THE CORONATION OF OUR LADY CHURCHYARD CROSS, WITH DETAILS ST MICHAEL, WEIGHING SOULS ] [Illustration: 113. SHERBURN-IN-ELMET, W.R. YORKSHIRE HEAD OF THE OLD CHURCHYARD CROSS] [Illustration: 114, 115. POCKLINGTON, E.R. YORKSHIRE CROSS, WITH DETAIL OF HEAD] [Illustration: 116, 117. CRICKLADE, WILTSHIRE ST MARY'S CHURCHYARD CROSS THE TOWN CROSS, NOW REMOVED TO ST SAMPSON'S CHURCH] [Illustration: 118. CROWCOMBE, SOMERSET VILLAGE CROSS] [Illustration: 119. BEDALE, N.R. YORKSHIRE] [Illustration: 120. BONSALL, DERBYSHIRE MARKET CROSS] [Illustration: 121. STEEPLE ASHTON, WILTSHIRE VILLAGE CROSS] [Illustration: 122. BRIGSTOCK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE MARKET CROSS] [Illustration: 123. REPTON, DERBYSHIRE VILLAGE CROSS] IV. SPIRE-SHAPED, OR ELEANOR CROSSES On 28th November 1290 the Queen-Consort, Eleanor of Castile, died at Harby, in Nottinghamshire. Edward I., prostrated with grief--the sincerity of his devotion to his wife was perhaps the most favourable trait in his character--resolved to perpetuate her memory by erecting crosses at the various stopping-places of the funeral procession on its way to London. The route chosen, though not the most direct one, was arranged expressly so that the body might rest, each night of its journey, at some large and important town, or else at some conventual house, for the fitting celebration of the solemn offices for the dead. A stone cross was built, if not upon the exact spot, in the near neighbourhood of the spot, where the body had reposed on each occasion, viz., at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, or rather Hardingston (reached on 9th December), Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans (13th December), Waltham, or rather Cheshunt, London (where the body lay for the night, probably in St Paul's Cathedral, a cross being afterwards erected in West Cheap), and, finally, Charing village, which was the last halting-place on the way to the entombment in Westminster Abbey on 17th December. There were set up altogether twelve Eleanor crosses. Some have reckoned the number at fifteen, supposing that similar crosses were erected also at Harby, Newark, and Leicester, but of these there is no evidence.