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FOREST AND HILLSIDE HERMITS
Chapter Two in Rotha Mary Clay's The Hermits and Anchorites of England.

Confused?  See my article What are Anchorites?

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FOREST AND HILLSIDE HERMITS
Clay, Rotha Mary., The Hermits and Anchorites of England. Methuen & Co., London. 1914. 

 

 

II.  FOREST AND HILLSIDE HERMITS

 

A little lowly hermitage it was,
Down in a dale hard by a forest’s side.
                        -SPENSER, Faerie Queene

 

The densely wooded wilderness or hidden cave of the mainland afforded seclusion almost as complete as that of the sea-girt sanctuary.   Celtic recluses in particular seem to have loved the depths of the forest.  Several of these have left their memory in Somerset.  The village of Keynsham, for example, is supposed to derive its name from the Welsh princess Ceneu or Keyne, who is believed to have lived the contemplative life in those parts ; whilst Congresbury and St. Decumans are associated with Cungar and Degeman.  The watery, woody spot where Cungar—otherwise called Docwin—settled in the days of Ina, King of Wessex, became under his care flowery meadows ; so cultivated, indeed, did the Congresbury valley become that the holy man crossed the Severn to seek a more fit hiding-place in the wilds of Glamorganshire.  Crossing the Severn Sea—the hermits’ highway—the Welsh prince Degeman disembarked from his rude raft in the neighourhood of Dunster.  The tract between Exmoor forest and the Quantocks, with its high hills and deep ravines, was densely wooded.  There he dwelt for many years, subsisting upon herbs and roots, and he was martyred at a spot afterwards known as St. Decuman’s Well.

Another hermit-martyr was Alnoth, a herdsman of St. Werburg, who, winning favour by his faithfulness, was released from serfdom, and became a solitary. :—

This foresayd Alnotus by synguler grace
Refused this worlde pleasures and vanyte
Went unto wyldernesse and machoryte was
Whome theues martyred to heuen blysse went he
At Stow beside Bukbrydge buryed was trule.

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            The place of his murder was Stow Wood in Bugbrooke, near Weedon.1

St. Werstan
[Illustration: Fig. 2.—St. Werstan.]
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The Saxon saints included prince as well as serf.  After the martyrdom of St. Edmund the people desired to make his 

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brother Edwold king in his stead.  From his youth up Edwold 

Hermitt Malvern
[Illustration: Fig. 3.—The Hermit-Martyr of Malvern.]
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had given himself to the exercises of religion, and had earnestly longed to retire into the wilderness.  It was revealed to him 

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that he should depart from East Anglia and travel far until he should reach a fountain called “the silver well”.  After traversing many shires Edwold reached Dorset, where on a hillside, some four miles west of Cerne, he found the spring and built his hut.  The spot which he sought was indicated to him by a shepherd, who afterwards supplied him with milk and bread, and received from the solitary in return silver pennies.  When St. Edwold died, he was buried in his cell, but his body was eventually translated [ceremonially moved] to Cerne.

Of the martyr-monk of the Malvern Hills little is known.  Leland notes that near the priory stood the chapel of St. John Baptist, were St. Werstan suffered martyrdom.  Within the priory church is a series of painted glass windows (c. 1460), which depict a part of his story.  On the flower-covered hill kneels the hermit.  Above is seen a vision of angels, apparently indicating the spot where he should build his hermitage.  In the next window (Fig. 2) angels are represented as assisting in the consecration of the oratory.  In the third compartment a figure of St. Edward the Confessor is introduced, which suggests that he was in some way Werstan’s benefactor or protector.  The last subject (Fig. 3) is the death of the saint, whose head is being struck off at the window of his cell.2

William of Malmesbury tells of another solitary who dwelt “in that vast wilderness which is called Malvern”.  Aldwin lived with a fellow-hermit named Guy, and he was minded to accompany Guy on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  He sought counsel, however, of Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester (1062-1095), who urged him to stay at Malvern, foreseeing that a great work lay before him.  Aldwin therefore remained, and he lived to see the establishment through his influence of the priory at Great Malvern.  An inquisition entered in Bishop Giffard’s Register (1268) states that in the time of Edward the Confessor or earlier, Aldwin lived in a wood granted to him by Hudde, Earl of Gloucester, where now stood the priory.  The foundation is elsewhere attributed to Urso d’Abytot.3

Early in the twelfth century a group of fen and forest re-

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cluses were dwelling miles apart in the counties of Huntingdon, Bedford, and Hertford, whose lives were interwoven in a singular manner.  Edwin lived on the island of Higney, near Ramsey.  He surrounded his hermitage by a dyke, over which there was a drawbridge.  When he endeavoured to make an outer dyke—because, for some unknown reason, certain shepherds of the neighbourhood endeavoured to burn down his hut, but failed in the attempt—the men of Saltrey succeeded in hindering him, and indeed drove him away ; but after a while he retuned and made himself secure.

The assistance of Edwin, probably the hermit of Higney, was sought in time of distress by Theodora (afterwards called Christina), the young daughter of a certain Autie of Huntingdon, and Beatrix his wife.  Although vowed to maidenhood, she had been forced into marriage by her parents, and cruelly persecuted :— 

“She had noe means to free herself but by flight : being ascisted by one Edwine an Erimite, who procured her a horss, and a boye to Convaye her, to one Alfwina an Anchorisse of Flamsteed . . . ; from thence she went to one Roger a holie Ermitt, whoe lived in a desert not farr from Dunstable.” 

Roger’s hermitage was situated “by the wayside on the right hand as you go from St. Albans to Dunstable, hard by the village which in these days is called Markyate”—a spot to which he was said to have been led by the ministry of angels on his return from pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Christina was destined to become the devoted disciple of Roger, but family claims and church order had first to be satisfied :— 

“But before she came thither, Edwine, by Roger’s means, whoe refused to admitt her, imparted her case to Radulfe, Archb. of Canterburie . . . .  After this Burfred her husband together with the Preist[sic] whoe had maried them, came with others to the Ermitage of the forenamed Roger, and there in the presence of five Ermittes gave her leave, notwithstanding that which had passed, to dispose of her self as she pleased ; and Thurstane Archb. of Yorke disolving the Match with their consent, permitted him to Marrie, and shee to enter into Religion.”4

When the Archbishop of Canterbury died, Roger turned to the Archbishop of York.  As a monk of the proudly inde-

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pendent Abbey of St. Albans, he would acknowledge no allegiance to the Bishop of Lincoln ; indeed, he had himself been ordained sub-deacon by an Irish bishop, who had been called in by the abbot to perform certain rites.  Archbishop Thurstan, moreover, was a personal friend of Roger, whom he revered for his goodness.  The archbishop, wishing to speak privately with the maiden concerning her purpose, bade Roger send her to him at Redbourn.  Travelling thither with Godescal of Caddington and his wife, Christina was received by Thurstan, who, having bestowed salutary counsel upon here, sent her back to Roger :— 

“Now there was a building adjoining the oratory of the said Roger, with which it made an angle.  This [angle][sic], having a board before it, might so be concealed as to lead the outside beholder to suppose that no man was in this space . . . .   In this prison Roger placed the joyful Christina, and set for a door a proper oaken plank, which was so heavy that the anchoress could by no means move it either to or fro . . . .  If she would have had Roger come to her she must call to him or smite upon the door, and how could the hidden virgin do this, who dared not utter even half a sigh?  For she feared lest some other than Roger might be near, who at the mere sound of her breath might discover her hiding-place ; and she would rather have died in her prison than make herself known at that time to any person outside.”5 

There the recluse dwelt for over four years, enduring misery with great fortitude (chapter x.).  So did she grow in grace that the old monk cherished the hope that she should become heir to his hermitage, and it was revealed to her that it should be even so.  “At last Roger, leaving this world at the call of the God whom he served, went the way of all flesh.”

Hearing of Roger’s death, Thurstan sent for Christina, treated her with great kindness, and offered to provide for her.  “After this, she havyng Choyce of sundrie places, preferred Sainct Albons, where she had vowed virginitie, and where her deare frind Roger laye buried : and Alexander Bishop of Lincolne vailing her, she lived under the obedience of the Abbott of St. Albons as Roger before had done.”

It is noteworthy that no less than two archbishops, three

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bishops, two mitred abbots, and a pope are concerned in the life story of this young recluse.   Her case is committed by one friend to Ralph d’Escures, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1122), and by another to Thurstan, Archbishop of York (d. 1140) ; she is persecuted by Ralph Flambard, the wicked Bishop of Durham (d. 1128) :  Robert Bloet of Lincoln (d. 1123) is amongst her detractors, but she receives the veil from his successor, Alexander.  She becomes the counsellor of the powerful Abbot Geoffrey, who appoints her first prioress of Markyate ; whilst Abbot Robert uses her as an instrument in his dealings with the English Pope, Adrian IV, whose favour he won by the gift of three mitres and a pair of sandals exquisitely embroidered by Christina.  Lastly, Henry II makes a grant for her support, fifty shillings a year being paid out of the exchequer (1155) “in corn [grain] which the king gives to Lady Christina of the Wood.”6

Nor was Christina the only woman in that neighbourhood who lived thus in seclusion.  In a wood close to St. Albans two holy women made a wattled hut of boughs and twigs and logs covered with bark.  They lived “in wonderful abstinence” for some years, until Abbot Geoffrey, who approved the lives of these recluses, added to their number, and the settlement at Eywood became Sopwell Nunnery.  In one charter it is stated that this cellula was rebuilt by Roger.

Sigar, another monk of St. Albans, dwelt at Northaw.  In that richly-wooded part of Hertfordshire nightingales abounded, and their chorus disturbed the hermit’s devotion.  He, therefore, made supplication that they might be removed “lest he might seem to rejoice rather in the warbling of birds that in the worship whereunto he was bound before God”.  John Amundesham declares that in his own day nightingales not only never presumed to sing, but never appeared within a mile of the hermitage.  Sigar was wont to walk every night to St. Albans in time for matins.  He was buried in the abbey in the same tomb as “St. Roger” (see p. 113).

A northern hermit now arose to fame.  Godric of Finchael dwelt in various waste places before he finally settled down beside the river Wear.  In his youth he followed successively

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The callings of sailor, trader, and household steward.  The first longing to embrace the solitary life came to him as the result of a visit to Farne, although he did not at once become a follower of St. Cuthbert, but went on pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella in Spain, to the hermitage of St. Giles in France, and to Rome.  When he resolved to make the journey to Rome a second time, he was accompanied by his mother.  The pilgrims set out on foot, and when they came to ford or ditch Godric carried Aedwen on his back.  Beyond London there met them in the way a lovely maiden, who asked permission to join in their pilgrimage.  They readily assented, and hence-forth she served them with grace and diligence.  They knew not who she was or whence she came, and none of the company save themselves saw the mysterious maiden.  When they were returning, and had reached the place where they had first met, she bade farewell with words of benediction.

After Godric had restored his mother in safety to his father’s protection and had received their blessing, he sold all that he had and made his way to Carlisle, where, in the neighbouring forest of Inglewood, he searched for the empty den of some wild beast.  Desiring to follow the example of John Baptist in the wilderness, he lived on herbs and wild honey, with acorns, nuts, and crab-apples.  He slept upon the bare ground, and, rising at daybreak, went forth to gather food, falling on his knees in prayer every few paces.  Godric then became the disciple of an aged hermit at Wolsingham in Weardale (p. 128).  After Aelric’s death, the wanderer went off a second time to the Holy Land.  There he worshipped at the sacred Sepulchre, and bathed in the Jordan ; and whilst staying in Jerusalem he ministered to his fellow-pilgrims in staying in St. John’s hospital.  The attraction of the solitary life was irresistible, and he went to see the hermits dwelling in the subterranean caves of the Judean deserts.

On Godric’s return to England, he found a secret place in the forest near Whitby, and for over a year dwelt in a turf-covered log hut in Eskdale.  He at length discovered, in the forest north of Durham, the unknown valley of Finchale, where St. Cuthbert in a vision had bidden him ultimately settle ; whereupon he made a cave in the earth near the bank of the river Wear.  Possibly this was the place still called

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St. Godric
[Plate VI:  St. Godric of Finchale]
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”St. Godric’s Garth,” in the lower whin-covered open ground nearly a mile above Finchale.  The hermit afterwards betook himself to a more favourable spot, “well fitted both by situation and view for habitation”.  It was a level plot at the bend of the Wear, sheltered by the rushing river, with its steep, rocky, densely wooded banks.  During a part of this sojourn it became an island, encircled by the flood which rose so high on one occasion that he was nearly swept away.  He encountered many perils.  He was once bound and all but killed by marauding Scots, who broke into his cell in the hope of securing treasure.  He would have been in danger from the beasts of the forest, had he not possessed that mysterious power over the lower creation which had been attributed to many saints, and especially to those of the desert.  Upon his arrival at Finchale (which was the bishop’s hunting-ground), a wolf rushed at him as though it would tear him to pieces.  He made the sign of the cross and adjured the creature to depart, whereupon it crouched at his feet as if begging pardon.  “The number of serpents was fearful, but they were all tame towards the man of God”.  Sometimes, as he sat by the fire, they would coil themselves round his legs, or settle in his dish.  They so multiplied, however, that they hindered his devotions, and he bade them enter no more.  The picturesque legends describe Godric as a gentle companion, but firm master, of the wild creatures, forbidding the stag to touch his trees, or the leveret his herbs.  He was the protector of beasts pursued in the chase ; he delivered birds from the snare of the fowler ; he nursed back to life little animals which were half-dead through the severity of the northern winter

The legend round the figure of Goderyke heremit, depicted in Plate VI, runs thus :— 

In wasterne and in wildernes . whare nane wont bot wilde
I went and in halines . a heremitage i plylde
The fendes with faindinges of my flesche . fayne walde me haue filede
Bot gode his grace to me gune dres . elles hade i bene gilde.7 

There are two graphic descriptions of Brother Godric, one

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recalling his strength in the prime of life, the other portraying him in the grace and dignity of advanced years :— 

“He was a man earnest in spirit and fond of work, in body vigorous, of undiminished strength, moderate in stature, having broad shoulders, a wide chest, a long face, eyes grey and brilliantly flashing, thick eyebrows, a broad forehead, wide nostrils, a well-shaped hooked nose, a narrow chin, with a beard thick and rather long, a comely mouth, lips moderately full, the hair of his head and of his beard black in his younger days, but in old age of a hoary whiteness.  His neck was short and thick with full lines of sinews and veins ; shins moderately thick, feet with good insteps, knees thickened and hard through his often kneelings ; the skin of his body was very rough, but in old age all that roughness was turned to softness.”8 

This stalwart, steadfast solitary remained at Finchale for sixty years.  His extraordinary asceticism seemed only to harden him ; but at length he was conquered by infirmity, and was stricken with disease.  The last stage of life is thus described by an eye-witness, William of Newborough :—

“When then he had lived to a feeble old age, he lay for a few years before his death in great weakness of body, and for a long time preserved some measure of life in his perishing body by small draughts of milk.  In those days, I was privileged to see him and to speak with him as he lay in his own oratory near the high altar.  When then he appeared to be in his body under the shadow of death, he never the less spoke readily enough those words which were often on his lips : ‘In the Name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost,’ repeating them over and over again.  In his countenance, moreover, there appeared a certain dignity and beauty unknown before.  Thus he passed away, old and full of days, and his body now occupies the very spot of ground in which he was one to lie prostrate in prayer or in sickness.”9  

St. Godric died on 21 May, 1170.  The grave which he had himself prepared became the resort of thousands of pilgrims.  The priory of Finchale (Plate VII) grew up round the shrine, where many miracles of healing were wrought. 

Not infrequently, as in the case of Finchale, the cell developed into a monastery.  It happened that Ralph Aldlave, chaplain of Henry I, fell ill at Pontefract.  Going one day

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Finchale
[Plate VII L: Finchale]
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into the woods on his recovery, he found there certain men living in seclusion—probably Gilbert, hermit of St. James, Nostell and his brethren, mentioned in an early charter.  Aldave (or Adelwold) became the first prior of the community of St. Oswald’s.10  Radmore, in the royal chase of Cannock, was granted to Clement and Hervey ; but finding the foresters troublesome, the hermits removed to Stoneleigh where they built a priory.   Beaulieu Priory grew out of the hermitage of Moddry Wood, once tenanted by Ralph de Neurs, a monk of Lichfield. 

Many monasteries sent forth monks to inhabit desolate parts of their territory.  Whitby Abbey appointed monks to lonely outposts at Goathland, Eskdaleside, Saltburn, and Mulgrave.  About the year 1220 there was a hermit at Shap in Westmoreland, probably a brother from the abbey, who received by the will of Agnes de Clifford one mark.

In the Cumberland forest of Inglewood there were hermitages at Sebergham and Ilekirk.  That of St. Hilda at Hekirk was held by Roger Goky, and was afterwards granted by royal charter to Holme Cultram Abbey.  In 1223 the abbot himself, Adam de Kendal, returned thither.  He had become insane after the failure of ambitious schemes, and dwelt there until his death under the care of the monk Ralph.11

There were cells also in Charnwood Forest.  Charley Hall, with the field called Priests’ Close, occupies the site of St. Mary’s hermitage.  It was at one time under Luffield Priory, but the Earl of Winchester became patron both of Charley and Ulverscroft.  The hermitage of Ulverscroft developed into an abbey.  That of Haliwell Haw was under Garendon Abbey.

Several solitaries dwelt in the forests of Wychwood and Brill.  The king, as lord of the forest, was usually the original patron of the cells but in course of time they were placed under religious houses : Loughborough (“Lovebyri” or Low Barrow, near Leafield) was granted to Lechlade, Lockeslegh to Deerhurst, Muswell to Missenden, and Brill to Chetwode.  The foregoing were actual hermitages, but the word was occasionally given to semi-parochial chapels served by secular

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priests.  Thus Chetwode had a so-called “hermitage” (distinct from that of Brill), founded by Robert, lord of Chetwode.  Lord Ralph nominated to it a chaplain, who was “canonically instituted therein as perpetual guardian with the duty of a vicarage”.   Bishop Grosseteste enters in his register the following illuminating memorandum : “This place is commonly called by lay people a hermitage, on account of its loneliness, not because any hermit at any time was accustomed to dwell there, but a chaplain serves there, after the manner of a secular, and is bound to live there with a suitable household”.

In the Forest of Dean there were cells at Ardland, St. Briavels, and Taynton.  Ardland, or Ertlond, seems to have been between Cinderford and Newnham-on-Severn.  Henry II gave this place to a certain William the hermit, who afterwards, in the days of Richard I, entered stricter seclusion at that chapel.  He was taken under the protection of the Abbot of Faxley, who promised him food and clothing.  In 1225 Panye de Lench became a recluse at Ardland, and was granted by Henry III four acres of land and also two oaks for the construction of her dwelling.

The hermitage of St. Briavels is mentioned early in the twelfth century.  It was afterwards granted by Henry III to Grace Dieu Abbey (Monmouthshire), on condition that three priests should celebrate there for the souls of his ancestors.  The wildness of the spot is shown by the fact that, as late as 1361, the chantry was removed to the abbey on account of the depredations of the beasts of the forest.  There are said to be traces of the chapel at Stowe Grange.

Whilst the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were preeminently the period of the solitary, there were throughout the fourteenth century some retreats in wood and wilderness.  In 1323, for example, there was a hermit at Dalby in Pickering Forest.  Again, the chapel of Losfield in Clewer (now called St. Leonard’s Hill), which had been occupied by a certain William the hermit in Henry III’s time, was afterwards inhabited by a succession of solitary priests.  In 1355 it was held by another William, and seems, from the following petition, to have been a place of pilgrimage :—

“Whereas William the hermit, chaplain of St. Leonard, Loffield, in Windsor forest, lives a solitary life, and serve God alone, and 

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Forest Hermit
[Plate VIII : A Forest Hermit]
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whereas a multitude of people flock to the chapel, the pope is prayed to grant an indulgence to those who visit the said chapel . . . and give alms to the fabric.” 12

In the same year there was, as formerly, a hermit living on the slopes of the Wrekin.  The first tenant of this cell on Mons Gilberti was Nicholas de Denton, a clerk, who received a piece of land from Shrewsbury Abbey.  The king granted him another plot for an oratory, and also contributed six quarters of corn every year in order to give him greater leisure for holy exercises, and to support him so long as he should be a hermit on the mountain.

The woods and hills of Somerset and Dorset had their solitaries.  In 1317 a chaplain was instituted to the hermitage in Rechych or Neroche Forest.  At Winscombe on the Mendips there was a hermit at the place commonly called Iocus S. Romani (1331).  Polden Hill had a cell made for herself by the chapel of St. Thomas by a woman named Elneva.  In 1505 John the hermit of St. Thomas super Powldon received 4d. as the bequest of a neighbour at Cossington.  The chapel in the forest near Wimborne was inhabited in 1395, when Lady Alice West bequeathed 40s. “to the Reclus frere[friar] Thomas atte seynt Iames in the Holte”.

A succession of chaplains dwelt at Clipston in the royal forest of Sherwood.  To one of these King John aid 40s. a year, and Henry III continued the grant to one Benedict, hermit of St. Edwin at Birkland.  Priests were instituted to this chantry throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  The sixteenth-century commissioners reported that “itt hathe no mancyon butt a parlor under the chappell of no valewe”.

Turning from history to romance, Sherwood is the scene of the exploits of the hermit-poacher who unwittingly entertained his king.  It befell in good King Edward’s days—so runs the popular minstrel’s tale of the fourteenth century13—that the king went a-hunting.  Towards eventide he missed his way, and espying a hermitage, asked harbour.  The inmate replied that it was but a poor place, yet since it was far from the town he consented to receive the stranger.  “I dwell here 

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among wild beasts in the wilderness, living upon roots and rinds,” says the solitary.  “Did I dwell in this forest, exclaims the other, “when the foresters were asleep, then would I castoff my habit and stalk deer, to glad me and my guest—for the king needs not the venison !”  The man replies piously that his work is not archery, but prayer and penance ; as for himself, he eats no meat.  He sets before the king bread and cheese and thin ale.  After a while the hungry huntsman discovers that the cell can produce not only white bread, but collops of deer’s flesh.  “Wyllym Alyn,” the serving-lad, goes out to feed the horse, and when host and guest are left alone, they make merry over a pot of wine.  The huntsman admires the kill and strength that can bend such a bow as hangs over the bed, and invites the hermit to visit him in the town, adding : “Jhake Flecher, that is my name : all men knowys me at home”.  Next morning the solitary shows the stranger his way ; after leaving him the king blows his bugle, and at the blast come anxious knights and foresters who had sought him in vain.  They ride away, and the MS. breaks off before the hermit has fulfilled his promise of visiting this whilom guest.  This old tale was retold by Sir Walter Scott in “Ivanhoe,” where the Clerk of Copmanhurst entertains the Black Knight.14

Mention must also be made of the murdered monk of Eskdaleside.  In the time of Henry II, certain barons were hunting in a wood belonging to the Abbot of Whitby.  Having found a great wild boar, the hounds ran him near about the heritage of Eskdaleside, where dwelt a solitary monk of Whitby.  The boar, hotly pursued, went in at the chapel door, and there died : whereupon the hermit shut the hounds out and remained within at his meditations.  Following the cry of the hounds, the huntsmen came to the cell, where they found the boar lying dead.  In fury they rushed violently at the hermit with their boar-staves, and he died soon afterwards.  Before his death, however, the monk desired the abbot to send for those who had wounded him, and freely forgave them, but he enjoined a certain penance upon them for the salvation of their souls.

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The names and dates incorporated in the legend are not confirmed by records.  The date given is the fifth year of Henry II ; the murderers are William de Bruce and Ralph de Perci, whilst the abbot is Sedman, a name unknown in the annals of Whitby.  The cartulary of Meaux shows that about this time a hermit called Sedeman was dwelling at St. Leonard’s, near Egton, in Whitbystrand.  This cell, however, did not belong to Whitby ; it was at first in the hands of William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, and was granted by him to Meaux.15

The popular story of the monk of Whitby passed into “Marmion” :—

In wrath for loss of sylvan game
Saint Hilda’s priest ye slew.

 

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Footnotes ~

1. H. Bradshaw, Lyfe of St. Werburge (Chetham S. 1848), 101, 103.
2. Albert Way, in Archælogical Journal, II, 48-65.
3. Reg. Giffard (Worc. Hist. S.), II, 178 ; Abbrev. Placit. (Rec. Com.), 331.
4. N. Roscarrock, Life of St. Christina, in Nov. Leg. II. 532-6.
5. Gest. Abb. (Rolls, 28. IV.) I. 98-9. trans. G. G. Coulton, Mediaeval Garner, 510.
6. Pipe. R., ed. Hunter, 1844, 22.  The priory, called Holy Trinity de Bosco, was in Caddington, at Markyate,
    now Market Street.
7. B.M. Cott. Faust. B. IV, pars. ii. f. 16 b.
      wont, dwelt ; plylde, ? build ; faindinges, temptations ; filed, defiled ; the last line may be translated
      “unless God had begun to address (or direct) his grace to me, I should have been beguiled”.
8. Anon. chronicler (probably Reginald).  See Vita, 30, 31 n.
9. Hist. Rerum Angl.  (Rolls, 82), I. 150.
10. Nostell MS. in Scott. Hist. Rev. No. 26, pp. 153-4 ; cf. V.C.H. Yorks, III. 234.
11. Fordun, Scotichron., ed. Goodall, II. 12.
12. Papal Reg., Petitions, I. 270 ; Lett. III. 572.
13. W. Carew Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, II-35.
14. The cave cell of Friar Tuck is shown at Copmanhurst near Fountain Dale.
15. B. M. Cott. Vesp. E., XIX. F. 80 b ; Burton, Monast. Ebor. 78-9.

 

-end chapter two- 








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