The Cross in Ritual, Architecture and ArtTyack, Geo. S. (George Smith)
History
The Cross in Ritual, Architecture and Art
Tyack, Geo. S. (George Smith)
Crosses
The Cheapside Cross was renewed in 1486 by the citizens of London, and
again in 1600. In the excitement of the religious ferment of the following
century it was a great sufferer, all the images on it being broken in
1581, and again, "with profane indignity" in 1596. Its final destruction
took place in 1643 under an order of the Long Parliament, which decreed
the demolition of all crosses. Both this and, it would appear, the earlier
attacks upon it, were the work of a fanatical minority merely, which could
command but little popular sympathy, for Sir Robert Harlow, who had charge
of the work of destruction, brought with him to the city a troop of horse
and two companies of foot to protect the workmen from the rage of the
citizens. The Cross at Charing was probably removed at the same time. Of
the fate of the others we have no record; some perhaps crumbled with
decay, and were neglected, others doubtless met a fate similar to that of
their London sisters.
[Illustration: PURITANS DESTROYING CHEAPSIDE CROSS.]
The Waltham Cross has proved the most suggestive to architects of
subsequent times; amongst other instances the Crimean Cross, near
Westminster Abbey, has been formed on its design. Sir G. Gilbert Scott
drew inspiration from the Northampton Cross for the erection of the
Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford; and near Sheffield is one which perhaps
follows, though at an immense distance, the type at Geddington. This is
the memorial to the four hundred victims, of the terrible epidemic of
cholera which visited Sheffield in 1832. This cross, the foundation-stone
of which was laid by James Montgomery, the poet, is chiefly interesting as
one of the earliest instances of the reviving taste and feeling for this
specially appropriate form of monument. Another Memorial Cross, whose
noble size and dignified proportions, when compared with the one last
named, give ample evidence of the artistic growth which has accompanied
this growth of feeling, is the S. Andrew's Cross, at Plymouth.
Two crosses of a different type to the Eleanor crosses are those at Newark
and at Wedmore. The first, which consists of a tall shaft on a flight of
bold, hexagonal steps, was erected by the Duchess of Norfolk, as a
memorial of her husband, John Viscount Beaumont, who fell at the battle of
Towton Moor in 1461. The present head of the cross is modern. The Wedmore
Cross, sometimes called "Jeffrey's Cross," commemorates the unfortunate
country-folk of Somersetshire, who fell in Monmouth's rebellion, or were
butchered by the brutal Jeffreys afterwards.
[Illustration: CROSSES AT SANDBACH, CHESHIRE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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