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                             OLD CROSSES
                            AND LYCHGATES




  [Illustration:

    _Frontispiece_

  1. NORTHAMPTON

  ELEANOR CROSS]




                             OLD CROSSES
                            AND LYCHGATES


                                  BY
                            AYMER VALLANCE

  [Illustration]

                                LONDON

                B·T·BATSFORD, L^{TD} 94, HIGH HOLBORN




                     PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT
                     THE DARIEN PRESS, EDINBURGH




                               PREFACE


The genesis of this book was an article on "Churchyard Crosses,"
written by request for the _Burlington Magazine_, and published
therein in September 1918. It was at a time when the hearts of the
British people were being stirred to their innermost depths, for the
European War was yet raging, and the question of the most suitable
form of memorials of our heroic dead, sacrificed day by day, was
continually present to us. Nor, though hostilities happily ceased
when the Armistice was agreed upon within a few weeks thereafter,
has the subject of commemorating the fallen on that account declined
in interest and importance. Nay, its claims are, if anything, more
insistent than ever, for, the vital necessity of concentrating our
energies on the attainment of victory having passed away, the nation
is now at leisure "to pour out its mourning heart in memorials that
will tell the generations to come how it realised the bitterness and