ORNAMENT OUT THE EARLY CROSSES OF CORNWALL. 43 



superior to that in other places, where the nature of the substance 

 is less suitable. A striking instance of this occurs in the cross 

 at Lanherne. It is the most beautiful specimen of an elaborately 

 decorated cross in Cornwall, and executed with much greater care 

 and skill than was usually bestowed on these monuments. This 

 is probably accounted for by the fact of its being made of Pen- 

 tewan stone, which is softer and more easily -worked than granite, 

 which, with one or two exceptions, is the material used for the 

 others. 



The wild and rugged characteristics of the Cornish land 

 seem to find a kind of corresponding sympathy in the rude orna- 

 mentation of its crosses, and the primitive execution of its 

 debased architectural details. As regards the former, I have 

 already pointed out that most of the patterns are evidently 

 debased copies of those beautiful forms of ornament, which, if 

 they did not originate in Ireland, were at all events, so highly 

 developed there, as to constitute a separate style of art. Two of 

 the most typically Celtic forms of ornament are found in Corn- 

 wall, viz. : interlaced work and key patterns, but of the true 

 Irish divergent spiral there are no examples, as the scrollwork 

 which occurs on some of the stones appears to be more in 

 common with the foliage of Northumbria. 



The best examples in Cornwall of really good work are, (1) 

 those with interlaced work, on the cross at Lanherne, on the 

 shaft in St. Neot's churchyard, and on the two stones in St. 

 Cleer, near Kedgate; (2) those with knot-work, also on the 

 Lanherne cross, and on the "Four-hole cross," Temple Moor ; 

 (3) those with key patterns, on the Sancreed churchyard cross, 

 and on the beautiful recumbent stone in Lanivet churchyard ; 

 and (4) those with foliated scroll work, on the crosses in the 

 churchyards of Lanhydrock and Lanivet. 



METHOD OF SETTING OUT INTERLACED PATTERNS. 



Plate 3. 

 In examining elaborate interlaced patterns, the question 

 naturally suggests itself to us, "Upon what principle was the 

 ornament arranged?" Many theories have been propounded 

 and much speculation indulged in, as to the method employed 

 in setting out the patterns, preparatory to executing the work. 

 Of the various attempts which have been made to analyse, and, 



