lOO PRE-NORMAN CROSS-SHAFTS FOUND AT NORBURY. 



I have shown elsewhere* how the two most common knots 

 in pre-Norman work, namely, the Stafford knot and the figure- 

 of-eight knot, are derived from a plait of three and four cords 

 respectively. Now, a. knot, like the Stafford knot, which is 

 derived from a plait of an uneven number of bands, has this 

 disadvantage when used for purposes of decoration : that if 

 repeated in a single row, the ends cannot be joined up so 

 as to complete the pattern. One way out of the difficulty 

 was to connect the interlaced work into the body of a serpentine 

 creature, with the head of the reptile terminating one of the 

 loose ends, and the tail the other. Another way (as the 

 Cookery Book has it) is to introduce an additional cord pursuing 

 an undulating course between the knots, as on the left side 

 of shaft No. I, in which there are no loose ends. This 

 peculiar pattern occurs elsewhere in the following instances : — 



On a cross at Aycliffe, county Durham (E. L. Cults' Sej^idchral 

 Slabs, pi. 77). 



On a coped tombstone at Bexhill, Sussex [Jour. Brit. Archcvol. Assoc, 

 vol. xli., p. 267). 



On a cross at Sancreed, Cornwall (A. G. Langdon's Old Cornish Crosses, 

 p. 41). 



On a cross at Lanherne, Cornwall [ibid., p. 376). 



On a cross-shaft at Water-Pit Down, Cornwall [ibid., p. 376). 



In all of these the interlaced work is zoomorphic — that is 

 to say, the cords are converted into a serpentine creature 

 with a head at one end and a tail at the other. The head 

 of the serpentine creature is at the top of the panel ; the body, 

 which is made broader than the tail, then traverses the panel 

 in undulating curves from side to side, until it reaches the 

 bottom, where the direction is reversed, and it makes the return 

 journey from the bottom to the top in a series of Stafford 

 knots, each filling one of the spaces between the undulating 

 body of the creature and the sides of the panel. Lastly, the 

 end of the tail goes into the creature's mouth. It is more 

 than likely that the design on left side of shaft No. i was 



* Archceologia Catnbrensis, ser. v., vol. xvi., p. 33. 



