opinions as to the Date of the Crosses 227 



1907. Anna C. Panes ^ spoke of ' the Ruthwell Cross in Dum- 

 friesshire, possibly dating back to the eighth century, . . . and the 

 Bewcastle Column in Cumberland, probably erected to the memory 

 of Alchfrith, son of the Northumbrian king Oswy (642 — 670).' 



1907. (Miss) M. Bentinck Smith ^ declared that the supposed 

 words at the top of the Ruthwell Cross, if decipherable, could not 

 refer to the poet Csedmon, ' for the language of the poem on the 

 RuthweU cross is younger than that of the MS. poem, possibly of 

 the tenth century. The decoration of the cross, also, is thought 

 to be too elaborate and ornate for eighth century work, and can 

 hardly be dated much earlier than the tenth century.' 



1910. Henry Bradley^ made the foUowing statement: ' Cyne 

 wulf's authorship has been asserted by some scholars for The Dream 

 of the Rood. . . . But an extract from this poem is carved on the Ruth- 

 well Cross ; and, notwithstanding the arguments of Prof. A. S. Cook, 

 the language of the inscription seems too early for Cynewulf's date.' 



1911. Walter W. Skeat* wrote : ' There is another relic of Old 

 Northumbrian, apparently belonging to the middle of the eighth 

 century. ... I refer to the famous Ruthwell cross. . . . There is 

 also extant a considerable number of very brief inscriptions, such 

 as that on a column at Bewcastle, in Cumberland.' 



1912. William P. Ker remarked ^i ' The Ruthwell Cross with the 

 runic inscription on it is thus one of the oldest poetical manuscripts 

 in English, not to speak of its importance in other ways.' 



1912. G. T. Rivoira® said : ' The age of the Bewcastle Cross, 

 if I am not mistaken, is not earlier than about the first half of 

 the twelfth century. And the same is true of the other well-known 

 cross at Ruthwell.' 



1912. W. R.Lethaby ' undertook to vindicate the earlier date of the 

 Ruthwell Cross from the strictures of Rivoira. His arguments are : 

 (1) The forms of the letters indicate ' a semi-Irish hand, such as was in 



1 Cambridge Hist. Eng. Lit. 1. 12. 



^ Cambridge Hist. Eng. Lit. 1. 57, note. 



3 Encyc. Brit., 11th ed., 7. 691. Elsewhere (4. 935) he is more positive: 

 ' The poem is certainly Northumbrian, and earher than the date of Cynewulf.' 

 He rejects Stephens' Ccedmon mm faucepo as ' mere jargon, not belonging 

 to any known or unknown Old Enghsh dialect.' 



* English Dialects, pp. 18, 20. 



5 English Literature: Mediaeval, p. 48. 



^ Burlington Magazine, April 15, p. 24. 



' Burlington Magazine, June 15, pp. 145-6. 



(15) 



