The cross-head at Mitton, Yorkshire (Figs. 194, 195), is peculiar
inasmuch as the crucifixion is sculptured on both faces, but in
totally different fashions. That on the west face has the arms
stretched horizontally, within a sexfoil frame, and might well be
of the thirteenth century. Whereas the sculpture on the east face,
though much more weatherworn, is of a style that could not have been
designed before the late-fourteenth, or perhaps even the fifteenth
century. The arms of the Christ in this instance are drawn upwards
in an unusually oblique direction. It is impossible that these two
representations could have been executed at one and the same date. The
circular outline of the head, too, is peculiar, and suggestive rather
of a gable-cross than of a standing cross. Possibly the west face only
was sculptured in the first instance, for a gable-cross, the sculpture
on the east face being added later in order to adapt the stone for
the head of a churchyard cross. Anyhow, since Buckler's drawings were
made, the head has been mounted on a modern shaft and pedestal.
[Illustration: 197. BISLEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
MONUMENT IN THE CHURCHYARD]
A very strange socket, comprising two stages, both cylindrical with a
slight batter, stands to the north of the church in the churchyard at
Ripley, Yorkshire (Fig. 196). The topmost stage is about 2 ft. 3½
in. high, and the diameter of its upper bed is 2 ft. 9 in. It has had
sunk into it, from the shaft of a cross, a mortise 8½ in. deep by
18 in. by 10 in. The bottom stage is 2 ft. high by about 4 ft. 8 in.,
the diameter of its upper bed, which varies from 6 to 7½ in. wider
all round than the foot of the upper stage. A most peculiar feature is
the series of eight cavities averaging 6 in. deep and from 14 to 17
in. high, by 7 to 10½ in. wide at the top. It cannot be that these
cavities were receptacles for offerings, for eight of them would be
largely in excess of any reasonable requirements of alms-gathering. It
has been called a "weeping cross" on the supposition that the hollows
were meant for penitents to kneel in. But this again cannot be, for
the spaces available are not nearly large enough for such a purpose.
It may be that the bottom stage of the Ripley cross is, after all,
nothing else than the inverted bowl of a font, and the hollows
surrounding it niches for statuary. The problem, however, is one which
has not hitherto been satisfactorily explained.
[Illustration: 198. ST LOYE'S, WONFORD,
DEVONSHIRE]
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