ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



Elivick Hall. Built into the wall on either side of the chancel arch of 

 the church are two stones, on one of which is a sculpture said to represent 

 the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. The figures seem to repre- 

 sent the angel and Adam and Eve, with trees above them. The other stone 

 has a cross head of Anglian form in relief, with beaded angles formed by an 

 incised line, and two incised circles at the intersection. The head of the 

 stone is semicircular and the triangular spaces above the arms of the cross each 

 contain a ' triquetra.' Below the arms are the beginnings of interlaced 

 designs, consisting of four-cord plaits which have continued down the sides 

 of the shaft, showing that the remaining portion is only the head of a head- 

 stone or a grave-cover. 1 



Escomb. Preserved in the ancient church are five stones of the pre- 

 Norman period. Two of these are portions of a cross-shaft bearing upon 

 them well-designed scrolls containing birds and animals interspersed with 

 foliage scrolls belonging to the same school of work as those which have been 

 described as being of the Hexham type. The angles of this cross have been 

 worked with a cable moulding. Another fragment has interlaced work upon 

 it. There is also in the chancel a grave-cover with a plain cross in a sunk 

 panel with semicircular head, on the cross are raised bosses, and on the side 

 of the shaft two raised circles.* The cross has a tapering shaft and a square 

 base. The other is only a small portion of a semicircular headstone of 

 tapering form. It has a plain square-limbed cross worked on either of its 

 sides, and is probably not earlier than the eleventh century.* On a rockery 

 in the vicarage garden are one or two small fragments with interlaced work 

 upon them. From the wall of a house in Escomb there has been removed to 

 Durham * a small stone measuring 9 inches by 5 inches, having upon it part 

 of a very beautiful design of foliage and grapes. 



Gainford on the Tees. The church here has produced a larger number 

 of fragments of this period than any other in the county. Nineteen of these 

 stones were removed to the Cathedral Library at Durham in 1896." The 

 largest is a cross, complete, with the exception of the side limbs of the head. 

 It has raised bosses on either side at the intersection. One face has a long 

 panel in which are two monsters one above the other interspersed with 

 knotted bands. Below is a panel containing regular plait work without any 

 break." The opposite face has three panels, the upper one containing a com- 

 bination of a regular plait with knots above it ; the centre one two figures 

 which appear to be bound together at their waist, and the third, a rectangular 

 panel containing a circular knot-work design. The sides have bands of knot- 

 work, and similar ornament fills the spaces in the arms of the cross. A con- 

 siderable portion of the lower part of the shaft is left plain. 



Another portion of a shaft of a large cross has upon one face two monsters 

 in similar relative positions to those already described. They are in a better 

 state of preservation, and have their limbs and bodies bound and hampered 

 with very irregularly drawn knotted bands. The opposite face has a monster 



1 Prix. Sof. Ant. Newcaitk-on-Tjne. ' Building Newt, Nov. 28, 1879. 



* Ibid. ii. 97; Reliquary, viii. 69 ; lUtu. Arth<tologitt, i. 225 ; Baldwin- Brown, Tht Arti in Early England, 

 \\. passim. 



4 Since the Catalogue of the stones there was published. 



1 Havcrficld and Greenwe!!, of. fit., Nos. xxzi-xlviii. 



' Romilly Allen, Celtic Ait in Pagan and Christian Timtt, p. 259. 



229 



