EARLY CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS The cross at St. Columb Major is a beautiful little specimen, although it now only retains about 6 inches of its shaft, and the back of the head is somewhat mutilated. The head of the cross at Prideaux Place, Padstow, is unique, for instead of the usual ring, the limbs of the cross are connected by four straight portions set diagonally. The Quethiock cross is a very fine one and the tallest of its kind in Cornwall, measuring 13 feet 4 inches in height from the base. Redgate No. 2, called by Borlase and other early writers ' The Other Half Stone,' stands close to the inscribed cross-base at Redgate ; only one face is decorated, and has a long panel filled with an eight-cord plait broken at the top. St. Erth cross-shaft is mutilated and broken in two ; the upper portion appears to retain the remains of the head, as part of the figure of our Lord is carved thereon. During the restoration of Gwennap Church many years ago a portion of a granite shaft was found with interlaced work upon it ; but when the foundations of a new vestry were being put in it was unfortunately re-used by the masons during the vicar's absence. The shaft in the church wall at St. Just in Penwith * is unfinished, only one panel being complete, near the bottom, whilst a second is started from the top. The St. Neot cross-shaft, Plate XVII, is the finest of all, the four sides being richly ornamented with interlaced work of different patterns. The broken cross-shaft and base in the churchyard at Padstow, in the south-east corner, must at one time have been a very fine monument, as the shaft is 3 feet wide at the bottom, and 1 3|- inches thick, while its base is over 8 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 1 3 inches thick. There is interlaced work on the front and on both sides, and some curious ornament in relief on the back, but only 3 feet 6 inches of the shaft remains. Writing on the ornament found on the Cornish crosses, Mr. J. Romilly Allen observes 2 : ' Illustrations of the best examples of the Scotch, Irish, and Welsh monuments of a period corresponding to that when the Cornish crosses were erected are to be found in the works of Dr. J. Stuart, H. O'Neill, and Professor J. O. Westwood, so that we have no difficulty in showing what relation the crosses of Cornwall bear to those in the Celtic portions of Great Britain. But the part which was played by the Anglo-Saxons in the development of the art of these monuments has never yet been fully understood, because the English examples have never been collected together in one work, where they may be compared with each other and those elsewhere. ' All the evidence with regard to the date of the monuments which has been collected tends to show that the Northumbrian crosses are of an earlier rather than of a later date than those in Ireland ; and the most ancient illuminated manuscript with a really reliable date in which the so-called Celtic ornament occurs is the Lindisfarne Gospels, which is of Saxon work, and executed in Northumbriaf/raz A.D. 720. My own opinion is, that . . . this style of ornament arose in consequence of the continual intercourse between the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Christians which took place after about A.D. 650, so that the Hiberno-Saxon or Anglo- Scotic is a more appropriate title to apply to the style than Celtic or Irish. In its highest development the chief peculiarity of Hiberno-Saxon art is the combination of the following decorative elements : (i) interlaced work ; (2) key patterns ; (3) spiral patterns ; and (4) zoSmorphic designs highly interlaced. Scrolls of foliage also occur in special areas, chiefly in Northumbria, but are entirely absent in the earlier manuscripts and on most of the sculp- tured stones in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. This is not the place to discuss the origin of Hiberno-Saxon art, and we must content ourselves by saying that we look upon it simply as a local variety of the Lombardo-Byzantine style which existed in Italy, Gaul, and Britain, from say, A.D. 600 to 900, modified in each different country according to the artistic capacity of the inhabitants. ' There is not much variety in the patterns of the interlaced work on the Cornish crosses, the most common knots being the figure-of-eight knot, the twist and ring, the Stafford knot, the spiral knot, and in one case the S-shaped knot. 3 Oval rings, placed crosswise and inter- laced, are also of frequent occurrence, sometimes combined with a double circular ring. The triquetra knot will also be found on the expanded arms of a large proportion of the crosses. The style of the interlaced work on the Cornish crosses corresponds more nearly with that on the crosses of South Wales than those of England, Scotland, or Ireland. 1 Old Cornish Crosses, 404 ; also Journ. Royal last. Cornwall, vol. xiv (1900), 186. ' Old Cornish Crosses, 348. * See PI. XVII, middle panel of first side. j 441 56
