34 ORNAMENT ON THE EARLY CROSSES OF CORNWALL. 



to, by the kind permission of whose Council I am allowed to 

 make use of some of the blocks to illustrate this paper. 



It is obvious, that to do justice to this subject, illustrations 

 should be given of all the ornamented crosses, but this I regret 

 is not practicable, because the expense naturally entailed would 

 be too considerable. I have, however, from time to time, 

 illustrated nearly all the best Celtic examples, as well as some of 

 those crosses with incised work upon them, references to which 

 may be seen in the foot notes attached to the lists of the stones. 



The plates accompanying this paper, are the first correct 

 representations of Cornish crosses with their ornament. The 

 cross shafts of S. Neot and Water Pit Down — both lately re- 

 erected, — and the cross in Merther Uny old churchyard, hitherto 

 unpublished, as well as complete drawings of the other crosses, 

 shewing all four sides, appear here for the first time. 



The number and variety of the ornamented stones may 

 occasion some surprise, as was the case when, at a meeting of the 

 British Archaeological Association, I exhibited about a hundred 

 drawings of different crosses, inscribed stones, &c, illustrative 

 of a paper written in conjunction with Mr. J. Romilly Allen, 

 F.S.A. (Scot.), on " The Early Christian Monuments of Corn- 

 wall." Some incredulity was then felt as to their being all from 

 Cornwall, and I had to explain, that not only was that so, but 

 that the examples then brought before the Association, repre- 

 sented only about one-third of the whole number known to exist ! 



I may here mention, that I now have considerably over 

 two hundred complete drawings of different crosses, all of which 

 I measured and drew to scale on the spot, and obtained the 

 ornament (with one or two exceptions) by means of rubbings I 

 had taken, which were afterwards reduced to scale by photog- 

 raphy, so that accuracy is insured. 



It will only be necessary here to touch on a few historical 

 points connected with the subject. I shall therefore endeavour 

 to describe and classify the ornamental details as fully as 

 possible. For convenience of reference, the paper is divided 

 into four parts, viz. : (1) Celtic ornament, (2) Incised ornament, 

 (3) Miscellaneous ornament. Two typical examples of each will 



