ws: 'The late Mr. Jackson, who was a
very superstitious man, once told me that a former tenant of the
farm, whilst ploughing the field, pulled up the stone, and the
same day his team of wagon-horses was all drowned. He then put it
into the same place again, and all went on right; and that he
himself would not have it disturbed upon any account.' A similar
legend is attached to another cross. Cross Llywydd, near Raglan,
called The White Cross, which is still complete, and has evidently
been whitewashed, was moved by a man from its base at some
cross-roads to his garden. From that time he had no luck and all
his animals died. He attributed this to his sacrilegious act and
removed it to a piece of waste ground. The next owner afterwards
enclosed the waste with the cross standing in it.
"The Haughton Cross is only a fragment--almost precisely similar
to a fragment at Butleigh, in Somerset, of early
fourteenth-century date. The remaining part is clearly the top
stone of the base, measuring 2 ft. 11/2 in. square by 1 ft. 6 in.
high, and the lowest portion of the shaft sunk into it, and
measuring 1 ft. 1 in. square by 101/2 in. high. Careful excavation
showed that the stone is probably still standing on its original
site."[48]
"There is in the same parish, where there are four cross-roads, a
place known as 'The White Cross.' Not a vestige of a stone
remains. But on a slight mound at the crossing stands a venerable
oak, now dying. In Monmouthshire oaks have often been so planted
on the sites of crosses; and in some cases the bases of the
crosses still remain. There are in that county about thirty sites
of such crosses, and in seventeen some stones still exist; and
probably there are many more unknown to the antiquary, but hidden
away in corners of old paths, and in field-ways, and in ditches
that used to serve as roads. A question of great interest arises.
What were the origin and use of these wayside crosses? and why
were so many of them, especially at cross-roads, known as 'The
White Cross'? At Abergavenny a cross stood at cross-roads. There
is a White Cross Street in London and one in Monmouth, where a
cross stood. Were these planted by the White Cross Knights (the
Knights of Malta, or of S. John of Jerusalem)? Or are they the
work of the Carmelite, or White, Friars? There is good authority
for the general idea that they were often used as preac
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