part of the Churchyard, and examining the most uncommon series of rock-cut tombs, sepulchral slabs, the great hog-backed stone, and beautiful sculptured cross shaft, all surrounding the two churches, we recognise this as one of the most interesting places in the north of England.

On the left side of the Churchyard path near the gate is a portion of the shaft of a cross,1 the four faces of which are illustrated here; there are many other examples of similar design and sculpture in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia, as also in Italy and other parts of the Continent, some as late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but the finer work of this, with some other northern English crosses, probably dates it between seven and eight hundred. Dr. Browne, the Bishop of Bristol, one of our first living authorities on architecture and sculpture of this period, refers to this cross shaft as "very curious," and speaks of the singular carving of, probably, an early church on the northern face, with little crosses springing from the point and eaves of the gable roof; three windows in the upper part and four below, on each side of a door or opening filled by a figure of some Saint in swaddling or grave clothes, represented like this both in English carving and in mosaics of the same period in Italy. On the southern face is one large figure, whether of the Blessed Virgin and Child, or, as is sometimes thought, of some Saint connected in some way with the dedication or history of the Church, is hard to say.

art.

The beautiful twisted pattern of the east and west faces, with its shoots or buds or apples between each curving spiral, is well known in early Christian. It occurs again on the cross in St. Wilfrid's at Halton, in the Lune valley, at Eyam, in Derbyshire, and elsewhere. The serpent below is thought to 1 See lithographs, four faces of Cross, Plate I.

represent the ancient Norse legend of Yggdrasil, the sacred ash-tree, with its snake or dragon guarding it, twisted below, frequently used by early Christian teachers to illustrate the story of Paradise, the Serpent, and the Tree of Life. On the eastern side the beautiful triquetra, or three-looped knot, an ancient emblem of the Holy Trinity, is plainly seen below.

On the right of the footway, nearer the Church, is another old sculptured stone of what is known as the hog-back or roofed shape; there are others like it in Durham, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, and in Scotland. The Bishop describes it as "a solid mass of stone some 6 feet long, and 2 feet thick, (originally) laid over some ancient grave. The zigzag lines along the top are probably the rude representation of tiling or shingling. There are several examples of tiled stones of a very striking character in various parts of the north, the idea probably being that the solid gravestone represented the last house of the dead person, and the gable-shaped top its roof." A remarkable stone of this type, but only slightly ridged, and with no indication of a roof or penthouse, at Overchurch, in the Wirral, between the Mersey and the Dee, bearing the earliest Cheshire example of a Christian inscription in Runes, the old Norse alphabet, tells us that "the folk reared this beacon," i.e. landmark or monument, "to Ethelmund." It would be deeply interesting to know to the memory of what great warrior in Church and State our Heysham "Beacon" was sculptured and set up.

Both beautiful stones are in the lower Churchyard, a typical one in shape and position as regards the Church, in early English custom-oblong, though irregular owing to the natural form of the ground, with a narrow margin on the north, as is usual in an ancient churchyard. Quite recently the Churchyard has been added to by enclosing a little field