PREFACE. collect and to complete. at the desire of his
representatives, these papers oT the Rev. TV. S. Calverley for the
publication so long promised, has been a task at once painful and
pleasant. I t has been pleasant to raise, as it were, a Cross to
his memory but painful to rist the runes upon it, hewing them out
letter by letter, with unskilled hands, in much diffidence, and In
much regret. The aim has been to compile some such volume as Mr.
Calverley intended-a general work giving account of the Christian
relics ofnur north-west corner of England from the time when the
Romans left to the 12th century, when a new order of things came
into being. He did not live to write his cwn boolt. His working
life was too short for all that might have been, though of the time
and talents allotted him he made diligent and faithful use. I l e
would have been the last to wish his biography written, and yet we
cannot but say a few words upon his life, by way of preface to his
worlc. Williarn Slater Calverley was born near Leeds in 1847, and
after his school days proceeded to Nerv College, Orrard, which he
left to take a private tutorship. During this pe iocl he was
strongly inclined to the study of art, and worlcerl with r n c p h
ro mise at oneofthe schools in connection with South Kensington.
Indeed, it was only by an nccident of illness that he failed, on
one occasion, to win the gold medal for dratcing from the figure.
Hut his training wasby nomeans thrown awly. Not only was he able to
make such drawings as are given in this volume, illustrating he art
of ancient days with direct ness and emphasis, but he learnt the
artists habit ofobserving form, and recording it. No one had a
keener eye for nfragment of sculpture, lurking in a rubbish-heap,
or built into a wall and he was always ready with his pencil and
sketch-book to note the find. Wherever he went, he slrctched,
accumulating the material from which he could make his comparisons
and draw his conc usions. That was, perhaps, the secret of his
unusual power ofgeneralization, by which he interpreted the
Gosforth Cross, and created-it is not too much to say-a nerv era in
this department of study. He was not satisfied even with sketching
and drawing the monuments he loved. He took rubbings of the whole
series, most carefully done, and casts of many and in the chapter
on Aspatria he tells how, for the salte of entering into the spirit
of the ancient a r t i s t s and craftsnlen, he went to the great
labour of reproducing the great Gosforth Crclss in stone--the copy
which may be seen and judged in Aspatria churchyard not a mere
cast, be it understood, but a sculptors vorlc of art, following out
the original in every detail, and with firlelity to style and
spirit not so much as attempted by others. In spite nf this
artistic turn he had always intencled himself for the Church. and
in 1372 was ordained at Carlisle by, ishop Goodwin, taking-a curacy
at Fsltdale, in South Cumberland...
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