115 
its present position. Fortunately its original inscription, while the 
cross was still standing intact on the green, was copied in 1607 by 
Lord William Howard* into the chartulary of Lanercost, which 
was then in his possession. Nor did its good fortune end there; 
for, whereas the Lanercost chartulary is now and has been for 
some years missing, it so happened that in 1777 Joseph Nicolson, 
the historian of Cumberland, made a complete transcript of it, 
which he presented to the library of the dean and chapter of 
Carlisle, where may be seen the following note: 
In crucem lapideam in cimiterio exteriori nuper Prioratus de 
W. Howard 
asi, : Lanercost Com. Cumb. ante portam borialem éxistenteni 
25 Maii 1607 
ejusdem ecclesize heéc sculpta sunt, viz : 
ANNO AB INCARNATIONE MCCXIIII ET VII ANNO INTERDICT. 
OPTINENTE SEDEM APLICAM INNOCENT III IMPERANTE IN 
ALEMANIA OTHON. REGNANTE IN FRANCIA PHILIPPO 
IOHE IN ANGLIA WILLMO IN SCOTIA FACTA H. CRVX. 
Which may be thus translated :— 
On a stone cross, in the outer graveyard of the late Priory of Lanercost in 
the county of Cumbetland, standing before the north door of the said church, 
are itiscribed these words, viz: 
IN THE YEAR FROM THE INCARNATION 1214, AND THE SEVENTH 
YEAR OF THE INTERDICT, INNOCENT III THEN HOLDING THE 
APOSTOLIC CHAIR, OTHO BEING EMPEROR IN GERMANY, PHILIP 
REIGNING IN FRANCE, JOHN IN ENGLAND, WILLIAM IN SCOTLAND, 
THIS. CROSS WAS MADE, 
t 
Professor Clark, in vol. ix, p. 196, of the C. and W. Arch 
Transactions, suggests that, as the Interdict is said to have lasted 
6 years, 3 months, and 14 days, it was possibly in prospect of its 
4 termination that this cross was erected. 
* Mr. Nicholas Roscarrock, in a letter to Camden, quoted in the Addenda to 
Lord William Howard’s Housebook (p. 506), says: ‘‘I also sende you heeré 
an inscription which my Lorde founde out in a Crosse on a greene before the 
Abbey-church of Lanner-coaste ; which though yt be since ye Conquest yeat yt 
is (for the rarenesse) not to be contemned.” 
