A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



containing lines of raised pellets. Below are portions of two other subjects. 

 One of these is a Crucifixion with three nimbed figures having curled hair 

 like that of the evangelists in the Lindisfarne Gospels, and of David in the 

 Durham Cassiodorus. 1 This is important as suggesting that this memorial 

 is probably as early as c. 700. In any case it seems to belong to the very 

 best period of Anglo-Saxon sculpture. Over the head of the figure of our 

 Lord is a square panel with the letters p A s, an abbreviation of ' passus est,' 

 the final letter being of the Greek form as used in the pictures of the 

 evangelists in the Lindisfarne Gospels. The angles are treated with the 

 usual triple bead, the outer bead being worked into a cable moulding. 8 These 

 beads are carried across the shaft as divisions between the subjects. Both 

 sides are ornamented with a very finely sculptured rolling scroll, similar to 

 those on the stones at Jarrow, Jedburgh, Bewcastle, Ruth well, Easby and 

 elsewhere. The whorls enclose animals and birds, which are represented in 

 all cases as eating the fruit which forms the terminations of the various stems. 

 At the lower termination on one side is the upper part of a human figure, 

 the upraised hands of which hold a bow and arrow, pointed at one of the 

 animals. The small fragment which formed the foot of one of the sides has 

 upon it the commencement of a scroll of that peculiar expanded form which 

 occurs at Bewcastle and Ruthwell. Standing upon this is a figure repre- 

 sented as ascending, only the feet and legs of which remain. 



Another stone is an almost perfect example of a horizontal grave-cover, 

 or possibly a headstone. It is a rectangular slab 2 feet 6 inches by I foot 

 8j inches, and has upon it a cross, the head of which is of the square patee 

 form. At the intersection of the arms is a boss, and the arms and the stem 

 are covered with shallow knot- work. In the spaces on either side of the 

 shaft are long shallow knots with double cords. Above the arms are ten 

 raised pellets in each space, probably meant to represent stars. 1 



Ayclijfe. There have been found here twelve fragments of cross-shafts 

 and headstones, (i) A small head or foot stone, 1 6 inches high, 1 1 inches 

 wide, and 7 inches thick, now deposited in the museum of Archaeology and 

 Ethnology, Cambridge. The sides are tapered and the head is semicircular. 

 The edges are worked with flat knot-work, very much decayed ; the front 

 and back have each two nimbed figures of full height. They are represented 

 as clad in short tunics, hollowed or raised above the knees ; the legs are 

 bare, the hands folded and pressed on the breast. The faces are thin and of a 

 pointed oval form, around which the hair is indicated. One of the figures 

 holds an object with a trefoil pointed end, possibly a lily. As the two figures 

 are slightly different in height they may possibly be intended to commemorate 

 two children, (ii) A small semicircular headstone measuring 1 3 inches high, 

 14^ inches wide, and 6 inches thick, has on either face a cross of the Anglian 

 form, raised on a sunk ground. At the intersection of the arms is a circular 

 boss. A single cord passes over the whole, and is knotted at each termination 

 in three loops. The angles are beaded, and the same design occurs on both 

 faces, while carried round the edge of the stone is a flat-knotted band of a 



1 Dur. Cath. Libr. MSS. B. II. 30. 



s Rev. G. F. Browne (the bishop of Bristol), Magazine of Art, part 52, pp. 156-7. 



3 Similar pellets occur on a stone, clearly of early Saxon date, at Simondburn in Northumberland, and on 

 the tympanum of an early Norman doorway at Wold Newton in Yorkshire, where they are associated with an 

 annular object probably intended to represent the moon. Keyser, 'Norman Tympana and Lintels, fig. 1 6. 



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