HIGH CROSS
The old cross at Gloucester (Fig. [138]) stood on elevated ground at the meeting of Northgate, Southgate, and Westgate Streets. It was raised on steps, and was octagonal on plan. The ground storey, and the next above it, dated apparently from about 1320. But the uppermost storey, consisting of a cluster of turrets with little vanes, the central turret or shaft surmounted by an orb and fourways cross, can hardly have been any earlier than the sixteenth century. Coventry Cross (Fig. [8]) had similar vanes which (called girouettes in French, because of their gyrating or revolving with the wind), being gilt, and glittering gaily in the sunlight, imparted additional charm to the stone crosses whereto they were attached. The total height of Gloucester Cross was 34 ft. 6 in. When drawn in 1750, on the eve of its demolition, the cross contained, in the niches of its middle storey, statues of the following kings and queens of England:—King John, Henry II., Queen Eleanor, Edward III., Richard II., Richard III., Queen Elizabeth, and Charles I. The whole was surrounded by an iron railing of obviously later date than the cross itself.
139, 140. TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX
HIGH CROSS, BEFORE AND AFTER "RESTORATION"
The old market cross at Abingdon, Berkshire, is said to have been erected by the Guild of the Holy Cross, a fraternity attached to St Helen's Parish Church. The cross was repaired in 1605; and, on the occasion of the signing of the Treaty with the Scots in 1641, two thousand persons assembled round it to sing a psalm of thanksgiving. It was destroyed by Waller's army in 1644. The structure was both later in date and more elaborate than any other of its class except Coventry Cross (Fig. [8]), to which, in very many respects, it bore a striking resemblance. Abingdon Cross, however, was octagonal, whereas that of Coventry was hexagonal on plan. The lowest stage of either cross was solid, with surface tracery-panelling; while each of the three diminishing stages above consisted of niches with figures, and was further enriched with flying buttresses and with pinnacles surmounted by king's beasts holding iron rods, or pivots, to which were attached metal vanes like little banners. The similarity between the two crosses is explained by the fact that, in bequeathing £200 on 25th December 1541 for building a new cross at Coventry, Sir William Holles, formerly Lord Mayor of London, expressly directed that it was to be modelled upon that already existing at Abingdon. Coventry Cross, then, was begun in 1541 and finished in 1544. It stood 57 ft. high, mounted on three steps, and was divided into four stages comprising in all eighteen niches for statues. The statues in the first-floor storey, reckoning from the south, were Henry IV., King John, Edward I., Henry II., Richard I., and Henry V.; in the second storey, Edward III., St Michael, Henry III., St George, and Richard II.; and in the uppermost storey, a religious, St Peter, a religious, a king, St James the Less, and St Christopher. Above the topmost storey the cross swelled out into a tabernacled lantern surmounted by a metal vane pierced with the Royal arms (quarterly France, modern, and England), the supporting rod having a crown upon its summit. In later times the cross was surmounted by allegorical figures of Justice and Mercy. The cross underwent some repairs in 1629; but on 12th August 1668 a covenant was entered upon by the Mayor and certain stone cutters and masons for the thorough renewing of all defective parts of the stonework, with "good, sure stone from Sroby quarry," Warwickshire, as well as the iron and lead necessary for fixing the statues. Their work completed, the masons were to leave all the scaffolding in position, that the gilders and painters might then carry out their share of the embellishing. The total cost of the work executed in 1668, and following year, was £276. 2s. 1d. By 1760 nothing survived of the structure but the lowest storey and a portion of that above it. And in 1771 the last vestiges of Coventry Cross were bodily swept away.
To this same type belongs the High Cross at Tottenham (Figs. [139], [140]), Middlesex, although at the present day it sadly belies its real character. Dressed, as it is, in Gothic mouldings, crockets, and panel-work, it looks as though it should belong, at least, to the latter half of the fourteenth century (Fig. [140]). But the ornament, unfortunately, is a mere superficial casing of nineteenth-century creation; and, to judge from an engraving, of the year 1788, representing the cross as it stood before it underwent falsification (Fig. [139]), it can scarcely date any further back than the early part of the sixteenth century.
Again, the ancient Butter Cross, at Scarborough, which stands, or at least in 1860 stood, in Low Conduit Street, was of the same type, but square on plan. In fact, it may be described as shaped exactly like an obelisk, only with early-fourteenth-century Gothic details. How far such an object may, or may not, have been genuine, it is perhaps wisest to leave an open question.