gether at great cost of carriage, the saint himself labouring at the work, that he might render the more acceptable service to his LORD. And now they had come to the fastening together of the beams, which had been cut of the same length, except one, which set the skill of the carpenters at defiance; whether by the carelessness of those who had cut it, or, (as the relater is more disposed to believe,) by the express will of God, that the sanctity of Adhelm might be better displayed, this single beam was found too short for its position. The workmen for a long time hesitate to tell their master; for there was no provision made for such mischances, and it would have been a work of great cost to procure another beam. At length however they tell him, and he receives grace from GOD to extend the beam by a miracle to its proper length; and then in his earnestness to avoid their praises, he accuses the workmen of having played him a trick, in pretending that it was defective. And now the beam being borne aloft with the pulleys,2 the roof is completed. It was afterwards reported of this beam, that when the monastery was once and again destroyed by fire, it remained untouched,3 and at length perished only with the lapse of years.

We may here observe (and with this observation dismiss the subject,) that such miracles connected with the fabric of the church and its erection, are very common in the old legends. It really was, in those days, from the small number of churches,— as it has since become from the greatness of the population,one of the most excellent of the works of charity to build churches; and as such it would rightly be believed that it was one which the devil would most zealously oppose, and GOD

tions of the Archæological Institute,) that the words lapidei tabulatus are applied to those towers rising in stages from the perpent blocks of stone that run transversely on their four sides: to me it rather appears that the words simply signify courses of masonry.

1 We have a more tragic instance of an Abbot assisting in the labours of the masons. Reinfrid, the venerable Abbot of Whitby, about 1083, having undertaken a journey on account of

his monastery, and coming to Ormsbridge, where workmen were employed in making a bridge over the Derwent, he alighted from his horse to lend them his assistance, when a piece of timber falling accidentally upon him, it fractured his skull, so that he died soon after. Charlton's Whitby.

2 Funali machina.

3 Bede relates the same of a beam against which Bishop Aidan leaned, when he died.-Ecc. Hist. iii. 17.

most graciously assist. If this consideration induced those who were benefited by the good work to believe the miracles with which it was said to have been attended, let us not condemn their credulity without emulating their piety and thankfulness : and if we are not disposed to admit fabled wonders as proofs of the sanctity of Dunstan, Oswald or Adhelm, let us imitate, or at least reverence what was good in them, and in their deeds of charity, before we despise those who expressed their admiration somewhat absurdly.

The opposition of the great enemy to churches, did not cease with their erection, and the rage of Pagans was often stirred up to destroy the churches of the saints: but there were never wanting some to restore them to their former splendour, and very often the gift to the church would come from the most remote and unexpected sources. The restoration of the Abbey of Croyland, by TURKETUL, afterwards its Abbot, but for a long course of time a high civil officer, may be given as an instance. He is, says Lord Campbell, the first English chancellor with whom we can be said to be well acquainted. He was of illustrious birth, being the eldest son of Ethelwald, and the grandson of Alfred. He was very distinguished for learning, piety, and courage. He held the office of chancellor under Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund and Eldred, and from 920 to 948. It is related that going on a message from the King to Archbishop Wolstan, it chanced that his road lay by the Abbey of Croyland, which had been reduced to ruins in recent warfare, and now only afforded a miserable shelter to three aged monks.1 Touched by their piety and resignation, he believed himself divinely inspired with a design to enter their society, and to restore their house to its ancient splendour. For this purpose he resigned his high civil office, and like Samuel in a like case, made further proclamation that he was ready to pay all his debts, and to make three-fold restitution to any persons whom he might have injured. Every demand upon him being liberally satisfied, he resigned the office of Chancellor into the king's

I Lingard, in the twelfth chapter of his history of the Anglo-Saxon church, gives a graphic account of the ravages

of the Danes on this occasion, which overwhelmed other monasteries besides Croyland.

hands, made a testamentary disposition of his great possessions, put on the monastic cowl, was blessed by the Bishop of Dorchester, and recovered for the abbey all that it had lost in the Danish wars, endowed it with fresh wealth, was elected Abbot, and procured from the king and the Witan a confirmation of all the rights which his house had ever enjoyed, with the exception of the privilege of sanctuary, which he voluntarily renounced, on the ground that his experience as Chancellor made him consider it a violation of justice and an incentive to crime. He survived twenty-seven years, performing, in the most exemplary manner, the duties of his new station, and declaring that he was happier as Abbot of Croyland, than as Chancellor of England. He died in 975.1

It is one of the things which give a charm to the pursuits of the ecclesiologist, that some remote church, in itself insignificant, becomes interesting from some peculiarity; and this is well exemplified by the little Saxon church of Kirkdale, beautifully situated in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Over the porch of this church is a Saxon inscription, recording the destruction of a former church, most probably by the Danes, and the erection of one in the reign of Edward the Confessor, together with the name of the builder, of the engraver of the inscription, and the Priest of the church at that time :—more a great deal than we can generally learn about churches erected many centuries nearer to our own time. It is true that the inscription is not now in its original place, (if Rickman's suggestion be accepted,) but parts of the church still standing, may well be referred to the date there ascribed to it. The inscription is on a stone seven feet five, by one foot ten, built into the wall over the south porch, and containing a dial, or, as it would be called in olden times, an orologe. It runs thus, in English : "ORIN, GAMEL'S SON, BOUGHT ST. GREGORY'S MINSTER. THEN IT WAS ALL ΤΟ BROKEN AND FALLEN. CHEHITTLE AND OTHERS MADE IT NEW FROM THE GROUND, TO CHRIST AND ST. GREGORY. IN THE DAYS OF EDWARD THE KING, AND IN THE DAYS OF EARL TOSTI." Under the dial are the words, "AND HOWARD ME WROUGHT, AND BRAND THE PRIEST." There is besides a line over the dial, not so easily decyphered.

1 Lives of the Chancellors, Vol. I.

This inscription fixes the date of Kirkdale church between the years 1056 and 1065, during which time Tosti was Earl of Northumberland. Chehittle and Haward, the builder of the church and maker of the orologe, are among the very few Saxon artificers whose names are perpetuated by a visible memorial of their skill.1

We might find notices (though few, if any, so remarkable as this,) of the erection of many smaller churches during the Saxon era, but unless they were accompanied with some description, or other particulars relating to the fabric, they would add little to the interest of our inquiries. Here, then, having brought it to the reign of Edward the Confessor, and the very extreme verge of pure Saxon architecture, we shall close the history of the period; and we shall devote the next chapter to a few general remarks on the character of Anglo-Saxon churches, and on some circumstances originating in those times, which still affect the structure and arrangement of our churches.

1 See Archæologia, v. 188.

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CHAPTER V.

THE SAXON PERIOD.

GENERAL REVIEW OF ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE SAXON ERA : BRIXWORTH, GREENSTED.-CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH CONTINUED TO AFFECT CHURCHES AND THEIR STRUCTURE IN AFTER AGES:-MONACHISM. THE DIVISION OF ENGLAND INTO PARISHES :-THE INTRODUCTION OF GLASS-THE USE OF LEAD FOR ROOFS :-ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH IN PRECIOUS VESTMENTS AND ORNAMENTS:-CHURCH MUSIC :-THE ORGAN:-BELLS:-DIALS AND CLOCKS:-THE BELL-TOWER,- Burial IN CHURCHES.

WE might multiply, almost indefinitely, the accounts of churches erected during the Saxon era, but separate accounts add little to our real knowledge of the state of architecture, and the principles of church builders: we shall therefore content ourselves with a general estimate of the number of churches erected in England at the time of the Conquest, and a slight sketch of their architectural features. If we follow Mr. Churton in his calculation, (and we can hardly wish for a better guide,) we shall infer that there were probably before the Conquest about one-third the number of churches in England that there are now, (i.e. not much less than four thousand.1) "In Northamptonshire, where three of the old forests are yet left in part, and which was most thinly inhabited in Saxon times, there were at the Conquest

1 Domesday is a very uncertain guide.

"It mentions about 1700 churches, but while 222 are returned from Lincolnshire, 243 from Norfolk, 364 from Suffolk, 7 from the city of York, 84 from the county of Cambridgeshire, and none from Lancashire, Cornwall, or Middlesex: yet it cannot be doubted that all the counties which are passed over without any mention of their ecclesiastical structures, possessed them like those enumerated. This will at once raise the

number of Anglo-Saxon churches existing at the time of the Conquest, not to the extent of 45,011, mentioned by Sprott in his Chronicle, which seems incredible, but to a very considerable number, since certainly the other counties would have a proportionable amount." See a paper by Mr. Harts

horne on some anomalies observable in the earlier styles of English Architecture in the Archæological Journal of the early and middle ages. No. 12, December, 1846.