But how did the founders learn to make such beautiful patterns and
designs? St. Wilfrid had travelled much; he had been to Rome and seen
the wonderful examples of Roman skill in the great city. The Romans had
left behind them in England their beautiful pavements, rich in designs,
with splendid borders of fine workmanship. These, doubtless, the monks
copied on parchment in the writing-rooms of their monasteries, and gave
their drawings to the monks in the stone-shed, who reproduced them in
stone. The only tool they had to produce all this fine and delicate work
was the pick, and this increases our wonder at the marvels they were
able to accomplish.

There is a famous cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, which for a short
time formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Scenes from early
Christian history are portrayed, and these are surrounded by bands with
sentences in Latin describing them. The lowest panel is too defaced for
us to determine the subjects; on the second we see the flight into
Egypt; on the third figures of Paul, the first hermit, and Anthony, the
first monk, are carved; on the fourth is a representation of our Lord
treading under foot the heads of swine; and on the highest there is the
figure of John the Baptist with the Lamb. On the opposite side are the
Annunciation, the Salutation, and other scenes of gospel history. On the
side of the cross is some beautiful scrollwork, which shows a wonderful
development of skill and art.

In addition to the Latin sentences there are five stanzas of an
Anglo-Saxon poem of singular beauty. It is the story of the crucifixion
told in touching words by the cross itself, which narrates its own sad
tale from the time when it was a growing tree by the woodside, until at
length, after the body of the Lord had been taken down--

"The warriors left me there,
Standing defiled with blood."

On the head of the cross are inscribed the words, "Caedmon made me."
This Caedmon was the holy monk, on whom the gift of writing verses was
bestowed by Heaven, who in the year 680 A.D. began to pour forth his
songs in praise of Almighty God, and told in Anglo-Saxon poetry the
story of the creation and the life of our Lord. The Bewcastle cross is
somewhat similar to that at Ruthwell. We see again the figure of our
Lord standing on the heads of swine, but the lower figure is represented
with a hawk, the sign of nobility, and is probably that of a person to
whom the cross is a memor