48 Notes on pre-Norman Sculptured Stones in Wilts. 



These examples, of which illustrations are givea (with the angels 

 over the chancel arch of the Saxon Church at Bradford, the stone at 

 Codford St. Peter), and a small fragment of two dragon's heads 

 biting a ball, found in connection with the remarkable Saxon north 

 door of Somerford Keynes Church, comprise the whole of the 

 sculptured stones of pre-Norman date at present known in Wiltshire, 

 so far as I am aware. 



A curious stone which has formed the top of a very small window, 

 found during the restoration of Broad Hinton Church and referred 

 to in a previous number of the Magazine as Saxon (vol. xix., p. 116), 

 is pronounced to be Norman by Mr. Romilly Allen, from the 

 character of the diaper ornament, which, together with some 

 peculiar foliage, is carved upon it — whilst the age of a very small 

 sculptured fragment now built into the porch of Avebury is doubtful. 



The origin of this " Hiberno-Saxon " interlaced ornament has 

 been much discussed. From the perfection to which it is carried in 

 Ireland an idea arose that it originated there and was carried by the 

 Irish missionaries to Italy and other countries — but in face of the 

 fact that in many districts of Italy, more especially in Lombardy, 

 ornament of the kind is found of an earlier date than any known in 

 Ireland, and that it prevailed throughout Lombardy in the seventh 

 century,' the best authorities now hold that its origin is either 

 Italian or Byzantine ; some tracing the key patterns and interlacing 

 work to an elaboration of the fret and guilloche patterns of the 

 Roman mosaics — others holding that the style came both to Italy 

 and to Ireland from Byzantium, and the East, where, as Mr. 

 Romilly Allen has shown, it is still in use amongst the Nestorians. 



The marble well-head in the centre of the court at Wilton House 

 is an example of the way in which ornament of a similar kind was 

 used in Venice in the tenth and eleventh centuries. And the re- 

 markable font at Siddington — seen during the Society's Cirencester 

 excursion and illustrated in this number of the Magazine — shows the 

 same motives lingering on in Norman work in England, 



As to the date of these stones Mr. Romilly Allen writes : — " In 



' See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 1891, pp. 256 and 270. 



