THE SHALL-CROSS. 207 



wooden shaft, we have a very close picture of what the shafts 

 of the crosses of Paulinus must have been. This is the more 

 marked when we remember that on some crosses this mould- 

 ing actually assumes the rope or " cable " pattern, as it is 

 termed. Exactly the same system of imitation was extended 

 to Anglo-Saxon stone architecture, where the tie beams and 

 other details of the wooden buildings were carefully reproduced 

 in the courses and ornamentation of the masonry. 



The wooden crosses of Paulinus would soon perish, for apart 

 from their natural disintegration, they would be the prey of the 

 devout relic searcher, as, indeed, a story of Beda implies was 

 the fate of King Oswald's cross. But before fifty years had 

 elapsed another great revival passed over the land, which, I 

 suggest, led to their reproduction in their present durable form. 

 Towards the close of the same century Theodore of Tarsus, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, originated the parochial system, by 

 which the whole country was intended to be divided into 

 ecclesiastical parishes, and each to be assigned to the ministra- 

 tion of a single priest. As a matter of fact, it took centuries 

 to complete the system, but the work was then commenced and 

 intermittently continued until the reign of Edward III. ■ 



In June of last year I had the privilege of accompanying 

 Dr. Cox in a search, extending over several days, for the lost 

 crosses of the Peak. The results are given by him in a paper 

 to the Athenceum for July 9th, 1904, entitled "Early Crosses 

 in the High Peak." He had obtained tracings of sixteenth and 

 seventeenth century maps of the Forest, which disclosed many 

 crosses now entirely unknown either to the ordnance surveyors 

 or others. The stumps of some of these we found, but — with 

 the exception of the well-known crosses on Ludworth Moor, 

 Robin Hood's Picking Rods, as they are now called, but the 

 " Standing Stones " and the " Maiden Stones," as the old maps 

 called them — none appeared to have been of the type which is 

 the subject of this paper. But we noticed that almost invariably, 

 and in the one or two instances when this was not the case it 

 is probably accounted for by modern diversions, the cross was 



