flows onward to the city of Durham, which it nearly surrounds. Thence passing northward, it runs near the walls of Lumley Castle; but turning suddenly to the south near Birtley, flows towards Sunderland.

The Derwent rises northward of the Weare, in the same range of moors, and pursuing nearly a parallel course with that river, gives animation and interest to a wild and mountainous tract on the northern borders of the county, till it falls into the Tyne near Smalwell.

DURHAM.

THE City of Durham is situated on a singular rocky eminence, rising near the central part of the county, and almost surrounded by the river Weare. From all the neighbouring points of view, its appearance is unique, and striking; its public edifices exhibiting a degree of magnificence unexpected at a distance so remote from the Metropolis; and its situation and figure being so peculiar as to have occasioned its being emphatically denominated the English Zion. The centre of the eminence is occupied by the Cathedral and Castle, which, with the streets called the Baileys, are included within the remains of the ancient city walls. Below the walls on one side, the slope is ornamented with hanging gardens and plantations, descending to the river; on the other, the acclivity is high, rocky, and steep. The rich meadows, the cultivated sides of the adjacent hills, and the various seats in the vicinity, add greatly to the beauty of the prospect.

Durham derives its name from its situation, the term being a corruption from the Saxon words Dun, a hill; and Holme, a river island. By the Latins, observes Camden, it is called DVNELvs; and by the common people, Durham, or Duresme: the VOL. V. latter

B

In an ancient Saxon Poem, inserted in Hickes's Gramm. Anglo-Saxon, and referred by Adelung to the Danish-Saxon period, which this writer fixes between the years 780 and the time of the Conquest, the topography, &c. of Durham, is thus described.

latter appellation is derived, by Bishop Gibson, from the Norman Duresme.

The earliest historical notice of this city is contained in the monkish legend of St. Cuthbert, from whose votaries Dunholme,

This city is celebrated

In the whole empire of the Britons.

The road to it is steep.

It is surrounded with rocks,

And with curious plants.

The Wear flows round it,
A river of rapid waves;
And there live in it,
Fishes of various kinds

Mingling with the floods.

And there grow

Great forests;

There live in the recesses

Wild animals of many sorts;

In the deep valleys

Deer innumerable.

There is in this city

Also well known to men

The venerable St. Cudberth;

And the head of the chaste King
Oswald, the lion of the Angli;
And Aiden, the Bishop;
Aedbert and Aedfrid,

The noble associates.

There is in it also

Aethelwold, the Bishop;

And the celebrated writer Bede;

And the Abbot Boisil,

By whom the chaste Cudberth

Was in his youth gratis instructed;

Who also well received the instructions.

There rest with these saints,

In the inner part of the Minster,

Relicks innumerable,

Which perform many miracles,

As the Chronicles tell us,

And (which) await with them

The judgment of the Lord.

as

as it was then called, accumulated all its celebrity and riches. According to the legend, it appears that the Saint departed this life on the twentieth of the calends of March, 687, and was buried in the Church at Lindisfarne, at that period the Sce of a Bishop. The body was afterwards inhumed in a new sepulchre on rebuilding the Cathedral, where it lay unmolested for a considerable time.

But in the year 876, Halfden, having brought over a reinforcement of Danish adventurers, ravaged this part of the country in a most inhuman manner; and Eardulf, then Bishop of Lindisfarne, having remarked the savage practices of the invaders, particularly to the clergy, consulted with Eadred, the Abbot, and the other members of the monastery, what measures they should pursue for common safety; when several joined the Bishop and Abbot in a resolution, not only to quit the place, the peculiar sanctity of which among Christians only excited proportionable cruelty in the Danish Pagans, but also to remove the remains of their beloved Saint, that his relics might not be exposed to the rude insults of the profane. In pursuance of this resolve, they gathered the holy relics, sacred vessels, ornaments and jewels of the altars and shrines, together with St. Ethelwold's stone crucifix, and fled from the Island of Lindisfarne, where the episcopal See had continued 241 years.

"With their holy charge, the Bishop and his company passed into the mountainous parts of the country, still changing their abode, as intelligence of the enemy's progress seemed to threaten their safety. Their pious ardor must have been equal to any toil, and superior to every danger, encumbered as they were with the remains of St. Cuthbert; the head of St. Oswald; the bones of Saints Aidan, Eadbert, Eanfred, and Ethelwold, inclosed in one ark or shrine; and the ponderous cross of St. Ethelwold borne before them."*

Ethelwold was Abbot of Melross, the intimate friend of St. Cuthbert, and one of his successors in the Bishoprick. He caused a ponderous cross of stone to be erected in the ground adjoining the Church of Lindisfarne. The socket,

or

On the removal of St. Cuthbert's relics, the inhabitants of Lindisfarne left their lands and goods, and followed the Bishop and his train, who, wearied with travelling, endeavored privately to depart to Ireland, that they might deposit the Saint's bones in greater safety but a sudden storm arose, and the ship wherein they had commenced their voyage, was driven back, and forced upon the shore; the tempest being so strong, that three waves were miraculously converted into blood; and the ship heeled so much, that the Book of the Holy Evangelists, which was curiously written, and adorned with gold and precious stones, fell out of the vessel, and sunk to the bottom of the sea. In the midst of their perplexity, St. Cuthbert, unwilling to see his devotees in such sorrow, appeared to Hundredus, one of the monks, and commanded that the book might be sought for on the neighbouring coasts. At three miles distance it was recovered; and, so far from being injured by the salt-water, that it appeared more beautiful than before. Gladly did the company receive back this precious memorial: but the patron Saint being in a good humor, was determined not to oblige them by halves: a bridle appeared upon a tree, and a horse prancing to receive it, for the purpose of carrying the relics, gave a joy inexpressible to the wearied travellers. This horse conducted the chest to Crake-Minster, and here it rested four months; thence it was taken to Cuneagester, (now Chester-le-street,) and rested during the Danish wars, being a period of forty-three years; at the end of which, Aidune, the last Bishop of Chester-le-street, upon the Danes again infesting the northern coast, removed the relics to Ripon. In an interval of peace, the holy community intending to return, left Ripon, with all their paraphernalia, after an abode of four months. In

their

or foot-stone, in which it was mortised, remains still a few paces to the east of the ruined church. It was held in such veneration, that, after being broken by the Danes, in their first descent on the Island, the scattered parts were carefully put together, by skilful workmen, with lead and cement This is now called The Petting Stone; and whenever a marriage is solemnized at the church, after the ceremony, the bride is to step upon it, and if she cannot stride to the end, it is said that the marriage will prove unsuccessful. Hutchinson's Durham, Vol. 2.