^Ciintio^'(5otljic ;^rt in Mcsscr. 



By H. COLLEY MARCH, M.D., F.S.A. 



{Read IQth December, 1912.) 



j^s^^. 



3TIW0 of the stones that were found in Whitcombe 

 Church last winter have an incised 

 decoration that occasioned, in this room, 

 an interesting conflict of opinion. One 

 expert declared that the design Avas 

 Saxon, that is pre-Norman, and another 

 said that it was undoubtedly Celtic, and 

 certainly post-Norman. 

 To give the matter a full discussion is 

 desirable, if not now, on some other occasion when time 

 might permit. But assuredly we should at once endeavour 

 to ascertain the type of this embellishment, to infer the 

 nationality of the artist, and then perhaps, of his work, to 

 determine the date. 



What are the characteristics of Celtic Ornament ? The 

 presence of the trumpet-pattern ; of the divergent spiral, 

 whether single, double, or triple, which was originally 

 developed in metal- work ; of the regular intersections of 

 stepped designs derived from textile fabrics ; and of a 

 multitude of intreeci, skeuomorphic, phyllomorphic, and 

 zoomorphic. Such interlacements of animal forms, all biting 



