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brians, with other northern powers, rebelling against the Norman king William, he entered the city of Durham, and laid it waste with fire and sword; the church being miraculously preserved by the springing up of an eastern breeze. Such was the horrid devastation made on this occasion, that the whole territories of York and Durham are said to have lain waste and uncultivated for nine years. The ecclesiastics, hearing of his horrid approach from York, fled from the enraged sword of the Conqueror, and sought the island of Lindisfarn as their refuge. They halted successively at Jarrow, Bedlington, and Ellingham, and on the fourth evening reached in safety the isle of Lindisfarn. Simon says, that at the time of their arrival opposite Lindisfarn, it was high flood; but the waves opened, and afforded them a miraculous passage across. The saint's bones rested a very short time, for on the re-establisment of peace, on the 8th of April, 1070, the sacred remains were restored to the church of Durham, where they have since rested.

Here it may neither be irrelevant nor uninteresting to glance at the monastic profession in Northumbria before the era of the Danish invasion. Monachism has long been a favourite object of attack, and the distorted portrait which was originally drawn by the pencil of animosity, is still admired as a correct and faithful likeness. But in this age of free enquiry, truth is the favourite pursuit, and there prevails a general disposition to hear both sides.

After the Scottish monks had retired from Lindisfarn, the celebrated St. Wilfrid used all his influence to propagate the Benedictine order through the kingdom of Northumbria, and thousands submitted to that discipline. This institute was less austere than that of the Scottish Cenobites; yet every moment was diligently employed. Six hours were allotted to sleep. Soon after midnight the monks arose to chaunt the nocturnal service; during the day they were summoned seven times to the church, to perform the other parts of the canonical office; seven hours were employed in manual labour, two in study, and the small remainder was devoted to the necessary refection of the body. Their diet was simple, but sufficient: twelve, perhaps eighteen, ounces of bread, a hemina of wine, and two dishes of vegetables, composed their daily allowance. The flesh of quadrupeds was strictly prohibited; but the rigour of the law was relaxed in favour of the children, the aged, and the infirm. To the colour, the form, and the quality of their dress, Benedict was indifferent, and only recommended that it should be adapted to the climate, and similar to that of the labouring poor. Each monk slept in a separate bed; but all lay in their habits, that they might be ready to repair, at the first summons, to the church. If they consented to accept the donations of their friends, their riches were not devoted to the encouragement of idleness, or the gratification of sensuality: but by their liberality, foreign artists were invited to instruct the ignorance of their countrymen; paintings and statues were purchased for the decoration of their churches, and their library was enriched with the choicest volumes of profane and sacred literature. While the mechanic trades thus flourished under the patronage of the richer ecclesiastics, the more important profession of agriculture acquired a due share of their attention. The estates of the lay proprietors were cultivated by the compulsory labours of their theowas or slaves: but in every monastry numbers of the brotherhood were devoted to the occupation of husbandry; and the superior cultivation of their farms quickly

demonstrated the difference between the industry of those who worked through motives of duty, and of those whose only object was to escape the lash of the surveyor. Within the precincts of each monastry stood an edifice, distinguished by the Greek name of Xenodochium, in which a certain number of paupers received their daily support, and which was gratuitously opened to every traveller who solicited relief.

Such appears to have been the character and the manners of the monks of Lindisfarn, and the other Northumbrian monastries. But they gradually declined from the institute of Benedict, and the regulations enforced by Eata; and this departure was justified by the prospect of greater advantage. The pursuit of learning began to be numbered among the duties of the cloister; and the drudgery of manual labour was exchanged for the more honourable occupation of study. Monastries were now endowed with extensive estates, adequate to the support of their inhabitants; and their revenues were constantly augmented by the liberality of their admirers. Yet the profession of poverty was not resigned. By the aid of an ingenious distinction, it was discovered, that it might still subsist in the bosom of riches; and that each individual might be destitute of property, though the wealth of the community was equal to that of its most opulent neighbours.

The estates of the monks, like those of the clergy, were liberated from all secular services; and the hope of participating in so valuable a privilege, gave occasion to a singular species of fraud, which cast a stain on the reputation of the order. We learn from Bede, that in the reign of Alfred, king of Northumberland, certain noblemen had expressed an ardent desire to consecrate their property to the service of religion. By the influence of friends and presents, the consent of the sovereign was obtained; and the ecclesiastical privileges were confirmed to them by ample charters, subscribed with the signatures of the king, the bishops, and the principal thanes. But their secret motives were betrayed by the sequel of their conduct; and the advantages, not the duties of the profession, proved to be the object of their pursuit. They quitted not the habits nor the pleasures of a secular life, but were content to assume the title of abbots, and to collect on some part of their domain a society of profligate and apostate monks. The wife also was proud to copy the example of her husband, and her vanity was flattered with the power of legislating for a sisterhood of females, as ignorant and dissipated as herself. So universal was the abuse, that the venerable Bede ventured to express a doubt, whether in a few years there would remain a soldier to draw the sword against an invading enemy. That respectable priest, in the close of his ecclesiastical history dedicated to king Ceolwulf, hints, in respectful terms, his opinion of these nominal monks; but, in his letter to archbishop Egbert, he assumes a bolder tone, and, in the language of zeal and detestation, insists on the necessity of putting a speedy period to so infamous a practice. But the secular abbots were numerous and powerful, and existed in the other kingdoms no less than in Northumbria. It was in vain that Bede denounced them to his metropolitan, and that the synod of Cloveshoe attributed their origin to avarice and tyranny: they survived the censures of the monk, and the condemnation of the synod; their monastries were inhabited by their descendants; and for their extirpation the Saxon church was indebted to the devastations of the pagan Danes in the succeeding century. The monks were very numerous. We cannot ascertain the number which belonged to

Lindisfarn; but at Weremouth and Jarrow they amounted to six hundred. Of these the greater part were employed in agriculture and the arts, and but few were permitted to study the sciences, or aspire to holy orders.*

Bede calls Lindisfarn a semi-island, being, as he justly observes, twice an island and twice continent in one day; for, at the flowing of the tide, it is encompassed by water; and, at the ebb, there is an almost dry passage, both for horses and carriages, to and from the main land; from which, if measured in a straight line, it is distant about two miles eastward; but on account of some quicksands, passengers are obliged to make so many detours, that the length of the way is nearly doubled. The water over these flats, at spring tides, is only seven feet. The island measures from east to west about two miles and a quarter; and its breadth, from north to south, is scarcely a mile and a half. At the north-west part there runs out a spit of land, of about a mile in length. This isle contains about 1000 acres, the half of which, situated to the north, is deemed incapable of improvement, being sand hills, affording little vegetation, but bent: this part, as a rabbit warren, affords a considerable revenue to the proprietor. Such parts as are exposed to the violence of the tempests from the north-east, are subject to be covered with floods of sand, which is frequently swept by the winds to a considerable distance from the shore. The land chiefly consists of one continued plain, inclining to the south-west, which was occupied as a stinted common; but by an enclosure, effected in 1792, the value is prodigiously increased. There is a lake of about seven acres extent upon this interesting isle. The ground on which the village stands rises swiftly from the shore: at the southern point is a rock of a conical figure, and almost perpendicular; in height, near 60 feet, having on its lofty crown a small fortress or castle, which makes at once a grotesque and formidable appearance. There are four caves, or coves, as they are called, which lie north-north-east from the village. The largest is upwards of 50 feet long. The entrance is just large enough to admit a man. The rock, above this, rises to the height of 40 feet.

This island contains 100 houses; and there are seven inns or public houses in the village, some of them very convenient and respectable. Most of the inhabitants are fishermen. The shore is, in many parts, excellent for bathing, and the situation is at once healthy and romantic: it has, therefore, of late years, become a place of great resort, and is much praised for the beauties that grace its solemn walks. The new houses, which have been recently erected, give to the whole place a neat and comfortable appearance. The north and east coasts of the island are formed of perpendicular rocks; the other sides sink by gradual declinations towards the sands. The fishermen, in the winter season, are employed in catching lobsters, which are sent to the London market. Great quantities of cod, ling, and haddocks are also taken, with which the coast abounds.

On the north part of the island there is abundance of limestone, and a small seam of coal, never much worked, on account of the water, and other difficulties. There is plenty of iron ore in a bed of black shiver or slate; among which are the Entrochi, or St. Cuthbert's beads, as the superstitious have called

* The state of religion in Northumberland, during this period, is ably illustrated in Lingard's Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

them.* The Carron company formerly procured iron ore here; but their men were obliged to work at the ebbing of the tide, as the ore lies within high water mark. Great remains of the old abbey are standing; nothing but confused ruins shew where the monastic buildings stood, the walls having been robbed for building parts of the village, and for the erection of the present parochial church. Some authors have alleged, that the monastry was built by St. Cuthbert, of a humble model, without ornament, and inclosed with a high wall, in order that outward objects might not draw the attention of the recluse from divine contemplations. The ancient church was in the form of a cross, the body and chancel of which are yet standing, the other parts greatly ruined, and in some places level with the ground. The order of building in this structure is rude and heavy, and most of it in the worst mode of the early Saxon architecture. Mr. Grose says, it probably was the work of different periods; great part of it seems very ancient, the arches being circular, and the columns very massy, and much like those at Durham, but richer. On the north and south walls there are pointed arches, which prove that that part of it, at least, was built since the reign of Henry II. It is evident that the square tower, or steeple, has been erected long after the first building of the church, as well as several other parts. The pillars, on which the arches rise in the centre of the cross, are clustered and plain capitalled, each forming a corner of the great tower; those arches are of few members. There are side aisles, the columns of which are heavy, and the arches semicircular. Where the arches are pointed, the stones are little injured by time; when the arches are semicircular, the stones are much decayed. The windows are narrow, and ornamented with a corner pilaster, and a moulding of few members: the walls are very thick, and every part displays a gloomy and sombre appearance. The south wall of the middle tower is standing, and is about 50 feet in height; and one corner tower at the west end of the church remains perfect. "These ruins," says Hutchinson, in his View of Northumberland, "retain at this day one most singular beauty: the tower has not formed a lantern, as in most cathedrals; but from the angles arches sprang, crossing each other diagonally, to form a canopy roof. One of those arches yet remains, unloaded with any superstructure, supported by the south-east and north-west corner pillars, and ornamented with the dancette or zig-zag moulding, much used in old Saxon architecture, extending a fine bow over the chasm and heap of ruins occasioned by the falling in of the aisles. The whole structure is composed of a soft red freestone, which yields much to time, and renders the aspect of the building dark and

* It seems that the saint still retains an affection for his old residence at Lindisfarn, as, according to the vulgar belief, he often comes thither in the night, and sitting on a certain rock, uses another as his anvil, on which he forges his beads. This tradition is interwoven by Sir Walter Scott with the fable of his Marmion, "But fain St. Hilda's nuns would learn,

If, on a rock, by Lindisfarn,

St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame

The sea-born beads that bear his name;
Such tales had Whitby's fishers told,
And said they might his shape behold
And hear his anvil sound;

A deaden'd clang-a huge dim form

Seen but, and heard, when gathering storm

And night were closing round.
But this, as tale of idle fame,
The nuns of Lindisfarn disclaim."

Canto II. Stanza 16.

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