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A FRISIAN CHRONICLER'S ACCOUNT OF THE ABBEY OF RIPON. 243

16th Regiment Grenadier, 1805, supporter of Prevost (Bart.).

73rd Foot, supporter of Rosmore (Bart.). 92nd Highlanders, 1881, supporter of Roberts (Bart.).

The uniform of a trooper in the Northants Yeomanry Cavalry of 1797 is shown as one of the supporters of Lord Lilford, and an officer of the Queen's Royal American Rangers of 1764, in the arms of James Hopkins, of Maryland, of that date.

For the navy, Lord Aylmer shows the costume of a sailor, temp. George I.; Lord Hotham the same, in 1797; Lord Nelson in 1801; and the present date is given in one of the supporters of Lord Alcester.

The above lists might be added to largely, but I think I have given enough examples to show that our heraldry has more to study in it than the mere collection of curious or fabulous beasts and figures, which are all that attract the eye of the careless observer.

A Frisian Chronicler's Account of the Abbey of Ripon.

By Rev. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.R.H.S.

HE Dutch ecclesiastical historians love to record their grateful remembrance of the labours of the earnest and persevering Englishmen who left our shores in the seventh century to convert the heathen Frisians and Bavarians to Christianity, and who succeeded in planting the Cross amid the dreary wastes and forests of the Netherlands. The names of Wilfrid, Willibrord, Egbert, Boniface, Adelbert, and other devout Saxon missionaries are esteemed and venerated, and the monastery which sent forth these early preachers is regarded with grateful reverence.

In the year 1650, F. Willibrode Bosschaerts, canon of Antwerp, wrote a history of the conversion of Frisia, entitled "Diatribai de Primis veteris Frisiæ Apostolis," published at Mechlin; and this volume contains an interesting account of the monastery at Ripon, from which these early missionaries came to the shores of Holland. Although Bede and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers

have told the story of Ripon Abbey, yet some additional information may be gathered from this Frisian writer's narrative, of which the following is a translation:

errors.

*

DE RIPENSI MONASTERIO.

He

"Ripas" (or "Inripum") is a place in Northumbria where the Scotch monks had a monastery, who observed the feast of Easter in the unorthodox fashion, with such pertinacity that they preferred to leave their abode than to allow themselves to correct their After their departure the place was assigned by Alfrid, the son of Oswy, King of Northumbria, to Bishop Wilfrid, who had been saved from the fury of Bathilda, Queen of the Gauls, and had taken refuge in England about the year of our Lord 660. entirely rebuilt the monastery upon which the nobles bestowed magnificent gifts. Wilfrid was ordained priest and abbot.† He was afterwards raised to the see of York, and wonderfully added to the monastic buildings, erecting a new church, with a marvellous span of arches, a flooring of stones, and windings of porticos (porticuum aufractu). The German kings, Egfrid and Elwin, who were invited to the consecration, endowed the monastery with great gifts.

After some time, when Wilfrid had been expelled from the Bishopric of York, King Alfrid, having become hostile, robbed the monastery at Ripon of its possessions, and was thinking of placing a bishop there, when just before Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, had constituted it an episcopal seat S But the see of Ripon did not last a long time, although the monastery continued. To what order this monastery belonged, I am unable to speak with certainty; but it is probable that the monks inhabiting it, either

* Compare Bede, Book III., chap. xxv. Ægilbert, a foreign bishop who was visiting the Northumbrian Court, ordained Wilfrid.

This account is evidently taken from William of Malmesbury. It must have been one of the most stately structures in the island. Wilfrid brought masons from Italy, and Eddius gives a good descrip. tion of the noble buildings.

§ Eadhead, Bishop of Sidnacester, was made Bishop of Ripon. Cf. Bede.

This brief statement covers a long history of the stormy events of Wilfrid's chequered life. Eddius, in his "Life of St. Wilfrid," fully describes the details of his hero's expulsion and restoration.

in the first foundation or subsequently, were attached to (militâsse) the rule of S. Benedict, since Wilfrid is said to have been the first who ordered the Rule of S. Benedict to be observed by monks, ie., the monks of Northumbria. It is to be believed, therefore, that this same rule was in force in the monastery which he himself had founded. Whether, speaking accurately, we ought to call them Benedictines, it cannot be determined; for it is possible that he admitted monks from other Northumbrian monasteries, and afterwards introduced amongst them the Benedictine Rule. For it is certain that other monks who were not Benedictines have revered, and do revere, the Rule of S. Benedict such as the Cistercians, the monks of Clugny, etc., who are not Benedictines in name.

As the founder suffered various vicissitudes, so did his monastery, both from the intestine Anglo-Saxon wars and from the Danes who, from the year 787, infested Britain for many years; and frequently it was deprived of its possessions by the iniquity of the kings of Northumbria. In 692 it was taken from Wilfrid by his enemy Alfrid, the Northumbrian king, after whose death it was restored to Wilfrid in 705 A.D. In 708 or 709,* the body of S. Wilfrid, who had died, was carried hither, and buried with great reverence.

The following facts about this monastery are recorded in the first part of the annals of Roger de Hoveden:

A.D. 786. Bothwine,† Abbot of Ripon, in the sight of the brethren standing around, passed away into the heavenly fatherland, and in his place Albert was elected and ordained.

A.D. 787. Albert died, and Sigred succeeded him.

A.D. 790. Eardulf, a nobleman, was taken and brought to Ripon, having been slain near the gate of the church by King Ethelred. The brethren carried his body to the church accompanied by Gregorian harmonies, and after midnight he was found alive in the church. +

A.D. 948. Edred, King of the Angles, * This date is erroneous; Wilfrid died at Oundle, in Northamptonshire, October 12, 711 A.D.

+ The successor of Wilfrid was Tylbert (cf. "Vita Oswaldi," by Eadmer), and Bothwine succeeded him. He afterwards became King of Northumbria.

which devastation the monastery was burnt devastated the whole of Northumbria, in by fire.

to be inhabited; but not long afterwards it Nevertheless, it was repaired and continued was almost completely destroyed by the Danes. After this destruction it does not seem to have revived, for it disappears from the pages of history. Malmesbury states in English priests (Bk. I.), that about the year his book concerning the achievements of the 956 Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, went to Northumbria to carry away the sacred ashes land; that he was grieved to see the church of the saints, formerly so plentiful in that of the most illustrious Wilfrid at Ripon completely destroyed by the Danes, and when the ruins were removed from the tomb, he Canterbury. reverently transferred the relics of Wilfrid to

These facts are recorded in gratitude to S. Wilfrid, who preached Christ to the Frisians before Willibrord, and who was the Willibrord, a pupil of the same monastery, abbot and founder of Ripon, and indeed of holiness, learning, and Apostleship. In this where he received the first foundations of place

"He was like a tree planted by the waterside which Sirius could not scorch by extreme heat, nor winter wither; but flourishing with that never fall, it soothes the happy labourer luxuriant growth and beautiful with flowers and the lord destitute of alluring hope."

antiquities of Germania Inferior, recently In this monastery the author of the published in our language, asserts that the ascetic Werenfrid, the fellow Apostle of S. Willibrord, lived. It is therefore right that the monastery of Ripon should be held in grateful remembrance by the Frisians.

It may be interesting to add a few further details to the account of our Frisian chronicler. King Athelstan granted valuable immunities to the monastery of Ripon, and the two charters granted by that monarch are printed which is expressed in a curious rhyming in Dugdale's Monasticon. By one of these, form, the privilege of sanctuary was granted to the church.

On ilke side the Kyrke a mile
For all ill deedes and yeke agyle

And within yair Kyrke gate

At ye stan yat grithstole hate
Within ye Kirke dore and ya quare
Yair have pees for les and mare
Ilk an of yis stedes sal have pees
Of Frodmortel and ils deeds
Yat yair don is, etc.

Walbran, the Yorkshire antiquary, states that in the thirteenth century this place of refuge was marked by eight crosses surrounding the church, where the Archbishop of York claimed that his bailiffs had the right to meet the homicide who should flee thither; and, after administering the necessary oath, to admit him within the privileged jurisdiction. Even as late as 1539 the privilege of sanctuary was claimed. Eddius states that the old monastic church possessed a splendid library of books, with covers adorned with gold and jewels, and a beautiful copy of the Gospels superbly illuminated. This was one of the earliest and richest libraries in the kingdom. It is terrible to think of the inexpressible loss which the world sustained by the ruthless destruction of the precious treasures of literary wealth contained in the old monastic libraries of England. Ripon Abbey had a brief and chequered history, but it produced men who by their devoted lives have left their mark; it was the great "missionary college" of the past, and it is gratifying to find that its work is not forgotten by the historians of other lands.

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Mr. Boyle does not attempt in these pages any exhaustive or even general history of either Newcastle or Gateshead, but the book bears throughout marks of original research and of the most patient examination of the buildings described. So long as the archives of the corporation remain closed to inquirers, a thorough history of Newcastle is an impossibility. The book assumes the form of a collection of independent chapters arranged after a somewhat capricious fashion, but perhaps all the more charming from its very singularity, especially as a good index enables the reader at once to find any desired description or information.

Let us take a brief saunter through these pleasant pages, so that the readers of the Antiquary may be enabled to form a cursory idea of their contents. The volume opens

with an account of the Sides quaintest or streets with strangest of names, abounding in delightful half-timbered projecting houses, drawn with much fascination by Mr. Knowles.

The classic ground of the Sandhill next comes under notice. It is rich in historic associations. In the fourteenth century it was the playground of the inhabitants of Newcastle, Richard II. issuing a proclamation requiring the removal of all merchandise from "a certain commonplace called Sandhill," in order that the people's sports might not be hindered; on the morrow of the defeat of the English at Otterburne, 1388, ten thousand men assembled on Sandhill and marched to the battlefield, led by the Bishop of Durham; in 1464, Lords Hungerford, Ros, Molins, Findern, and others, prisoners from the Battle of Hexham, were beheaded on the Sandhill; in later days it became the bull-ring of Newcastle. The Guildhall, which was completed in 1658. great feature, however, of the Sandhill is the In the city treasurer's office may be seen the town hutch, in which the town's money was formerly kept. This interesting old chest, sometimes assigned to a fabulous antiquity, bears the date 1716 on the centre lock, but we believe that the chest itself and the riveted bands are certainly older than this lock. It is divided by a wooden partition into two compartments, each having its own lid. The front compartment was intended

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Sandgate, which used to be one of the chief thoroughfares of Newcastle, has lost its glory, and is now "from end to end a rookery of poverty." A beautiful illustration of a large, half-timbered, three-gabled building, bearing the sign of the Jack Tar, is given on page 90, but it is now taken down.

The great church of St. Nicholas, now the cathedral church of the new diocese of Newcastle, is worthily treated both by pen and pencil. The exquisitely-finished lofty fontcover is, to our mind, the gem of the church.

lighted with Mr. Knowles's plate of part of this stairway, wherein its diagonal arrangement is so effectively treated.

The ruined chapel of Jesmond Dene, popularly known as King John's Palace, is briefly treated. St. Mary's Church, Gateshead, with its good stall-ends of late seventeenth-century date, is well described. Percy Street and the Keelmen's Hospital follow, and then comes a longer account of St. John's Church, Newcastle. The oak pulpit, of Jacobean date, is richly and effectively carved, but derives its chief interest from its unnusual if not unique shape.

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Pilgrim Street, that bore that name at least as early as the thirteenth century, was the residence of the aristocracy of Newcastle in the first half of last century. There are still not a few remains of its former magnificence. The houses now numbered 177 to 183 formerly composed a splendid mansion.

It is worth a visit to Newcastle from the very south of the kingdom, if only to see the broad panelled staircase and massive rail with spiral balusters of No. 181, or if a visit cannot be made, no lover of English domestic architecture can fail to be de

The Quay Side, Silver Street, Pandon, Black Friars, and Trinity House, and various details of old Gateshead, follow in detailed succession; but space forbids us even to name aught of interest. The history of St. Andrew's Church, with its late Norman chancel arch, is given in brief; it has suffered most grievously from two of those attacks termed restoration, one in 1844, and another in 1866. The Tuthill Stairs, Jesus Hospital, Akenside Hill, Dog Bank, St. Mary's Chapel, Jesmond, the hospitals of Gateshead, and St. Laurence's Chapel are all brought pleasantly before the

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