3a 
MANX CROSSES.* 
WE can imagine no greater pleasure to a conscientious worker 
than to find the results of his labour given to the world in a 
volume which does credit alike to himself, to the publishers, 
and to the subject with which he deals. For many years our 
contributor, Mr. P. M. C. Kermode, has devoted his energies 
to the geology, natural history, and antiquities of his island 
home. To him is in a large measure due our present extensive 
knowledge of the scientific history of Manxland. To him future 
generations will pay tribute for the care he has taken in rescuing 
and preserving the various evidences of human handiwork, which 
have a peculiar interest to the archeological world, from the 
geographical portion of the well-defined area with which he 
deals. The present writer is fairly familiar with the literature 
dealing with the archeological and natural history of Manx- 
land, and for some time has been impressed with the great 
good that has been done by Mr. Kermode. His present work, 
however, eclipses everything else he has accomplished. In it 
he describes a collection of undescribed and sculptured monu- 
ments, which are as extraordinary in their variety as they are 
quaint in their design. They cover the period from the end of 
the fifth to the beginning of the thirteenth century, and upon 
them is a series of records dating from the Introduction of 
Christianity in the Isle of Man, and ‘form a connecting link 
between the early sepulchral stones of Wales, the inscribed 
slabs of Ireland, the cross-slabs of Scotland, and the Celtic, 
Anglian, and Scandinavian stones of the North of England.’ 
There are no fewer than one hundred and seventeen monu- 
ments of this class in the island—of which number several 
have been found during the past few years, and about seventy 
are figured and fully described for the first time in the excellent 
volume before us. Some of the sculptures depict characters 
and illustrate stories in the Norse Mythology, in connection 
with which Mr. Kermode has made a careful study of the Saga 
literature. It is also remarkable that, so far as is known, every 
Manx Cross still remains on the island—one or two examples 
which had been taken away having been returned. 
In a scholarly Introduction Mr. Kermode discusses the 
period of the monuments; the arrival of the Scandinavians as 
Heathens; the dates, materials, nature, purpose, evolution, 
and distribution of the crosses ; their art and development, the 
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* By P. M. C. Kermode. London: Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., 1907. 222 pp., 
plates. Price £3 3s. net. 
1907 October 1. 
