The Ancient Cross Shafts at Bewcastle and .Ruthwell. By the
Right Rev. G. F. Browne, D.D. (Cambridge University Press. 7s. 6d. net.)— Long before Dr. Browne became a Bishop, he was Professor of Art and Archaeology at Cambridge, and in his retirement from the See of Bristol he has resumed that special study of the sculptured monuments of Britain for which he gained distinction a quarter of a century ago. In this scholarly book—an expansion of this year's Redo Lecture—he takes up again the subject of his inaugural lecture of 1888. The high antiquity of the noble crosses at Bewcastle and Ruthwell has been denied in recent years by Professor Cook, of Yale, and a learned Italian, Commendatore Rivoira, who would ascribe their erection to the Scottish King David L in the twelfth century rather than to Bishop Wilfrith in the seventh century. Professor Lethaby and others have already replied to their critics in the Burlington Magazine, but Dr. Browne's well-ffiustrated essay in defence of the old view is the most complete and convincing that we have seen. The carving of the crosses is no doubt surprisingly fine in quality for the age of Wilfrith, but their runic inscriptions are mani- festly pre-Norman, and Scotland up to the time of that "air sanct for the Crown," as James VI. called the pious David L, certainly could not teach England anything in the realm of art.
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