ON THE PRE-NORMAN SCULPTURED STONES OF DERBYSHIRE. I 79 



has no ornament of this character, only a raised band running 

 parallel with the edges of the face. The fine pillar at Leek 

 (Staffs.) is of this type ; and at Ham, Chebsey, and Stoke, all in 

 Staffordshire, are like stones. In the Public Park at Macclesfield 

 there are three similar pillars, brought from various road side sites 

 in Cheshire. The famous pillar of Eliseg, at Valle Crucis, near 

 Llangollen, may well have served as a model for these pillars ; its 

 existence throws back their origin to a very early date. The Wilne 

 font may be part of a highly ornamented pillar of this form. I 

 think that I have practically named all that are known, except 

 the one which is by far the finest of them all, at Stapleford (Notts.), 

 only a few yards beyond the bounds of Derbyshire. It is about 

 twelve feet high, and is ornamented throughout with most elaborate 

 and skilful interlacements of bands ; there is no better work any 

 where out of the best " Hibernian " illuminations of early manu- 

 scripts. Sir Henry Dryden, to whom I, in common with everyone 

 interested in this — as in so many other branches of Archaeology — 

 am so greatly indebted, has sent me a drawing of a pattern on a 

 stone at Nassington (Northants.) which is the same as some of 

 the Stapleford work. I hope before long to publish my complete 

 rubbings of this marvellous pillar. 



All the four faces of the Bakewell pillar (Fig. 8) have 

 simple interlacing work, two of the patterns showing an abrupt 

 termination of a band, such as will be noticed in Plate XIII., Fig. 4. 

 The usual arrangement of the ornament on these pillars is that 

 one face has interlacing work, one has a scroll, one has the key 

 pattern, and the fourth has either interlacing work or something 

 special. The entire absence of the key pattern from Derbyshire 

 stones is a fact to be carefully considered ; it may be that it was 

 not in harmony with the taste of artists who revelled in such 

 beautiful scrolls as those we find here, or it may be that as it was 

 only an ornament for the edges and borders of classical work the 

 Mercian artists thought it unsuitable for such considerable areas 

 as their large shafts presented. In other parts it is found on the 

 edges of shafts of smaller dimensions than these, and it may exist 

 on the edges of some of the fragments which are cemented into 



