Part 7

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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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."

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.

The old cross at Gloucester (Fig. 138) stood on elevated ground at the meeting of Northgate, Southgate, and Westgate Streets. It was raised on steps, and was octagonal on plan. The ground storey, and the next above it, dated apparently from about 1320. But the uppermost storey, consisting 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.

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 (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.

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 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.

"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.

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.