On the south side of the steps leading to the cross is a spring of water evidently used from time immemorial by the inhabitants. It is now covered in by a small square-headed stone cistern. This cross fortunately escaped the ruin which befell so many of the other memorial crosses during the Civil War. It was restored in 1868, and repairs were judiciously carried out in 1890.[47] Footnote 47: _Cf._ “The Stone Crosses of the County of Northampton.” Christopher A. Markham. Northampton: Joseph Tebbutt, 1901. NORTHAMPTON. The cross at Northampton is the only one remaining of the five built by John Battle and his partners. It occupies a site on the east of the main road leading south, at a distance of about a mile from the town, in the parish of Hardingston. The road rises slightly as it leaves the flat land of the Nene Valley, and on this little elevation the cross was erected. It was the proximity of the religious house of Cluniac nuns (S. Maria de Pratis), now Delapré Abbey, which determined the spot where the funeral procession stopped for the night. This cross stands quite in the open country, and its fine proportions can be easily seen. Unfortunately it has suffered much, both at the hands of time, but especially from the restorer, and much of the original decorative work has disappeared. Its strong, beautiful outlines give the observer a high idea of John Battle’s skill as a designer. [Illustration: FIG. 16. The Cross at Northampton, from a photograph by the Author, 1908. ] The cross is situated on a platform surrounded on all sides by an ascent of nine steps. From this the cross, which is of octagonal outline, rises. The lowest story is supported by buttresses at the angles, and the faces thus formed are divided into two panels by a perpendicular moulding. Surmounting the panels is a series of decorated gables. The panels show alternately shields with the arms of England, Castile and Leon quarterly, and Ponthieu. In addition, every alternate face is ornamented with an open book. The second story is arranged also to give an octagonal outline, but consists really of the quadrilateral solid column of the cross, on each face of which stands the statue of the Queen, about 6 ft. in height, facing north, south, east and west. Attached to this solid column is a series of eight open tabernacles, elaborately and beautifully decorated. Above this tabernacle story rises the solid four-sided column of the cross, panelled and adorned with pointed tabernacle work, reproducing the designs of the story below. The column originally terminated, in all probability, in a cross-shaped finial. This no longer exists, the feeble effort to replace the terminal cross during the restoration of 1713 being happily removed.