182 ON THE PRE-NORMAN SCULPTURED STONES OF DERBYSHIRE. 



on it. The other was only found in 1885 ; it has bold inter- 

 lacements, and also the much perished representation of some 

 animal or nondescript. 



There is a slender shaft at Taddington, near Bakewell, shown 

 by Dr. Cox (Vol. ii., plate xii.). It has been thought to be 

 very early, on account of its rudimentary ornament. The form 

 of the shaft, however, differs from that of any known shaft of 

 really early date, and is much more like that of the " plague 

 crosses " in the neighbouring county of Staffordshire. A friend 

 in Cambridge, in whose opinion and caution I have the greatest 

 confidence, assured me that it was not worth my while to go 

 over from Bakewell to see it, and I accordingly occupied my 

 time otherwise. The shaft is very slender ; the ornamentation 

 is of the nature of cross diagonals of rectangles, approaching a 

 pre-historic type, an anachronism on such a shaft, or indeed it 

 might be said on any shaft. 



The church at Wirksworth contains a number of very interesting 

 little fragments of early sculpture, but they call for no general 

 comment. This church has also a perfect stone which is second 

 to none in these islands in its fullness of detail, and in the interest 

 and skill of the work. From its slightly ridge-shaped form it 

 must be supposed to have been the almost flat lid of a tomb. It 

 is drawn and described in Dr. Cox's Churches of Derbyshire, Vol. 

 ii., plate xiii., and I engraved and described it in the Magazine 

 of Art for February, 1885, page 159, from a very beautiful 

 photograph most kindly taken for me by Mr. Clark, of Matlock 

 Bath. There is nothing in England which so closely reproduces 

 the appearance of some of the best Roman sarcophagi in the 

 Vatican. The subjects are scenes from our Lord's life, His death, 

 the resurrection, etc. 



The subject of the geographical distribution of special 

 characteristics of early Christian art in England is not suf- 

 ficiently advanced to warrant much confidence in conclusions 

 which seem to be not improbable. All the evidence afforded 

 by the sculptured stones themselves points to a connection 

 with the divisions which existed at the time of the Heptarchy, 



