at Harby, in Nottinghamshire. Edward I., prostrated with grief--the
sincerity of his devotion to his wife was perhaps the most favourable
trait in his character--resolved to perpetuate her memory by erecting
crosses at the various stopping-places of the funeral procession
on its way to London. The route chosen, though not the most direct
one, was arranged expressly so that the body might rest, each night
of its journey, at some large and important town, or else at some
conventual house, for the fitting celebration of the solemn offices
for the dead. A stone cross was built, if not upon the exact spot,
in the near neighbourhood of the spot, where the body had reposed
on each occasion, viz., at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington,
Northampton, or rather Hardingston (reached on 9th December), Stony
Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans (13th December), Waltham, or
rather Cheshunt, London (where the body lay for the night, probably in
St Paul's Cathedral, a cross being afterwards erected in West Cheap),
and, finally, Charing village, which was the last halting-place on the
way to the entombment in Westminster Abbey on 17th December. There
were set up altogether twelve Eleanor crosses. Some have reckoned the
number at fifteen, supposing that similar crosses were erected also at
Harby, Newark, and Leicester, but of these there is no evidence.
So far as can be judged from documents and existing remains, it would
seem that certain principal features were common to the design of all
the crosses of the series, although they varied in minor details.
The general outline was borrowed from that of a spire of diminishing
stages. A statue of Queen Eleanor occupied each of the niches in the
middle storey; a notable peculiarity being the multiplication of the
effigies of the person commemorated. Three or four statues of the
queen occur in one and the same monument, standing, backs to the
central shaft, their faces looking forward in opposite directions.
The lowest stage or storey was carved with blind tracery, so designed
as to divide, with a vertical moulding, each side, or cant, into two
panels, with trefoil cusping in the head, having heraldic shields, one
in each panel. The shields respectively bore the arms of (1) England
(three leopards only, for the kings of England had not yet arrogated
to themselves the sovereignty of France); (2) quarterly, Castile and
Leon, the arms of Queen Eleanor's father; and (3) Ponthieu (three
bendlets within a bordure), the arms of her mother, Joanna, Countess
of Ponthieu, in Picardy.
Not the slightest remains of any of the original crosses exist _in
situ_, except at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham. Regrettable
as is the disappearance of all but three crosses of the series, it
is yet a matter for congratulation that those which do happen to
survive represent each of them an individual variety of treatment;
for, however much they may resemble one another in details, or even
in their main scheme and proportions, the difference of plan is a
fundamental factor, and such that necessarily results in striking
divergences. Geddington cross is triangular, Waltham cross hexagonal,
and Northampton cross octagonal on plan. Of these three there can be
no question that that at Geddington (Figs. 124 and 125), on account of
its triangular section, is the least satisfying aesthetically; indeed,
its optical effect is, in certain aspects, decidedly unpleasing. Not
only does it look as though part of the fabric were missing, or the
whole structure lop-sided, but the anomalous position of the shafts,
or standards, rising at each outer angle right before the face of the
figures, gives the latter a caged appearance, and, by intercepting a
direct view of them, infallibly detracts from the prominence which
is their proper due. The triangular shape, then, is more diverting
as an ingenious planning experiment than admirable as a model for
reproduction. In plain words, it is an architectural eccentricity.
Again, Geddington cross, encrusted as is the entire surface with
sculptured diaper patterns, and lacking as it does the dignified
reticence of contrasted plain spaces, such as occur in Northampton
(Figs. 1 and 126) and Waltham (Figs. 127, 128, and 129) crosses,
must compare unfavourably with either of them. Whoever the designer
of Geddington cross may have been, it is certain he was not the
artist that Battle or Crundale was, to whose genius the crosses of
Northampton and Waltham respectively are owing.
Royal account rolls, extant down to the year 1293, throw considerable
light on the progress of the work, the identity of the artists
engaged on it, and the cost of their services, as well as of the
material used. But the particulars of the several undertakings are not
always kept distinct, so that it is difficult, if not impossible, to
disentangle the precise amount of the cost of any individual cross.
John, of Battle, a master mason, contracted for his share of the work
of a number of crosses, viz., at Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn,
Dunstable, and St Albans, for £95 each. The imagery and much of the
ornamental sculpture was executed in London. The figures of the queen,
for the crosses of Lincoln and Northampton, were the work of William,
of Ireland; while Alexander, of Abingdon, another image maker,
provided the statues for other crosses, the figures all being produced
at a uniform rate of five marks, or £3. 6s. 8d. each. Purbeck marble,
from the quarries at Corfe, was used for parts of the crosses at
Lincoln, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham,
and Charing.
The first of the stopping-places at which crosses were erected was
Lincoln. The Eleanor cross there "stood on Swine Green, opposite the
Gilbertine Priory of St Catherine, where the queen's body rested." The
cross was built by Richard, of Stowe, otherwise Gainsborough, then
master mason of the works of the cathedral. From time to time, during
the years 1291 to 1293, he received payments, amounting to £106. 13s.
4d., for the king's work. The statues, and some of the carved ornament
for the cross, were executed at Westminster by William, of Ireland,
called in the accounts "_Imaginator_" _i.e._, image maker. William,
as mentioned above, received £3. 6s. 8d. each for the statues of the
queen; while the ornaments for the head of the cross seem to have
cost £13. It is computed that the total cost of the cross at Lincoln
amounted to about £134. Not a vestige of it now remains.
The cross at Grantham, Lincolnshire, stood in an open space on the
London road, at a place called Peter Church Hill. Dr William Stukeley,
in 1776, recorded that the people had some memory of it in his time;
and, moreover, he was shown "a stone carved with foliage work, said to
be part of it." All remains of the cross have long since vanished.
In his account of Stamford, Lincolnshire, printed in 1646, Richard
Butcher says: "Not far from High Dike, on the north side of the town
of Stamford, near unto York highway, and about twelve score from the
Towngate, called Clement Gate, stands an ancient cross of freestone,
of a very curious fabric, having many scutcheons insculped in the
stone about it, as the arms of Castile and Leon quartered ... and
divers other hatchments," of which "only the ruins appear to the
eye." In the edition of 1659, the cross is referred to in the past
tense, showing that it had been removed in the interval. R. Symond,
in a note dated August 1645, writes: "On the hill, before ye come
to the town (of Stamford), stands a lofty, large cross.... Upon the
top of this cross these three shields are often carved: (1) England,
(2) Ponthieu, (3) Castile and Leon quarterly." The cross was pulled
down by the soldiers of the Parliament during the Civil War, but the
foundations were laid bare, in the process of excavations conducted by
Dr Stukeley, while vicar of All Saints, Stamford, 1729 to 1747.
[Illustration: 124. GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
PLAN OF ELEANOR CROSS]
[Illustration: 125. GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE VILLAGE]
The Eleanor cross at Geddington, Northamptonshire, is still standing,
in the middle of a wide space in the village. The principal part of
the material is Weldon stone, but the string courses and weatherings
are of Stanion stone, which has a slightly harder texture. The cross
is raised on eight hexagonal steps; it comprises three storeys, and is
little short of 42 ft. in height. As may be seen by the plan (in which
the spaces A, B, and C represent the situation of the figures),
the middle stage is so placed in relation to that beneath it that
its outer angles correspond with the middle of each side in the lower
stage. The base is a triangle of equal sides; each 5 ft. 1 in. wide.
The royal accounts, which are wanting from the year 1294 onward,
contain no entry referring to Geddington cross; whence it has been
inferred that the latter could not have been erected until 1294 or
after. Tradition says that a favourite sport of the place used to be
squirrel-baiting. A sufficient number of wild squirrels having been
caught for the purpose, would be turned loose in the village, where
the crowds, surrounding them in a ring, with shouts and all manner
of hideous noises, proceeded to hunt and beat their helpless victims
to death. Sometimes the terrified little creatures would vainly seek
refuge by running up the cross and trying to hide behind the pinnacles
and tabernacle work. But their cruel tormentors ruthlessly dislodged
them thence, pelting them with stones until they were driven forth and
killed. The only marvel, in the circumstances, is that any part of the
original stonework of the cross should have survived such reckless
violence. The cross was repaired in 1800, and again in 1890.
The famous Eleanor cross of Northampton (Figs. 1, 126) stands about a
mile distant from the town, and actually in the parish of Hardingston.
The monument is picturesquely placed on a roadside bank, with a fine
background of trees. The spot was chosen because Delapré, close by, a
house of Cluniac nuns, afforded the funeral procession a convenient
halt for the night. For the more solid parts of the cross, as distinct
from its ornamental detail, Barnack stone seems to have been used. The
mason responsible for the design, as already mentioned, was John, of
Battle. The sculptor, William, of Ireland, was paid £25 for his work,
including the ornamental carvings and the four statues (nearly 6 ft.
high) of the queen at £3. 6s. 8d. apiece. The distinctive feature of
this cross, not known to have occurred on any other of the series,
is an open book carved on every alternate one of the eight sides of
the lowest storey. The latter is about 14 ft. high, the next storey
above it 12 ft. high. At the present day there are nine steps, all
octagonal on plan. Formerly there were seven, while the engraving in
_Vetusta Monumenta_, 1791, depicts eight steps. What was the original
termination of this cross will never be known. It disappeared so long
ago that, even in 1460, the monument was spoken of as "_crux sine
capite_." The first recorded "restoration" of the cross took place in
1713. At the Quarter Sessions in that year the Justices authorised the
expenditure of a sum not exceeding £30 on repairing the cross, which
accordingly underwent thorough "restoration" and partial rebuilding.
There was then erected on the summit a stone cross paty, 3 ft. high,
while gnomons for sundials, facing the four cardinal points, were
fixed to the tracery of the topmost storey. Also, on the west side
of the bottom storey were placed the arms of Queen Anne and a marble
tablet, with a long inscription in Latin. Further repairs were
effected in 1762; and the cross was renovated once again, under the
direction of the architect, Edward Blore, in 1840. The commemorative
tablets and the modern cross on the summit were then removed, a
broken shaft being erected in place of the cross paty. Blore, at the
same time, renewed the ornamental cresting, one of the gables, and
much of the substantial stonework of the cross; and he recut all but
two of the armorial shields. In 1884 further repairs were effected,
consisting mainly of the renewal and strengthening of the decayed
platform steps. In March 1900 the care and maintenance of the cross
were formally vested in the County Council.
[Illustration: 126. NORTHAMPTON, (HARDINGSTON)
THE ELEANOR CROSS]
[Illustration: 127, 128. CHESHUNT, HERTFORDSHIRE
WALTHAM CROSS]
The Eleanor cross at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, was built by
John Battle and his assistants, Simon, of Pabenham, and others, the
ornamental sculpture, comprising shafts, heads, and bands, being
executed by Ralph, of Chichester. This cross stood "a little north of
the Horseshoe Inn." It was pulled down by the Puritans about 1646,
but Cole, the antiquary, was assured by an old inhabitant "that he
remembered part of it remaining at the western extremity of the town."
The same executants carried out the Bedfordshire crosses of Woburn and
Dunstable. The last-named is described as "having been a cross of
wonderful size. It stood in the main street ... where Watling Street
crosses the Icknield way"; and "is said to have been demolished by
troops, under the Earl of Essex, in 1643. Parts of" its "foundation
... have been met with during recent alterations in the roadway" (Dr
James Galloway, 1914). "In the heart of the town" of St Albans stood
another Eleanor cross, described in 1596 as "verie stately," the same
executants as in the preceding instances being employed. The greater
part of this cross was "destroyed by order of Parliament in 1643.
Fragments, however, stood in the market place" until 1702, when they
were cleared away to make room for the erection of an octagonal market
house in 1703.
[Illustration: 129. CHESHUNT
SECTION OF MIDDLE STOREY OF WALTHAM CROSS]
Waltham Cross (Figs. 127, 128, and 129) stands at the junction of
Eleanor Cross Road and High Street, in the parish of Cheshunt,
Hertfordshire. The monument was the work of Roger Crundale and Dyminge
de Ligeri, or de Reyns, in or about 1293. It was built largely of Caen
stone. Apart from the difference necessarily entailed by its hexagonal
plan, Waltham Cross in many respects recalls that of Hardingston,
Northampton. In 1721 Dr Stukeley contributed to _Vetusta Monumenta_
an imaginary "restoration"; which was followed, in April 1791, by an
engraving, by Basire, from Schnebbelie's drawing, showing the cross
in its actual state. It had by then become much dilapidated, nothing
having been done to keep it in repair beyond the strengthening of
the base with new brickwork in 1757. It is believed that the cross
originally stood upon ten steps. These had entirely disappeared by
1791. The present steps, four in number, are quite modern. The cross,
having been renovated in 1833 to 1834, and again in 1887 to 1889, has
lost so much that practically no part of the original fabric beyond
the core, the three figures, and parts of the lowest storey, survives.
The pinnacle at the top is a conjectural "restoration," the ancient
head, as in the cases also of Geddington and Northampton crosses,
having so utterly perished as to leave no indication of how the cross
should properly terminate.
[Illustration: 130, 131. LONDON, WEST CHEAP
REMAINS FROM THE ELEANOR CROSS, IN THE GUILDHALL MUSEUM]
[Illustration: 132. LONDON, WEST CHEAP
THE SECOND OF THE THREE CROSSES ERECTED ON THE SPOT]
[Illustration: 133, 134: LONDON, WEST CHEAP
THE THIRD CROSS ERECTED ON THE SPOT]
[Illustration: 135. CHARING
DETAIL OF OLD PROSPECT, SHOWING POSITION OF CHARING CROSS]
West Cheap Cross (Figs. 130-134) stood in the middle of the roadway,
opposite to the spot where Wood Street opens at right angles out of
Cheapside. Three successive crosses have occupied this identical
position. The first was an Eleanor cross, built by the mason,
Michael, of Canterbury, who contracted to execute the work for £300.
The character of the design may be judged from two fragments of the
stone panelling of the lowest storey, now preserved in the Guildhall
Museum (Figs. 130 and 131). These exhibit trefoil cusping, and the
same armorial shields which occur in the three existing crosses at
Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham. Some twenty years after its
erection, Cheapside Cross figured in the festivities which followed
the birth of Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward III.) on 13th
November 1312. A great pageant was organised in the City in honour of
the occasion, and at the cross in Cheap a pavilion was set up, and in
it a tun of wine placed, from which all who passed by might freely
drink. From whatever cause, the cross was so soon allowed to fall into
disrepair that its reconstruction came to be contemplated when it
had been standing only about seventy-five years, Sir Robert Launde,
knight, whose will is dated 1367, making a bequest to the building of
the cross in Cheapside. The matter at last became so urgent that, in
1441, Henry VI. issued a licence to the Mayor of London to rebuild
the cross "in more beautiful manner." The new cross, raised mainly
at the cost of the City, was not finished until 1486. Why it should
have taken so long a space of time to bring it to completion is not
apparent. It was a very sumptuous and elaborate structure; but its
builders did not attempt to adhere to the model of an Eleanor cross,
Scripture subjects and figures of saints taking the place of the
statues of the Queen. The monument was surmounted by a crucifix, with
a dove over it; the other sculptures comprising the Resurrection,
the Blessed Virgin and Child, and St Edward the Confessor. During
the night of 21st June 1581, unknown iconoclasts defaced all these
figures, that of the Blessed Virgin in the upper tier being subjected
to greater indignities than the rest. In addition to being mutilated
it was discovered to have been bound with ropes, ready to be torn
down. A reward was offered for the apprehension of the offenders,
but they were never caught. Queen Elizabeth notified to the Court of
Aldermen her wish that the damage should be made good. "The Lord Mayor
thereupon wrote to the Lords of the Council, asking Her Majesty's
further directions; and he was particularly anxious touching the
repairing and garnishing of the images of the cross." In 1595 the
image of the Blessed Virgin was renovated and made secure. In 1596
a new Infant was placed in her arms, an addition which was coarsely
and clumsily rendered, as one would expect at that period. Four years
after, on the plea that the woodwork of the upper part, including the
cross on the top of all, was out of repair, a pyramid was substituted
for the former finial cross, and a semi-nude statue of Diana for that
of the Blessed Virgin. Queen Elizabeth ordered that a plain gilt cross
should be set up on the summit of the pyramid. The City magnates
demurred, but ultimately complied. Next, the statue of the Blessed
Virgin was restored, and the whole structure cleansed; but only twelve
nights after the erection of the new statue of the Virgin, the latter
was again attacked, decrowned, and nearly beheaded, and the figure of
the Infant taken away. In the course of its existence the cross of
1441 to 1486 had been repeatedly repaired and regilt. It had already
lost every trace of its fifteenth-century origin by 1547, when, on
19th February, the coronation procession of Edward VI. passed
at its foot, an incident which was depicted by a contemporary, or
nearly contemporary, hand upon the stucco walls of the dining hall at
Cowdray House, near Midhurst, Sussex (Fig. 132). The mural painting,
unfortunately, perished in the devastating fire at Cowdray on the
night of 24th to 25th September 1793. The rebuilding of Cheapside
Cross was resolved upon in 1600. The new cross was erected in 1606
(Figs. 133 and 134). The question of the advisability of crowning
the latter with a crucifix having been raised, the two Universities
were formally consulted on the subject. Opinions were divided, but
Dr George Abbot, then Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced definitely against a crucifix.
A simple cross, therefore, unaccompanied by a dove, was attached to
the top of the new structure; while the base was encircled by an iron
railing as a precaution against attack. This, the third and last of
the Cheapside crosses, stood for a shorter period than either of its
predecessors. It was overthrown on 2nd May 1643, as recorded by Evelyn
in his _Diary_, under this date, in the following passage: "I went
to London, where I saw the furious and zealous people demolish that
stately Crosse in Cheapside."
[Illustration: 136, 137. CHARING, NEAR LONDON
THE ELEANOR CROSS, AND THE CROSS WHICH SUCCEEDED THE FORMER ON THE
SAME SITE]
Charing Cross, built to commemorate the last resting-place of the
Queen's body before it reached Westminster Abbey, occupied, as the
detail from a prospect, by Ralph Agas (_c._ 1560), of London and
neighbourhood shows (Fig. 135), approximately the same site where
Herbert Le Sueur's superb equestrian statue of Charles I. now stands.
The original cross (Fig. 136) is described as having been the finest
and stateliest of all the Eleanor crosses. It was the work of Richard
Crundale, who, dying in 1293, was succeeded by Roger Crundale; and
Alexander, of Ireland, carved the statues of the Queen for the cross,
which is computed to have cost nearly £800. By 1590 it had become much
weather-beaten and defaced with age. It may have been about this time
that the old cross was entirely rebuilt, the Gothic work disappearing,
and a monument of new design, in the current fashion of the day, being
erected in its place (Fig. 137). The Parliament having decreed the
destruction of the cross in 1643, it was finally demolished in the
summer of 1647. Lilly, writing in 1715, says that some of the stones
of the old fabric were used for the pavement in front of Whitehall,
while others were cut up and polished to make knife handles and other
small objects as souvenirs.
With Eleanor crosses there should be classed a small group of crosses,
which, though erected neither for the same purpose nor at the same
time as the Eleanor crosses, yet closely resemble the latter in being
fashioned in the graceful shape of a spire of diminishing stages.
[Illustration: 138. GLOUCESTER
HIGH CROSS]
The old cross at Gloucester (Fig. 138) stood on elevated ground at the
meeting of Northgate, Southgate, and Westgate Streets. It was raised
on steps, and was octagonal on plan. The ground storey, and the next
above it, dated apparently from about 1320. But the uppermost storey,
consisting of a cluster of turrets with little vanes, the central
turret or shaft surmounted by an orb and fourways cross, can hardly
have been any earlier than the sixteenth century. Coventry Cross (Fig.
8) had similar vanes which (called _girouettes_ in French, because of
their gyrating or revolving with the wind), being gilt, and glittering
gaily in the sunlight, imparted additional charm to the stone crosses
whereto they were attached. The total height of Gloucester Cross was
34 ft. 6 in. When drawn in 1750, on the eve of its demolition, the
cross contained, in the niches of its middle storey, statues of the
following kings and queens of England:--King John, Henry II., Queen
Eleanor, Edward III., Richard II., Richard III., Queen Elizabeth, and
Charles I. The whole was surrounded by an iron railing of obviously
later date than the cross itself.
[Illustration: 139, 140. TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX
HIGH CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER "RESTORATION"]