ANCIENT SCüLPTUHED STONES. 115 



liowever, some. stones of ttie highest interest ^vLich have 

 not yet been accurately engraved, and the value of tlie 

 inscriptions preserved in theni not fulJy appreciated.* 



Much is due to the labour of Mr. Haigh, who lias lately 

 directed attention to tlie very curious shaft of a cross 

 preserved in tlie cliancel of Ilackness Cburch, near Scarbro', 

 Yorksbire. In 1854, wben I first saw tbis relique, and 

 could distinguish inscriptions in tbree difFerent cbaracters 

 — besides tbe Latin, ^vbicb could be read Avitbout niucb 

 difficulty — I found tbat llttle bad been done to elucidate 

 tbe monument. Tbe Scarbro' guide bad given a notice of 

 it, -witb an imperfect engraving. Tbe autbor of " Cburch 

 Eides in tbe neigbbourbood of Scarbro' " in treating of 

 St. Peter's Cburch, Ilackness, bad described it as St. 

 Hildas JSfonument, consldering it to be (In accordance with 

 tbe opinion of tbe late ßev. Canon Harcourt) " a monu- 

 mental stone erected to tbe memory of tlie Lady St. Hilda." 

 Tbe care, bowever, bestowed by Mr. Haigh upon these 

 curious inscriptions has shewn tbat tbis is not tbe case, 

 and tbat the fragments of stone are portions of one or more 

 memorial crosses, erected to commemorate the more dis- 



* The fragments of two Saxon crosses are preserved in the Museum of 

 tbe Literary and Scientific Institution in Bath, which were dug up many 

 years ago. Mr. Westwood directed attention to these^ and sent drawings 

 of them to the Archseological Institute, which are engraved in the 3rd vol. 

 of the Journal, p. 356. They were preserved amoog the ßoman Sculptures, 

 and had been figured in Carter's Ancient Arclüteclural Remains of England, 

 pl. 8, fig. A, and described as " the fragments of a Roman Temple at IBalh." 

 The style of ornament is by no means Roman, but when compared with 

 those Ornaments which distinguish the Saxon Grosses which still remaia 

 perfect, as well as with the Ornaments of early Saxon MSS., leave the 

 matter beyond doubt. These fragments are very interesting as being the 

 only remnant of the Saxon Iilonastery once existing on the site of the 

 present Abbey Church. See Warnor's llisloi-y of Bath, Britton's Bath 

 Abbe//, &.O. "a.D. G7C, Osric King of the Huiccii founded a Keligious 

 House in Bath, under Bretana, to whom he gave 100 uianentes or tenants 

 in the neighbourhood of the cily, to assist in erecting the Conveut." 



