EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



interlaced ornament much defaced. There is a roll moulding on the 

 angle of the shaft and a smaller moulding surrounding the panels. 

 The bodies of the beasts have a central rib with diagonal corruga- 

 tions on each side to indicate conventionally the texture of the 

 skin. 1 On the Steventon Manor cross-shaft the wider parts of the 

 bodies of the beasts are the principal feature in the design, and the 

 interspaces of the background are occupied by the narrower parts 

 which form a series of loops interlaced with each other and with 

 the wider parts of the bodies. This kind of interlaced work based on 

 the idea of loops is akin to that used in Scandinavia, and altogether 

 different from the Celtic interlaced work, which is derived from the 

 plait. Although Prof. G. Stephens assigns a seventh century date to the 

 Brunswick ivory casket, it seems probable that the sculptured monuments 

 of the Wessex school belong to the end of the pre-Norman Christian 

 period rather than to the beginning. Mr. Henry Harris, the proprietor 

 of Steventon Manor, who has kindly furnished particulars about his 

 cross-shaft, writing on January 14, 1895, says : ' I have also preserved 

 hundreds of tons of Norman worked stones which had been built into 

 old walls [about twelfth century work], and out of which I believe the 

 old manor-house here, the residence of the Brocas family, is built.' 



An ancient font preserved in South Hayling church has interlaced 

 work upon it which may be of the Saxon period. The illustration here 

 given was supplied by the late Mr. J. T. Irvine, F. S.A.Scot., and 

 explains itself. 



The Saxon roods at Headbourne Worthy 2 and Breamore, although 

 they have both been sadly mutilated by over-zealous iconoclasts, are still 

 of very great interest. 



The former is built into what was the original west wall of 

 the nave just above the old Saxon west doorway, but although still 

 in the same position it is within a western annexe, which was built 

 in the fifteenth century for the protection of the rood and to afford 

 shelter to its worshippers. At the time the church was restored by the 

 late Mr. George Edmund Street in 18656 the western annexe was 

 windowless and had been taken possession of by two owls and their four 

 young ones, who were forcibly ejected. The crucified Saviour is repre- 

 sented on the cross in the ancient Byzantine manner, 3 with the body 

 unbent and the limbs extended straight on the arms of the cross. On 

 each side are the figures of St. Mary and St. John and above is the 

 Dextera Dei issuing from a cloud. The feet of the Saviour are sup- 

 ported on a suppedaneum, and those of St. Mary and St. John on brackets. 



1 This peculiar treatment is found on other sculptured stones of the ancient kingdom of Wessex at 

 Colerne, Wilts ; Roberrow and West Camel, Somersetshire ; and Dolton, Devonshire ; and also on the 

 ivory casket in the Ducal Museum at Brunswick, bearing an inscription in Anglian Runes stating that it 

 was made by Nethii for the most noble victory-lord in Montpellier of Gaul. 



8 This has been described and illustrated by the Rev. J. H. Slesson in his Notes on the Church of 

 St. Sioithun, Headbourne Worthy, p. 1 5 ; by Owen B. Carter in Weale's Quarterly Papers on Architecture, 

 iii. I ; and by the late Father Daniel H. Haigh in his paper on ' The Saxon Cross at Bewcastle ' in the 

 drchteobgia JEliana, n.s. i. 1 74, 



3 See J. R. Allen's Christian SymboRsm, p. 141. 



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