Sculptured stone crosses are simply a local and temporary fashion in gravestones. They came into vogue when the northern English church-builders learned stone-carving, and their use spread in every direction through the British Isles, where it lingered on the Celtic fringe after the fashion had gone out in its first home, and afterwards it wandered farther afield. But by Anglian crosses is meant here only those set up under the influence of the Angles of Northern England before the Danish invasion, and those in which the same influence survived in parts not dominated by Danish or Norse settlement.