344 Theory as to the Origin of the Crosses 



of Henry I and Matilda, David's sister. The art of the French 

 sculptors (probably between 1128 and 1152) has been characterized 

 by Butler. 



The entire edifice as we have it, unique as a specimen of a style, the 

 persistent use of Romanesque forms throughout, with a highly refined 

 treatment of details, the frank employment of the pointed arch in the 

 supports of the tower, all foreshadow the transition, and would seem to 

 indicate that the style of David's reign was not Uke the barbaric 

 Norman of the last twenty-five years of the eleventh century, nor yet 

 the still heavy style of the first quarter of the twelfth, but a Ughter and 

 more elegant system of construction and a more graceful theory of 

 design that distinguishes it from earher phases of northern Romanesque.^ 



The abaci of the capitals of the clustered columns and colonettes 

 are rectangular, and the carving of the capitals themselves, the bases, 

 the profiles of all the mouldings, are far more suggestive of the French 

 style of the transition than of insular work. These capitals with their 

 abaci are strangely reminiscent of the late Norman details of the cathedral 

 of Bayeux. The design of their conventionaUzed foliage even in direct 

 comparison is strikingly Uke that of the transitional churches of Laon 

 and Beauvais. Is it not this last name that gives the clew to the ap- 

 pearance of detail here in Jedburgh, totally unUke anything of its kind 

 in Great Britain ? Is it not the work of the monks from the great 

 Benedictine convent at Beauvais that we see in these elegantly carved 

 capitals and mouldings t^ 



The present Cathedral of Beauvais dates from a later period, but 

 the church of St. Stephen is of the 12th century, and, as we have 

 seen above (p. 127, note 1), may have furnished a suggestion for the 

 gable of Kelso. Other early churches in the region about Beauvais 

 might also be considered. 



4. THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF CLAIkVAUX 



About the year 1128,* Bernard addressed to Henry I a remarkable 

 letter, entrusting it to a deputation of monks which he sent as a 

 colony to England. 



To the illustrious Henry, King of England, Bernard, Abbot of Clau-- 

 vaux, that he may faithfully serve and humbly obey the King of Heaven 

 in his earthly kingdom. 



^ Butler, Scotland's Ruined Abbeys, pp. 96-7. 



^ Ibid, p. 82. For the vine-scroll, see above, p. 80, and Butler, p. 84. 

 ^ Raine, Archbishops of York 1. 203. 

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