38 SEPULCHRAL SLAB DISCOVERED AT KEDLESTON CHURCH. 
is ornamented with a cross in bas-relief, springing from the usual 
“Calvary,” or base steps. There is a boss in the stem near the 
upper part, resembling the boss or knob always found in old 
processional crosses, from which the idea has doubtless been 
taken. The design of the floriated head of the cross is compara- 
tively simple, but singularly effective. It is formed by four inter- 
rupted circles, with a quatrefoil within the diamond formed by 
their conjunction, and each circle enclosing a slipped trefoil. 
The plain cross is hardly ever found upon the old monuments, 
whether incised or in relief. It is said that the symbolists regarded 
the plain Latin cross as the Cross of Shame, and it is almost un- 
known either in architecture or illumination of the best periods of 
Christian art. The floriated cross was the Cross of Glory, and by 
its very design alluded to the triumph over death of the Crucified 
One. It is indeed the cross adorned with garlands or with 
crowns. 
The variety of designs produced by the old sculptors on their 
monuments by combinations of the cross and circles is simply 
astonishing, and says much for the fertility of their inventive 
power. Instead of finding many alike, it is most rare to find any 
two specimens that exactly correspond in design. I have looked 
through the books of Boutell and Cutts on monumental slabs, as 
well as a very large number of archeological transactions of 
various societies, but nowhere have I met with one that is quite 
similar in pattern to the handsome and interesting specimen found 
at Kedleston. 
The slab was placed with its foot to the east, and the 
interment below corresponded in position. The rule was to bury a 
layman with his face to the altar, but to bury a cleric with his face 
to the people. This, therefore, is a memorial stone to a layman. 
The design is beyond question of Early English or thirteenth 
century date. A closer study of it, and a comparison with various 
others, whose date is accurately or approximately known, inclines 
me to the belief that it is of the first part of the reign of Henry III., 
probably between 1225 and 1250 
There was no family within the limits of the small parish of 
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