pillars at Penrith.

The top of the socket is worn hollow by heedless feet, and all traces of carving, if any ever existed,

are gone.

By the north-east side of this socket lay a stone with its upper surface just level with the ground, forming a sort of step. This when heaved up in March last by me disclosed on its under side the remarkable sculpture shewn in the illustration.*

This stone is of oblong shape, measuring 27 inches by 13 inches, and is 5 inches thick. The upper and lower corners on the left hand side have been bevelled off, and the right side has been cruelly chipped away, apparently to make it of more convenient form for a step. The sculpture is in high relief, and is divided into two unequal panels by a transverse line. In the upper panel is a hart, the horns not seen, trampling upon the serpent which is knotted twice. It is doubtful, owing to the fracture of the stone, whether there are not two serpents, if so the head of the second touches the heel of the hart.

In the lower panel is a knotted snake, and beneath a boat or ship, with short thick mast, on the top of which is a "crow's nest." To the left of the mast is the figure of a man facing the spectator, with his right arm extended over the prow, and grasping a hammer. In his left hand he holds a line. To the right is another figure, grasping in its uplifted right hand a hatchet. Below the boat is the line, cut, on the end of it an ox's head, surrounding which are several enormous fish or other marine monsters.

Among the legends of the Scandinavian mythology is the following:-The god Thor wished to catch and destroy the great serpent or Midgard worm, which lay at the bottom of the ocean and encircled the world. Having no bait, he asked his enemy Hyme the giant for his largest ox, and having received it he twisted off its head and baited the hook with it. The great serpent rose and took the tempt

* Drawn in the middle of the lithograph, ante p. 373.

ing

ing morsel, and Thor pulled it to the surface, but the struggles of the serpent were so violent that the bottom of

the boat gave way. The god stood in his divine strength

upon the bottom of the sea, and again pulled his enemy up, and then it was that Hyme, desperate with terror at the sight of the monstrous serpent, lifted his hatchet and cut the line. The worm sank back again into the billows and escaped.

The story of the stone is now plain :-Above, Christ as the heavenly hart, which is one of the earliest symbols of Him, tramples upon and subdues the serpent; and below the transverse line is the serpent again conquered and headbruised. We see Hyme with uplifted hatchet, and Asathor with extended arm grasping Miolnir-shortshafted. We see the severed line and the ox's head which the worm or serpent has seized. The giant is alarmed. Not a moment is to be lost, so he swings his knife or axe and cuts the line "Between the Ettin and the Hammer-God," says Professor Stephens, "is the mast with its crow's nest or look-out basket at the top, a feature of great antiquity also in the classical lands." Not only is the mast highly interesting, but also the shape of Hyme's weapon and of Thor's hammer. This latter is not quite perfect on one side, as being close to the edge of the stone. The whole ship is costly, as the oldest stone picture of a boat used by our "barbarian" Angle forefathers which has come down to us.

over.

The Christian teacher has therefore said to his pagan countrymen :-" Abandon your false belief. Even your famous god Thunor could not slay the great Midgard Worm. But our Christ did bruise the serpent's head, and hereafter giveth us life everlasting!"

It can scarcely be doubted that this stone was part of the missing cross shaft, especially when we compare the sculpture with that on the cross still standing. Professor Stephens is of opinion that this block cannot be latter than the 7th century.

There

There is very little tradition to be gathered concerning these stones. Higher up the hill, in a field still called Chapel Croft, about a quarter of a mile from the present church, is the site of an ancient chapel, some stones of which were still lying about within the memory of the older parishioners. About five and twenty years ago a deep trench was dug in the floor of the church, for the purpose of putting down hot water pipes. In cutting this many bones were disturbed which were at once noticed to be of enormous size. Several thigh bones are said to have been nearly 2 feet in length, and I have been repeatedly assured that one gigantic femur measured 2 feet 2 inches.

The village stocks formerly stood close to the cross, and the last man that was confined in them was a person of the name of Sewell, for climbing up the cross and sitting on the top of it, on Sunday morning when "t' priest” was late owing to Saturday night's potations. The villagers call the two parallel figures on the east side Adam and Eve, and it is curious with what tenacity they adhere to the belief that there was once another head on the top of the existing cross, but set on transversely.

Of the fragments of 13th century sepulchral slabs which remain at Gosforth, one is the rudest of any I have seen, being covered with heavy pick marks, and simply having incised upon it—the shears.

The second is very thick and is flat on the left side, but bevelled on the right side and at the head end, like one lately found in situ at Dearham against the wall of the church inside. It bears a cross, having an incised head patée with long shaft and calvary steps, and on the left side of the cross are the shears. I see no trace of a book, but below the calvary steps is a sort of ornament formed of curved lines.

These two slabs formed the lintel of the vestry door, and were found in 1879. The third slab is in six pieces, and was found in pulling down the old rectory in 1879, to build