224 Introdtiction 



1892. Stopford A. Brooke^ said : ' The [Ruthwell] Cross, so far 

 as its make goes, might have been set up during the seventh, eighth, 

 or the beginning of the ninth century ; and as to the Runes — th re 

 were runes carved on stones after the Norman Conquest.' 



1892. Joseph Anderson ^ dated the monuments of his Class II 

 between 800 and 1000, and remarked that those of his Class III, to 

 which the Ruthwell Cross belongs, ' were only displaced by the 

 European style of grave-slab introduced with Gothic architecture 

 in the twelfth century.' 



1895. Wilhelm Vietor^ could read on the top-stone of the Ruth- 

 well Cross only : (R ?) D(D .?) R\{:) (M^ ?)(F)AYRrO, out of which 

 nothing can be made. The cross is earlier than 750.* For his 

 readings of the principal inscription on the Bewcastle Cross,^ see p. 37, 

 below. As to the date, he said : ' Sprachlich steht nichts im Wege, 

 in der sicheren Cyniburg und dem wahrscheinlichen Alcfrithu die 

 Tochter Pendas von Merzien und ihren Gemahl, den Sohn Oswius 

 von Northumbrien, zu sehen.' 



1896. George F. Browne® MTote of the Bewcastle Cross : ' It was 

 set up in the year 670.' 



1897. George F. Browne^ was confident that the Ruthwell Cross 

 was erected before the death of King Ecgfrith in 685. 



1898. Stopford A. . Brooke ^ declared : ' The [Ruthwell] cross 

 dates from the first half of the eighth century, and the lines, which 

 from their situation and language belong ta the north, are believed 

 to be of the latter end of the seventh. . . . Criticism of the lan- 

 guage and manner of the lines tends to make the authorship of 

 Csedmon more and more probable.' 



1899. William Greenwell^ believed the sculptors of the two crosses 

 to have come from Italy, ' towards the close of the seventh century.' 



1899. WiUiam G. Collingwood ^" attached much weight to the 

 views of Bishop Browne (see under 1896), and accordingly accepted 

 the date 670. ^^ He added : ' The date of the Bewcastle Cross does 



1 Hist. Early Eng. Lit., p. 337. 



2 Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, 1903, pp. cix. cxiii. 



^ Die Northumbrischen Runensteine, p. 11. * Ibid., p. 48. 



5 P. 16. 



« Conversion of the. Heptarchy, 2d ed., 1906, pp. 189, 208. 

 ^ Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 236. 



* Eng. Lit. from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest, p. 133. 

 ^ Catalogue, p. 47 ; see p. 78, below. 

 ^° Early Sculpt. Crosses, p. 44. 

 11 P. 47. 



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