" The design of the Abingdon Cross had been copied for
other crosses, including, it was said, portions of those of Coventry and
Canterbury; and it must have been of extraordinary beauty, for Elias
Ashmole, who was likely to know, declared that it was not inferior in
workmanship and design to any other in England. The cross was restored
in 1605, but when the army of the Parliament occupied the town in 1644,
it was "sawed down" by General Waller as "a superstitious edifice." The
Chamberlain's Accounts for that year contained an entry of money paid
"to Edward Hucks for carrying away the stones from the cross."
[Illustration: MARKET CROSS, ABINGDON. _From an old print_.]
The records in these old towns in the south, which had been kept by
churchwardens and constables for hundreds of years, were extremely
interesting; and there was much information in those at Abingdon that
gave a good idea of what was to be found in a market-place in "ye olden
time," for in addition to the great cross there were the May pole, the
cryer's pulpit, the shambles, the stocks, the pillory, the cage, the
ducking-stool, and the whipping-post.
In the year 1641, just before the Civil War, Abingdon possessed a
Sergeant-at-Mace in the person of Mr.
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