50 THE RUTHWELL CROSS. 
in his helmet, sitting on a stool, is of that time; but the she- 
centaur with an imp clinging to her back looks like the 
reminiscence of a motive from Roman sculpture seen abroad. 
Of Edward the Confessor’s period we have the Halton 
shaft (Fig. 35), imitating, with a difference, some of the 
features of earlier crosses at the same place (Fig. 21), but 
illustrating the story of Sigurd the V6lsung and Regin the 
smith,-a legend which became popular in the 11th century, 
and is also illustrated upon Manx stones. After this, the 
making of tall crosses as memorials appears to have passed 
out of fashion in Northumbria; the art had already moved 
away to Wales, Man, Scotland, and Ireland, where it grew 
into the well-known Celtic forms. And if runes are used in 
this period, they are the later Scandinavian runes, not those 
of early Anglian type. Finally, on the Bridekirk font 
(Fig. 36) of the late 12th century late runes record Richard, 
the carver; and the ornament is strikingly different from that 
of Ruthwell. 
The Anglian series (to sum up my argument) includes a 
considerable number of monuments, ranging geographically 
from the Humber to the Forth; that is to say, co-extensive 
with the 7th and 8th century Anglian kingdom. The group 
is not well known except to the few who have studied it, and 
still awaits full illustration and description. No wonder then 
that foreign critics have overlooked its character as a dis- 
tinctive school of art. But most English students recognise 
that it is marked off from Anglo-Danish or Anglo-Norse work 
by the complete absence of “‘ snake-slings,’’ of basket-plait 
and other simple plaits, of late runes, and of the sketchy 
handling of stone-carving in the Viking Age; it is d'stin- 
guished from 12th century sculpture by its more restrained 
design, by the absence of acanthus in all forms, by a much 
less laboured technique, and by the inscriptions, which con- 
tain no Danish or Norman names. Anglian ornament, as all 
who are accustomed to design must observe, has a style of 
its own. It is based on scrolls, plaits, and figures derivable 
from Roman and Italian sources, earlier or contemporary, 
and develops along the lines of development in Italy. Some 
few motives (sun-dial, chequers, chevrons), which have been 
