A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



The foliage on the shafts of the crosses at Bakewell, Bradbourne, and Eyam is of the kind 

 now commonly called Anglian, which had its origin either in Mercia or Northumbria, and 

 afterwards spread to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The design of the Derbyshire foliage is 

 however very much bolder and finer in all respects than anything of the kind to be found in other 

 parts of Great Britain. The so-called Acca cross from Hexham, now at Durham, when placed 

 side by side with the crosses at Bakewell and Eyam looks feeble, not to say futile, by comparison. 



The chief peculiarities of the foliage on the Derbyshire stones are the great number of 

 coils given to the scrolls and the cornucopia-like expansions where branches diverge from the 

 main stem. Similar features are to be seen on the carved ivory plaques with which the altar 

 in Salerno Cathedral is decorated. The Anglian foliage of Mercia and Northumbria was 

 obviously derived originally from an Italian source and is nothing more or less than a highly 

 conventionalized form of the classical vine. The deviations from the correct way of 

 representing the vine produced partly by conventionalizing and partly by successive copying are 

 worthy of note. The leaves of the vine, being the least essential part, show the greatest 

 tendency to vary from the original during the process of making successive copies, whereas the 

 grapes, being the most essential feature, only vary as regards the shape of the bunches and the 

 number of grapes in each bunch, but can always be recognized. On the pre-Norman cross-shaft 

 at Nunnykirk, Northumberland, and in other early examples the bunches of grapes are realistically 

 represented with the upper part round and the lower end more or less pointed. As time went 

 on, however, the number of coils of the stem-scrolls was increased to such an extent that there 

 was no room for a bunch of grapes of the proper size and shape in the centre of each scroll. 

 Consequently the bunch was made round instead of havinga pointed end, and in extreme cases the 

 number of grapes was reduced to three, so as to look more like a trefoil leaf than the fruit of the vine. 



On one face of the shaft of the Bakewell cross and on two faces of the shaft of the 

 Ashbourne cross figures of animals and men may be noticed amongst the foliage, and an 

 archer at the bottom shooting an arrow upwards. Similar representations occur on pre- 

 Norman cross-shafts at Sheffield and Bishop Auckland, Durham, and on the Norman 

 font at Alphington, near Exeter. Such figures involved in the vine-scrolls are merely the 

 mediaeval adaptations of the little naked boys, etc., in the vintage scenes of classical art which 

 were afterwards copied on the Christian sculptured sarcophagi of the third and fourth centuries 

 at Rome. The archer is a later addition, either introduced to give greater realism to the 

 sylvan scene or more probably intended to represent the custodian of the vineyard killing the 

 animals and birds who are destroying the buds and fruit. It need hardly be mentioned that 

 the vine has been one of the best-recognized symbols of Christ throughout the whole range of 

 Christian art. The archer, therefore, warring with the creatures that injure the vine no 

 doubt symbolizes the contest between good and evil. 



ZoSmorphic Designs. Instances of zoSmorphic designs occur on pre-Norman sculptured 

 stones at the following places in Derbyshire : Bakewell, Derby St. Alkmund, Hope, Wilne. 



The coped stone from Bakewell now in the Sheffield museum has its sloping sides orna- 

 mented with panels each containing a beast biting the end of its tail, which is bent round 

 beneath the body and interlaced with the legs. 



On two of the faces of the cross-shaft from St. Alkmund's, Derby, now in the public 

 museum there, are beasts with the neck bent back and the fore-paw upraised. The bodies 

 have a double outline and in some cases appear to have been covered with scales. At the back 

 of the head is what may be intended either for the ear or a sort of crest with an expanded end. 

 The bent-back attitude is to be seen also in the case of the beasts on the cross-shaft of the 

 Viking period at Nunburnholme,! Yorkshire. The shape of the heads of the beasts on the 

 St. Alkmund's cross-shaft resembles that of a pug dog, with a round top and thick upper lip. 

 This is altogether unlike the heads of the beasts in the Irish illuminated MSS., and to find 

 anything of the same kind we must go to the English Baeda 2 of the ninth century in the 

 British Museum (Tib. C. ii.). 



The beasts on the Wilne pillar are like those on the St. Alkmund's cross-shaft except 

 that they have wings. The pairs of birds pecking at foliage on the Wilne pillar are probably 

 intended to symbolize the same idea as the pair of doves pecking at a bunch of grapes on the 

 Norman font in Winchester Cathedral. 8 The style of the zoomorphs on the Wilne font 

 bears a certain amount of resemblance to that of the pair of bird-like creatures on the ring of 

 Ethelwulf in the British Museum, which possibly was the property of Ethelwulf, king of 

 Wessex A.D. 836 to 838 and father of Alfred the Great. 



1 Refiyuary, 1901, 98. s Pala-ograpbical Sue . PubRc . pi 141. 8 Rffyuary, 1898, 262. 



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