d
market which was read a few years ago at Broughton-in-Furness by the
steward of the lord of the manor from the steps of the old market
cross. Very comely and attractive structures are many of these ancient
crosses. They vary very much in different parts of the country and
according to the period in which they were erected. The earliest are
simple crosses with steps. Later on they had niches for sculptured
figures, and then in the southern shires a kind of penthouse, usually
octagonal in shape, enclosed the cross, in order to provide shelter
from the weather for the market-folk. In the north the hardy
Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians recked not for rain and storms, and few
covered-in crosses can be found. You will find some beautiful
specimens of these at Malmesbury, Chichester, Somerton, Shepton
Mallet, Cheddar, Axbridge, Nether Stowey, Dunster, South Petherton,
Banwell, and other places.

Salisbury market cross, of which we give an illustration, is
remarkable for its fine and elaborate Gothic architectural features,
its numerous niches and foliated pinnacles. At one time a sun-dial and
ball crowned the structure, but these have been replaced by a cross.
It is usually called the Poultry Cross. Near it and in other parts of
the city are quaint overhanging houses. Though the Guildhall has
vanished, destroyed in the eighteenth century, the Joiners' Hall, the
Tailors' Hall, the meeting-places of the old guilds, the Hall of John
Halle, and the Old George are still standing with some of their
features modified, but not sufficiently altered to deprive them of
interest.

[Illustration: The Market Cross, Salisbury, Wilts. Oct. 1908]

Sometimes you will find above a cross an overhead chamber, which was
used for the storing of market appurtenances. The reeve of the lord of
the manor, or if the town was owned by a monastery, or the market and
fair had been granted to a religious house, the abbot's official sat
in this covered place to receive dues from the merchants or
stall-holders.

There are no less than two hundred old crosses in Somerset, many of
them fifteenth-century work. Saxon crosses exist at Rowberrow and
Kelston; a twelfth-century cross at Harptree; Early English crosses at
Chilton Trinity, Dunster, and Broomfield; Decorated crosses at
Williton, Wiveliscombe, Bishops-Lydeard, Chewton Mendip, and those at
Sutton Bingham and Wraghall are fifteenth century. But not all these
are market crosses. The south-west district