REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD 
the type of ornament seems always trying to revert to the much earlier 
spiral forms of the ‘ late Celtic’ school, of which we have some remains 
in the district. This tendency to revert in decorative art to forgotten 
ancestral patterns is shown also in the Scandinavian character of the 
plaits in wood-carving of the seventeenth century designed by descendants 
of Danish and Norse settlers. But the people who made the spiral crosses 
were a subject and impoverished race, and never carried their art to the 
development of which it was capable. _ 
The Beckermet white cross-head already mentioned, with the 
‘lorgnette’ pattern, has no spirals, but some debased interlacing, and some 
rude curved lines which may be attempts at the triskele and crescents, 
and some small bosses or pellets, as if imitations in stone of nail heads in 
wood-work and rivets in metal-work—these last interpreted by those who 
see symbolism in all details as suns or holy wafers. But the sister frag- 
ment of similar stone and style, though not part of the same cross, is a 
good example of the spirals almost bursting into flower, but not the floral 
scrolls of Bewcastle or Hexham. 
The Dearham white head seems to belong to a shaft in the church, 
making what has been called the ‘ Kenneth cross,’ because the late Rev. 
Thomas Lees, F.S.A., and Mr. Calverley thought they saw in the ‘bird 
and bantling’ the saint’s rescue as a child by birds, and in the bandy- 
legged figure next that group the lame saint with his bell. It is not 
impossible that this is the subject of the carving, though that interpreta- 
tion would not prove that the cross was of the early British period, for 
in the tenth century the Northmen who settled hereabouts were in close 
touch with other settlers of their kindred in Wales. The figure on 
horseback (not a Flight into Egypt, as there is no child, but only a pellet, 
beneath the bridle) is that of a warrior with a sword, probably a portrait 
of the deceased. The debased plaitwork (a), and spirals which near the 
bird’s tail run into key-pattern, and the two svastikas show this to be a 
good example of the late spiral style. 
Two such shafts are at Aspatria, now built into the vestry of the 
church. One has debased plaitwork, spirals, and a svastika and pellets 
filling all intervals. The other has two twists over pellets, with spirals 
and a curious figure closely resembling a figure on the Maen-y-chwyfan, 
Flintshire. So that as Dearham is connected with south Wales by its 
(possible) legend, Aspatria is connected with north Wales by this 
identity of design. What the man over a little Maltese cross signifies 
cannot be made out, as we have only his lower half. 
The close connection of spiral-work with symbols like the svastika 
and triskele is shown in two fragments at Isel in the church porch, and 
the tip of a cross in the church, which bears these signs and a ‘ thunder- 
bolt’ with a ‘sun-snake’ beneath, all in work of this style. At Dis- 
tington and in the tower of Plumbland church are fragments in which 
the triskele sign is still more distinct in the midst of debased interlacing. 
A valuable example is one which Canon Knowles called the ‘ Norse 
cross’ at St. Bees church, with what must have been a free-armed head 
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