Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/108

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Devon Notes and Queries. 71 50. CONCBRNING SOME AnCIENT CrOSSBS IN THE PaRISH OF North Bovey. — In the month of April of this year the old farmhouse at Sanduck, on the road from North Bovey to Lrustleigh, was accidentally burned down. At the base of a partition wall inside the house a mutilated cross with one arm missing was discovered. This ancient symbol of our religion the Rector of the parish obtained from the owner of the estate. No one seems to know for how long a period it had remained desecrated, unheard of and concealed from the eyes of men, but the chamber in which it was discovered bore traces of considerable age. No one knows where it was originally erected, nor for how many years it had remained honoured and respected, a land- mark of ancient piety before it was taken down by the barbaric builder of the house in order to form part of the foundation of an inside wall. Under these circumstances I summoned a skilful stone- mason to my assistance, and, the lost arm having been restored, the old relic once more rears its venerable head from an elevated platform in the vicinity of the house where it was found. The photograph from which an engraving is taken is excellent in its general effect, although it does not perhaps show the somewhat peculiar fluting which decorates the front of the shaft as clearly as could be desired. It is by Dr. Stephens, of Moreton Hampstead, to whom, on its account, our thanks are due. Can anyone venture even to go so far as to hazard a guess with reference to the antiquity of this, or of any other of the more ancient crosses of the West-country ? In a garden wall near Moorgate, on the Prince Town Road, another and very different cross is imbedded, an engraving from a photograph of which in situ is also given. It is contributed by Dr. Prowse, of Clifton, to whom we are all in many ways indebted. This cross once stood, it is reported, in the open in a field near Moorgate, and I have permission to take it away as soon as I can induce other lovers of ancient monuments to join with me in rescuing it from its present position of obscurity. ^