Scandinavian-Britain

198 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINother than those of Saxon England. South Lancashireformed a part of Cheshire after the break-up ofthe Danish kingdom of York; in 1002 the will ofWulfric Spot, founder of the abbey of Burton-upon-Trent, mentions his great possessions in Wirral andthe land between Mersey and Kibble; so that thebosndr here held by Mercian rules, although, asnoticed on p. 122, it is possible that the hides andhundreds of this district really replaced a previoussystem of division analogous to that of the Danelaw.The Winwick crosshead is remarkable evidence ofimported Celtic art of the late tenth century, probablyindicating the presence of a sculptor from the Hebrides,if not a family of Hebridean origin. As the chroniclerstell us that in 980 Northern or Hebridean piratesinvaded Cheshire, it is possible that this gives theoccasion for the introduction of the person whocarved this work ; but by the analogy of Vikingsettlements elsewhere it is evident that there wascontinual movement. It was part of every youngman's education, so to speak, to travel either as apirate or a merchant, or both ;and intercourse withdistant Scandinavian lands was the normal order oflife. The Barton fragment seems to be a tenthcentury work with Viking ring-plaits ;and thesemonuments of South Lancashire and West Cheshirecontrast strongly with the group of Mercian roundshaftedcrosses in the east of Cheshire, and no lessstrongly with the Northumbrian pre-Viking crosses ofBolton, Whalley and in North Lancashire. Thedistribution of monuments adds to the force of the