The first species of monument, of which I propose to give the history, is that denominated _cross-legged_, from its having the recumbent effigy of the deceased upon it, represented in armour, with the legs crossed. During the Norman period of our history, the holy war, and vows of pilgrimage to Palestine, were esteemed highly meritorious. The religious order of laymen, the knights templars, were received, cherished, and enriched throughout Europe, and the individuals of that community, after death, being usually buried cross-legged, in token of the banner under which they fought, and completely armed in regard to their being soldiers, this sort of monument grew much in fashion, and though all the effigies with which we meet in that shape are commonly called knights templars, yet it is certain that many of them do not represent persons of that order; and Mr. Lethieullier says (_Archæologia, vol. 2. p. 292_) that he had rarely found any of these monuments which he could with certainty say had been erected to the memory of persons who had belonged to that community. The order of knights templars had its rise but in the year 1118, and in 1134, we find Robert duke of Normandy, son of William the conqueror, represented in this manner on his tomb in Gloucester cathedral.[60]—Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, was represented thus on his fine tomb, which was in St. Paul’s cathedral, before the fire of London. And in the Temple church there still remain the cross-legged effigies of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who died in 1219; William his son, who died in 1231; and Gilbert, another son, who died in 1241; none of whom it is believed were of the order of Templars. If these monuments were designed to denote at least, that the persons, to whose memory they were erected, had been in the Holy Land, yet all who had been there did not follow this fashion, for Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, second son of king Henry the third, had been there, and yet, as appears by his monument, still in being in Westminster-abbey, he is not represented cross-legged.[61] However, it seems to have been a prevailing fashion till the sixth year of Edward the second, 1312, when the order of Templars coming to destruction, and into the highest contempt, their fashions of all kinds seem to have been totally abolished.