Some Berkshire Interlacings

Extract

Why Berkshire? Well, any other county might have been chosen; that in Berkshire there are both the Romano-British city of Silchester and the ruins of an abbey founded in Norman times may have influenced the choice. As for the last word of the title, ‘interlacings’ will be confined here to a pattern of curved strands. This rules out such motives as the zig-zags of the filigree on the handle of the Sumerian dagger and the Coptic meanderings of one strand only.

There are, of course, many examples of interlacing to be seen nowadays. Men criss-cross their shoe-strings, unless they have been taught to lace them straight across as they do in the Army; a basket is made of interlacing canes; a hurdle of interlacing wattles; women formerly interlaced the strands of their long hair and the manes and tails of horses are often treated similarly. A cane carpet-beater is an excellent example of interlacing. The ‘under and over’ of the canes make for both strength and resiliency. The implement is remarkably attractive in appearance, an instance of the combination of the arts of necessity and of form.