Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][graphic][graphic][subsumed]
[graphic][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][graphic][graphic][graphic]

The shaft (c, d, e, f) measures 55 inches tall, 9 inches broad, and 8 inches thick, slightly widening on the narrower face as it rises-quite contrary to custom. There is much that is unusual in the design, which is rather deeply and carefully chiselled, though not beautiful. Note the key-pattern running into a plait in e; the TLT design is found also in late crosses at Barton (Lancashire), and Glassonby (Cumberland), and in Wales and Ireland. Everything about this shaft suggests that Lastingham survived the Danish conquest, and did not remain deserted until the restoration in 1078. (B 3.)

The wood-carvings and the Ainhowe Cross are post-Conquest.

The great churchyard cross, of which the fragment (g) was found in 1838, near the east buttress of the porch (The Monastic Church of Lastingham, by J. C. Wall, pp. 90, 91), must have been about the largest of pre-Norman monuments. A big mortised stone in the churchyard is supposed to have been its base. The cross-head has a radius of 29 inches; breadth of arm, 11 inches; thickness in centre of head, 12 inches. The head alone must have been nearly 5 feet high; Ruthwell cross-head is 2 feet 10 inches. Bewcastle cross was about 21 feet high, including the head, now lost; this, to be wellproportioned, should rise about 24 feet above its base. The pattern on the fragment is weathered and obscure; at the end of the arm is a "cat's-cradle" pattern, incised. (A 2.)

The fragment of head (h) has also a "cat's cradle" on the end of the arm, but the same interlacing on the reverse. It is of a later type than a, having pellets in the plait, and perhaps a wheel. (A 3?)

The fragment (i,j, k) is 81⁄2 inches high and 44 inches thick at the edge, hacked into high relief with a thin, stringy plait; perhaps part of a broad shaft, with plain or slightly incised sides, like . (A 3?)

The shaft (, m, n, o) is of brown stone, 26 inches tall, 6 inches thick, the face 10 inches at base, above the tenon, to 7 inches at neck, under the wheel-head. The sides and n are incised; the edges m and o are in relief. The T pattern is like e, and, according to Mr. Wall (Reliquary, xii., 3, p. 154), the key-pattern of runs into. interlacing above, as that of e does below. (B 3.)

The stones and q are perhaps door-jambs of the Anglian church; of brown stone, 7 by 18 inches on the face shown, finely carved in shallow relief on a flat ground. (A.) The fragment q is of white stone, 8 by 27 inches, the back knocked off and the sides without ornament. (A 2 ?)

« PreviousContinue »