any individual cross. John, of Battle, a master mason, contracted for his share of the work of a number of crosses, viz., at Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, and St Albans, for £95 each. The imagery and much of the ornamental sculpture was executed in London. The figures of the queen, for the crosses of Lincoln and Northampton, were the work of William, of Ireland; while Alexander, of Abingdon, another image maker, provided the statues for other crosses, the figures all being produced at a uniform rate of five marks, or £3. 6s. 8d. each. Purbeck marble, from the quarries at Corfe, was used for parts of the crosses at Lincoln, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, and Charing.

[96]

The first of the stopping-places at which crosses were erected was Lincoln. The Eleanor cross there "stood on Swine Green, opposite the Gilbertine Priory of St Catherine, where the queen's body rested." The cross was built by Richard, of Stowe, otherwise Gainsborough, then master mason of the works of the cathedral. From time to time, during the years 1291 to 1293, he received payments, amounting to £106. 13s. 4d., for the king's work. The statues, and some of the carved ornament for the cross, were executed at Westminster by William, of Ireland, called in the accounts "Imaginator" i.e., image maker. William, as mentioned above, received £3. 6s. 8d. each for the statues of the queen; while the ornaments for the head of the cross seem to have cost £13. It is computed that the total cost of the cross at Lincoln amounted to about £134. Not a vestige of it now remains.

The cross at Grantham, Lincolnshire, stood in an open space on the London road, at a place called Peter Church Hill. Dr William Stukeley, in 1776, recorded that the people had some memory of it in his time; and, moreover, he was shown "a stone carved with foliage work, said to be part of it." All remains of the cross have long since vanished.

In his account of Stamford, Lincolnshire, printed in 1646, Richard Butcher says: "Not far from High Dike, on the north side of the town of Stamford, near unto York highway, and about twelve score from the Towngate, called Clement Gate, stands an ancient cross of freestone, of a very curious fabric, having many scutcheons insculped in the stone about it, as the arms of Castile and Leon quartered ... and divers other hatchments," of which "only the ruins appear to the eye." In the edition of 1659, the cross is referred to in the past tense, showing that it had been removed in the interval. R. Symond, in a note dated August 1645, writes: "On the hill, before ye come to the town (of Stamford), stands a lofty, large cross.... Upon the top of this cross these three shields are often carved: (1) England, (2) Ponthieu, (3) Castile and Leon quarterly." The cross was pulled down by the soldiers of the Parliament during the Civil War, but the foundations were laid bare, in the process of excavations conducted by Dr Stukeley, while vicar of All Saints, Stamford, 1729 to 1747.

124. GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

PLAN OF ELEANOR CROSS

125. GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE VILLAGE

The Eleanor cross at Geddington, Northamptonshire, is still standing, in the middle of a wide space in the village. The principal part of the material is Weldon stone, but the string courses and weatherings are of Stanion stone, which has a slightly harder texture. The cross[97] is raised on eight hexagonal steps; it comprises three storeys, and is little short of 42 ft. in height. As may be seen by the plan (in which the spaces A, B, and C represent the situation of the figures), the[98] middle stage is so placed in relation to that beneath it that its outer angles correspond with the middle of each side in the lower stage. The base is a triangle of equal sides; each 5 ft. 1 in. wide. The royal accounts, which are wanting from the year 1294 onward, contain no entry referring to Geddington cross; whence it has been inferred that the latter could not have been erected until 1294 or after. Tradition says that a favourite sport of the place used to be squirrel-baiting. A sufficient number of wild squirrels having been caught for the purpose, would be turned loose in the village, where the crowds, surrounding them in a ring, with shouts and all manner of hideous noises, proceeded to hunt and beat their helpless victims to death. Sometimes the terrified little creatures would vainly seek refuge by running up the cross and trying to hide behind the pinnacles and tabernacle work. But their cruel tormentors ruthlessly dislodged them thence, pelting them with stones until they were driven forth and killed. The only marvel, in the circumstances, is that any part of the original stonework of the cross should have survived such reckless violence. The cross was repaired in 1800, and again in 1890.

The famous Eleanor cross of Northampton (Figs. 1, 126) stands about a mile distant from the town, and actually in the parish of Hardingston. The monument is picturesquely placed on a roadside bank, with a fine background of trees. The spot was chosen because Delapré, close by, a house of Cluniac nuns, afforded the funeral procession a convenient halt for the night. For the more solid parts of the cross, as distinct from its ornamental detail, Barnack stone seems to have been used. The mason responsible for the design, as already mentioned, was John, of Battle. The sculptor, William, of Ireland, was paid £25 for his work, including the ornamental carvings and the four statues (nearly 6 ft. high) of the queen at £3. 6s. 8d. apiece. The distinctive feature of this cross, not known to have occurred on any other of the series, is an open book carved on every alternate one of the eight sides of the lowest storey. The latter is about 14 ft. high, the next storey above it 12 ft. high. At the present day there are nine steps, all octagonal on plan. Formerly there were seven, while the engraving in Vetusta Monumenta, 1791, depicts eight steps. What was the original termination of this cross will never be known. It disappeared so long ago that, even in 1460, the monument was spoken of as "crux sine capite." The first recorded "restoration" of the cross took place in 1713. At the Quarter Sessions in that year the Justices authorised the expenditure of a sum not exceeding £30 on repairing the cross, which accordingly underwent thorough "restoration" and partial rebuilding. There was then erected on the summit a stone cross paty, 3 ft. high, while gnomons for sundials, facing the four cardinal points, were fixed to the tracery of the topmost storey. Also, on the west side of the bottom storey were placed the arms of Queen Anne and a marble tablet, with a long inscription in Latin. Further repairs were[99] effected in 1762; and the cross was renovated once again, under the direction of the architect, Edward Blore, in 1840. The commemorative tablets and the modern cross on the[100] summit were then removed, a broken shaft being erected in place of the cross paty. Blore, at the same time, renewed the ornamental cresting, one of the gables, and much of the substantial stonework of the cross; and he recut all but[101] two of the armorial shields. In 1884 further repairs were effected, consisting mainly of the renewal and strengthening of the decayed platform steps. In March 1900 the care and maintenance of the cross were formally vested in the County Council.

126. NORTHAMPTON, (HARDINGSTON)

THE ELEANOR CROSS

127, 128. CHESHUNT, HERTFORDSHIRE

WALTHAM CROSS

The Eleanor cross at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, was built by John Battle and his assistants, Simon, of Pabenham, and others, the ornamental sculpture, comprising shafts, heads, and bands, being executed by Ralph, of Chichester. This cross stood "a little north of the Horseshoe Inn." It was pulled down by the Puritans about 1646, but Cole, the antiquary, was assured by an old inhabitant "that he remembered part of it remaining at the western extremity of the town."

The same executants carried out the Bedfordshire crosses of Woburn and Dunstable. The last-named is described as "having been a cross of wonderful size. It stood in the main street ... where Watling Street crosses the Icknield way"; and "is said to have been demolished by troops, under the Earl of Essex, in 1643. Parts of" its "foundation ... have been met with during recent alterations in the roadway" (Dr James Galloway, 1914). "In the heart of the town" of St Albans stood another Eleanor cross, described in 1596 as "verie stately," the same executants as in the preceding instances being employed. The greater part of this cross was "destroyed by order of Parliament in 1643. Fragments, however, stood in the market place" until 1702, when they were cleared away to make room for the erection of an octagonal market house in 1703.

129. CHESHUNT

SECTION OF MIDDLE STOREY OF WALTHAM CROSS

Waltham Cross (Figs. 127, 128, and 129) stands at the junction of Eleanor Cross Road and High Street, in the parish of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. The monument was the work of Roger Crundale and Dyminge de Ligeri, or de Reyns, in or about 1293. It was built largely of Caen stone. Apart from the difference necessarily entailed by its hexagonal plan, Waltham Cross in many respects recalls that of Hardingston, Northampton. In 1721 Dr Stukeley contributed to Vetusta Monumenta an imaginary "restoration"; which was[102] followed, in April 1791, by an engraving, by Basire, from Schnebbelie's drawing, showing the cross in its actual state. It had by then become much dilapidated, nothing having been done to keep it in repair beyond the strengthening of the base with new brickwork in 1757. It is believed that the cross originally stood upon ten steps. These had entirely disappeared by 1791. The present steps, four in number, are quite modern. The cross, having been renovated in 1833 to 1834, and again in 1887 to 1889, has lost so much that practically no part of the original fabric beyond the core, the three figures, and parts of the lowest storey, survives. The pinnacle at the top is a conjectural "restoration," the ancient head, as in the cases also of Geddington and Northampton crosses, having so utterly perished as to leave no indication of how the cross should properly terminate.

130, 131. LONDON, WEST CHEAP

REMAINS FROM THE ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE GUILDHALL MUSEUM

132. LONDON, WEST CHEAP

THE SECOND OF THE THREE CROSSES ERECTED ON THE SPOT

133, 134: LONDON, WEST CHEAP

THE THIRD CROSS ERECTED ON THE SPOT

135. CHARING

DETAIL OF OLD PROSPECT, SHOWING POSITION OF CHARING CROSS

West Cheap Cross (Figs. 130-134) stood in the middle of the roadway, opposite to the spot where Wood Street opens at right angles out of Cheapside. Three successive crosses have occupied this identical position. The first was an Eleanor cross, built by the mason, Michael, of Canterbury, who contracted to execute the work for £300. The character of the design may be judged from two fragments of the stone panelling of the lowest storey, now preserved in the Guildhall Museum (Figs. 130 and 131). These exhibit trefoil cusping, and the same armorial shields which occur in the three existing crosses at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham. Some twenty years after its erection, Cheapside Cross figured in the festivities which followed the birth of Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward III.) on 13th November 1312. A great pageant was organised in the City in honour of the occasion, and at the cross in Cheap a pavilion was set up, and in it a tun of wine placed, from which all who passed by might freely drink. From whatever cause, the cross was so soon allowed to fall into disrepair that its reconstruction came to be contemplated when it had been standing only about seventy-five years, Sir Robert Launde, knight, whose will is dated 1367, making a bequest to the building of the cross in Cheapside. The matter at last became so urgent that, in 1441, Henry VI. issued a licence to the Mayor of London to rebuild the cross "in more beautiful manner." The new cross, raised mainly at the cost of the City, was not finished until 1486. Why it should have taken so long a space of time to bring it to completion is not apparent. It was a very sumptuous and elaborate structure; but its builders did not attempt to adhere to the model of an Eleanor cross, Scripture subjects and figures of saints taking the place of the statues of the Queen. The monument was surmounted by a crucifix, with a dove over it; the other sculptures comprising the Resurrection, the Blessed Virgin and Child, and St Edward the Confessor. During the night of 21st June 1581, unknown iconoclasts defaced all these[103] figures, that of the Blessed Virgin in the upper tier being subjected to greater indignities than the rest. In addition to being mutilated it was discovered[104] to have been bound with ropes, ready to be torn down. A reward was offered for the apprehension of the offenders, but they were never caught. Queen Elizabeth notified to the Court of Aldermen her wish that the damage should be made good. "The Lord Mayor[105] thereupon wrote to the Lords of the Council, asking Her Majesty's further directions; and he was particularly anxious touching the repairing and garnishing of the images of the cross." In 1595 the[106] image of the Blessed Virgin was renovated and made secure. In 1596 a new Infant was placed in her arms, an addition which was coarsely and clumsily rendered, as one would expect at that period. Four years after, on the plea that the woodwork of the upper part, including the cross on the top of all, was out of repair, a pyramid was substituted for the former finial cross, and a semi-nude statue of Diana for that of the Blessed Virgin. Queen Elizabeth ordered that a plain gilt cross should be set up on the summit of the pyramid. The City magnates demurred, but ultimately complied. Next, the statue of the Blessed Virgin was restored, and the whole structure cleansed; but only twelve nights after the erection of the new statue of the Virgin, the latter was again attacked, decrowned, and nearly beheaded, and the figure of the Infant taken away. In the course of its existence the cross of[107] 1441 to 1486 had been repeatedly repaired and regilt. It had already lost every trace of its fifteenth-century origin by 1547, when, on 19th February, the coronation[108] procession of Edward VI. passed at its foot, an incident which was depicted by a contemporary, or nearly contemporary, hand upon the stucco walls of the dining hall at Cowdray House, near Midhurst, Sussex (Fig. 132). The mural painting, unfortunately, perished in the devastating fire at Cowdray on the night of 24th to 25th September 1793. The rebuilding of Cheapside Cross was resolved upon in 1600. The new cross was erected in 1606 (Figs. 133 and 134). The question of the advisability of crowning the latter with a crucifix having been raised, the two Universities were formally consulted on the subject. Opinions were divided, but Dr George Abbot, then Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced definitely against a crucifix. A simple cross, therefore, unaccompanied by a dove, was attached to the top of the new structure; while the base was encircled by an iron railing as a precaution against attack. This, the third and last of the Cheapside crosses, stood for a shorter period than either of its predecessors. It was overthrown on 2nd May 1643, as recorded by Evelyn in his Diary, under this date, in the following passage: "I went to London, where I saw the furious and zealous people demolish that stately Crosse in Cheapside."

136, 137. CHARING, NEAR LONDON

THE ELEANOR CROSS, AND THE CROSS WHICH SUCCEEDED THE FORMER ON THE SAME SITE

Charing Cross, built to commemorate the last resting-place of the Queen's body before it reached Westminster Abbey, occupied, as the detail from a prospect, by Ralph Agas (c. 1560), of London and neighbourhood shows (Fig. 135), approximately the same site where Herbert Le Sueur's superb equestrian statue of Charles I. now stands. The original cross (Fig. 136) is described as having been the finest and stateliest of all the Eleanor crosses. It was the work of Richard Crundale, who, dying in 1293, was succeeded by Roger Crundale; and Alexander, of Ireland, carved the statues of the Queen for the cross, which is computed to have cost nearly £800. By 1590 it had become much weather-beaten and defaced with age. It may have been about this time that the old cross was entirely rebuilt, the Gothic work disappearing, and a monument of new design, in the current fashion of the day, being erected in its place (Fig. 137). The Parliament having decreed the destruction of the cross in 1643, it was finally demolished in the summer of 1647. Lilly, writing in 1715, says that some of the stones of the old fabric were used for the pavement in front of Whitehall, while others were cut up and polished to make knife handles and other small objects as souvenirs.

With Eleanor crosses there should be classed a small group of crosses, which, though erected neither for the same purpose nor at the same time as the Eleanor crosses, yet closely resemble the latter in being fashioned in the graceful shape of a spire of diminishing stages.

138. GLOUCESTER

HIGH CROSS

The old cross at Gloucester (Fig. 138) stood on elevated ground at the meeting of Northgate, Southgate, and Westgate Streets. It was raised[109] on steps, and was octagonal on plan. The ground storey, and the next above it, dated apparently from about 1320. But the uppermost storey, con[110]sisting of a cluster of turrets with little vanes, the central turret or shaft surmounted by an orb and fourways cross, can hardly have been any earlier than the sixteenth century. Coventry Cross (Fig. 8) had similar vanes which (called girouettes in French, because of their gyrating or revolving with the wind), being gilt, and glittering gaily in the sunlight, imparted additional charm to the stone crosses whereto they were attached. The total height of Gloucester Cross was 34 ft. 6 in. When drawn in 1750, on the eve of its demolition, the cross contained, in the niches of its middle storey, statues of the following kings and queens of England:—King John, Henry II., Queen Eleanor, Edward III., Richard II., Richard III., Queen Elizabeth, and Charles I. The whole was surrounded by an iron railing of obviously later date than the cross itself.

139, 140. TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX

HIGH CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER "RESTORATION"

[111]

The old market cross at Abingdon, Berkshire, is said to have been erected by the Guild of the Holy Cross, a fraternity attached to St Helen's Parish Church. The cross was repaired in 1605; and, on the occasion of the signing of the Treaty with the Scots in 1641, two thousand persons assembled round it to sing a psalm of thanksgiving. It was destroyed by Waller's army in 1644. The structure was both later in date and more elaborate than any other of its class except Coventry Cross (Fig. 8), to which, in very many respects, it bore a striking resemblance. Abingdon Cross, however, was octagonal, whereas that of Coventry was hexagonal on plan. The lowest stage of either cross was solid, with surface tracery-panelling; while each of the three diminishing stages above consisted of niches with figures, and was further enriched with flying buttresses and with pinnacles surmounted by king's beasts holding iron rods, or pivots, to which were attached metal vanes like little banners. The similarity between the two crosses is explained by the fact that, in bequeathing £200 on 25th December 1541 for building a new cross at Coventry, Sir William Holles, formerly Lord Mayor of London, expressly directed that it was to be modelled upon that already existing at Abingdon. Coventry Cross, then, was begun in 1541 and finished in 1544. It stood 57 ft. high, mounted on three steps, and was divided into four stages comprising in all eighteen niches for statues. The statues in the first-floor storey, reckoning from the south, were Henry IV., King John, Edward I., Henry II., Richard I., and Henry V.; in the second storey, Edward III., St Michael, Henry III., St George, and Richard II.; and in the uppermost storey, a religious, St Peter, a religious, a king, St James the Less, and St Christopher. Above the topmost storey the cross swelled out into a tabernacled lantern surmounted by a metal vane pierced with the Royal arms (quarterly France, modern, and England), the supporting rod having a crown upon its summit. In later times the cross was surmounted by allegorical figures of Justice and Mercy. The cross underwent some repairs in 1629; but on 12th August 1668 a covenant was entered upon by the Mayor and certain stone cutters and masons for the thorough renewing of all defective parts of the stonework, with "good, sure stone from Sroby quarry," Warwickshire, as well as the iron and lead necessary for fixing the statues. Their work completed, the masons were to leave all the scaffolding in position, that the gilders and painters might then carry out their share of the embellishing. The total cost of the work executed in 1668, and following year, was £276. 2s. 1d. By 1760 nothing survived of the structure but the lowest storey and a portion of that above it. And in 1771 the last vestiges of Coventry Cross were bodily swept away.

To this same type belongs the High Cross at Tottenham (Figs. 139, 140), Middlesex, although at the present day it sadly belies its real character. Dressed, as it is, in Gothic mouldings, crockets, and panel-work, it looks as though it should belong, at least, to the latter half of the fourteenth century[112] (Fig. 140). But the ornament, unfortunately, is a mere superficial casing of nineteenth-century creation; and, to judge from an engraving, of the year 1788, representing the cross as it stood before it underwent falsification (Fig. 139), it can scarcely date any further back than the early part of the sixteenth century.

Again, the ancient Butter Cross, at Scarborough, which stands, or at least in 1860 stood, in Low Conduit Street, was of the same type, but square on plan. In fact, it may be described as shaped exactly like an obelisk, only with early-fourteenth-century Gothic details. How far such an object may, or may not, have been genuine, it is perhaps wisest to leave an open question.

[113]

## V. PREACHING CROSSES

WHETHER or not preaching crosses, for the delivery of outdoor sermons, were required before the advent of the Friars in the first half of the thirteenth century, it may be assumed that, from that time forward, they did exist and were in use. The Dominicans, or Black Friars, came to England in 1221; the Franciscans, or Grey Friars, in or about 1224; the Carmelites, or White Friars, in 1240, and the Austin Friars in 1250. Twenty years after the arrival of the first of the Friars occurs the first recorded mention of Paul's Cross, which attained afterwards to the dignity of the most celebrated of all preaching crosses, not merely in London, nor even in England alone, but throughout Christendom. It must be stated, however, that no actual record of the cross as a preaching-place is found before 1382; the cross at the outset being resorted to rather for secular and general assemblies of the people. But in course of time, perhaps by reason of its convenient situation, the cross seems to have been the focus of every phase of the life of the capital; many of the most stirring and momentous events in English history, whether civil or ecclesiastical, being enacted beneath its shadow. The full story of Paul's Cross would fill volumes. Yet a few representative episodes are enough to show of what varied scenes and movements it was the centre. At the cross took place the promulgation of laws, public announcements, political propaganda, the reading of Papal Bulls, the administration of oaths, elections, examinations, recantations, and the performance of public penances; while in the sermons preached in the pulpit of Paul's Cross, each successive variety of religious opinion was propounded from the time of the Lollards, and through the successive stages of the Reformation and counter-Reformation, until the cross itself came to an end in the reign of Charles I.

The first specific mention of Paul's Cross was in 1241, when King Henry III. met an assemblage of the citizens of London there before he set out for Gascony in connection with the French war. From that time onward there occur very numerous references to Paul's Cross, "the earlier ones, for the most part, recording meetings of the citizens there." The earliest notice of the cross as a place of proclamation was in 1256-57, when Justice Mansell read a document of the king's, assuring the citizens of his purpose to preserve their rights and[114] liberties. In 1257 the king, having called a folk-moot at the cross, was present in person; and again met his subjects there in 1258. In 1259-60 another folk-moot was held at the cross by Henry III., on which occasion proclamation was made, requiring every stripling to take the oath of allegiance to the crown. In October 1261 a bull of Pope Urban was read at the cross by the king's order. In 1266 the king made Alan la Zouche constable and warden of the City in the presence of the people at Paul's Cross. On 13th May 1269 a bull of Pope Innocent was read; and in 1274-75 the Mayor of London was elected in a folk-moot at the cross.

141. LONDON

PAUL'S CROSS

"In 1311 the new statutes, made in the Parliament of that year, were published and proclaimed ... super crucem lapideam"; whence it has been inferred by Mr Paley Baildon, F.S.A., that Paul's Cross, or the High Cross, as it was also called, must have comprised a raised platform surrounded by a parapet, with a lofty shaft in the middle, somewhat after the fashion of the Mercat Cross at Edinburgh, the cross at Aberdeen, and other Scottish examples.

[115]

142. LONDON

PAUL'S CROSS

[116]

On 7th March 1378, during the time when the Bishop of Carlisle was preaching at the cross, he was disturbed by a tumult arising out of a quarrel between certain trade corporations hard by in West Cheap. From that date onward, down to 1633, sermons at Paul's Cross were of very frequent occurrence.

In 1378 also, the Bishop of London excommunicated at Paul's Cross the murderers of Robert Hawle and two other victims, who had been sacrilegiously slain in the quire of Westminster Abbey during the solemnisation of High Mass on 11th August. On 12th July 1382 the Archbishop issued an order that the preacher at the cross, whoever he might be, on the following Sunday was to take advantage of the occasion, when the fullest number of persons should be gathered together for the sermon, to denounce publicly and solemnly two contumacious heretics, Nicholas Hereford and Philip Reppyingdon, "holding up the cross and lighting of candles, and throwing the same down upon the ground, to have been, and still to be so excommunicated by us."

In the same year, 1382, Paul's Cross suffered very great injury from tempest or earthquake; and on 18th May 1387 Archbishop Courtenay and other Bishops, desirous of repairing the damage, offered an indulgence to any of the faithful who should contribute toward that object. In two years' time the cross seems to have been put in order. Thomas Kempe, Bishop of London, however, rebuilt it, some time between 1449 and 1470; giving it the aspect which illustrations have made familiar, viz., an octagonal pulpit of wood, raised on stone steps and roofed with a lead-covered cupola, surmounted by a large cross (Figs. 141 and 142). The arms of Bishop Kempe were introduced in several places on the roof. From the time of the erection of this new pulpit-cross, the old name of High Cross, applicable to the different form of the earlier structure, seems to have died out of use.

Meanwhile, on Quinquagesima Sunday 1388, a great stir was caused by a Wycliffite sermon preached at Paul's Cross by R. Wimbledon. In 1401, under pressure from Archbishop Arundel, two Wycliffites, John Purvey, and a doctor of divinity, named Herford, recanted their errors at Paul's Cross.

In 1457 Bishop Pecocke, of Chichester, a prelate, so it would appear, of sadly "modernist" tendencies, made his submission at Paul's Cross, abjured his unorthodoxy, and submitted to the burning of his books at the same time and place. In a sermon at the cross, on 4th March 1461-62, the Bishop of Exeter urged the justice of the title of Prince Edward of York to the throne. In 1483 Jane Shore was compelled to do public penance at Paul's Cross; and on 19th June of the same year the Lord Mayor's brother, Dr Ralph Shaw, in his sermon at the cross, openly intimated that the validity of Edward V.'s right to the crown was questionable, and that there were substantial reasons (which did, in fact, ultimately prevail) why both of the young princes should be debarred from succession.

143. HEREFORD

BLACK FRIARS' CROSS

144. IRON ACTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

PREACHING CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD

On a certain Sunday, in 1492, two men did public penance for heresy, standing at Paul's Cross "all the sermon time, the one garnished with painted[117] and written papers, the other having a faggot on his neck." On Passion Sunday another man "with a faggot stood before the preacher all the sermon while at Paul's Cross; and on the Sunday next following (Palm Sunday), four men stood and did their open penance ... in the[118] sermon time, and many of their books were burnt before them at the Cross."

On 12th May 1521, in the presence of Cardinal Wolsey, Bishop Fisher, of Rochester, delivered at Paul's Cross a sermon in denunciation of the German heresiarch, Luther.

In 1534 the king, Henry VIII., caused sermons to be preached against his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and also against Papal supremacy. In the same year, Elizabeth Burton and six of her most prominent supporters (all of them ultimately hanged at Tyburn) were brought to Paul's Cross for public exposure and degradation there, for the crime of having dared to express disapproval of the king's liaison with Anne Boleyn.

On 24th February 1538, the Rood of Grace, from Boxley Abbey, in Kent, an image which was alleged, by means of wires and other devices, to simulate various gestures and changes of countenance, was exhibited at Paul's Cross by Bishop Hilsey, of Rochester, and, at his incitement, broken and plucked to pieces amid the jeers of the mob. "The like was done by the blood of Hayles, which in like manner, by Crumwell, was brought to Paul's Cross, and there proved to be the blood of a duck," according to the veracious Foxe. From this time onward Paul's Cross witnessed the delivery of a succession of controversial sermons, first on one side and then on the other. When Edward VI. ascended the throne, Bishop Latimer, of Worcester, became a frequent preacher at Paul's Cross. Thus in the month of January 1548 he preached no less than four times.

In 1549 the Privy Council delivered to Bishop Bonner a set of articles, which he was required to advocate in a series of quarterly sermons at Paul's Cross. But the Bishop in preaching there having neglected to comply, was cited, on information laid against him by Latimer and Hooper, to appear for examination before the King's commissioners on 10th September 1549.

On 1st November 1552, at Paul's Cross, Bishop Ridley, of London, preached at great length in favour of the latest version of the Book of Common Prayer.

On 13th August 1553 Gilbert Bourne, a chaplain of Queen Mary, and Canon of St Paul's, preaching at the cross, narrowly escaped being murdered. One of the audience aimed a dagger at the preacher. The weapon, missing its mark, the point became embedded in one of the wooden posts of the pulpit. On the following Sunday Thomas Watson, preaching at the same place, was protected by a guard of 200 soldiers with halberds. At the same time an order was issued forbidding apprentices to attend the sermon, armed with knives or daggers.

On 2nd December 1554, in the presence of Cardinal Pole, the Lord-Chancellor preached at Paul's Cross commending the reconciliation of the kingdom, and its restoration to communion with the Holy See.

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145. WINCHESTER

BUTTER CROSS

[120]

Abbot Feckenham preached at the cross on 18th June 1555, and Dr Hugh Glasier, Queen Mary's chaplain, on 25th August of the same year.

On 27th October 1584 Samuel Harsnett, subsequently Archbishop of York, delivered at Paul's Cross a sermon, which caused no little stir, on Predestination.

On 20th August 1588 Dean Newell made, at the cross, the first public announcement of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

On 17th November 1595, at a special thanksgiving service for the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Fletcher, of London, preached at Paul's Cross, which had been repaired and partly enclosed with a low brick wall for the occasion.

In 1616, at the instance of Harry Farley, one John Gipkyn painted a panel picture, in which he represented, by anticipation, the attendance of James I. at a sermon at Paul's Cross, which actually came to pass on 26th March 1620. The panel now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries affords the most authentic view extant of the preaching cross (see Fig. 142).

Charles I. attended in state to hear a sermon at the cross in 1630, and Archbishop Laud preached there in 1631, perhaps the last preacher of eminence to occupy the pulpit—for in 1633 the use of Paul's Cross as an open-air pulpit was formally abandoned. Its consequent demolition cannot have been long delayed, although it has been contended that the cross was pulled down only that the pulpit might be reconstructed on a grander scale—a project which, however, was never attempted. In a publication of the year 1641 occurs the passage: "Paul's Crosse, the most famous preaching-place, is downe and quite taken away," which shows that the date usually given for the abolition of the cross, viz., 1643, cannot be correct. But it is the fact that, in May 1643, the parishioners of St Faith's complained of the obstruction caused by the presence of "stones, rubbish, and pales" in the churchyard, presumably the uncleared refuse from the demolished cross. In time the very site was forgotten; but in the spring of 1879 it was discovered by Mr C. F. Penrose, the cathedral surveyor. The cross stood about 12 ft. from the wall of Old St Paul's; and close to the north-east corner of Wren's cathedral. The octagonal base measured some 37 ft. across. "The platform itself," writes Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, "was supported by a vault. A brick wall was found which probably carried the timber supports of the pulpit proper. The probable diameter of the pulpit itself was 18 ft."

Paul's Cross was not the only preaching cross in London. There were, at least, two others. One stood in the churchyard on the south side of St Michael's, Cornhill. This cross was built by Sir John Rudstone, Mayor, who, dying in 1531, was buried beneath it. St Mary Spital, without Bishopsgate, also had an open-air pulpit-cross, where special sermons were preached in Easter week, year by year.

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146, 147. LEIGHTON BUZZARD, BEDFORDSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[122]

In the majority of cases it is likely enough that there was not a distinctive pulpit-cross, the steps of the ordinary churchyard cross sufficing to afford a platform for the preacher, when occasion required. There remain, indeed, no more than two crosses obviously and primarily designed as preaching crosses, viz., that at Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and the Black Friars' Cross at Hereford.

The preaching cross at Iron Acton (Fig. 144) stands in the north part of the churchyard, and is a very good example of its kind. The base, 10 ft. 9 in. in diameter at the ground level, consists of three brick-built steps, topped with stone slabs, forming drips with a slight overhang. These steps are octagonal on plan. Upon the second step (and thus encompassing the top step and the low stone plinth resting on the same) stand the piers of the cross. The piers are buttressed each with one diagonal buttress, like the cross itself, square on plan. The arched openings (2 ft. 11 in. wide) are obtuse headed. One arch (the northern one according to Lysons, the southern one according to Charles Pooley) is open from top to bottom to make an entrance doorway. The three others are railed in with a low fence, composed of a pair of arches, cusped in the head, beneath a transom. The mullions between these small arches had disappeared previously to 1868; so the present mullions are modern restorations. The ceiling within is vaulted, with ribs and sculptured bosses, some of the latter representing acorns and oak leaves. In the centre, forming a pendant, are the remains of a capital of an octagonal shaft, now perished, though the traces of its footing on the floor were remarked by Charles Pooley in, or shortly before, 1868. The whole cross upward from the springing level of the principal arches is sadly mutilated, all the pinnacles, as well as the statues, wanting. The total height of that which survives of the cross is 19 ft. 2 in. The upper part is a shaft with four panelled sides, having, at the foot of each, between a pair of shields borne by demi-angels clad in albs, a pedestal for a standing statue, with projecting canopy overhead. Of these eight shields four exhibit emblems of the Passion; two are blank and two are armorial. One of these last is quarterly per fesse dancetty argent and gules, Acton; while the other shield is Acton as before, impaling quarterly or and gules a bend argent, Fitz-Nichol. Robert Poyntz, lord of the manor of Iron Acton, married, for second wife, Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Fitz-Nichol, and died on 15th June 1439. The cross, then, dates from the early part of the fifteenth century.

Contiguous to the ancient house of the order within the city of Hereford stands the Black Friars' Cross (Fig. 143), which apparently dates from the reign of Richard II. It is hexagonal on plan, and is mounted on steps. Its six arches were all open down to the bottom in 1806, but were fenced in some time previously to 1875, after the manner of those of the Iron Acton preaching cross. In the middle is a hexagonal socket, its sides panelled with Gothic panel-work. From the top of the socket rises a central shaft from which[123] springs the vaulting of the roof. The cornice is embattled, and from the midst rose the stump of the shaft, now replaced by a modern shaft and cross. The whole structure has, in fact, been completely renovated since 1875.

Besides those above named there is a small class of open crosses, which, though not built for the purpose of preaching crosses, yet resemble the latter more than any others, and must therefore, from the point of view of design and construction, be grouped under the same head. These, then, comprise the crosses of Bristol, Holbeach (Lincolnshire), Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire), and lastly Winchester.

The High Cross at Bristol (Fig. 9) stood at the junction of four main thoroughfares: Broad Street, Wine Street, Corn Street, and High Street. The site had already been occupied by a cross, when a new cross was erected in 1373. The cross of that date was constructed of coarse-grained oolite, specially liable to absorb moisture; but the original paint (blue and vermilion with gilding) effectually preserved it from the weather for centuries. Above the arches of the lowest stage was a stage comprising four niches, which were eventually filled with statuary, standing figures, facing toward the four cardinal points. A statue of King John faced northward, Henry III. eastward, Edward III. westward, and Edward IV. southward. The cross was taken down in 1633, to be erected on an enlarged scale, its height, by the addition of an extra stage or storey, attaining to a total of 39 ft. 6 in. The new storey contained four seated figures, representing, respectively, King Henry VI. facing eastward, Queen Elizabeth facing westward, King James I. southward, and Charles I. northward. Above these, again, was a tier of armorial shields, with pairs of putti for supporters, obviously an addition of the same period, viz., Charles I.'s reign. Then also was the cross embellished with fresh painting and gilding, and encircled with an iron railing to protect its lowest stage. The latter consisted of four open arches, grouped about a central shaft. The cross was redecorated in 1697. It was subsequently taken down in 1733. Its remains were then carted to the Guild Hall, whence, after a short interval, they were taken and set up in the College Green, to north of the cathedral. There it was standing in 1737, when R. West made the drawing, which was engraved and published in 1743. The cross in its new position was painted to look like grey marble, with the ornaments gilt, and the figures tinted in their natural colours. Not many years later, viz., in 1763, it was again taken down, and its portions relegated to an obscure corner of the cathedral. Finally, Dean Barton gave the remains to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, of Stourton, who transported them, in August 1766, and set up the cross once more, with a new base, summit, and central pier in the gardens of Stourhead, Wiltshire.

The cross at Holbeach was pulled down in 1683, but Dr William Stukeley made a drawing of it, dated 1722 (Fig. 10). The structure thus depicted appears to have been pentagonal on plan, four steps supporting the piers, which[124] were buttressed with buttresses, square on plan, panelled on their outward face, and surmounted by pinnacles. The open arches were four-centred. The roof underneath was vaulted with lierne and tierceron ribs, having carved bosses at the intersections. Above the arches was a parapet or frieze, comprising on each side a shield between two quatrefoils. Above, in the midst, rose a huge crocketed pinnacle, forming the shaft for the cross which originally crowned the summit.

The Market Cross at Leighton Buzzard (Figs. 146, 147), also, is remarkable in being pentagonal on plan. Apart from the difficulty of treating a five-sided structure satisfactorily, the design is faulty, because the upper stage of the cross (admirable though it be, per se, with its statuary, its flying buttresses, and its exquisite cluster of pinnacles) altogether lacks coherent continuity with the open stage beneath, the latter finishing abruptly with a pronounced horizontal break, which divides the cross into two distinct parts, upper and lower. The piers are buttressed and the arches four-centred. Above the latter runs a frieze of masks, surmounted by crenellation. The cross stands on a base of five steps, and is 27 ft. high. The total height, including the weathercock, is 38 ft. The original figures, representing the Blessed Virgin and Child, a Bishop, St John Evangelist, Christ, and a King, were taken down in 1852 and replaced by modern replicas. Fortunately, the old figures were preserved for the embellishment of the Town Hall, and when the architect, G. F. Bodley, repaired the cross in 1900, he restored them to their proper position. The modern copies were, at the same time, set up against the outside walls of the Town Hall, where they still remain. Mr Bodley assigned the cross to the late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century. If this be somewhat too early, the cross can hardly be of later date than the middle of the fifteenth century.

The Butter Cross, at Winchester (Fig. 145), stands on the pavement alongside the High Street, at the point whence a narrow lane leads to the north-west angle of the cathedral churchyard. The cross is remarkable for its lightness and the gracefulness of its proportions. It is mounted on five octagonal steps; it is square on plan, and is enhanced by pinnacles and two tiers of flying buttresses. The open arches of the lowest stage are four-centred, and surround a central shaft. The next stage above forms an open tabernacle for statues, of which, however, by 1741, only one original figure, 5 ft. 10 in. high, survived. The cross measures between 45 and 50 ft. in height; and dates, apparently, from the second half of the fifteenth century, but has been sadly over-restored.

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## VI. MARKET CROSSES

"THE general intent of market crosses," as defined by Bishop Milner, was twofold, viz., religious and ethical—first, "to incite public homage to the religion of Christ crucified," and secondly, "to inspire men with a sense of morality and piety amidst the ordinary transactions of life." This being so, "every town had its cross, at which engagements, whether of a religious or worldly interest, were entered into," says another writer, Brady. It would seem that, at first, there was no difference of form between the market or village cross and the normal churchyard cross of shaft-on-steps type. But as the need developed of providing for the greater comfort and convenience of folk gathered round the cross for market business, the demand was met by erecting a penthouse roof about the lower part of the already existing cross. Such a transformation is known to have taken place at Norwich, and obviously also must have been effected at Castle Combe in Wiltshire, Bingley in Yorkshire, and at Axbridge and Cheddar in Somersetshire. This method of adaptation, however, cannot have proved entirely satisfactory, because the platform or steps of the shaft in such cases occupied too much of the space beneath the shelter. And so the distinctive form of market cross was evolved at length, planned from the outset as a cross and roof combined in one coherent structure, the base of the central shaft being surrounded by a footing of only a single step, a convenient bench to sit upon, instead of the old-fashioned high flight of graduated steps. Such a typical market cross might be built either of stone or of timber work, its essential feature always being the covered in space for shelter from the weather.

148. AXBRIDGE, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

In Wells, at the junction of Sadler Street with the High Street, stood a cross, which must have been the most beautiful of all structures of its kind. As represented in the prospect of the city, drawn by William Simes, in 1735 (Fig. 149), it was a Gothic work of singular richness and elegance. Its bottom storey consisted of two-centred arches between buttressed piers surmounted by pinnacles, with a parapet of open tracery. The upper portion consisted of a lantern of two diminishing stages, with late-Gothic traceried windows and parapets, with pinnacles at the angles, the lower one of the two stages connected with the ground storey by flying buttresses. The whole was crowned by a most gracefully tapered spire, terminating in a weathercock. This[126] exquisite monument was swept away by order of the Corporation, December 1785, on the ground that part of the cross having "lately fallen down, and the remainder being in a ruinous state and dangerous," the entire cross must be demolished, and its materials carried elsewhere to some convenient place. This cross obviously dated from the middle of the fifteenth century or even earlier, and was, doubtless, the same cross, referred to by Bishop Beckington (1443-64), in his charter providing for the conveyance of water by conduit "to the high cross in the market place." Nevertheless, it has been identified by at least two writers, Charles Pooley and Alex. Gordon, with a cross which the antiquary Leland relates that he saw in process of construction. Leland describes this cross as having two concentric rings, an outer ring or "circumference" of seven pillars, and an inner "circumference" of six pillars, with a vaulted ceiling under the Domus Civica. This particular building was completed in 1542. It was erected by Bishop William Knight, with the help of a bequest from Dean Richard Woolman. But the cross of Simes' map must have been, at least, a century earlier in date than the cross of 1542, the account of which tallies neither in architectural style nor in shape with the other. In the one illustrated, there is no sign of two concentric arcades, while the lantern storey is far too small ever to have served for the headquarters of the municipal body. The discrepancies, in short, are[127] such that one is driven to the conclusion that there must have been, at one and the same time, two separate crosses at Wells. It should be added that the tolls of[128] the market cross, which he built, were given, by Bishop Knight's will, "for the use of the choristers of the Cathedral Church for ever."

149. WELLS, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

150. NORTHAMPTON

MARKET CROSS

The Market Cross of Axbridge, Somersetshire (Fig. 148), illustrated, after a painting of the year 1756, in a communication from George Bennett to the Gentleman's Magazine, 1805, was demolished in or about 1770. The structure appears to have been hexagonal on plan. Its piers were buttressed, its arches four-centred. The surrounding parapet was of pierced Gothic tracery, interrupted by a pinnacle over each of the piers. The roof was conical, with a lofty vane. The height to which the steps within, beneath the central shaft, rose, suggests that this was an instance where the cross must have been in existence first, and the shelter a subsequent addition.

151. SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSETSHIRE

INSCRIPTION ON MARKET CROSS

152. SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

153. NORWICH

MARKET CROSS, WITH PLAN AND DETAIL

154. LICHFIELD

MARKET CROSS

155. TAUNTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

At Shepton Mallet a market cross (Fig. 152) was erected in 1500 by private benefaction, as recorded on the original engraved brass, or latten plate, attached to the structure. The text of the inscription (see Fig. 151) (in modernised spelling) is as follows: "Of your charity pray for the souls of Walter Buckland, and Agnes his wife, with whose goods this cross was made in the year of our Lord God, 1500, whose obit shall be kept for ever in this parish church of Shepton Mallet, the 28th day of November, whose souls Jesu pardon." "There are certain lands, apparently a part of the Bucklands' bequest, the revenues of which are devoted to keeping the cross in repair, any surplus being distributed among the poor. This 'Cross Charity,'" as it is called, "was formerly administered by trustees, but has recently"—the passage was written in 1907—"been transferred to the Urban Council. The title-deeds have long been lost; and some years ago the Charity Commissioners were inclined to" alienate "the property from the cross." The trustees, however, tenaciously fulfilled their obligations, "and from 1841 onwards, if not before, kept the cross in thorough repair." (Dr F. J. Allen.) The character of the cross has been so much changed from time to time by reconstruction and misrestoration, that it has now become impossible to determine what the ancient design really was; but it seems to have consisted of a shelter very like that formerly at Axbridge, with a central spire like that formerly at Taunton (Fig. 155). From the presence of pinnacles at the angles there can be deduced but one logical conclusion, viz.,[129] that the piers must have been, and should yet be, buttressed. The buttresses, however, have completely disappeared. The frequent traffic of heavy vehicles—for the market[130] was once much busier than it has become since the introduction of the railway—would probably have damaged the projecting buttresses; and their omission, therefore, curtailing the extent of the area occupied by the cross, may have[131] been designed to lessen the liability of the latter to collisions with market carts. It is supposed that the top of the central spire fell in the eighteenth century, damaging the substructure. Anyhow, at some time in the seventeenth, or in the early part of the eighteenth century, the hexagonal shelter was taken down from around the central pier (which still remains intact), and was then rebuilt in its present form, portions only of the old Gothic parapet, and the pinnacles, being re-used. This rebuilding has escaped record, but that it did take place the internal evidence of the structure itself makes sufficiently obvious. The absence, already mentioned, of buttresses; the clumsy, square blocks which do duty for the bases of the piers; the classic imposts of the latter, and the depressed arches (unconstructional, because they are not turned with voussoirs, but formed each of one huge pair of stones, cambered to simulate an arch in outline), and the exaggeratedly prominent keystones, could never have been perpetrated at the early date of 1500, but at some subsequent rebuilding, of which the sum of them affords cumulative and convincing proof. Charles Pooley (Old Stone Crosses of Somerset, 1877) states that the cross was rebuilt from the ground in 1841: but he was clearly mistaken. Dr F. J. Allen, of Cambridge, is positive on this point. His grandfather, as one of the trustees of the Shepton Mallet cross, was largely responsible for the rebuilding in question; and his own mother and uncle, living as children in their father's house, facing the cross, were eye-witnesses of the progress of the work, and could distinctly remember that only the spire above the roof was reconstructed. Minor repairs may have been done at the same time to the rest of the building, but it was certainly not taken down bodily. The architect employed was G. B. Manners, of Bath; and it is claimed that his design for the modern spire is a careful reproduction of the original one. To what extent this is the case may perhaps be judged by comparing the spire actually standing with an illustration, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1781, from a drawing made in 1747. The latter may be faulty, but, such as it is, its value as a record can scarcely be overrated, since it furnishes the earliest extant version of Shepton Mallet cross. The accompanying letterpress says: "On the top of the cross, on the east side, are figures in niches, and, above all, a modern weathercock." The engraving, it is true, shows figures on more sides of the head than one; but the discrepancy need not be material, if one may conjecture that all the figures, other than those on the east side, had perished in the interval between 1747 and 1781. In any event the massive, carved stone cylinder, depicted as capping the spire in 1747, cannot have been the original cross-head of 1500, which, according to Pooley, was "a heavy,[132] lantern-shaped stone, bearing figures of our Saviour on the cross between two malefactors, besides the images of several saints." This cross-head was probably removed[133] at the time of the rebuilding of the shelter; and the cross-head which succeeded it is most likely the same one which fell, as already mentioned, in the eighteenth century. Pooley concludes his notice of Shepton Mallet cross thus: "Some of the fragments of the old cross I saw lying in a builder's yard at Darshill," a hamlet in Shepton Mallet parish. "A grandson of that builder," writes Dr F. J. Allen, in September 1919, "now living at Shepton, states that he can well remember his grandfather selling a selection of those fragments to Lord Portman, who removed them to his house at Blandford."

156, 157. MALMESBURY, WILTSHIRE

MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION

158. MALMESBURY

PLAN OF MARKET CROSS

At Malmesbury, Wiltshire, there stands, some 200 ft. directly south of the south end of the old transept of the Abbey Church, and about 50 ft. east of the south-east angle of St Paul's Parish Church, a handsome market cross (Figs. 156, 157, 158) of the same type as those of Cheddar, Chichester, and Salisbury. The following is Leland's account of the cross: "There is a right fair and costly piece of work in the market place, made all of stone, and curiously vaulted, for poor market folks to stand dry when rain cometh. There be eight great pillars, and eight open arches, and the work is eight square (octagonal). One great pillar in the middle beareth up the vault. The men of the town made this piece of work in hominum memoria (within living memory)." Leland wrote between about 1535 and 1545; and the date assigned to the cross is 1490. With regard to the open arches it would be more accurate to state that two only of the number are open[134] to the ground. The six others are confined at the bottom by a low fence-wall. "A deeply moulded flying buttress rises from each pier, clear of the richly-groined roof, the light ribs being drawn into[135] a cluster by a wide string-band supporting a large pinnacle and ogee finial. This pinnacle bears traces of sculptured figures, and, on the[136] west face, of a crucifix; but the faces of the work are much abraded by the weather, and perhaps rough treatment, for most of the bosses[137] have been broken from the groined vault."

159. SALISBURY

POULTRY, OR MARKET CROSS

160. SALISBURY

POULTRY CROSS, AS RESTORED

161, 162. CHICHESTER

MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION

163. CHICHESTER

PLAN OF MARKET CROSS

The Market Cross at Chichester (Figs. 11, 161-163) was built shortly before 1500 by Bishop Edward Storey, who endowed it with an estate at Amberley, Sussex, producing a yearly rental of £25, that the means for keeping the cross in constant repair might be assured. It is octagonal on plan, its eight arches all open to the ground. This is much the most elaborately ornamented of the crosses of its class. The flying buttresses (unlike those of Malmesbury cross) are crocketed at intervals all the way along their ogee course; and the side walls above the arches are richly panelled. Splendid though Chichester cross is still, it has been shamefully disfigured by incongruous innovations intruding upon the original design. It was probably at the "restoration," under Charles II., that the bust of Charles I. was set up in an oval recess, inserted in the place of one of the niches of the parapet. The clock above was fixed in 1724. Again the cross suffered excessive repair, and further alterations in 1746.

In the case of the market crosses of Chichester and Malmesbury the ring of pinnacles and the flying buttresses, converging upon the central shaft, itself culminating in a sculptured lantern, resemble in general effect the crown steeples of King's College, Aberdeen, and of the collegiate church of St Giles at Edinburgh. But there is a difference. In the Scottish instances the lantern is structurally upheld by the combined thrust of the flying buttresses, without vertical support. In the English market crosses, on the contrary, the shaft, rising from the floor and passing right up through the roof, sustains the lantern from directly underneath.

Salisbury Poultry Cross (Figs. 159, 160) must originally have been constructed in the same way, but, some time before May 1789 (see illustration in Archæologia, Vol. IX., p. 373) the whole of the original superstructure above the roof had perished. The pinnacles, flying buttresses, and lantern, which now crown the roof, are only a modern restoration, albeit a very excellent one. The plan of the Poultry Cross is hexagonal. In addition to this cross[138] there are known to have existed at one time in Salisbury the Cheese Cross, Bernard's Cross, and that before the west door of the cathedral. One of the number was erected by Lawrence de St Martino, as a penance enjoined before September 1388, by Bishop Radulph Ergham because Lawrence, who was infected with Lollardism, had been guilty of flagrant irreverence toward the Blessed Sacrament. To complete his penance he was required to come and kneel in the open air, barefoot and bareheaded, before the said cross every Saturday for the rest of his life. A record of his offence and of its punishment was to be inscribed upon the cross itself, and, assuming this penance cross to be the actually existing market cross, it has been conjectured that the six panelled sides of its central pillar bore the required text. But the identity is very doubtful, more especially as 1388 seems too early a date, by some hundred years, for the Poultry Cross.

The old Market Cross at Glastonbury (Fig. 164) has unfortunately disappeared. The shelter was octagonal and gabled. But the singular feature of the design was that the gables, instead of surmounting the arched openings, were placed over the spandrels and the piers between the arches. Conformably, then, with the canted plan of the structure, the face of each gable was returned at an angle from its central vertical line, a simple but quite unusual device, which produced a remarkably quaint and original effect. The picturesqueness was enhanced by the presence hard by of a water conduit, which grouped charmingly with the more imposing structure of the market cross. Both, however, becoming dilapidated through neglect, were demolished in 1808.

At Norwich (Fig. 153) the first market cross was erected in the time of Edward III. (1327-37). It is known to have been repaired in the reign of Henry IV. (1399-1413). The structure must have been of considerable size, since it contained a chapel and four shops. Becoming decayed, it was pulled down in 1501, and rebuilt, the new cross being finished in 1503. Like its predecessor, it contained an oratory or chapel. It was octagonal, raised on steps, and appears to have been originally an instance, on a large scale, of a spire-shaped cross with an entrance on the west side between two vices leading to the upper storeys. In the seventeenth century, apparently, the cross was surrounded by sixteen pillars, i.e., eight large and eight intermediate pillars of slenderer size, to support a flat leaded roof for the shelter of the market people—an addition which totally altered the aspect of the original spire-shaped cross. Meanwhile, in the first year of Edward VI., the crucifixes which had adorned the cross were taken down by order of the King's visitors. The standard weights and measures of the city used to be kept in the market cross.[139] The oratory in it was let in 1574 to the company of workers in leather. In 1646 the cross was repaired by means of a graduated tax,[141] levied on all the citizens in proportion to their means. In 1646, also, the floor of the cross was paved. In 1664 it was appointed for[140] the Court of Guard, and in 1672 was "beautified and adorned" according to the fashion of the day. Just sixty[142] years afterwards the cross was again alleged to be in decay, its materials were sold and the whole cross swept away, the demolition beginning in August 1732.

164. GLASTONBURY, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

165. CHEDDAR, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

166. SOMERTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

167. MAIDSTONE

MARKET CROSS

168. OUNDLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

At Lichfield (Fig. 154), the Market Cross, octagonal on plan, with two-centred open arches, and with figures by way of pinnacles at the angles of the parapet, was erected at the cost of Dean Denton (1521-32).

At Northampton, the Market Cross (Fig. 150) was erected in 1535. It stood upon an octagonal platform of stone, 2 ft. in height, and comprised eight wooden columns, the entire surface of their cylindrical shafts carved, supporting the pointed arches of the octagonal shelter. "And the timbers from one pillar to the next pillar were arched and carved. In the middle (of the platform) were three steps or rounds of stone to sit upon," as well as for means of approach on one side to the doorway which, "locked from market to market," gave access to the stairway curtained within the cylindrical shaft of stone rising in the centre. This shaft terminated above the roof in a lantern with glazed windows, within which were deposited the standard weights and measures, and other utensils connected with the market. There was ample room to walk round upon the lead-covered roof between the lantern and the embattled parapet. The latter was ornamented at every angle of the octagon with a standard, or post, surmounted by a little ape holding a rod with a vane attached. "The whole was set out and beautified with branches of lead, and, upon all squares (faces) little panels of lead like coats of arms gilt, and a great ornament to the place." The cross, unfortunately, perished in the general conflagration at Northampton, on 20th September 1675.

169. IPSWICH

MARKET CROSS

The old Market Cross at Taunton, Somersetshire, apparently dated from[143] about the middle of the sixteenth century. It was hexagonal on plan, with pointed arches springing from columns, presumably cylindrical, with polygonal[144] bases. Above the arches was a penthouse roof of boarding, designed, no doubt, to augment the area of the shelter beneath. The top of the walls was crenellated, with pinnacles at the angles. The central shaft rose into two diminishing tiers of niches[145] for statues. The original top having vanished, its place was taken by a square block with sundials on the faces, with an ogee roof surmounted by a weathercock. The cross was demolished in 1769, but[146] its general appearance is perpetuated by a very rough drawing in the British Museum (Fig. 155).

170, 171, 172. IPSWICH, SUFFOLK

MARKET CROSS, WITH DETAILS OF WOOD CARVING

173. CASTLE COMBE, WILTSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

174, 175, 176. CASTLE COMBE, WILTSHIRE

MARKET CROSS, WITH PLAN, SECTION, AND DETAILS

The Market Cross at Cheddar, Somersetshire (Fig. 165), is a stone structure of six four-centred open arches and shelter, evidently built up round an older cross of the shaft-on-steps type. The shaft, which dates from the fifteenth century, is octagonal, and, with its knop, rears through the top of the roof. The piers of the surrounding arches are buttressed and the parapet is embattled. Extensive renewing took place in 1834, and the steps were repaired in 1835.

The Market Cross at Somerton, Somersetshire (Fig. 166), which may be compared with that of Cheddar, was built in 1673, a surprisingly late date in view of the character of the cross itself. The latter is octagonal, with pyramidal roof of eight cants; its piers are buttressed, and, above a stringcourse with gargoyles at the outer angles, rises an embattled parapet. So closely, indeed, are the forms of architectural tradition adhered to, that, but for the segmental arches with their heavy keystones, one would have had little hesitation in assigning the cross to the first half of the sixteenth century.

At Maidstone (Fig. 167), the Market Cross, or as it was formerly called, from its original purpose, the Corn Cross, stood at the top of High Street in the centre of the roadway. The date of its erection is unknown, but it is thought to have been about the middle of the sixteenth century, at the time of the incorporation of the borough by Edward VI. A sketch, ascribed to Cornelius Jansen, drawn upon ass's skin and dated 1623—the property, through the Bosville family, of J. H. Baverstock—shows the cross to have been an octagonal structure with an umbrella-like roof, covered apparently with slates, and surmounted by a leaden cross. Later drawings and paintings show that the arches were four-centred, and supported on clustered wooden shafts, and that, in place of the cross on the top, there had been substituted a lead-covered dome, or cupola, from the summit of which rose a pole of turned wood. In the spandrels of the arches were curious carvings illustrative of a butcher's calling. About 1608 it was converted into the butcher's market. The cross, says William Newton in his Antiquities of Maidstone, 1741, "appears to have been very large; but only a part of it is now remaining, which is handsomely covered with lead, and used for the fish market." In 1771 it was considered to be an obstruction to the traffic, and was accordingly moved on rollers a slight distance to the side of the street, just below the square stone conduit shown in the illustration; but it did not stand there very long, for it was finally demolished in 1780.

[147]

177. DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE

YARN-MARKET CROSS

[148]

178, 179. OAKHAM, RUTLAND

BUTTER CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF THE INTERIOR

180, 181. WYMONDHAM, NORFOLK

MARKET CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF THE GROUND-FLOOR STOREY

[149]

182. BINGLEY, W.R. YORKSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[150]

183. LYMM, CHESHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[151]

184. NETHER STOWEY, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

185. MILVERTON, SOMERSETSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[152]

186. NOTTINGHAM

THE MALT CROSS

At Leicester, the last remains of the ancient cross were cleared away in 1569. Meanwhile, a successor to it had been built in 1557. This new Market Cross (Fig. 12) was octagonal on plan, having open arches on pillars and a cupola roof. In its turn it was demolished between 1769 and 1773.

At Ipswich, a preaching cross, erected in 1510 by Edmund Daundy, Bailiff of the town, and said to be a near relative of Cardinal Wolsey, is believed to have occupied the same spot on the Cornhill, where subsequently, in 1628, the market cross was built (Figs. 169-172). The latter was projected, at least, as early as 1610, when Benjamin Osborne promised £50, which, by will dated June 1619, he bequeathed toward the building. But it was not until 1628 that the Corporation managed to obtain any payment from his executors, and then the sum available from his estate was £6 short of the proper amount. The figures in the inscription, recording the benefaction upon a shield in one of the spandrels, were thereupon altered from £50 to £44 (Fig. 172). The structure, 28 ft. in diameter, comprised eight stone columns, supporting elliptical arches of wood, with an embattled parapet above a cornice, elaborately carved with scrollwork and grotesques. Five masks from the old wood carving, together with the shield inscribed as above mentioned, are yet preserved in the Ipswich Museum. The roof, an ogee-shaped cupola, covered with lead, was framed into a centre post, carried on cross-beams just above the[153] level of the eaves. The upper end of the post ran up through the middle of the roof in the form of a square terminal of four stages, the lowest part being carved with a group of[154] figures supporting a gilt ball, like an orb, with a cross on the top. On the occasion of the Proclamation of King Charles II., on 10th May 1660, "the cross was ordered to be beautified—painted or rather emblazoned" with the arms of local celebrities. The arms included those of Ipswich borough and of the families of Daundy, Bloss, Long, and Sparrowe, as well as two tradesmen's marks, C. A., and B. K. M. The carved faces in the museum yet retain their flesh tints. In April 1694 the Corporation ordered that a new statue of Justice should be erected upon the summit of the cross. In 1723 the Corporation voted thanks to Mr Francis Nugent (who represented Ipswich in three Parliaments) for his present of a statue of Justice, which was brought from his seat at Dallinghoe. This, an allegorical figure, holding the scales, is of stone, painted brown, and also is preserved in Ipswich Museum. A sketch and plan by Sir James Thornhill (Fig. 169), in May 1711, shows that the cross at that time stood surrounded by a balustrade. The cross was pulled down bodily at the beginning of January 1812, by order of a Great Court previously held. An aquatint, from a contemporary drawing by George Frost, was published in the same year (Fig. 171).

The Market Cross at Mildenhall, Suffolk (Fig. 13), with its timber posts and lead-covered roof, dates from the fifteenth century.

187. BUNGAY, SUFFOLK

MARKET CROSS

188. SWAFFHAM, NORFOLK

MARKET CROSS

189. WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[155]

190. WAKEFIELD, W.R. YORKSHIRE

MARKET CROSS

[156]

The old Butter Cross at Oakham (Fig. 178) recalls that at Mildenhall, than which, however, it is probably later by a century or more. The Oakham cross is octagonal on plan, the eight oak posts which support the roof resting on blocks of stone for bases. In the centre is a solid stone pier, encircled by seats for the market women. The interior construction of the roof is a fine example of carpentry (Fig. 179).

At Oundle, Northamptonshire, stood a market cross, very like the last-named, octagonal on plan, with an eight-sided pyramidal roof, covered with Colly Weston slates, and supported by eight wooden posts (Fig. 168). The interior comprised a central shaft, with a square socket, bearing the date 1591, and mounted on two octagonal steps of stone, having overhanging drips. The cross, not mentioned by Bridges, has long since been demolished. The view is from an undated lithograph, initialled J. S.

The Market Cross at Wymondham, Norfolk (Figs. 180, 181), with its quaint timber-framed upper storey, approached by an external stair, dates from 1617. The face of the braces between the piers of the open ground-storey are carved with tops, spindles, spoons, and such like wooden ware, for the abundant manufacture of which the town had long been famous.

At Dunster, Somersetshire, the Yarn-Market Cross, as it is called, is octagonal on plan, with an immense span of roof relieved by dormers (Fig. 177). "The arrangement of the timbers, extending radially from the centre of the cross, is somewhat remarkable," writes Alex. Gordon. This cross was built about the year 1600. The weather-vane at the summit of the lantern bears the date 1647.

The Market Cross, or Butter Cross, at Witney, Oxfordshire (Fig. 14), was built, according to Joseph Skelton, by William Blake, of Coggs, in 1683. Lavish renovation has now robbed it of much of its proper charm, but the planning of the roof, with its gables facing four ways, constitutes an entirely delightful composition.

At Milverton, Somersetshire, the Market Cross, commonly called Fair Cross, was standing, and is referred to in an indenture dated March 1715 (Fig. 185). The vane bore the date 1706. Eight cylindrical columns of stone, surrounding the base and shaft of a medieval cross, sustained the shelter, above which was an upper chamber, used for storage only, access thereto being obtained by means of a ladder through the window opening in one of the sides. The chamber was covered with a slate-healed pyramid of eight cants. The cross, which, strangely enough, was in private ownership, was demolished by the proprietor himself in or about 1850.

The Market Cross at Nether Stowey, Somersetshire, was erected about 1750 on the site of an earlier cross, of which nothing but a few fragments of stone from the base had survived. The eighteenth-century structure was octagonal on plan, eight cylindrical columns supporting the eight-canted pyramidal roof, from the top of which rose a square turret, with a clock in[157] the lower part, and a bell in the open bell-cote at the top (Fig. 184). Having been allowed to fall into dilapidation, the whole cross was swept away by the lord of the manor about 1860.

At Castle Combe, Wiltshire, the Market Cross is apparently another instance where the shelter was built up over an already existing stone cross (Figs. 173, 176). The latter has a bold, square socket, sculptured with late-Gothic tracery ornament. The shelter seems to be sixteenth-century work. Its pyramidal roof, supported on four stone piers, had lost the original summit of the cross-shaft before Buckler made his drawing of the north-west view of the cross. It was then surmounted by a sundial of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Later restoration, however, has substituted a quasi-Gothic pinnacle.

At Lymm, Cheshire, though no market is now held there, the old Market Cross remains, a quaint and unusual structure, standing on the top of a boulder, with steps partly hewn out of the natural rock (Fig. 183). The cross is built of stone, and consists of a massive central pier, square on plan, between four smaller piers, likewise square, supporting the roof at the corners. The roof, cross-ridged, has pediments facing four ways, and surmounted each by a substantial hip-knob. On the faces of the pediments are sundials. From the centre of the roof rises a lofty weathercock with a wrought-iron frame.

The Malt Cross at Nottingham stood opposite the lower end of Sheep Lane, and is said to have been erected in 1714, although the old vane at the summit bore the date 1686. The structure, hexagonal on plan, and roofed with a cupola supported on Doric columns, was raised upon a three-foot high platform of four steps (Fig. 186). The boss surmounting the cupola had a sundial on each of its six sides. The Malt Cross was taken down, and the materials were sold by public auction in October 1804.

As the seventeenth century advanced the market cross exhibited more and more marked divergence from the original architectural forms, including the abandonment of the cross on the summit, and the adoption, in many instances, of a sundial in place of the cross. This tendency only increased in the eighteenth century. Instances of it are afforded by the market crosses—rectangular on plan—at Woodstock (Fig. 189) and Wakefield (Fig. 190). Other eighteenth-century market crosses, e.g., those of Bungay (1789) (Fig. 187) and Swaffham (1783) (Fig. 188), might almost be mistaken in appearance for bandstands, but from the fact that, aloft upon their lead-covered domes, the allegorical figure of Justice, emphasising the duty of fair dealing, continues to proclaim their purpose of open-air shelters for the transaction of business.

[158]

## VII. UNCLASSIFIED VARIETIES

IT is not easy to devise a system for the classification of crosses, which shall, without loss of precision, be both exhaustive enough and comprehensive enough to embrace every possible variety. There remain, then, a few anomalous instances which seem not to admit of inclusion in any of the categories already considered.

The first to note is Doncaster cross (Fig. 191), of which an engraving was published in Vetusta Monumenta, July 1753, from an old painting, formerly the property of Lord Fairfax, who sold it in 1672 to Alderman Thoresby, of Leeds. An ancient manuscript, accompanying the painting, recorded all that was known of the history of the cross. The latter bore on the shaft, at about a third of its height up from the bottom, an inscription in Norman French: "This is the cross of Ote de Tilli, on whose soul God have mercy. Amen." The said Ote de Tilli was seneschal of the Earl of Conisborough, and was a witness of the charter of foundation of Kirkstall Abbey in 1152. His name occurs in other charters of King Stephen's reign, and also of others in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. The cross stood at the south end of the town of Doncaster, on the London road. The shaft was 18 ft. high, and consisted of a large central cylinder with four engaged cylindrical shafts, having a total circumference of 11 ft. 7 in. It stood upon five circular steps, resting upon a hexagonal base or plinth. On the summit of the stone cross there formerly rose five slender iron crosses, the central one higher than the rest; but in 1644 the monument was defaced by the troops under the Earl of Manchester, losing its iron crosses. To make up the deficiency the mayor, in 1678, erected four dials, a ball, and vane on the top of the cross. Of not dissimilar plan is the stump of a shaft at Elstow (Fig. 192), in Bedfordshire. Again, there is a tall pillar of clustered columns in three stages at Aldborough (Fig. 193). All three examples appear to date from the thirteenth century.

191. DONCASTER, W.R. YORKSHIRE

192. ELSTOW, BEDFORDSHIRE

CROSS NEAR THE CHURCH

193. ALDBOROUGH, E.R. YORKSHIRE

VILLAGE CROSS

194, 195. MITTON, W.R. YORKSHIRE

HEAD OF CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD, SHOWING OBVERSE AND REVERSE FACES

At Chester, where Watergate Street ends and Eastgate Street begins, and where, at the point of junction, Bridge Street leads off at a right angle southward to the Dee Bridge, there stood the High Cross on a hexagonal platform or step outside the entrance to the Pentice,[159] which itself extended the whole length of the south side of St Peter's Church. The design of this cross was so abnormal that one is at a loss to place it under any known classification. A plain[160] cylindrical column supported an immense and lofty superstructure, exceeding the height of shaft and socket put together, and consisting of a double-storeyed lantern, with two tiers of niches for statues surrounding it. The whole was surmounted by an orb and cross, but the[161] drawing by Randle Holme the third, among the Harleian manuscripts at the British Museum (Fig. 24), gives two alternative details to finish off the summit, viz., a crucifix, or a crowned shield of the royal arms. The High Cross was newly gilded in 1529. It was overthrown and defaced by the Puritans in 1646, or, according to another account, in 1648. "In 1804 the remains were discovered buried in the porch of St Peter's Church, and were taken to Netherleigh House, and there used to form a kind of ornamental rockwork in the gardens." The late Archdeacon Barber, writing in 1910, says that in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester there is a plain stone block, which, though without any of the richly sculptured ornament depicted by Holme, purports to be the head of the ancient cross, while "the shaft is said to be in the grounds of Plas Newydd, at Llangollen."

196. RIPLEY, W.R. YORKSHIRE

BASE IN THE CHURCHYARD

There is, again, a certain type of cross which cannot exactly be classified under any of the previously described varieties. The type in question, as exemplified at Alphington (Fig. 199) and at St Loye's, Wonford, near Exeter (Fig. 198), appears to be peculiar to Devonshire. At first sight the cross looks much like a variety of monolith, but the cross-head is in fact worked in a separate block of stone. The shortness of the arms, as compared with the height of the upper limb, is striking. Another feature is a small niche or hollow sunk in the face of the cross at the point of intersection. For the rest, the socket does not differ at all from many examples occurring in the shaft-on-steps group.

The cross-head at Mitton, Yorkshire (Figs. 194, 195), is peculiar inasmuch as the crucifixion is sculptured on both faces, but in totally different fashions. That on the west face has the arms stretched horizontally, within a sexfoil[162] frame, and might well be of the thirteenth century. Whereas the sculpture on the east face, though much more weatherworn, is of a style that could not have been designed before the late-fourteenth, or perhaps even the fifteenth century. The arms of the Christ in this instance are drawn upwards in an unusually oblique direction. It is impossible that these two representations could have been executed at one and the same date. The circular outline of the head, too, is peculiar, and suggestive rather of a gable-cross than of a standing cross. Possibly the west face only was sculptured in the first instance, for a gable-cross, the sculpture on the east face being added later in order to adapt the stone for the head of a churchyard cross. Anyhow, since Buckler's drawings were made, the head has been mounted on a modern shaft and pedestal.

197. BISLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

MONUMENT IN THE CHURCHYARD

A very strange socket, comprising two stages, both cylindrical with a slight batter, stands to the north of the church in the churchyard at Ripley, Yorkshire (Fig. 196). The topmost stage is about 2 ft. 3½ in. high, and the diameter of its upper bed is 2 ft. 9 in. It has had sunk into it, from the shaft of a cross, a mortise 8½ in. deep by 18 in. by 10 in. The bottom stage is 2 ft. high by about 4 ft. 8 in., the diameter of its upper bed, which varies from 6 to 7½ in. wider all round than the foot of the upper stage. A most peculiar feature is the series of eight cavities averaging 6 in. deep and from 14 to 17 in. high, by 7 to 10½ in. wide at the top. It cannot be that these cavities were receptacles for offerings, for eight of them would be largely in excess of any reasonable requirements of alms-gathering. It has been called a "weeping cross" on the supposition that the hollows were meant for penitents to kneel in. But this again cannot be, for the spaces available are not nearly large enough for such a purpose.[163] It may be that the bottom stage of the Ripley cross is, after all, nothing else than the inverted bowl of a font, and the hollows surrounding it niches for statuary. The problem, however, is one which has not hitherto been satisfactorily explained.

198. ST LOYE'S, WONFORD, DEVONSHIRE

199. ALPHINGTON, DEVONSHIRE

At Bisley, Gloucestershire, in the west end of the churchyard, stands a singular structure of stone, of early-thirteenth-century work (Fig. 197). Circular on plan at the foot and hexagonal above, it now measures about 12 ft. high, the original cross or finial at the apex having disappeared. This monument has been variously described as a cross, a well-head, or a bone-house. Probably it is rather a combination between a cross (for with such it must almost certainly have been crowned) and a lantern for the "poor souls' light." The trefoil-headed openings in each cant seem designed expressly for emitting the light of a lamp burning within, while the dormer-like hoods of the said openings would shelter the flame from wind and rain. Such lantern pillars are known to have been in use in the Middle Ages, though they have very rarely survived to our own times. There exists, however, a fine example of late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century work, standing outside the north-east part of the Dom at Regensburg, in Bavaria.

[164]

## VIII. LYCHGATES

LYCHGATES are so named from the old Anglo-Saxon word lich, or German leiche, meaning corpse, because they stood at the entrance of the churchyard, where the bearers of the dead might deposit their burden, and rest awhile before passing through, and into the church for the solemn funeral rites. Some lychgates are actually provided with a long flat slab for this very purpose, as is the case, for instance, at Ashprington and Atherington, both in Devonshire, and at Chiddingfold, Surrey (Fig. 227). Usually also they are fitted with benches.

The rubric of the Prayer Book of 1549 directed that the officiating minister at funerals should go to meet the corpse at the "church style," i.e., lychgate; and again, according to the Prayer Book now in use (of the year 1662), the clergyman and the clerks meeting the corpse "at the entrance of the churchyard" (i.e., at the lychgate, wherever one exists), there begin the burial service, and thence precede the body into the church.

In some places, as at Heston and Hayes, in Middlesex, and at Chalfont St Giles, the entrance gates form turnstiles, being fixed to a central post, which revolves on a pivot.

There is hardly scope for any very great variety of types in lychgates, but they may be classified generally under certain main groups, viz., first, the porch-shape, in which the roof-ridge has the same axis as the passage way; secondly, the shed-like form, in which the roof-ridge runs transversely to the axial line of the passage way; thirdly, a rare variety, embodying both the previous features, and such that is exemplified by the charming lychgate at Clun, Shropshire (Fig. 235), where two roof-ridges cross one another at right angles; or at Berrynarbor, Devonshire, where the lychgate is on the plan of a cross; and, lastly, lychgates formed by the combination of the requisite passage way with a church house or other building. To this class belongs the entrance to the churchyard at Penshurst, Kent, an example well known and admired for its picturesqueness. Other instances are those of Hartfield in Sussex (Fig. 201), Long Compton in Warwickshire, Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire (Fig. 204), and Bray in Berkshire (Figs. 202, 203). The last-named specimen is of exceptional interest, not only because it contains an ancient chapel, but also because it bears, on one of the uprights of the entrance, the date of its construction, 1448, a most unusual circumstance.[165] The penthouse gallery, shown on the left of the photograph, is a modern addition. It will also be noticed, on comparison of the two illustrations, that the west window of the old chapel-chamber has, since 1879, been robbed of some of its mullions, and now consists of three lights only.

Two Welsh examples of lychgates, with a room built over each, are enumerated by the Rev. Elias Owen, in 1886, viz., Derwen, Denbighshire, where the upper storey is utilised for parochial purposes, and Whitford, Flintshire, where it served as a schoolroom. Latterly, "when the school increased in numbers, the lychgate was blocked up and formed into a class-room" in addition to the upper part. The same writer remarks that a fully equipped lychgate includes seats, a lychcross and a lychstone. As a rule, both lychcrosses and lychstones "have disappeared ... but underneath the roof of Caerwys (Flintshire) lychgate are still to be seen the beam and socket, where once stood the wooden lychcross, and on the ground are traceable the foundation stones of the two lychseats, and of the lychstone in the centre of the porch. This rest for the coffin was a low wall" of about a coffin's length. Some of the distinctive features of lychgates were destroyed in the eighteenth century. Thus "the beam that stretched from wall to wall," and had a wooden cross inserted into it, "has, in nearly every instance, been sawn away." The above-named example at Caerwys, however, according to the Inventory of the Royal Commission, still survives. The place was visited in July 1910, and the report runs: "Within the covered lychgate is a pre-Reformation oak frame, the two uprights supporting a beam in which a cross was fixed," the ancient custom having been to set down corpses on their way to burial upon the lychstone immediately beneath this cross.

The distribution of lychgates in various districts is most unequal. Thus nearly every one of the twenty-four churches of the Deanery of Woodleigh, Devonshire, is said to possess a lychgate. An instance, which may safely be pronounced unique, is that of Troutbeck, Westmorland, where there are, or were, no less than three stone lychgates to one and the same churchyard.

200. HAYES, MIDDLESEX

LYCHGATE

Lychgates are constructed, it goes without saying, of the most convenient native material available. Thus, the Welsh examples illustrated are of indigenous stone; whereas in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Kent, and other districts in which freestone is not available, the lack of it is amply compensated by the development of the resources of timber. Kent, though deficient in churchyard crosses, may justly claim to rival, if not indeed to surpass, the other counties of England in respect of the admirable lychgates which it contains. The handsomest stands at Beckenham (Figs. 205-207), on the south side of the old churchyard. The gate is of the shed variety, but the roof-ridge, instead of running the whole length from end to end (as it does at Lenham in the same county (Figs. 220, 221, and 222), at Ashwell, Hertfordshire (Figs. 215-218), Hayes (Fig. 200) and Heston (Figs. 213 and 214) in Middlesex, Morwenstow in Cornwall (Fig. 219), Isleham in[166] Cambridgeshire (Figs. 223-225), and Goring in Oxfordshire (Fig. 226)), is hipped, with very charming result. But hipping alone is not enough to ensure full æsthetic effect. One has only to compare two examples of hipped roofs, viz., that at Beckenham, already named, and the not dissimilar instance at Staple (Figs. 208, 209), in the same county, to realise what very different artistic values two gates, based on one identical motif, may possess. The Beckenham lychgate is far superior to the other, no doubt because of the excellent proportions of its parts. The old drawing, by Buckler (Fig. 206), shows that at one time the large oblique struts were wanting; a deficiency which altered the whole appearance of the lychgate, tending, as it did, to make the roof look heavy and ill-balanced. The large struts, however, had been supplied by 1871. The pronounced tilt of the roof toward the eaves, by means of sprockets (see the section drawings, Fig. 207), gives additional character to this beautiful lychgate. At the present day it cannot, unfortunately, be seen to proper advantage, because of the intrusive presence of a modern brick[167] wall, abutting close up against either end of the gate, and concealing its lower part. The roof is now tiled, but it is believed that it was originally thatched, or shingled. The difference of effect produced by varying the number of bays is illustrated by comparing the lychgates of West Wickham (Figs. 211, 212) and Beckenham, both of one bay each; those of Isleham, Staple, Lenham, and Ashwell, all of two bays each, and that of Anstey with its three bays. As to the last-named, Buckler's amazingly incorrect draughtsmanship in the right hand lower corner fortunately does not avail to disguise the sturdy dignity and grand outline of this magnificent example.

At Ashwell, Hertfordshire, the timber lychgate, which forms the south-west entrance to the churchyard, probably dates from the fifteenth century. The three standards carrying the horizontal lintel are so much more massive at the top than at the bottom that they must certainly have been cut from tree trunks inverted, like the angle spurs used in the construction of ancient timber-framed houses. The windbrace in the roof, and the engrailed vergeboard under the end gable should be noticed.

The lychgate which forms the western entrance to the churchyard at Lenham, Kent, comprises two passage ways, each having a four-centred arch of timber overhead. The narrower gate, that on the south, has the head cambered out of a single piece of oak to the four-centred outline. The northern, the wider gate, has the head built together of two pieces, shaped to the requisite form. The supporting struts and braces are much worn with age and weather, but happily unrestored. The roof is tiled. The main part of the timberwork is of the fifteenth century, says Mr E. C. Lee, except the roof, the rafters of which, built into the adjoining house, are "very poor and rough.... The strutting at A is bad in construction, all the strain being thrown on the pins." There is a tradition that this gate was brought hither from Canterbury some time about 1770; but it is, in all probability, without historical basis, as also are many other traditions of a similar kind.

The lychgate at Pulborough, Sussex (Fig. 236), is an example of a pyramidal roof, and may be contrasted with the cross-ridged construction of the lychgates at Clun in Shropshire (Fig. 235), or Monnington-on-Wye in Herefordshire (Fig. 237). All three are square on plan, and built of timber. The ornamental wood-patterning at Clun is closely allied to the typical domestic work of Shropshire and Cheshire, only in this instance it is open instead of being filled in between with wattle and daub.

Some lychgates belonging to the shed type are of composite materials, partly masonry and partly timberwork. To this class belong the gates at Pattingham, Staffordshire (Fig. 234), with its timber-framed gables in the long roof; Llanfillo, Brecknockshire (Fig. 229), and Clodock, Herefordshire (Fig. 228). The last-named is of uncommon character, having timber posts supplemented by masonry pier-walls, with recesses, like niches, in their inner sides. The stone piers are each 8 ft. 8 in. long by 2 ft. thick, and the[168] clear opening between them is 7 ft. 4 in. wide. The roofing is of stone slates. It is believed to have been erected in 1667.

To judge of the respective effects produced by timberwork on the one hand, and stonework on the other, one has only to compare the porch-like lychgates of Rustington, Sussex (Fig. 230), and Boughton Monchelsea, Kent (Fig. 231), with those of Talyllyn (Fig. 232) and Llandrillo-yn-Rhos (Fig. 233). It happens that the date of the construction of the last-named is known, viz., 1677. Otherwise, both this one and Talyllyn are so rude in construction, and so conspicuous for the absence of architectural detail, that it would be rash to attempt to assign a more precise date to either of them than some period subsequent to Queen Elizabeth's reign.

"It is difficult," says Herbert North in The Old Churches of Arllechwedd, "to conjecture the date of the local lychgates." Of six specimens, past and present, noted by him in Carnarvonshire, every one bore, or bears, a date some time within the eighteenth century. The lychgate of Llanrug is dated 1718; Caerhun and Llanfaglan, 1728; the old gate, now demolished, at Dolwyddelan, was dated 1736; the gate at Bettws-y-Coed is dated 1756, and Llanrhychwyn, 1762. In one case only, that of Dolwyddelan, the parish accounts show clearly that the work executed in the year specified was of the nature of repairs to an already existing structure. With regard to the other lychgates, however, there is no way of determining whether they were repaired merely, or built afresh at the dates recorded on them. With one exception, the lychgate of Bettws-y-Coed, where there is on the east side, over the gateway, a fine curved beam, 10 in. square, of really medieval aspect, internal evidence is of little avail, because the structures themselves are of quite plain and simple character, devoid of any distinctive architectural feature whatever. It is, however, a very extraordinary coincidence if occasion arose for all the six lychgates to require repairing within a space of less than fifty years. One can scarcely be rash, then, in assuming that, in the majority of instances, these lychgates were built at the actual dates respectively inscribed upon them.

[169]

201. HARTFIELD, SUSSEX

LYCHGATE BUILDING

[170]

202. BRAY, BERKSHIRE

[171]

203. BRAY, BERKSHIRE

LYCHGATE, FROM THE CHURCHYARD

204. CHALFONT ST GILES, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

LYCHGATE

[172]

205. BECKENHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE

[173]

206, 207. BECKENHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE

[174]

208, 209. STAPLE, KENT

PLAN AND SECTIONS OF LYCHGATE

[175]

210. ANSTEY, HERTFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE

[176]

211, 212. WEST WICKHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE

[177]

213, 214. HESTON, MIDDLESEX

LYCHGATE

[178]

215, 216. ASHWELL, HERTFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE, ELEVATION AND SECTION, SHOWING ROOF CONSTRUCTION

[179]

217, 218. ASHWELL, HERTFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE, PLAN AND END ELEVATION

[180]

219. MORWENSTOW, CORNWALL

LYCHGATE

220. LENHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE, FROM WITHIN THE CHURCHYARD

[181]

221. LENHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE DETAILS

222. LENHAM, KENT

LYCHGATE, SECTIONS AND GROUND PLAN

[182]

223. ISLEHAM, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

LYCHGATE

[183]

224, 225. ISLEHAM, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

LYCHGATE

[184]

226. GORING, OXFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE

227. CHIDDINGFOLD, SURREY

LYCHGATE, WITH COFFIN SLAB

[185]

228. CLODOCK, HEREFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE

229. LLANFILLO, BRECKNOCKSHIRE

LYCHGATE

[186]

230. RUSTINGTON, SUSSEX

LYCHGATE

231. BOUGHTON MONCHELSEA, KENT

LYCHGATE

[187]

232. TALYLLYN, MERIONETHSHIRE

233. LLANDRILLO-YN-RHOS, DENBIGHSHIRE

[188]

234. PATTINGHAM, STAFFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE

235. CLUN, SHROPSHIRE

LYCHGATE

[189]

236. PULBOROUGH, SUSSEX

LYCHGATE

237. MONNINGTON-ON-WYE, HEREFORDSHIRE

LYCHGATE

[191]

## BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. I., 1747; Vol. II., 1789; and Vol. III., 1796. Folio. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London.

> These miscellanies contain a number of plates, dating from 1728, and letterpress descriptions of ancient stone crosses.

"An Essay towards a History and Description of Ancient Stone Crosses" in The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, by John Britton, F.S.A. Vol. I., 4to. London, 1807.

"Village Crosses" (Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and Bedfordshire) in The Ecclesiologist, pp. 89-90, February 1844.

"Ancient Crosses" in The Ecclesiologist, pp. 298-300, August 1845.

"Crosses in Village or Churchyard," pp. 186-190 of A Handbook of English Ecclesiology. Cambridge Camden Society, 1847.

Ancient Stone Crosses of England, by Alfred Rimmer. London, 1875.

"Concerning Crosses," by Florence Peacock, in Curious Church Gleanings, edited by William Andrews, F.R.H.S. London and Hull, 1896.

"Early Sculptured Stones in England," Parts I. and II., by Bishop G. F. Browne, in The Magazine of Art. Vol. VIII. Cassell & Co., 1885.

The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art, by the Rev. G. S. Tyack, 1896.

"Churchyard Crosses," by Aymer Vallance, in The Burlington Magazine, No. 186, Vol. XXXIII., September 1918.

Wayside Crosses (a pamphlet), prepared under the direction of the Advisory Committee of the Wayside Cross Society. London, Chiswick Press, 1917.

"Market Crosses and Halls," by Walter H. Godfrey, F.S.A., in the Architectural Review for September 1919.

The Early Christian Monuments of Cheshire and Lancashire, by J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A.(Scot.), December 1893.

"Some Cheshire Crosses," by the Ven. Archdeacon Edward Barber, M.A., F.S.A., in Memorials of Old Cheshire. London, 1910.

Old Stone Crosses of the Vale of Clwyd and Neighbouring Parishes, by the Rev. Elias Owen, M.A. London, Oswestry, and Wrexham, 1886.

"Cornish Crosses" in The Ecclesiologist, pp. 217-219, November 1849.

[192]

Ancient Crosses and other Antiquities in Cornwall, by J. T. Blight, F.S.A. London and Penzance, 1872.

Old Cornish Crosses, by Arthur G. Langdon, with an Article on their Ornament by J. Romilly Allen. Truro, 1896.

"Pre-Norman Cross Fragments at Aspatria, Workington, Distington, Bridekirk, Gilcrux, Plumbland, and Isell," by the Rev. W. S. Calverley, F.S.A., in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archæological Society. Vol. XI. Kendal, 1891.

The Runic Roods of Ruthwell and Bewcastle, by James King Hewison. 4to. Glasgow, 1914.

The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, by William Crossing. London and Exeter, 1887.

"Three Pre-Norman Crosses in Derbyshire," by G. Le Blanc Smith, in The Reliquary, July 1904.

The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset, with an Introduction and Descriptive Article, by Alfred Pope. Collotype Illustrations. London, 1906.

Notes on the Old Crosses of Gloucestershire, by Charles Pooley, F.S.A., London, 1868.

The Ancient Crosses of Stortford, by J. L. Glasscock, 1905.

"The Ancient Crosses of Lancashire," by Henry Taylor, F.S.A., first published serially, in seven parts, in Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and republished in separate form under title of "The Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire." Manchester, 1906.

"The Crosses of Lancashire," by the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A., in Memorials of Old Lancashire. Vol. II. London, 1909.

Manx Crosses, by P. M. C. Kermode. London, 1907.

"Parish of Kirk Maughold," comprises an illustrated account of the Standing Cross in The Manx Archæological Survey, Fourth Report. Douglas, Isle of Man, 1915.

St Paul's Cross: the most Famous Spot in London, by John B. Marsh, 1892.

Chapters in the History of Old St Paul's, by W. Sparrow Simpson, London, 1881; and St Paul's Cathedral and Old City Life, by the same, London, 1894,

> contain much information concerning Paul's Cross.

"Paul's Cross," being Chapter VIII. of Methuen's Little Guide to St Paul's Cathedral, London, by George Clinch, 1906.

"The Early History, Form, and Function of Paul's Cross," by W. Paley Baildon, F.S.A., in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd May, 1918.

[193]

"Early Christian Sculpture in Northamptonshire," by J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A.(Scot.), in The Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers.

The Stone Crosses of the County of Northampton, by Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A. London and Northampton, 1901.

"The Missing Termination of Queen Eleanor's Cross at Northampton," by R. C. Scriven, in The Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers. Vol. XVIII. Lincoln, 1886.

"Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and the Monuments Erected to her Memory," by James Galloway, A.M., M.D., in Historical Sketches of Old Charing. London, 1914.

An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Old Stone Crosses of Somerset, by Charles Pooley, F.S.A. London, 1877.

"Crosses of Somerset," an Appendix to Pooley's work, was contributed by E. H. Bates Harbin to Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset. Vol. XV., Part 118. Sherborne, 1917.

The Old Stone Crosses of Somersetshire, by Alex. Gordon, in two parts, in The Reliquary, October 1895 and July 1896.

"Wolverhampton Cross Shaft," by Professor W. R. Lethaby, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries. Vol. XXV., N.S., pp. 158-159.

"Pre-Norman Cross Shaft at Nunburnholme, Yorkshire," by J. Romilly Allen, in The Reliquary.

[194]

## INDEX TO TEXT

N.B.—Items in italics refer[195] to the subject of Lychgates, while all other items refer to Crosses.

See also Alphabetical List of Illustrations at the commencement of the Book

- Abingdon Cross, 110
- "Actes and Monuments", 15, 18
- Alexander of Abingdon, 95
- Angle-pedestals, 43
- Anglican Runes, 32
- Ashprington Lychgate, 164
- Atherington Lychgate, 164

- Banbury Cross, 24
- Battle, John of, 95
- Baxter, Richard, 16
- Berrynarbor Lychgate, 164
- Bettws-y-Coed Lychgate, 168
- Bishop's Lydeard, 14
- Bishop's Stortford, 18
- Boundary Crosses, 13
- Brackley, Northants., 16
- Bradshaigh, Sir William, 24

- Caerhun Lychgate, 168
- Caerwys (Flints.) Lychgate, 165
- Calvary, 42
- Cavities in Base or Steps, 14
- Ceremonial Functions, 21
- Charing Cross, London, 18
- Cheapside Cross, London, 18
- Chester High Cross, 18, 25, 158
- Constantine, Emperor, 1
- Cornish Type, 27
- Crown Steeples, 137
- Crucifixion, 34

- Dane's Cross, Wolverhampton, 37
- Demolitions by Parliamentary Visitors, 16
- Derwen Lychgate,[196] 165
- Diamond-pointed Step, 42
- Distribution of Remaining Crosses, 9
- "Dives et Pauper", 1
- Dolwyddelan Lychgate, 168
- Dowsing's "Journal", 16
- Dunstable, Eleanor Cross, 101

- Eglwyscummin, Carmarthenshire, 15
- Eleanor Crosses, 94-108
- do. Plans, 95
- do. Royal Account Rolls, 95
- Eleanor Cross, Dunstable, 101
- do. St Albans, 101
- do. Stony Stratford, 101
- do. Woburn, 101
- Eleanor of Castile, 94
- Elizabeth, Queen, 106
- Evangelistic Symbols, 34

- Fyfield, Berks., 16

- Gallows, The Cross used as, 25

- Hardley, Norfolk, 13
- Head of Cross, Varieties of Form, 47
- Henry VI., 41
- do. VIII., 41
- Hire of Labourers at Cross, 26

- Iconoclastic Movement, 15
- Ipswich, Preaching Cross, 152

- Jeanne d'Arc, 7
- Jews' Cross, Oxford, 19

- Knop, Treatment of, 46

- Launde, Sir Robert, 102
- Leek, Staffs., 37
- Liverpool, Cross formerly at, 16
- Llanfaglan, Lychgate,[197] 168
- Llanrhychwyn Lychgate, 168
- Llanrug Lychgate, 168
- London, Crosses at, 18, 102
- do. Minor Preaching Crosses, 120
- do. Paul's Cross, 113-120
- Long Compton Lychgate, 164
- Louth, Lincs., 25
- Lychcrosses, 165
- Lychgates, 164-168
- do. Classification of Types, 164
- do. Construction, 165
- do. Distribution of, 165
- do. Materials Used, 165
- Lychseats, 165
- Lychstones, 165
- Lyme, Dorset, 25

- Margaret of Anjou, 41
- Market Crosses, 2, 125-157
- do. General Intent of, 125
- do. Tolls, 128
- Melton Mowbray, 18
- Menhirs, 27
- Mercian Type, 34
- Monoliths, 1, 27
- Monmouth, Duke of, 25

- Netheway, John, 7
- Nevill's Cross, Durham, 22
- Niche in Head, 161
- do. Socket or Shaft, 9

- Outdoor Processions to Cross, 9
- Oxford, Jews' Cross, 19

- "Palm Crosses", 13
- do. Sunday Ceremonials, 13
- Paul's Cross, London (see London), 113-120
- Pecocke, Bishop of Chichester, 116
- Penshurst Lychgate, 164
- Percy's Cross, 41
- Peterborough, 26
- "Poor Soul's Light", 163
- Preaching Crosses,[198] 2, 113-124
- Processionate to Cross, 9
- Proclamations from Crosses, 25

- Ravensworth "Butter Cross", 22
- Reding in Eboney, Kent, 7
- Regensburg, Bavaria, 163
- Rhuddlan, 26
- Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, 32

- St Albans, Eleanor Cross, 101
- do. Preaching Cross, 101
- St Cwyfan's Stone, 35
- St Patrick, 27
- Sacrilege and Profanity, 15
- Sanctuary Crosses, 21
- Scarborough, Butter Cross, 111
- Sedgemoor, Battle of, 25
- Shaft-on-Steps Type, 42
- Shaft Treatment, 44, 45
- Smithfield, Cow Cross, 18
- Socket, Treatment of, 45
- South Littleton, Worcestershire, 15
- Statues of Eleanor Crosses, 96
- Steps, Treatment of, 44
- Stony Stratford, Eleanor Cross, 101

- Thornhill, Sir James, 154
- Tolls of Market Cross, 128
- Turnstile Lychgates, 164

- Unclassified Varieties of Crosses, 158

- Wansford, Northants., 21
- "Weeping Crosses", 26
- Whitford, Flintshire, 34
- Whitford do. Lychgate, 165
- Wigan Cross, Lancs., 24
- William de Bley's Constitution, 13
- Wither, Joan, 7
- Woburn, Beds., Eleanor Cross at, 101
- Wolsey, Cardinal, 118
- Woodleigh (Derwen), Deanery of, Lychgates, 165
- Wynken de Worde, 1

Printed in Great Britain at The Darien Press, Edinburgh

Transcriber's Notes:
1. Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.
2. Page 116, paragraph 2, the name Robert Hawke has been corrected to Robert Hawle "Robert Hauley (Haule or Hawle)" - records at Westminster Abbey.

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