Mr. Aftle's Observations mi Stone Pillars,

as it was carried to be buried f ; and very often in church-yards to remind the people of the benefits vouchfafed to us by the crofs of Chriil ; and in early times, at moft places of public concourfe, or at the meeting of three or four roads or highways. At thofe crofles the corpfe in carrying to church was fet down, that all the people attending might pray for the foul of the departed. It was cuf- tomary for mendicants to ilation themfelves at crofTes for the pur- pofe of foliciting alms for Chrift's fake ; hence they fay, in the north of England, when a perfon is urgent and vehement, " He begged like a cripple at a crofs." Penances were oftentimes finimed at crofles, which concluded ^with weeping, and the ufual marks of contrition. Near the town of Stafford flood a crofs called Weeping-Croft, from its being a place defignated for the expiation of penances. It will be fuperfluous to enumerate more inftances of croffes erected for all the purpofes above mentioned, as it may be prefum- ed they are familiar to many of the Members of this Society. There are a great number of fepulchral crofles both in Great Bri- tain and Ireland, which were creeled foon after prayers for the dead came into ufe. In thofe times it was not uncommon for perfons to defire that croffes might be erected at the places of their interment to put devout people in mind to pray for their fouls. When thefe memorials were fet up by perfons in their life time, there was ge- nerally infcribed on them pofuit, or pom curavit ; but moft com- monly it was done either by the command or at the defire of the perfon departed, when by their command or order the wordjitflit was made ufe of, when at the defire rogavit. Mr. Borlace [s] has JV] See an account of thofe ereted by king Edward the Ift for his queen Eleanor

in the Monumenta Vetufta, publiftied by this Society, Vol. III. Plates XII. to

XVII. inclufive. [s] Hiftory of Cornwall, Chap. XII. p.39i. given