Aymer Vallance - Old Crosses and Lychgates

OLD CROSSES
and LYCHGATES

BY

AYMER VALLANCE

LONDON

BTBATSFORD, LTD 94, HIGH HOLBORN

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT
THE DARIEN PRESS, EDINBURGH

The genesis of this book was an article on "Churchyard Crosses," written by request for the Burlington Magazine, and published therein in September 1918. It was at a time when the hearts of the British people were being stirred to their innermost depths, for the European War was yet raging, and the question of the most suitable form of memorials of our heroic dead, sacrificed day by day, was continually present to us. Nor, though hostilities happily ceased when the Armistice was agreed upon within a few weeks thereafter, has the subject of commemorating the fallen on that account declined in interest and importance. Nay, its claims are, if anything, more insistent than ever, for, the vital necessity of concentrating our energies on the attainment of victory having passed away, the nation is now at leisure "to pour out its mourning heart in memorials that will tell the generations to come how it realised the bitterness and glory of the years of the Great War." Such being the case, it was hoped that it might prove useful to gather together a collection of examples of old crosses and lychgates, as affording the most appropriate form of monuments for reproduction or adaptation to the needs of the present. Too many of the manifestations of modern so-called art betray its utter bankruptcy, because having broken with tradition, it has no resource left but to express itself in wayward eccentricity and ugly sensationalism, the very antitheses of the dignified beauty which the following of time-hallowed precedent alone can impart.

To obtain a sufficiently representative series there has been no occasion to go beyond the confines of England and Wales. Within those limits a very large number of types is to be found, every one of which is illustrated in the following pages. I do not pretend to have treated the subject exhaustively, but I do claim that never before has so manifold a range of crosses been depicted within the compass of a single volume; nor has so systematic an analysis and classification of the various types of crosses, tracing the course of their historic evolution, been attempted by any previous writer in the English language. My classification, based solely upon the study of anatomical form and structure, is original, and presents the subject in an entirely new aspect.

Without the generous co-operation of friends and strangers alike, my task would have been impossible. A considerable amount of material had been collected by my friend, the late Mr Herbert Batsford, and of this I have gladly availed myself. To my dear and revered friend, the late Sir William St John Hope, I, for one, am more indebted archologically than I can find words to express. No sooner did he learn that I had undertaken this work than he remarked to me, "You must quote documents," and, by way of giving practical effect to his advice, he offered, with his wonted liberality, to place at my disposal some important notes he had made from the original accounts of the royal expenditure on the Eleanor Memorial Crosses. These notes, to my profound regret, I never received, because St John Hope, being shortly afterwards stricken with his fatal illness, had not the opportunity to look them up for me. My pages in consequence are the poorer for lack of his invaluable material. I have, however, been able to quote in full the historic description of Nevill's cross from the Rites of Durham (Surtees Society, 1902), of which St John Hope was Joint Editor.

Among my innumerable obligations I desire to record my indebtedness to the following for facilities given, and for help in divers ways:

The authorities and assistants of the British Museum, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and of the Guildhall Museum; the President and Council of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society; the Burlington Magazine, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Provost of Eton (who kindly went to Oxford expressly to examine the Jews' cross for me), Mr F. T. S. Houghton (who journeyed from Birmingham to Halesowen in order to photograph the remains of the cross-head at the latter place), and Dr F. J. Allen, of Cambridge (for photographs and much valuable information); also to Miss E. K. Prideaux, the Rev. G. C. Richards, F.S.A., the Revv. F. and F. R. P. Sumner, and C. Eveleigh Woodruff, Major C. A. Markham, and Messrs Harold Brakspear, F.S.A., G. C. Druce, F.S.A., Reginald A. Smith, F.S.A., J. H. Allchin, and H. Elgar, Maidstone Museum; Oxley Grabham and W. Watson, York Museum; H. St George Gray, Taunton Museum; Frank Woolnough, F.R.Met.S., Ipswich Museum; Richard Scriven, George Clinch, F.G.S., F.S.A.(Scot.), W. Plomer Young, P. M. C. Kermode, G. Granville Buckley, M.D., F.S.A., F. H. Crossley, F. E. Howard, Arthur Hussey, F. C. Elliston-Erwood, Robert Richmond, George H. Widdows, F.R.I.B.A., R. P. Stone, Oswald Stone, P. Bedford, Alfred Watkins; and last, but not least, my publisher, Mr Harry Batsford and his assistant, Mr A. W. Haggis, whose constant and ready co-operation has lightened many hours of laborious research in museum libraries and of industry at High Holborn.

AYMER VALLANCE.

Aymers, Lynsted,

February 1920.