Salisbury Poultry Cross (Figs. 159, 160) must originally have been
constructed in the same way, but, some time before May 1789 (see
illustration in _Archæologia_, Vol. IX., p. 373) the whole of the
original superstructure above the roof had perished. The pinnacles,
flying buttresses, and lantern, which now crown the roof, are only
a modern restoration, albeit a very excellent one. The plan of the
Poultry Cross is hexagonal. In addition to this cross there are known
to have existed at one time in Salisbury the Cheese Cross, Bernard's
Cross, and that before the west door of the cathedral. One of the
number was erected by Lawrence de St Martino, as a penance enjoined
before September 1388, by Bishop Radulph Ergham because Lawrence, who
was infected with Lollardism, had been guilty of flagrant irreverence
toward the Blessed Sacrament. To complete his penance he was required
to come and kneel in the open air, barefoot and bareheaded, before
the said cross every Saturday for the rest of his life. A record of
his offence and of its punishment was to be inscribed upon the cross
itself, and, assuming this penance cross to be the actually existing
market cross, it has been conjectured that the six panelled sides of
its central pillar bore the required text. But the identity is very
doubtful, more especially as 1388 seems too early a date, by some
hundred years, for the Poultry Cross.
The old Market Cross at Glastonbury (Fig. 164) has unfortunately
disappeared. The shelter was octagonal and gabled. But the singular
feature of the design was that the gables, instead of surmounting
the arched openings, were placed over the spandrels and the piers
between the arches. Conformably, then, with the canted plan of the
structure, the face of each gable was returned at an angle from its
central vertical line, a simple but quite unusual device, which
produced a remarkably quaint and original effect. The picturesqueness
was enhanced by the presence hard by of a water conduit, which grouped
charmingly with the more imposing structure of the market cross. Both,
however, becoming dilapidated through neglect, were demolished in 1808.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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