Ornamentation of the Earl,, Christian Monuments of fTilts. 51 

 origin and peculiar local developments of early Christian art in 



^"Tlr'^circumstances of the recent discoveries of pre-Normau 

 sculptured stones iu Wiltshire having been already fully detaded I 

 propose to add a few notes on the ornament, which may be classiBed 

 as follows : — . 



Geometrical Ornament. 

 Interlaced work. 

 Step-patterns. 

 Spirals. 

 Ornament derived from Natural Forms. 

 Zooraorphic ornament, 

 roliagcous ornament. 

 Note -There are no instances on the Wiltshire pre-Normaa 

 x^onaments of the occurence of the divergent spiral, key-patterns, 

 or figure subjects.' There are, however, cases of baxon figure- 

 sculpture, not associated with Hiberno-Saxon ornament, at Bradford- 

 on Avon and Codford St. Peter's. 



Interlaced work. The most elementary kind of interlaced work 

 is the plait;^ and from it all the more complicated forms are derived 

 by introducing breaks at regular intervals. The places where the 

 breaks occur may be easily seen by placing a piece of tracing-paper 

 over the pattern and drawing a regular plait on the top of it. 

 I There is no case of a regular plait being used for purposes of 



^ decoration on the Wiltshire stones, except at Britford, where two 



bands are twisted together so as to form a circular garland. 



Of knot-work patterns derived from the plait we have examples 

 at Cricklade (Cx) and (H) and Ramsbury (B two faces) and (E). 



The knotwork on the two sloping sides of the fragment of a 

 cop^d-stone at Cricklade (G) is somewhat irregular; the bands are 

 double-beaded'; foliageous terminaHoi^^are^ii^ where the 



-7^";;^;;;;;;;;;;;^^ angel on stone (F) at Ramsbury. 



^ This includes the twist which is looked upon a« a plait o£ two cords 

 3 /..., tlune is an incised line along the centre of each band, making the cross. 



section like that of a double bead moulding. 



E i 



