I just mentioned before the Base on which the Cross is erected, and that its form came near to that of a Triangle. This is an essential part of the monument, and, I think, ought to be called the Altar of the Cross. The common people indeed know no other name for it than The Globe, nor do I doubt their veracity in adhering to what they have been taught to call it; though, I fear, not by the first authors of the monument.
From Francis Wise’s 1742 ‘Further observations upon the White Horse and other antiquities in Berkshire. With an account of Whiteleaf-Cross in Buckinghamshire.‘
The Globe. I suppose that’s like the Orb topped with a cross (the type that goes with a Sceptre). Though Fleas (see above) might take its spherical properties as support for his own argument.