180 



Notes on the Ancient Crosses Gloucestershire, continued. By Charles 

 PooLET, Esq., of Weston-super-Ma/re. 



Clearwell — Aylburton — Lydney. 



No record is known to exist concerning these fine old Crosses, nor does 

 a fragment of the capital of either of them remain to suggest even their 

 origin. They may have been put up to commemorate some particular event, 

 or to sei-ve as sacred centres, around which the simple and unlettered 

 people assembled to hear the preaching of the monks, or they may have 

 been built to perpetuate the claim which certain abbeys or religioiis 

 fraternities had to privileges and grants in the forest. But whatever 

 their object, as symbols of the Christian's hope, their presence could not 

 be without some softening influence on the minds of the rough foresters, 

 who, as the merchants of Tewkesbury knew to their cost, were none of 

 the most amenable to the civil power.* 



Although no fixed date can be assigned to the period of their erection, 

 these Crosses may be said to belong to the latter part of the fourteenth 

 century. Ecclesiastical architecture had already undergone a transition, 

 the semicii'cular having given place to the pointed arch, but the art had 

 not yet attained to that more perfect or florid development of decoration 

 found in works of a later date. And thus it is, that while in one of these, 

 (Clearwell,) the attempt is made to follow the rule of early Gothic 

 throughout, — the span of the arches being supported by well proportioned 

 angle shafts, with caps and bases; the spaudrils carved, the arches trefoil- 

 headed with double cusptngs, and the mouldings in unison with the style . 

 in Aylburton there is a capriciousness in the style, a union of the 

 Classical with the Christian : — the vigorous, deep, horizontal mouldings 



Note. — For the measiu'emeiit of these Crosses, as well as for several notes and 

 suggestions, I am indebted to our colleague, J. D. T. Niblett, F.S.A, to whom 

 I beg to tender my best acknowledgments. 



* Petic : in parL 8 H. — VI., quoted by Fosbkooke. 



