Christian Monuments of Wiltshire. 



61 



\ 



Fig. 19. 



Step-patterns. On the Wiltshire stones the key-patterns which 

 are usually associated with interlaced work are conspicuous by their 

 absence. The nearest approach to a key-pattern is the stepped 

 ornament on the slab at Bradford-on-Avon. This is a very un- 

 common form of decoration in sculptured stonework, although much 

 the same kind of thing occurs on the cross at Irton, in Cumberland.* 

 It resembles more nearly than anything else the silver plates pierced 

 with cruciform openings that are used in the decoration of the Irish 

 metal book shrines.^ 



Spirals. The only instance of spiral ornament on the Wiltshire 

 stones is on the slab at Bradford-on-Avon. The pattern is set out 

 by dividing the surface into squares by parallel lines running 

 diagonally in two directions at right angles to each other and 

 cutting the margin at an angle of 45°. The squares are filled in 

 with quadruple spirals and connected by C-shaped bands.^ 



Zoomorphic Ornament. It is not an easy matter to attempt to 

 classify the various animal forms which were used for decorative 

 purposes in Hiberno-Saxon MSS., metal-work, and sculpture, for 

 they partake alternately of the nature of the quadruped, the bird, 

 and the reptile. The simplest way of transforming the ordinary 



' Lyson's " Magiia Britannia," vol. 4, p. cci. 



' As, for example, the cover of the Book of Dimma at Trinity College, Dublin. 



* See " Notes on Celtic Ornament — Key Patterns and Spirals," in Proc. Soc. 

 Ant. Scot., vol. 19, p. 298, pattern No. 80. The same pattern occurs on the font 

 at Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, and on the fragment of a cross-shaft at Penally, 

 in Pembrokeshire. 



