506 
As a witness to the use of monuments of this kind, at a 
period, much later indeed, but one at which matters of this 
kind were better understood than they have been until lately 
in our days, we may cite the antiquarian traveller, Leland, 
who in the sixteenth century informs us that he saw, standing 
in the churchyard at Ripon, three crosses of most ancient 
work, and that he believed them to be memorials of some 
great and notable persons who were buried there. Nothing 
now remains of these, save the head of one, which is to be 
seen placed in a recess above the door of the Minster crypt, 
and its interlaced ornaments are sufficient to show that their 
character was very much the same as that of the fragments 
discovered at Leeds. 
Other notices of the same kind might be quoted, but these 
will suffice to prove that crosses of this kind were sepulchral 
memorials. Those of which Simeon of Durham, and 
William of Malmsbury, make mention, belong to the 
eighth century, whilst others still in existence must be 
referred to the seventh, and some of the Leeds fragments, 
as will appear in the sequel, to the tenth century. 
These monuments are generally four-sided columns of 
stone, tapering gradually from the base to the summit, and 
when perfect, which is very seldom the case, terminated by 
a cross, which is generally a separate stone mortised into 
the shaft. In size they vary from about three feet, (the 
probable height when complete of an example at Lasting- 
ham,) to eighteen or twenty feet high. They were in most 
instances erected in pairs, one at the head, the other at the 
foot of the grave. Thus at the head and foot of what is 
called the Giant's Grave, in the churchyard at Penrith, 
Cumberland, two crosses, which have suffered very much 
from time and violence, stand opposite to each other, and 
the space between them is enclosed by four semicircular 
stones, two on each side. This monument is a christianized 
