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Object type: Part of cross-shaft
Measurements: H. 35.5 cm (14 in); W. 23.5 cm (9.25 in); D. 16.5 cm (6.5 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained, massive yellow sandstone
Plate numbers in printed volume: Pl. 164.867-870
Corpus volume reference: Vol 1 p. 170-171
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The shaft is edged with a double roll moulding.
A (broad): Part of an inhabited scroll in which is an elongated creature, possibly a biped. It gnaws the central stem and grips it with its two front feet. It is difficult to be certain of the features of the beast but it seems to have a canine head with pointed ears and punched eyes. What might be its back legs pass over one of the stems of the scroll volute. This stem ends with an elongated leaf.
B (narrow): This face possibly carried a panel of interlace but its pattern is irrecoverable, because of the weathering of the stone.
C (broad): No pattern recoverable.
D (narrow): Part of a complex trail. The broad central stem is median-incised. From it there springs a curling tendril which terminates with a long and large triangular leaf. The tendril curves up and over the straight stalk of another triangular leaf. This is repeated above.
The type of scroll organization on face D is paralleled at Bewcastle, on the north face. The leaf type, however, seems to be different. The leaf on face A, however, can be paralleled on both Bewcastle and Ruthwell, and the animal is most closely paralleled by the biting creature on Ruthwell, middle of west face. The Edlingham beast appears nearer in type to Ruthwell than to the inhabitants of the Rothbury 1 scroll which seems to be a later development (Introduction, p. 28). We should perhaps see the programme of this fragment as more closely allied to Bewcastle than to Ruthwell with the inhabited scroll on one broad face and perhaps figural panels on the other, while the narrower faces carried interlace and plant-scrolls.
