lantern-shaped stone, bearing figures of our Saviour on the cross
between two malefactors, besides the images of several saints." This
cross-head was probably removed at the time of the rebuilding of
the shelter; and the cross-head which succeeded it is most likely the
same one which fell, as already mentioned, in the eighteenth century.
Pooley concludes his notice of Shepton Mallet cross thus: "Some of
the fragments of the old cross I saw lying in a builder's yard at
Darshill," a hamlet in Shepton Mallet parish. "A grandson of that
builder," writes Dr F. J. Allen, in September 1919, "now living at
Shepton, states that he can well remember his grandfather selling a
selection of those fragments to Lord Portman, who removed them to his
house at Blandford."
[Illustration: 156, 157. MALMESBURY, WILTSHIRE
MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION]
[Illustration: 158. MALMESBURY
PLAN OF MARKET CROSS]
At Malmesbury, Wiltshire, there stands, some 200 ft. directly south
of the south end of the old transept of the Abbey Church, and about
50 ft. east of the south-east angle of St Paul's Parish Church, a
handsome market cross (Figs. 156, 157, 158) of the same type as those
of Cheddar, Chichester, and Salisbury. The following is Leland's
account of the cross: "There is a right fair and costly piece of
work in the market place, made all of stone, and curiously vaulted,
for poor market folks to stand dry when rain cometh. There be eight
great pillars, and eight open arches, and the work is eight square
(octagonal). One great pillar in the middle beareth up the vault. The
men of the town made this piece of work _in hominum memoria_ (within
living memory)." Leland wrote between about 1535 and 1545; and the
date assigned to the cross is 1490. With regard to the open arches it
would be more accurate to state that two only of the number are open
to the ground. The six others are confined at the bottom by a low
fence-wall. "A deeply moulded flying buttress rises from each pier,
clear of the richly-groined roof, the light ribs being drawn into
a cluster by a wide string-band supporting a large pinnacle and ogee
finial. This pinnacle bears traces of sculptured figures, and, on the
west face, of a crucifix; but the faces of the work are much abraded
by the weather, and perhaps rough treatment, for most of the bosses
have been broken from the groined vault."
[Illustration: 159. SALISBURY
POULTRY, OR MARKET CROSS]
[Illustration: 160. SALISBURY
POULTRY CROSS, AS RESTORED]
[Illustration: 161, 162. CHICHESTER
MARKET CROSS, WITH SECTION]
[Illustration: 163. CHICHESTER
PLAN OF MARKET CROSS]
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