THE SHALL-CROSS. 2 I I 



was I do not know, but it seems to have been customary in 

 olden days for Government officials to so mark these crosses 

 as records of their surveys. For example, the Edale cross 

 bears the inscription, very similarly cut, "I. G. 1610," and 

 Dr. Cox has the credit of having identified this with John Gel!, 

 who received a commission in 16 10 to survey the Forest of the 

 Peak. On Pym Chair, which is in Cheshire, we have, oddly 

 enough, the initials " P. C. " on either side of a pheon. On 

 the later of the two cross stumps at the Abbot's Chair are the 

 initials N and R,* also a cross, and on the Picking Rods, 

 which are in the same district, again we have the N, which is 

 also repeated on the Bow Stones. Put it is in these that the 

 interest centres, for they are neighbours of the Shall-cross, and, 

 in addition to the N, they also bear the same initials as those 

 on our subject, viz., H. L. Hence we may infer that in 1720 

 someone bearing these initials was commissioned to survey the 

 boundaries in this district, and then it was perhaps that the 

 present junction of the three parishes near the Bow Stones was 

 selected. This is again evidence of the part these crosses 

 played in the delineation of our ancient parish boundaries, and 

 that in 1720 the Shall-cross stood upon a parish boundary line. 

 Mr. Cox has made enquiries, and now informs me that the 

 stone is said by tradition to have been brought down from the 

 old road above the hall, namely, what is believed to be the 

 old Roman road to Buxton. If that be so> and it seems highly 

 probable, the site must have been at Elnor Lane Head, Shall- 

 cross, where four roads join, at a distance of nine hundred yards 

 from Fernilee Hall. The reasons for this assertion are the 

 following. The only parish boundary line available for the 

 purpose approaches within three hundred and fifty yards of that 

 spot where it turns northward, and again westward, and finally 

 northward. In other words, it cuts off a corner, and if its 

 approach and its final retreat be continued in a straight course 

 they would exactly meet at Elnor Lane Head, Shallcross. Thus 



* I am careful to treat only inscriptions which are clearly official, as opposed 

 to the unfortunate custom of defacing our monuments. When the inscription is 

 on the base stone is it not presumptive evidence that the cross was not then 

 standing ? 



