CROSS-BASE AT LLANGEFELACH, GLAMORGANSHIRE. NORTH AND WEST FACES. (From a Photograph by T. Mansel Franklen, Esq.) key-pattern (at the left-hand lower corner), of which there are other instances on the cross-base now used as a font at Penmon in Anglesey, and on the crosses at Termonfechin, co. Louth; St. Brecan's, Aran Island; Kilfenora, co. Clare; St. Andrew's, Fifeshire; and Winwick, Lancashire. The reason why the small square of diaper keypattern is introduced at the left side of the south face is because the left-hand upper corner of the cross-base was broken off, either before the stone was shaped or during the process of dressing, so that the triangular key-pattern (which is of greater depth) could not be continued right to the end. Perhaps this defect in the block of stone may also explain why the batter of the west face is so much greater than that of the other three faces. We have here a good instance of the difference in the methods of work adopted by the modern stonemason and his predecessor in pre-Norman times. A modern mason would undoubtedly have wasted his time and material in removing the portion of the stone where the flaw occurred, so as to make the cross-base perfectly symmetrical. The old Welsh mason, on the other hand, "uses his head to save his heels" by ingeniously adapting his ornament so as to conceal the defects in the stone. Another striking instance of the same method of utilising a defective piece of granite occurs in the case of the Maiden Stone in Aberdeenshire. As an instance of the opposite method, we have the grinding away of a large propor S Fig. 5.-Cross-Base at Llangefelach: East Face. Scale, linear. tion of the Koh-i-noor diamond to make it suit European ideas of symmetry. Crosses with socket-stones or bases are the rule in Ireland, but the exception in other parts of Great Britain. The following is a list of the cross-bases still existing in Wales: Anglesey. Penmon (cross, standing in field near church). |