534 
OBSERVATIONS ON A CROSS FOUND IN THE OLD PARISH 
CHURCH AT LEEDS. BY R. D. CHANTRELL, ESQ., 
ARCHITECT, OF LONDON. 
The fragments of this cross were obtained by me as 
architect, and I paid the labourers for bringing to my Clerk 
of Works' Office whatever carved stones they found, (which, 
otherwise, would have been broken up for concrete or fillings 
of walls,) and, subsequently, they were removed to my 
residence for examination, and finally to London, to enable 
me to study its sculptures at my leisure, and consult other 
antiquaries relative to its peculiarity, and endeavour to 
ascertain its date. Of the six other pillars, I only obtained 
one or two fragments of each. 
I consider the figure on the cross to be a perfect winged 
figure with the claws of a bird, the head of a man with short 
curled hair and a moustache, and most probably represents 
a cherubim, in allusion to Judaism ; on the same side, below, 
is another figure, with a hawk over the left shoulder ;* this 
figure has also wings, curled hair, and the right hand holds 
a drawn sword, and a mystic emblem indicative of the 
mysteries with which the pillar is connected. Between these 
two figures is an oblong square, the proportion being the 
first vesica formed by the radius of the circle ; this is filled 
with an interlaced band, composed of four divisions of three 
vesicas each, threaded by a cross band which unites the 
twelve divisions ; the four great compartments represent the 
seasons of three months, and the cross band produces thirty 
intersections, the number of days of the ancient month. So 
perfectly are the points marked, that the diagonal of one 
gives the north pole star ; and of the other, the Sun in the 
meridian at the summer solstice ; this figure is decidedly 
astronomic, and has been calculated correctly for its local 
* See Plate I. In consequence of an error in the transfer to the plate, the 
figures on the Cross are reversed. 
