210 QUEEN ELEANOR CROSSES. 



Eleanor accompanied her husband in all his expeditions and 

 wars the Holy Land, Wales, and Scotland and, according to 

 the well-known legend, saved his life at the Siege of Acre in 

 1272 by sucking from his wound the poison of the assassin's 

 dagger. She bore her husband 15 children, six only of whom 

 survived, the eldest becoming the first Prince of Wales and 

 afterwards King Edward II. King Edward was devotedly 

 .attached to his Queen; she entered into all his schemes, was 

 beloved by his subjects, in whose welfare she took the greatest 

 interest, and was the personification of all that was good and 

 beautiful. 



Queen Eleanor died on the 28th November, 1290, at Harby, 

 or Hardeby, in Nottinghamshire, whilst journeying north to join 

 her husband in his Scottish Wars, and, although the King 

 hastened back as soon as he heard of her illness, he never saw 

 her alive again. 



King Edward's sorrow was great, and he determined to carry 

 the remains of his beloved Queen for interment at Westminster, 

 and to erect a memorial "Cross of wonderful size" wherever 

 the corpse rested for the night on its journey thither. These 

 Crosses were perhaps the most remarkable, the most costly, and 

 the most beautiful Memorial Crosses ever erected either in this 

 or in any other country. 



The distance from Harby to Westminster by the old roads 

 was 159 miles, and it is said that the time occupied in the 

 journey was 15 days ; and, although the places where Queen 

 Eleanor's body remained for the night would thus have 

 numbered 15, it is probable that only twelve (some say only 

 nine) crosses were actually erected. 



The sites of these crosses are said to be Lincoln, Grantham, 

 Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Woburn, 

 Dunstable, St. Alban's, Waltham, West Cheap, and Charing. 



All these beautiful Queen Eleanor Memorial Crosses have 

 now disappeared, with the exception of three, viz., Geddington, 

 Northampton, and Waltham. The Geddington Cross stands in 

 the midst of the village, where the three principal streets meet. 



