namentation, and may possibly be of pre-Norman origin,
although it was being used as a cattle trough in a neighbouring farmyard
before the restoration in 1884. The parish church of Levisham, standing
alone in the valley below the village, has a very narrow and unadorned
chancel arch. This may possibly belong to Saxon or very early Norman
times, but Mr Joseph Morris[1] has pointed out that a similar one occurs
at Scawton, which is known to have been built in 1146, and the evidence of
a Saxon stone built into the south-east corner of the chancel of Levisham
church supports my belief in the later date. On the south wall of the
chancel of Lockton church I have seen a roughly shaped oblong stone
bearing in one corner the markings of a very rude sundial, and I find that
there is another on the wall of a cottage in the same village.[2] I am
unable to give its position, but from a drawing I have examined, it
appears to be of more careful workmanship than the one built into the
church wall. At Sinnington church another of these very crude sundials has
been discovered, and what may be part of a similar one is high up on the
east wall of the chancel of Ellerburne church. At Kirby Moorside a fine
cross with interlaced work is built into the porch of the vicarage. At
Wykeham there is a very plain cross of uncertain age, and Ellerburne,
Lastingham, Sinnington, Kirkdale, Kirby Misperton, and Middleton are all
rich in carved crosses and incised slabs. Pickering church only possesses
one fragment of stone work that we may safely attribute to a date prior to
the Conquest. It seems to be part of the shaft or of an arm of a cross,
and bears one of the usual types of dragon as well as knot or interlaced
ornament. The font, which has been thought by some to be of Saxon origin,
seems to be formed from part of the inverted base of a pillar, and though
composed of old material, probably dates in its present form of a font
from as recent a period as the restoration of Charles II., the original
font having been destroyed in Puritan times (Chapter X.). It would appear
that when it was decided to build a large Norman church at Pickering the
desire to put up a building that would be a great advance on the previous
structure--for we cannot suppose that Pickering was without a church in
Saxon times---led to the destruction of every trace of the earlier
building.

[Footnote 1: Morris, J.E.: "The North Riding of Yorkshire," p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Illustr