OLD CROSSES
and LYCHGATES
[Frontispiece
1. NORTHAMPTON
ELEANOR CROSS
OLD CROSSES
and LYCHGATES
BY
AYMER VALLANCE
LONDON
B·T·BATSFORD, LTD 94, HIGH HOLBORN
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT
THE DARIEN PRESS, EDINBURGH
PREFACE
The genesis of this book was an article on "Churchyard Crosses,"written by request for the Burlington Magazine, and publishedtherein in September 1918. It was at a time when the hearts of theBritish people were being stirred to their innermost depths, for theEuropean War was yet raging, and the question of the most suitableform of memorials of our heroic dead, sacrificed day by day, wascontinually present to us. Nor, though hostilities happily ceasedwhen the Armistice was agreed upon within a few weeks thereafter,has the subject of commemorating the fallen on that account declinedin interest and importance. Nay, its claims are, if anything, moreinsistent than ever, for, the vital necessity of concentrating ourenergies on the attainment of victory having passed away, the nationis now at leisure "to pour out its mourning heart in memorials thatwill tell the generations to come how it realised the bitterness andglory of the years of the Great War." Such being the case, it washoped that it might prove useful to gather together a collectionof examples of old crosses and lychgates, as affording the mostappropriate form of monuments for reproduction or adaptation tothe needs of the present. Too many of the manifestations of modernso-called art betray its utter bankruptcy, because having broken withtradition, it has no resource left but to express itself in waywardeccentricity and ugly sensationalism, the very antitheses of thedignified beauty which the following of time-hallowed precedent alonecan impart.
To obtain a sufficiently representative series there has been nooccasion to go beyond the confines of England and Wales. Within thoselimits a very large number of types is to be found, every one ofwhich is illustrated in the following pages. I do not pretend to havetreated the subject exhaustively, but I do claim that never before hasso manifold a range of crosses been depicted within the compass of asingle volume; nor has so systematic an analysis and classificationof the various types of crosses, tracing the course of their historicevolution, been attempted by any previous writer in the Englishlanguage. My classification, based solely upon the study of anatomicalform and structure, is original, and presents the subject in anentirely new aspect.
Without the generous co-operation of friends and strangers alike, mytask would have been impossible. A considerable amount of material hadbeen collected by my friend, the late Mr Herbe