PE rere 
3 
baby to the giant of the thumb. According to human proportions, 
while the giant of the grave stood with his head not halfway up 
the side of the church, he of the thumb must have stood twice the 
height of the steeple—certainly a giant of consequence. 
Leaving the'mythical aspect of the subject as being too vast for 
our limited imaginations, let us come to a more prosaic consider- 
ation of the subject. 
First a few words about old crosses in general. 
Notwithstanding the wanton and fanatical destruction of ancient 
crosses, there are still remaining scattered over Great Britain and 
Ireland numerous interesting examples of these Christian monu- 
ments. 
They are classed principally as Preaching-, Memorial-, and 
Market crosses; and they stand all over the land as silent chapters 
in stone in the history of British Christianity. 
The Giant’s Thumb is undoubtedly one of the first class. They 
were erected in the earliest times of Anglo-Saxon Christianity, as 
missionary stations, before churches were built ; where the grand 
old Saxon apostles—the saintly Cuthberts, Kentigerns, and 
Oswalds—met the people gathered from far and near to listen to 
their fervid eloquence. In this way the preaching crosses became 
centres of religious feeling, and sometimes fixed the name of 
the locality, as Crosthwaite, Crosby-Ravensworth, and many 
others. 
The cross in Penrith churchyard, as we have been accustomed 
to see it, is by no means an imposing relic. It has been mutilated 
by knocking off the upper part of the cross. It has been broken 
off from its base stone or pedestal, and re-set in comparatively 
modern times by inserting it two feet and a half in the ground. 
Time and the weather have all but obliterated its sculptured 
ornamentation. 
When it was ignobly placed in this position is not recorded ; 
but from the fact now ascertained that it was set upon a portion 
of a 17th or early 18th Century headstone, and wedged up with 
blue slates. I should conjecture that it originally stood near the 
old church, the “pretty and handsome church” Camden tells us 
. 
