Part 6

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.

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.

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, Iohis 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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.