We find hardly a trace of this kind of foliage in our series; nothing in any way to be compared with late tenth century MS. ornament of broad leaves (acanthus), used without the scroll.

The Carlovingian wave-and-dot pattern is never found on these North Riding monuments.

The Scandinavian chain pattern, fairly frequent on the stones here and in Cumberland, is entirely absent, Westwood notes, from manuscripts.

There must have been books at Lastingham, Hackness, Gilling, and other great monasteries, but the stone-carvers did not copy them. The Ormside Cup, on the other hand, has close analogies with the two important monuments, Croft a and Northallerton a, which seem to be the leading examples of the finest style, from which all the rest evolve, not without influence from abroad at successive periods. It is to relief-work, rather than to manuscripts, that we must look for the inspiration of the sculptors. It is probable, however, that stone-carving was a traditional business, begun by St. Wilfrid's and Benedict Biscop's imported masons, and carried on in more or less independent development, as it is to-day. The art-fashions of the time do not rapidly impress themselves on the monumental mason's yard, and the public is conservative in its tombstone

tastes.

The racial question in Yorkshire also must have had much to do with the art question. Few or none of our monuments can be dated before the synod of Streoneshalch, and after that time Irish influence was withdrawn, if ever there had been any Irish influence in matters of art, which is doubtful. Then the long peace of Deira was rarely broken until the end of the eighth century; this allowed Anglian art to develop itself in its own way. With the Danish invasion began a period of new influences, never quite shaken off in Yorkshire until the Norman Conquest. The interlaced work, abandoned in the tenth century by southern illuminators, remained the national art of the North. The Manx, Irish and Scotch kept it long after the eleventh century; so did the Scandinavians; and in Yorkshire it must have held its ground after it was abandoned in the South.

With this in view, and using the results of our analysis, we may venture to suggest the groups into which our chief monuments appear to fall.

A. ANGLIAN SERIES.

There is an eastern group, which shows many features in common. On the Kirkdale "Ethelwald" slab the pattern at the dexter end resembles that at the bottom of Hackness d. The simple leaf-scrolls of Hackness are like those of the Kirkdale slab; not far removed from Lastingham p. In a degenerate form they reappear in Crathorne a and in Middleton b. There are no such simple leaf-scrolls in the west of our district.

Socket-holes for jewels are seen in cross-heads at Lastingham a, Middleton g, Kirkdale d, Osmotherley g; but in the west only in Wensley a.

The same unusual plait occurs in Kirkby Misperton b, Kirkby Moorside d, and Stonegrave n.

Heads of Type C occur in Lastingham a and g, and in the west only once, at Masham; while all of Type D are eastern.

Hackness inscription fixes the stone as about eighth century; Kirkdale and Lastingham are also pre-Danish sites. Probably at Middleton, Kirkby Misperton, Kirkby Moorside and Stonegrave there were Anglian churches. Farther north, Stainton, Osmotherley, Crathorne and Easington-in that order-seem to have been founded later, but before the Danes; and through all this period the east seems to have been (from these monuments) a self-contained district; though it shows its influence at Masham and Wensley, it does not seem to have received much impression from the west, except at Hovingham.

The western group is richer and more complicated; it lay on the great roads from York and Ripon to Wear and Tyne; it must have been influenced from north and south, and we have seen that it influenced Cumbria. The Northallerton cross abcdef is unique in the North Riding, but was imitated at Carlisle before the Danes burnt Carlisle priory (876). By the Ormside Cup this cross is connected with the equally fine Croft stone, which is imitated at Wycliffe, evidently an Anglian church of the finer kind. Wycliffe h with its row of pellets, and Wycliffe d with its bird, connect with Easby and e, in which the climax of the whole school is reached. The artist who carved the Easby Christ could have carved the "St. Agatha."

This Easby cross has features in the branch-bindings in common with Wensley d and g, and Wensley Church contains the Anglian Donfrid and Eadberehct slabs.

Easby d again is related to Brompton i, though this Brompton shaft is perhaps earlier, and connected by its figures with the country north of Tees. Easby shows more mature work, reaching a power

of flowing line unseen at Brompton. The style of flowing line is carried further at Melsonby (where the thick stems connect with Masham a and Wycliffe b) and at Cundall, where the nimbed figure recalls the Easby Christ; the pellets and panels suggest a later date, though not so late as to indicate decline.

The animal on Cundall south side resembles those in the lower panels of Masham shaft; the flowing scroll of Cundall E. connects with Hovingham; and again the arches and spandrils of Masham shaft, and the standing figure with a book, are repeated at Hovingham, where there is an echo of "Hedda's tomb" at Peterborough. Similar graceful figures are found on Anglian work at Hornby (Lancashire).

In all this we have but one development, beginning with an impulse coming from the North, and ending with influence from the South. The development is so continuous that it is impossible to believe that some of these sculptures were executed after the great disasters of the Danish invasion; they must be all of one period and one school, carried forward during an age of peace and prosperity— such an age as the eighth century.

As minor efforts of this period we may class Stanwick a and b, Kirkby Hill impost, Pickhill , and the West Witton slab, and as decadence came on, the lorgnette crosses at Gilling and Great Ayton, the crucifixes at Great Ayton, Finghall and Thornton Steward a, gradually degenerating, and the Anglian but decadent cross, Kirkby Hill fgh. The Forcett stones appear to be rude and late reminiscences of the type, or work of an unusually unskilled amateur. Bedale pillar and shrine-tomb are late imitations of good Anglian work at Dewsbury and Masham, for what may be supposed to be a ninth century church. Then, with Stanwick cdef and North Otterington cdef, we come to a transitional art, possibly executed by Anglian carvers already under the Danish conquerors. Even under heathen rule, Christians lived and worked, though no longer able to produce the fine masterpieces of their predecessors; and before long each successive colony of Danes adopted Christianity, and required gravestones, if not stone churches, to be carved for them.

B. THE DANISH PERIOD.

After a generation of transitional forms, which may be placed at the end of the ninth century, we find monuments reflecting Danish taste; and because of the close connection of the York kingdom with Dublin, there is now a reason for Irish influence. The execution is ruder, as of people who no longer practised architectural

mason-work. Of this, plentiful evidence appears in the chain-pattern and ring-patterns, the dragons and wheel-heads, most of which are hacked and not finished into rounded surface by chiselling.

The Brompton hogbacks b and c appear to be among the finest works of this period. The Stainton bear and the Wycliffe bear a are good carving, but the Pickhill hogbacks are apparently works of another generation.

The Pickhill hogback has an Irish-Scandinavian dragon, and other dragons are seen at Gilling, Crathorne, Easington, Levisham, Sinnington, Pickering. The Crathorne shaft, by its Evangelist, dragon and key-pattern, is quite Irish in motive, and its coiled snake connects it with Wensley late shaft, North Otterington slab and Stanwick n; which last, again, is of the same cutting as the frog-pattern stones near it, linking these with Stonegrave. The great Stonegrave cross has surely a Celtic aspect. All these reflect the lessons learnt in the earlier half of the tenth century; some, however, from their superior mason-work (Gilling offset shaft, for example) indicate an advance in execution, while taste in design was much the same as early in the century.

At the fall of the Dublin-York kingdom (c. 950), new influence came from the Midlands into Yorkshire, and seems to be shown in this advanced technic. One proof of it is the round shaft trimmed square above (Gilling, Stanwick, Middleton), which seems to have come from Mercia, and to have been handed on into Cumberland (Penrith, Gosforth). These last have Edda subjects, and are apparently late tenth century. Gilling has a curious device, which may possibly be the Völund wing-wheel, and Völund appears on Leeds cross and at Neston (Cheshire). As to mason-work, we find a series of solid and well-cut stones, much superior to the hacked slabs of Dano-Irish type. Stanwick ij has magnificent cutting, though far different from Anglian technic, and it shows low down on the shaft the triangle of plait-work, seen also at Gilling de, Brompton e, and Lastingham cde,' the last of which bears the TLT pattern, with pelleted and open plaits, which we have remarked as late characteristics. The wheel-head is going out of fashion; supplanted by the new type of Brompton e and Middleton ab, with the cylinder in the armpits, seen also at Kirklevington cd, with beast-headed figures under the cross.

1 High Hawsker may furnish another example. Mr. Romilly Allen, in his notes on the proof of this paper, remarks that the treatment of cross-shafts in which the

lower part is left plain, and the bottom of the ornament terminates in a triangle point downwards, appears to be peculiar to the North Riding.

In this series, thus linked together, we can follow the continuation of the Viking Age style during the later half of the tenth and the early part of the eleventh centuries. The stone-carver's art is reviving, stones are more massive (which means, more skilfully quarried), the cutting is more clever and varied, and on its terms the design is more decorative and artistic, though still preserving its northern. character among impulses and influences from the South. But there is no room here for such work as the Hovingham stone or the Bewcastle cross. Indeed, we have an example of this period's attempt to imitate the Bewcastle cross in the Sigurd shaft at Halton (Lancashire), and if the development has been rightly described, the Halton shaft is easily understood.

C. THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.

In this period dials inscribed with Anglo-Danish names date themselves. Interlacing undergoes new development, becoming more open and angular until we get right-lined plaits like Wensley m; it is better cut, as the later part of the century introduces the masons who rebuilt the churches and began the abbeys. No longer hacked but clean chiselled, and intermingled with new grotesques we find it. at Hackness in the impost, and in the fonts at Alne and Bowes, where we are already past the era of the Norman Conquest.

In the following pages, describing the stones individually, tentative marks are assigned to some of them, in order to suggest not so much their dates as the groups into which they should be put. It is always possible that a style was anticipated in one place and lingered in another; we have really very few fixed dates to rest upon.

A includes finer Anglian work of the simpler forms and earlier types; say about 700 A.D. and the generation following.

A 2, full development of Anglian art; say about the middle of the eighth century to its close.

A 3, Anglian work in decline, or in ruder hands, but not yet showing Danish influence; early ninth century.

B 1, Transitional; such as Anglian carvers might have made for Danish conquerors; late ninth century.

B 2, Anglo-Danish work, showing Irish influence; early half of the tenth century.

B 3, Anglo-Danish work, with Midland influence; later part of the tenth century and beginning of eleventh.

CI, eleventh century, pre-Norman.

C 2, post-Conquest, but developed out of pre-Norman art.