Plates 2.54-2.55: Ruthwell Cross (Original Explanatory Account)

It consisted originally of three divisions, a base, a shaft fifteen feet high, charged with two compartments, and a capital or transverse piece. The four sides are of different dimensions, the whole broadest at the base; the total length about twenty feet. It was broken into three pieces by order of the General Assembly 1644, under pretence of its being an object of superstition among the vulgar.

On one of the broadest sides (which are eighteen inches and a half at bottom and fifteen at top) is the figure of our Saviour with the nimbus, his right-hand elevated to give the benediction, his left holds a scroll probably representing his Gospel: his feet rest on two animals rampant, which seem of different kinds. In the compartment below are two figures bare-headed, one of them bearded: they have no nimbi round their heads, but over them is written, SCS [Sanctus] PAULUS {St. Paul}, and under them, ET MARIA ET IO[annes] {and Mary and John}.

The inscription on the border round these several figures is in the mixt base Roman character of the ruder ages as follows:

IHS XRS IVDEX . AEQVITATIS . SERTO . SALVATOREM . MVNDI . ET . A.......¹. {Jesus Christ, Judge of justice, . . . the Savior of the world and a.......} the rest effaced.

On the other ledge:

BESTIAE . ET . DRACONES . COGNOVERVNT . INDE. {beasts and dragons knew thence}

The inscription on the lower compartment is,
 

FREGERVNT .² PANEM . IN . DESERIO³. {they broke bread in . . .}

The lower half of the two figures with the inscription has been lately recovered from the filth and dirt which covered them; but the sentence{,} though continued a few words, is left incomplete. Below the border is another bas relief, of a person riding, and two persons standing underneath; so much defaced as barely to exhibit an outline, which may be taken for Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, the flight into Egypt, (an outline appearing as of the Virgin holding the child in her arms), or any other history.

¹ Perhaps Angelorum {of angels}.
² Mr. Gordon inserts ET between fregerunt and panem, but there is clearly no room for such insertion.
³ Perhaps deserto {in the desert}.

 

IATTVLLI ALABASTRVM VNGVENTI
SIAN EIR SELVSIIDES
EIVS LACRIMIS COEPIT RIGARE
PEDES EIVS BEAPILLIS⁵
{. . . box of ointment . . . with her tears began to wash his feet . . . }

On the middle border is,

CAPITIS . SVI . TERGEBAT {of her head wiped}

connecting the whole of the inscription on the upper half, which runs thus: alluding to the transaction represented by them.

[Pharisæ]i attulit alabastrum unguenti [et] stans retro secus pedes ejus lacrimis cœpit rigare pedes ejus et capillis capitis sui tergebat. Luke vii. 37, 38. {the [Pharisee]’s {house, she} brought an alabaster box of ointment; And standing behind at his feet, she began to wash his feet, with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head (Luke 7:37-38).}

The whole text runs thus:

“Et ecce mulier quæ erat in civitate peccatrix ut cognovit quod accubuit in domo Pharisaei attulit &c.{”} {And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at {a meal} in the Pharisee’s house, brought, and so forth (Luke 7:37).}

Below are two figures of different ages; the younger with a nimbus holds out an open book to the elder, who is bearded, and seems attentive to him. The inscription, round this compartment is,
 

ET PRAETERIVS VID⁶ . . . . . . .

perhaps to be read Et præteri[ens] J[es]us vid[it] {And Jesus, passing by, saw}. The continuation is defaced, which makes it difficult to explain the words on the other ledge:
 

ANATIBIT AIEETS. . . . . . . {nonsensical}

Below these are faint traces of two other radiated figures, and under them a Calvary cross completes the whole design. The top of the stone on this side is broken, but shews a mark like a cavity for inserting the transverse bar.

The two narrowest sides, sixteen inches at bottom and eleven at top, are adorned with vine-leaves and animals, inclosed in a long frame of Runic characters, as represented in plate LV. The upper compartment on one side has another Runic inscrip-{tion}

⁴ Perhaps Adoramus {we adore}.
⁵ Et capillis {and with hair}.
⁶ Mr. Gordon reads it et præteriens vidi {and, passing by, I saw}.

 

Perhaps In principio erat verbum {In the beginning was the Word}, (the beginning of St. John’s Gospel;) and three or four evanescent letters.

The reverse side of this piece has the inscription in Runic letters, round a bird like a parrot sitting on a branch with fruit.

This ancient monument was first laid before the public by Mr. Gordon, in his “Itinerar{i}um Septentrionale,” {"Account of a Northern Journey"} plates LVII. and LVIII. and described p. 161. But besides that his drawing of it is far less faithful than the present, he does not appear to have read the inscription with exactness; not to mention that he did not see all the several parts of the stone.

Mr. Pennant⁷ saw the fragments of what he calls “the capital of the stone, with letters nearly similar to the other, and on each opposite side an eagle neatly cut in relief. There was a piece of another with Saxon letters round the lower part of a human figure in long vestments, with his foot on a pair of small globes: this too seemed to have been the top of a cross.” But neither has this gentleman copied the inscription faithfully, nor given a new drawing of the whole, or of the parts hitherto unpublished.

These considerations excited me to solicit an exact representation of the whole. I have obtained it from the very accurate pencil of Adam de Cardonnel, esq. whose merit has been sufficiently displayed in his “Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland.” To his obliging assiduity the Society are indebted for these drawings of the Ruthvel cross; and I cannot but indulge a hope, that such an interesting remain of early antiquity in this country may engage the attention of those literati, who, under the liberal patronage of a northern monarch, are investigating the antiquities of their own county. This Society have seconded their views, by communicating this Runic monument to the world, who will now judge how far Mr. Gordon’s conjecture was well founded, that the monument was the work of two different people, first the Danes, and then the Saxons. Perhaps the contrary may be the truth, that the monument was erected by the Danes, and then converted to Christian purposes by the Saxons. For till the Runic inscriptions are explained, it will not be easy to determine whether it was a Christian monument of the former people. It is hardly probable they defaced what was previously carved on two of the sides; but rather, finding two sides unoccupied, inscribed on them some memorials of themselves.

R{ichard}. G{ough}.

***Since this account was read before the Society, the drawing has been shewn to Mr. Professor Thorkelin, who has been investigating all such monuments of his countrymen in this kingdom; ---- but he has not returned any opinion upon it.

⁷ Tour in Scotland, 1772, in Voyage to the Hebrides, p. 85.