Stone Crosses of the County of Northampton. By Christopher A.
Markham. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Mark- ham has spent much trouble in collecting the materials for this volume. The county is fortunate enough to possess two of the Eleanor Crosses, one at Geddington and the other at Northampton. The Geddington Cross has suffered little from the restorer, and not very much from time, neglect, and wanton injury. It was a strange way of keeping Easter Monday by the Geddingtonis,ns to set squirrels loose on the cross and pelt them with stones. Much of the fine work has been broken off in this way ; but the structure remains substantially the same, and is still an impressive building. The Northampton Cross has been more meddled with. It is not easy to say how much of the original remains. Probably, however, it is the material rather than the elevation that has been renewed. It is a curious thing that great difficulty seems to have been found in fixing the ownership of the cross. It has now been made over to the guardianship of the County Council. One would think that ex vi termini it belonged to the Crown. Mr. Markham supple- ments his account of the crosses with particulars about the local markets. There is a close connection between the two subjects.
Previous page
