508 Mr. Barrit's Remarks 
gardlefs of art, under a pretended thew of 
piety and of eradicating fuperftition, have 
totally deftroyed fome, and fo defaced and 
mutilated others, by breaking off their orna- 
mental and flowered crofs-tops, as to give them 
the appearance of nothing more than obelifks, 
or rude pillars. Thus under their prefent form, 
fome have imagined, that feveral croffes in Bri- 
tain are the work of northern Pagans, and fup- 
pofed them Runic antiquities of this ifland. 
It muft be admitted that fome ancient obelifks 
may have been confecrated, by the addition of 
croffes, or other emblems of Chriftianity. To- 
land, in his hiftory of the Druids, P. 84, fays, 
** We read of many fuch obelifks thus fanéi- 
** fied, as they fpeak, in Wales and Scotland. 
** And in our Irifh hiftories, we find the practice 
** as early as Patric himfelf ; who, having built 
** the church of Donart-Patric, on'the brink of 
** Lock-Hacket, in the county of Clare, did 
** there on three coloffes, erected in the times 
‘** of Paganifm, infcribe the proper name of 
** Chrift in three languages: namely, Jefus in 
** Hebrew on the firft, Soter in Greek on the 
** fecond, and Salvator in Latin on the third.” 
A little caution ought to be obferved, in de- 
cyphering their ornaments, or explaining them 
to be hieroglyphical;* although abundance of 
imagery, curious grotefque figures, and tracery 
yet 
