THE RUTHWELL CROSS. 37 
sumably made in 698, bearing chisel-sketches of saints and 
angels with runic and Roman lettering of the type which 
may be assigned to the period. These figures are less elabo- 
rate than the carvings on stone, which could be carried farther 
in the way of finish; but they show the same subjects and the 
same feeling as can be seen on a shaft at St. Andrew’s, Auck- 
land (Fig. 5). And together with the angels, and saints 
AND(reas) and PA(ulu)S, this shaft bears scrolls of leaves and 
fruit, with animals and an archer, all very carefully drawn 
and executed, without the ready-made conventions of a fully 
developed style. It looks like a rather early work of its kind. 
At Croft, near Darlington, a cross-shaft (Fig. 6) shows 
animal scrolls on two sides, and on the third a very dainty 
leaf scroll; but on the fourth, a plait ingeniously woven of one 
continuous thread into an elaborate pattern. Now just as the 
scrolls are from foreign art, so are these plaits; they were 
common to the ornament of the period throughout Christen- 
dom. But they changed from age to age, and their changes 
as seen in Italian architectural carving supply means for 
checking the development in Britain. A few instances, given 
in Fig. 7, with Rivoira’s dating, will show how the simple 
braids of Roman ornament, imitated in stone-reliefs in the 
sixth century in Ravenna work, became more elaborate in the 
plait of about 737 at Cividale (Lomb. Arch., i., 102), formed, 
like the Croft plait, of one continuous strap. About that time 
a second member is seen, making an easier design, in the 
Valpolicella figure-of-8 threaded on an open twist (ibid., i., 
144); and the surface-covering in linked squares at Toscanella, 
commoner in the goth century, is dated by Rivoira as early as 
739 (ibid., i., 126). Entering the 9th century, we find the 
contrast of rectilinear and curved forms at Cattaro, 809 (ibid., 
i., 157), and at St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (ibid., i., 
139); that is to say, the design, as an intellectual feat, is sim- 
plified and greater picturesque effect is gained at a small ex- 
pense. In the 11th century we have plaits of many members 
—easy to draw, as compared with the early entanglements of 
continuous cords or straps—at Montefiascone (ibid., i., 212), 
and the repetition at St. Ambrogio, Milan, of ring-knots 
