A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
are inscribed, and nearly all the fragments variously decorated. They are all carefully described by Mr. Taylor.[1] The best known is that which is preserved in the British Museum, bearing the inscription in Anglian runes,
GIBIDÆTHFO ~ RÆCUNIBAL ~ THCUTHBŒRE[HTING]
which is translated, Pray for Cynebalth Cuthbertson.
The cross is in fair preservation, and capable of full restoration as seen from the illustration; its height may have been 6 or 7 feet. In the centre and the centres of the arms are circular bosses, and a characteristic pattern of interlaced ropework surrounds them. The rope terminates below in a curious head. The ornamentation of the reverse is less decorative, being an incised geometrical pattern enclosed in a small incised circle at the centre. The sides are plain.
The next in importance of the Lancaster crosses was found as recently as 1903, built into the north wall of the church. Its shaft only is preserved, the ornamentation being scrollwork of Anglian type. On one face at the top of the shaft is an inscription:—
+ ORATE P[RO] ANIMA HARD • • • I •
A third fragment of a cross-shaft has Anglian scrollwork on all sides; and a fourth is a cross of Anglian type, with two birds above the arms and two figures below which have beasts' heads and human feet. On two sides is the straight-lined interlacing design known as 'cat's cradle,' which is also found on one of the crosses from St. Oswald's, Durham. A fifth stone is part of a standing slab, after the fashion of a modern tombstone, 3 feet high and 5 inches thick, which was originally finished with a crosshead. It has on one side a design of double spiral knots, and on the other a large circular plait, above which is a stag chased by a hound. The decoration is very like that on a similar slab at Melling. Other fragments are (1) the centre of a crosshead, having over the figure of Christ a large circular boss with five balls on it; (2 and 3) pieces of two cross-shafts with Anglian scrollwork; and (4) part of the shaft of a cross of later style than the rest, carved on all four sides, but much defaced. One subject may be Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Knowledge.
The village of Bolton-le-Sands, some 3 or 4 miles to the north of Lancaster, contains in some fragments of sculptured stone evidence of its pre-Norman origin. One of these is a portion of a cross decorated with bold interlacing design. Another is a portion of a 'hog-backed' gravestone. One side is decorated with the customary roofing-tile pattern, the other with a design supposed to represent Eve and the serpent.
In the churchyard at Halton, near Lancaster, is a tall cross-shaft, which is of particular interest as a specimen of what has been called the pagan-christian overlap. The crosshead, of which only part is ancient, was ornamented with interlacing designs. At the top of the shaft are the evangelistic symbols, one on each face. Below are parts of four arched panels containing figures, but this part of the cross has been broken and lost, and a piece of plain stone
- ↑ Lanc. and Ches. Antiq. Soc. Trans. xxi. 44-55.
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