207 
socket in which a cross once stood, as broad as those at 
Bewcastle and Ruth well; I believe it has been afterwards 
used as a water-trough, for which purpose a drainage hole 
was made in the right hand comer at the back, (had it been 
a font, this hole would have been in the centre of the 
bottom) ; then for many years it was used as a step for the 
entrance of the school, on the rebuilding of which it was 
brought to the churchyard, where I saw it in 1855 ; eventu- 
ally it found shelter in the church. Its inscription, then, 
would seem to have been part of a record of some political 
transactions of especial interest — perhaps some grant of pri- 
vileges to the people of Bingley, as the inscription on the 
cross of S. Paulinus, at Dewsbury, was a record of his 
apostolic labours there. This inscription at Bingley was on 
the base of the cross or pillar, not on the shaft, as in other 
instances. 
The history of Eadberht is briefly as follows : — 
A.D. 737. He received the kingdom of the ^Northumbrians, 
on the retirement of his cousin Ceolwulf to a monastery. 
740. Whilst he was engaged with his army in a war with 
Talorgan, king of the Picts, ^thelbald, king of Mercia, 
invaded and ravaged his kingdom. 
750. Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, declared war 
against ^thelbald, and Oengus, king of the Picts, who in 
this year succeeded Talorgan. This was espousing the 
quarrel of Eadberht, who was thus enabled to add to his 
dominions the plain of Kyle, in Ayrshire, with other 
districts. 
756. He and Oengus, now confederate, took from the 
Britons the town of Alcluid (Dumbarton), on 1st August. 
On the 10th of the same month, the army which he had 
led from " Ouoma to Niwanbyrig " almost entirely perished. 
"All adversaries being either reduced to subjection or 
vanquished in war, the kings who dwelt on every side, 
