EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



story a slab built into the wall,' having upon it scrolls of foliage branching out from each side of 

 a central stem, with a bird resembling a cock perched on the top. Nearly in the middle of the 

 lower story and some feet below the string-course at the top a circular sundial,^ the lower half of 

 wJiich is marked with the hour-lines and the upper half ornamented with foliage. Below the sun- 

 dial, and about half-way up the lower story, a round-headed window with a rectangular frame 

 round it, and in the spandrils on each side at the top a pair of birds facing each other. 



IFest Side. — At the bottom of the upper story above the string-course and nearly in the 

 middle a slab built into the wall similar to that on the south side, having scroll foliage and a bird 

 with outstretched wings upon it. In the lower story, built into the wall just below the triangular- 

 headed west window, a small carved fragment, probably part of a cross-slab. In the lower story 

 under the string-course a small carved fragment of a cross. 



North Side. — In the upper story just above the string-course and nearly in the middle a slab 

 built into the wall, like those on the south and west sides, with scroll foliage and a bird bending 

 down to peck at the leaves upon it. Also a triangular-headed window with pierced interlacing 

 tracery. 



At Earls Barton the sculptured portions are also on the exterior of the 

 western tower, which is well known as one of the most perfect specimens of 

 Saxon architecture in England. They are as follows : — 



South Side.- — In the lower story, just below the string-course at the top and nearly in the 

 middle, a pair of windows with elliptical heads, with crosses in relief on each of the lintel-stones. 

 The window openings are cruciform on the inside, and are ornamented with three projecting 

 balusters on the outside. Touching the lower part of the westernmost of the balusters is a circular 

 cross built into the wall and projecting slightly beyond the face of it. 



West Side. — In the lower story, just below the string-course and nearly in the middle, the 

 top-stones of a pair of windows (like those on the south side, but with round heads), having a cross 

 in relief carved above each window.^ 



With regard to the art of the Anglo-Saxon sculptured monuments of 

 Northamptonshire it cannot be said to be of very high character, and is dis- 

 tinctly inferior to that of the crosses in the more northerly part of Mercia 

 now occupied by the counties of Derby and Nottingham. The best speci- 

 mens in Northamptonshire are the fragments of cross-shafts at Desborough, 

 Moulton, and Nassington, the recumbent cross-slab and shrine-shaped monu- 

 ment in Peterborough Cathedral, and the slabs with foliage built into the 

 upper story of the west tower of Barnacle Church. The interlaced work on 

 the shafts at Moulton and Nassington is good of its kind, but is not in any 

 way remarkable. Key patterns and spirals are conspicuous by their absence on 

 the Northamptonshire stones. Foliage occurs at Barnack and Nassington. At 

 the former place the foliage is combined with birds, and at the latter the vine 

 is reduced to its simplest elements, being conventionally represented by an 

 undulating stem destitute of leaves, and with bunches of four grapes in each 

 bend. The beasts on the cross-shafts at Desborough and Moulton have double 

 outlines to the bodies, gaping mouths, tails forming knotwork, and round 

 pellets in the background, all of which are indications of Scandinavian intiu- 

 ence and probably of late date. The only symbolical figure subjects are Christ 

 and His Apostles on the shrine-shaped stone at Peterborough and the Cruci- 



1 This slab seems to form part of the scheme of architectural decoration of the tower. 



* For information about Saxon sundials see D. Haigh in the Torks. Arch. Journ. v. 134. 



3 It is most unusual to find crosses placed over windows, although they are to be seen continually above 

 doorw.iys in early churches cither built into the wall (as at Skellig Michael, co. Kerry, and at Stanton Lacy, 

 Salop) or on the lintel stone (as at Fore, co. Westmeath), or on the tympanum (as in a large number of 

 Norman churches in England). The practice of placing a cross over the doorway of a church was probably 

 borrowed from the pagan custom of protecting the inhabitants of a dwelling-house from the Evil Eye, lightning, 

 and bad spirits by hanging a charm of some kind above the entrance. In the early Christian buildings in 

 Palestine the Chi-Rho monogram of Christ occurs over the doorways in the same position as that occupied by 

 the cross in later times (see De Vogue, La Syrie Cetitrale). 



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