Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/549

 1 66 The Ancient Stone Crosses This base consists of two steps and is octagonal in shape. A plinth about six inches high runs round the bottom, the sides of it varying from about four feet three inches in length, to a few inches more than this. The sides of the first step measure about four feet long and those of the upper one average about three feet and a half. The steps are each one foot five inches in height, the measurement of the lower one being taken from the top of the plinth, and their edges project a little, after the manner of stairs in carpentry. The tread of the step is about one foot, and the diameter of the top of this basement is about eight feet and a half. Around the plinth the ground is worn away, exposing the smaller stones which form the foundation of the structure. Entering the churchyard we shall observe close to the south door of the church, a socket-stone, with the lower part of the shaft of a cross fixed in it. This stone measures three feet six inches by three feet two inches, and at the bottom is quadrangular, but its upper edge is roughly formed into an octagon. The broken shaft is about two feet seven inches in height, and at the top, measures eleven mches by nine and a half. The shape of, it here is octagonal, as, at a short distance froni the bottom, which is square, the corners are chamfered. Built into the exterior of the east wall of the churchyard will be found two parts of a cross, one consisting of a piece of the shaft, and the other of the top of the same with the arms. These pieces are fixed one on the other, but the broken ends do not fit where placed together. Taking the measurement of them as one, I find the height to be three feet four inches, and the distance across the arms is two feet one inch, the depth of them being about ten inches, and the width of the shaft about the same. The shape of these pieces is octagonal, like the shaft by the church door, but whether they were broken off from that, or are parts of the cross that formerly stood on the basement on the green, cannot, of course, be determined. We have a good deal of information about matters per- taining to this village in a book entitled Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecomhe-in-the-Moory edited by Mr. Dymond, and it is there stated that in January, 1876, in clearing some steps in the church which had formed the