IV.—The Easby Cross

Abstract

In August 1930 the Victoria and Albert Museum was enabled to purchase a fragment of a tall cross of the well-known Northumbrian type, of which the best-known examples are perhaps the Bewcastle and Ruthwell crosses. This fragment, which had been for a long time in private possession at Easby in Yorkshire, has frequently been illustrated as one of the finer examples of the carving of the period. It shows on the one broad face Christ Enthroned in Majesty between two angels (pi. xxv, fig. 1); on the other, magnificently designed vine scrolls with a bird, probably an eagle or a falcon, and a beast (I would rather not specify the breed) in the convolutions (pi. xxv, fig. 3). On the two narrow sides are panels of interlaced ornament and vine scrolls, separated by bands of pearled ornament (pi. xxv, fig. 2). Mr. W. G. Collingwood, both in his contribution on Anglo-Saxon sculpture in the Victoria County History of Yorkshire and in his later work on the Northumbrian crosses,2 noted two other fragments built into the fabric of the parish church at Easby, which, though only one narrow face was visible, appeared to him to be of the same date, and to have come from the same or a similar cross. Another small piece 3 with a bust of Christ was also noted by him on the outside of the south wall of the chancel. Last autumn permission was obtained by the authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum to cut out these stones and to replace them with plain masonry. The carved stones, which were brought to the Museum for cleaning, were found to be covered on three sides to a depth of two or three inches with hard mortar; on cleaning this off the stones were found to show on two of the broad faces busts of eleven of the twelve Apostles, ranged in groups of three or more under arches (pi. xxvi, fig. 1, xxvn, fig. 1), the halo of the twelfth head appearing at the bottom of the fragment already in the possession of the Museum. This shows quite clearly the order of arrangement of the stones–the Christ in Majesty at the top, with the Apostles below. Mr. Collingwood, only having one stone to go upon, had restored them the other way round with the Christ at the bottom. The other faces of these two fragments of the shaft show vine scrolls and interlacing panels similar to the first piece (pi. xxvi, figs. 2 and 3, xxvn, fig. 2). A reconstruction of the three pieces of the shaft is shown on plate XXVIII. The third fragment recorded by Mr. Collingwood as in the church was found to have on the walled-in side a second bust of Christ and to be, as already suggested by him, a part of the head of the cross (pi. XXVII, figs. 3 and 4). Although now in pieces the cross would seem to have been originally composed of a monolithic shaft with the head carved from a separate stone, as in the case of the Bewcastle and other crosses. The Easby cross must have been violently thrown down at some time, probably during the Danish invasions, and then repaired with lead, a piece of which still remains at the base of the middle stone (pi. xxvi, fig. 3). In this connexion it is interesting to note that Symeon of Durham records the fact that when the Viking raiders of Lindisfarne had broken off the head of a stone cross the two pieces were afterwards joined together by being run with lead. The material of the Easby cross, like the other great crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell, is a local stone.