A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE The foliage on the shafts of the crosses at Bakewell, Bradbourne, and Eyam is of the kind now commonly called Anglian, which had its origin either in Mercia or Northumbria, and afterwards spread to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The design of the Derbyshire foliage is however very much bolder and finer in all respects than anything of the kind to be found in other parts of Great Britain. The so-called Acca cross from Hexham, now at Durham, when placed side by side with the crosses at Bakewell and Eyam looks feeble, not to say futile, by comparison. The chief peculiarities of the foliage on the Derbyshire stones are the great number of coils given to the scrolls and the cornucopia-like expansions where branches diverge from the main stem. Similar features are to be seen on the carved ivory plaques with which the altar in Salerno Cathedral is decorated. The Anglian foliage of Mercia and Northumbria was obviously derived originally from an Italian source and is nothing more or less than a highly conventionalized form of the classical vine. The deviations from the correct way of representing the vine produced partly by conventionalizing and partly by successive copying are worthy of note. The leaves of the vine, being the least essential part, show the greatest tendency to vary from the original during the process of making successive copies, whereas the grapes, being the most essential feature, only vary as regards the shape of the bunches and the number of grapes in each bunch, but can always be recognized. On the pre-Norman cross-shaft at Nunnykirk, Northumberland, and in other early examples the bunches of grapes are realistically represented with the upper part round and the lower end more or less pointed. As time went on, however, the number of coils of the stem-scrolls was increased to such an extent that there was no room for a bunch of grapes of the proper size and shape in the centre of each scroll. Consequently the bunch was made round instead of havinga pointed end, and in extreme cases the number of grapes was reduced to three, so as to look more like a trefoil leaf than the fruit of the vine. On one face of the shaft of the Bakewell cross and on two faces of the shaft of the Ashbourne cross figures of animals and men may be noticed amongst the foliage, and an archer at the bottom shooting an arrow upwards. Similar representations occur on pre- Norman cross-shafts at Sheffield and Bishop Auckland, Durham, and on the Norman font at Alphington, near Exeter. Such figures involved in the vine-scrolls are merely the mediaeval adaptations of the little naked boys, etc., in the vintage scenes of classical art which were afterwards copied on the Christian sculptured sarcophagi of the third and fourth centuries at Rome. The archer is a later addition, either introduced to give greater realism to the sylvan scene or more probably intended to represent the custodian of the vineyard killing the animals and birds who are destroying the buds and fruit. It need hardly be mentioned that the vine has been one of the best-recognized symbols of Christ throughout the whole range of Christian art. The archer, therefore, warring with the creatures that injure the vine no doubt symbolizes the contest between good and evil. ZoSmorphic Designs. Instances of zoSmorphic designs occur on pre-Norman sculptured stones at the following places in Derbyshire : Bakewell, Derby St. Alkmund, Hope, Wilne. The coped stone from Bakewell now in the Sheffield museum has its sloping sides orna- mented with panels each containing a beast biting the end of its tail, which is bent round beneath the body and interlaced with the legs. On two of the faces of the cross-shaft from St. Alkmund's, Derby, now in the public museum there, are beasts with the neck bent back and the fore-paw upraised. The bodies have a double outline and in some cases appear to have been covered with scales. At the back of the head is what may be intended either for the ear or a sort of crest with an expanded end. The bent-back attitude is to be seen also in the case of the beasts on the cross-shaft of the Viking period at Nunburnholme,! Yorkshire. The shape of the heads of the beasts on the St. Alkmund's cross-shaft resembles that of a pug dog, with a round top and thick upper lip. This is altogether unlike the heads of the beasts in the Irish illuminated MSS., and to find anything of the same kind we must go to the English Baeda 2 of the ninth century in the British Museum (Tib. C. ii.). The beasts on the Wilne pillar are like those on the St. Alkmund's cross-shaft except that they have wings. The pairs of birds pecking at foliage on the Wilne pillar are probably intended to symbolize the same idea as the pair of doves pecking at a bunch of grapes on the Norman font in Winchester Cathedral. 8 The style of the zoomorphs on the Wilne font bears a certain amount of resemblance to that of the pair of bird-like creatures on the ring of Ethelwulf in the British Museum, which possibly was the property of Ethelwulf, king of Wessex A.D. 836 to 838 and father of Alfred the Great. 1 Refiyuary, 1901, 98. s Pala-ograpbical Sue . PubRc . pi 141. 8 Rffyuary, 1898, 262. 286
