521 
early forms of the language in which these inscriptions are 
written, as well as in their peculiar style of art as compared 
with that of illuminated MSS., abundant evidence to prove 
that most of these monuments belong to the seventh and 
eighth centuries ; and there can be no doubt that it is to 
such monuments as these, that the notices cited above 
from our early historians apply. We may now proceed to 
notice, in detail, the fragments of similar monuments dis- 
covered at Leeds. These were : — 
1. A curious fragment, with an interlaced pattern on the 
side, and a cross in a circle on the top. This, of course, 
has not formed part of a cross, but I have no doubt that 
it is the corner of an altar, the sides of which were orna- 
mented with similar work, and which, perhaps, had five 
crosses on the top. At San Ambrogio, Milan, I remember 
having seen a stone similarly ornamented, and which at the 
time I believed to be an altar of the sixth or seventh century. 
2. A fragment of a small cross, with scrolls and inter- 
lacing ornaments on its adjoining sides. 
3. Fragments of the heads of two small crosses, one of 
which may have belonged to the last mentioned. These 
are of very different workmanship from, and I believe of 
earlier date than, the following. 
4. Fragments, nearly completing a large cross, which, 
when perfect, must have been nearly 13 feet high. These 
present on what we may call the eastern face, a saintly 
personage, distinguished as such by the glory (of a form 
common in illuminated MSS. of the Irish School, and found 
also on some early Saxon coins,) around his head, then a 
figure with a book, and then a curious device of a winged 
figure, a demon in the act of devouring a human being whom 
he holds by the hair and the skirt, and who seems to hold 
up his hands in supplication to the figure above. Below are 
three symbols — a spear head, a hammer, and forceps. On 
s s 
