A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



scriptions of Hampshire, we will proceed to consider the sculptured 

 stonework of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in the county. 1 



The examples of Saxon sculpture in Hampshire are comparatively 

 few in number and are as follows : 



Headstone of Frithburga at Whitchurch. 

 Fragment of a cross-shaft at Steventon Manor. 

 Font at South Hayling. 

 Rood at Headbourne Worthy. 

 at Breamore. 

 inside Romsey Abbey. 

 Sundial at Corhampton. 

 Warnford. 

 St. Michaels, Winchester. 



The first of these has already been described. The fragment of a 

 cross-shaft at Steventon Manor was found built into the old manor 

 house, and is now fixed in a wall so as to preserve it and at the same 

 time allow all the carving upon it to be seen. It is a mere fragment 

 3 feet high by 1 1 inches wide, showing portions of two faces of the 

 shaft. On each face are portions of two panels containing zoomorphic 



1 It may be remarked before going further that the scope of the present inquiry is confined to the 

 study of the decorative sculpture (whether consisting of symbolical figure-subjects, zofimorphs, foliage, or 

 purely geometrical ornament) which occurs upon Christian sepulchral and other monuments, and the 

 details of ecclesiastical buildings from the seventh to the twelfth century. 



Now it is a curious fact that in the pre-Norman Christian period decorative sculpture is almost 

 exclusively found on sepulchral monuments and crosses which were erected for various purposes and 

 hardly ever on the details of churches, whilst in the twelfth century exactly the reverse is the case. 

 With few exceptions the sculptured stonework still in situ in Saxon churches belongs to a late period, 

 i.e. the eleventh century, and is comparatively unimportant in quantity, so that it is hardly necessary to 

 classify it. With the sculpture in Norman churches it is different. In these buildings the largest sur- 

 faces of dressed stone available for decoration and at the same time those which occupied the most 

 prominent positions were the tympanum over the outside of the entrance doorway and the baptismal 

 font. It is therefore the Norman tympana and fonts which furnish us with the most important 

 examples of symbolical and ornamental sculpture. The other details of Norman churches which 

 exhibit sculpture are of minor importance, and may be classed under the general head of 'miscellaneous.' 

 They consist principally of arch-mouldings with beak-heads or medallions enclosing figures, capitals of 

 columns, corbels and slabs built into walls. 



The subject of Christian iconography has been so little studied in this country, and writers on 

 architecture and antiquities have been so constantly in the habit of dismissing all early sculpture with 

 such contemptuous epithets as rude, uncouth, or grotesque, that a few words may not be out of place as 

 to the frame of mind in which such representations must be approached if they are to be made to yield 

 any meaning. In the first place we must at once dismiss the idea that what appears to us as grotesque 

 was anything of the kind to the artist of eight or nine hundred years ago. It cannot be supposed that 

 the ecclesiastical sculptor of the twelfth century would purposely throw ridicule on such subjects as the 

 Last Supper or Christ in Glory, and yet some of the figures in these scenes carved on Norman tympana 

 and fonts are as archaic and barbarous to look upon as many a South Sea idol. Another frequent source 

 of misapprehension is the juxtaposition of such obviously sacred subjects as the Agnus Dei or the 

 symbols of the Four Evangelists with monstrous centaurs, griffins, dragons et hoc genus omne. A super- 

 ficial knowledge of the medieval bestiary would at once show that from the point of view of the mystic 

 zoology of the middle ages there was nothing incongruous whatever in associating scriptural symbols with 

 creatures which conveyed under an uncouth exterior an equally pregnant Christian moral to the initi- 

 ated. Again, many ludicrous mistakes have been made in the attempted interpretation of ancient figure 

 sculpture because it has been supposed that they necessarily have reference to the use of the object upon 

 which the representations occur. For instance according to our modern idea of the fitness of things the 

 scenes sculptured on a font should refer to the rite of baptism, but an examination of a large number of 

 Norman fonts shows that this was the exception rather than the rule. In fine the only possible chance 

 of extracting any meaning from an ancient sculpture is by ruthlessly setting aside our preconceived 

 notions of what it ought to mean according to our twentieth century methods of thought, and 

 endeavour by a careful study of the history, literature and art of the middle ages to assume the same 

 attitude of mind towards the physical and spiritual worlds as existed a thousand years ago. 



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