Chapter III: Part 3

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.

CHURCHYARD CROSS, PLAN AND SECTIONS]

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.

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

MARKET CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS AND PLAN]

ROADSIDE CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

MARKET CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

MARKET CROSS]

REMAINS OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

SOCKET OF CROSS]

REMAINS OF CROSS IN THE STREET]

SOCKET, AND FOOT OF SHAFT]

SOCKET, AND FRAGMENT OF THE SHAFT, OF THE CHURCHYARD CROSS]

Plan.

64. KEYINGHAM, E.R. YORKSHIRE

SOCKET AND STEPS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, BEFORE RESTORATION]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF SOCKET, AND ALSO THE PLAN]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER RESTORATION]

BASE OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

WHITEFRIARS' CROSS, BEFORE RESTORATION]

WHITEFRIARS' CROSS, AFTER RESTORATION]

SOCKET OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

THE RAVENSPURNE CROSS]

OLD CROSS FROM LINCOLNSHIRE, RE-ERECTED BY THE LATE MR OWST UPON HIS
PRIVATE GROUND AT KEYINGHAM]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

REMAINS OF CROSS-HEAD, SHOWING ALL FOUR SIDES]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, IN PERSPECTIVE AND ELEVATION]

THE VILLAGE CROSS, FROM TWO POINTS OF VIEW]

CROSS HEAD FROM THE ABBEY RUINS]

HEAD OF CROSS]

HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

ROADSIDE CROSS, SHOWING FRONT AND BACK]

CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS OF HEAD]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

REVERSE OF HEAD OF CHURCHYARD CROSS]

HEAD OF CROSS IN THE CASTLE COURTYARD]

CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF HEAD]

THE CORONATION OF OUR LADY
CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS
ST MICHAEL, WEIGHING SOULS
]

HEAD OF THE OLD CHURCHYARD CROSS]

CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF HEAD]

ST MARY'S CHURCHYARD CROSS
THE TOWN CROSS, NOW REMOVED TO ST SAMPSON'S CHURCH]

VILLAGE CROSS]

MARKET CROSS]

VILLAGE CROSS]

MARKET CROSS]

VILLAGE CROSS]

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.

PLAN OF ELEANOR CROSS]

ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE VILLAGE]

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.

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]

WALTHAM CROSS]

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.

SECTION OF MIDDLE STOREY OF WALTHAM CROSS]

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.

REMAINS FROM THE ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE GUILDHALL MUSEUM]

THE SECOND OF THE THREE CROSSES ERECTED ON THE SPOT]

THE THIRD CROSS ERECTED ON THE SPOT]

DETAIL OF OLD PROSPECT, SHOWING POSITION OF CHARING CROSS]

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."

THE ELEANOR CROSS, AND THE CROSS WHICH SUCCEEDED THE FORMER ON THE
SAME SITE]

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.

HIGH CROSS]

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.

HIGH CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER "RESTORATION"]

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.

PAUL'S 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.

PAUL'S CROSS]

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.

In 1457 Bishop Pecocke, of Chichester, a prelate, so it would appear, of sadly "modernist" tendencies, made his submission at Paul's Cross, abjured his unorthodoxy, and submitted to the burning of his books at the same time and place. In a sermon at the cross, on 4th March 1461-62, the Bishop of Exeter urged the justice of the title of Prince Edward of York to the throne. In 1483 Jane Shore was compelled to do public penance at Paul's Cross; and on 19th June of the same year the Lord Mayor's brother, Dr Ralph Shaw, in his sermon at the cross, openly intimated that the validity of Edward V.'s right to the crown was questionable, and that there were substantial reasons (which did, in fact, ultimately prevail) why both of the young princes should be debarred from succession.

BLACK FRIARS' CROSS]

PREACHING CROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD]

On a certain Sunday, in 1492, two men did public penance for heresy, standing at Paul's Cross "all the sermon time, the one garnished with painted and written papers, the other having a faggot on his neck." On Passion Sunday another man "with a faggot stood before the preacher all the sermon while at Paul's Cross; and on the Sunday next following (Palm Sunday), four men stood and did their open penance ... in the sermon time, and many of their books were burnt before them at the Cross."

On 12th May 1521, in the presence of Cardinal Wolsey, Bishop Fisher, of Rochester, delivered at Paul's Cross a sermon in denunciation of the German heresiarch, Luther.

In 1534 the king, Henry VIII., caused sermons to be preached against his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and also against Papal supremacy. In the same year, Elizabeth Burton and six of her most prominent supporters (all of them ultimately hanged at Tyburn) were brought to Paul's Cross for public exposure and degradation there, for the crime of having dared to express disapproval of the king's liaison with Anne Boleyn.

On 24th February 1538, the Rood of Grace, from Boxley Abbey, in Kent, an image which was alleged, by means of wires and other devices, to simulate various gestures and changes of countenance, was exhibited at Paul's Cross by Bishop Hilsey, of Rochester, and, at his incitement, broken and plucked to pieces amid the jeers of the mob. "The like was done by the blood of Hayles, which in like manner, by Crumwell, was brought to Paul's Cross, and there proved to be the blood of a duck," according to the veracious Foxe. From this time onward Paul's Cross witnessed the delivery of a succession of controversial sermons, first on one side and then on the other. When Edward VI. ascended the throne, Bishop Latimer, of Worcester, became a frequent preacher at Paul's Cross. Thus in the month of January 1548 he preached no less than four times.

In 1549 the Privy Council delivered to Bishop Bonner a set of articles, which he was required to advocate in a series of quarterly sermons at Paul's Cross. But the Bishop in preaching there having neglected to comply, was cited, on information laid against him by Latimer and Hooper, to appear for examination before the King's commissioners on 10th September 1549.

On 1st November 1552, at Paul's Cross, Bishop Ridley, of London, preached at great length in favour of the latest version of the Book of Common Prayer.

On 13th August 1553 Gilbert Bourne, a chaplain of Queen Mary, and Canon of St Paul's, preaching at the cross, narrowly escaped being murdered. One of the audience aimed a dagger at the preacher. The weapon, missing its mark, the point became embedded in one of the wooden posts of the pulpit. On the following Sunday Thomas Watson, preaching at the same place, was protected by a guard of 200 soldiers with halberds. At the same time an order was issued forbidding apprentices to attend the sermon, armed with knives or daggers.

On 2nd December 1554, in the presence of Cardinal Pole, the Lord-Chancellor preached at Paul's Cross commending the reconciliation of the kingdom, and its restoration to communion with the Holy See.

BUTTER CROSS]

Abbot Feckenham preached at the cross on 18th June 1555, and Dr Hugh Glasier, Queen Mary's chaplain, on 25th August of the same year.

On 27th October 1584 Samuel Harsnett, subsequently Archbishop of York, delivered at Paul's Cross a sermon, which caused no little stir, on Predestination.

On 20th August 1588 Dean Newell made, at the cross, the first public announcement of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

On 17th November 1595, at a special thanksgiving service for the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Fletcher, of London, preached at Paul's Cross, which had been repaired and partly enclosed with a low brick wall for the occasion.

In 1616, at the instance of Harry Farley, one John Gipkyn painted a panel picture, in which he represented, by anticipation, the attendance of James I. at a sermon at Paul's Cross, which actually came to pass on 26th March 1620. The panel now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries affords the most authentic view extant of the preaching cross (see Fig. 142).

Charles I. attended in state to hear a sermon at the cross in 1630, and Archbishop Laud preached there in 1631, perhaps the last preacher of eminence to occupy the pulpit--for in 1633 the use of Paul's Cross as an open-air pulpit was formally abandoned. Its consequent demolition cannot have been long delayed, although it has been contended that the cross was pulled down only that the pulpit might be reconstructed on a grander scale--a project which, however, was never attempted. In a publication of the year 1641 occurs the passage: "Paul's Crosse, the most famous preaching-place, is downe and quite taken away," which shows that the date usually given for the abolition of the cross, viz., 1643, cannot be correct. But it is the fact that, in May 1643, the parishioners of St Faith's complained of the obstruction caused by the presence of "stones, rubbish, and pales" in the churchyard, presumably the uncleared refuse from the demolished cross. In time the very site was forgotten; but in the spring of 1879 it was discovered by Mr C. F. Penrose, the cathedral surveyor. The cross stood about 12 ft. from the wall of Old St Paul's; and close to the north-east corner of Wren's cathedral. The octagonal base measured some 37 ft. across. "The platform itself," writes Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, "was supported by a vault. A brick wall was found which probably carried the timber supports of the pulpit proper. The probable diameter of the pulpit itself was 18 ft."

Paul's Cross was not the only preaching cross in London. There were, at least, two others. One stood in the churchyard on the south side of St Michael's, Cornhill. This cross was built by Sir John Rudstone, Mayor, who, dying in 1531, was buried beneath it. St Mary Spital, without Bishopsgate, also had an open-air pulpit-cross, where special sermons were preached in Easter week, year by year.

MARKET CROSS]

In the majority of cases it is likely enough that there was not a distinctive pulpit-cross, the steps of the ordinary churchyard cross sufficing to afford a platform for the preacher, when occasion required. There remain, indeed, no more than two crosses obviously and primarily designed as preaching crosses, viz., that at Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and the Black Friars' Cross at Hereford.