ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



is now inserted. At the base of the shaft are scenes from the Sigurd legend : 

 Sigurd roasting the heart of Fafnir, and putting his burnt finger to his lips. 

 Above are birds in a tree ; and below, Sigurd is seated at a forge, with Regin's 

 headless body, and a piece of knotwork representing Fafnir above him. On 

 the north side is Sigurd's horse Grani, riderless, and above him dragons 

 perhaps representing the snakes of Gunnar. On the south side are panels of 

 foliage, and on the west a scene which may be meant for the Resurrection. 

 The style of decoration is late, and probably the cross is not earlier than the 

 eleventh century. 



Parts of several other crosses have been set up within the church under 

 the tower, with figure subjects in panels, and scrollwork of Anglian type. 

 The fragments are built up on each other to a height of 1 1 feet, but they 

 clearly belong to at least two separate crosses. 



In the same vicinity is Heysham, which possesses the ruins of a very 

 early church of a type which is Celtic rather than Saxon. It stands on a 

 rocky knoll to the west of the present church, and close to it are eight graves 

 cut in the rock, with sockets at their heads, in which crosses have probably 

 been set. The rock surface bears traces of having been carved with an inter- 

 lacing pattern. In the churchyard of the present church is the lower part of the 

 shaft of a cross with interlacing panels at the base, and spiral foliage pattern of 

 Anglian type on the sides. On one face is a seated nimbed figure under an 

 arch, and on the other a gabled building with three windows in which three 

 human heads appear, while below is a central doorway in which stands a figure 

 swathed in what may be grave clothes. It has been explained as the raising 

 of Lazarus, or the Resurrection. 



In the churchyard is also a hogback stone 6 feet in length, with zig-zag 

 lines in imitation of tiling on the top, and at each end an animal clasping 

 the stone, as on other specimens of this form of monument. The subjects on 

 the sides have been variously explained as a stag-hunt and as scenes from pagan 

 mythology. 1 In the latter case the stone would belong to the same category 

 as the Halton churchyard cross. 



Eight miles from Lancaster is the ancient village of Hornby (the 

 ' Hornebie ' of Domesday), where in the church is the upper portion of a 

 cross, which from the decoration upon it is commonly called the ' loaves 

 and fishes cross.' The portion is only about 2 feet in length, but the 

 sculpture indicated is apparently unique in this country, representing two 

 fishes below five loaves, above which is a conventional tree enclosing a figure on 

 either side. The three other faces of the stone are decorated with devices of 

 interlacing and coiling rope, while a panel at the top of the back seems to 

 enclose an angel figure. The details of the work are very highly finished, 

 and of unusual excellence. A fragment of a second cross, part of the lower 

 arm of the head, with a zig-zag pattern, is also preserved in the church. 

 In the churchyard is a pyramidal stone 6 feet 2 inches high, with a 

 semi-circular arch in low relief on each face, and on the top the socket for 

 a cross-shaft. 



Two miles to the north-east is Melling, where there are portions of a 

 sculptured slab of the same type as that found in Lancaster parish church, 



1 This monument has naturally been much discussed and described. See Lane . and Ches. AnAq. Soc. Trans. 

 (1841) ; Colley Marsh, 'The Pagan-Christian Overlap.' 



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