20 THE ST. NEOT STONE. 



The tliree panels on the front face, contain a rude pattern of 

 reticulated tracery work, as shown in the accompanying rubbing, 

 which represents the present length of the shaft. 



By lifting some of the loose masonry between the shaft and 

 the church wall, and inserting my hand, I could feel that the 

 inner side also was panelled, though I could not ascertain the 

 pattern. 



The late aged Parish Clerk, a stone mason, informed me last 

 year, that this shaft had been in its present position ever since 

 he could remember. There is a monumental slate slab on the 

 wall immediately above the shaft, of the date of 1718, and the 

 shaft appears to rest on the flat stones covering this grave. 



As the Church is now being restored, it would be desirable 

 that the shaft should be removed from its present position, and 

 erected opposite the south porch, so as to display its four sides. 

 Search should also be made for the missing parts, as well as for 

 the Head or Cross, and the foot-piece. There are two coping- 

 stones fixed on the walls at the eastern entrance to the Church- 

 yard, and used for fastening the iron gates, which evidently "are 

 not what they seem." These should be removed and carefully 

 examined.* 



I do not notice in Blight's Cornish Crosses, any stone figured 

 by him, (except The other Half-stone) which has the ornamental 

 asterisks of the St. Neot shaft. I may mention, however, that 

 the two sides of " Dungerth's monument," not shewn in Blight's 

 sketch, and which monument stands alongside '' The other HaK- 

 stone," has, on smaller panels, the same asterisks. Dungerth is 

 said to have been drowned in the river at Redgate, about 872. 



Seeing that these three stones possess the same distinctive 

 ornament of the asterisk, that two of the three have the double 

 border at the top, that they have, or had, a mortise or socket to 

 receive a cross, which very many stones have not, (the cross 

 usually forming a continuation of the shaft of the stone) that 

 these stones are in adjacent parishes, two being at Eedgate, and 

 the third only about three miles distant, at St. Neot, is it not 



* I have just been informed that these coping-stones, were mnllions, taken 

 rom the church windows at the tinje of their restoration in 1826 — 9, 



