“ On no account should a woman be the first foot, for she would bring misfortune. But before this the New Year has been ushered in by the ringing of church bells, and sounding of buzzers from all the collieries. ”

“ For Monkwearmouth saw the birth and Jarrow the death of the patriarch of English historians. Both places claim him as altogether their own. In the united convent of St. Peter and St. Paul he spent practically the whole of his life. Like all great men, he said little about himself; but he has much to tell us about his twofold home. We turn gladly enough to the writings of Bede, and specially to his Lives of the Abbots. We find ourselves at once in the presence of one who knew how to observe and to describe, to admire but never to condemn ”

“ The extruded canons were placed at Auckland and Darlington, and the Evesham Benedictines occupied the mother-church of the diocese.
It was all done in haste. It was repented of, no doubt, at leisure. In the enthusiasm of the moment Bishop William founded the one and only abbey in the Bishopric of Durham. His successors, we may well believe, deplored what was politically and ecclesiastically a great mistake. But what was done could not be undone by anything less than a revolution. The Abbey of Durham grew and was strong. The magnificence of its buildings tells of the wealth of the builders. ”

“ The grotesque but effective sanctuary knocker of bronze, of the same date as the door itself, if it does not invite the unfortunate offender to seek for that protection now, happily, under more humane conditions, not needed for his safety, will recall to memory how the Church in a ruder age held out her saving hand, and interposed between the shedder of blood, sometimes guiltless, and the avenger. ”

“ Feeling sure of wide sympathy in Northumberland and Durham, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland gathered retainers together, and restored the old order in Durham Cathedral, whilst the people of Durham, lowly kneeling, were absolved from the guilt of schism. But inferior leadership caused the rising to collapse outside the Bishopric, and when the Queen’s army marched through Durham it swept the undisciplined forces of the Earls across the Tyne to be dissipated in the rigours of a cold Northumbrian winter. But, although the rebellion came to nothing, passive resistance was maintained. ”

“ Whatever its vicissitudes may have been, it remains a noble piece of work.
In Redmarshall Church, in the Claxton Porch, there are effigies of Thomas Langton de Wynyard and of Sibil Langton, his wife. They are admirably carved in a rather soft alabaster, and the delicacy and clearness of detail in the costumes is very remarkable. The lady’s hair is dressed in the extraordinary horns which were fashionable in the days of Henry V. She wears a long, loose kirtle, with a surcoat and mantle; round her neck is a string of pearls, and round her waist is a jewelled belt. ”

“ The most important, as it is not the least striking and beautiful, object in the choir is the large and lofty throne, built by Bishop Thomas de Hatfield (1345-81) during his lifetime, for his tomb beneath and the throne above. It is a structure worthy of the Palatine See of Durham and of the mighty Prince-Bishop who erected it. The alabaster figure of the Bishop still remains, comparatively perfect, clothed in richly decorated pontifical vestments, lying on an altar-tomb under a canopy whose groining is finely ornamented with bosses of boldly sculptured foliage. ”

“ Carileph, first projected by Bishop Poore, no expense or pains has been spared in its being carried out to perfection, and the vault of the Nine Altars and choir, the last part of this{127} great work, with its enrichment of dog-tooth ornament of various and graceful forms, and bosses of foliage and figure subjects, fitly completes the building in a style no less beautiful and effective than the walls which support it. It may be asserted without fear of contradiction that no more effective or majestic vault crowns any church in our country. ”

“ In Stockton Church we may read that on "Wednesday the 19th of May 1773 was here interred the body of Mrs. Sarah Baker ... aged 59. Do thou reflect in time; death itself is nothing, but prepare to be you know not what, to go you know not where."
At Houghton-le-Spring stands the massy altar-tomb of the great Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," that sweet-natured, fearless, and humble-minded man who so narrowly escaped a martyr’s death at the stake. ”

“ The symbolism used on grave-covers is not well understood. A key is said to indicate a woman, a sword a man; shears sometimes represent a woman, sometimes a wool-stapler; a chalice or a book, or both, are placed on the gravestone of a priest or other ecclesiastic. Craftsmen are often indicated by some sign of their business, as a square for a mason, a horseshoe or a hammer for a smith. Sometimes a merchant uses his trade-mark much as an armigerous person uses his coat of arms. Built into the south porch of St. Mary’s Church in Gateshead there are two large grave-covers bearing incised crosses. ”

“ The singular height of the church at Monkwearmouth would lead us to the same conclusion. They were thus churches of quite a peculiar type, a type destined to undergo many modifications in later times. In Monkwearmouth and Jarrow you are face to face with the earliest form of English ecclesiastical architecture.
We have no need to ask about the builders, or to wrangle over the date of their foundation. There are darker and lighter periods in any history; Monkwearmouth and Jarrow have, indeed, known much of both. But the light shines clearly enough upon their early days. ”

“ Cuthbert is said to have had a more than usual monastic dislike to women—though some of his most intimate friends were women—and therefore to have built the Lady Chapel at the east end of the choir, the ordinary position, which was close to his shrine, would have been most distasteful to him. No woman, indeed, was allowed to approach farther eastward in the church than as far as a line of dark-coloured Frosterley marble, forming a cross with two short limbs at the centre, which stretches across the nave between the piers, just west of the north and south doors. ”

“ In Monkwearmouth Church, under a canopy which bears the shields of the Hiltons and Viponds, there is a very interesting effigy of a knight in plate armour of the early part of the fifteenth century. This is probably the Baron William Hilton, who built Hilton Castle on the Wear, with its wonderful armorial front. He died in 1435. At Norton, near Stockton, there is a magnificent effigy of a knight in chain armour; over the head there is a rich canopy of tabernacle-work; the hands are raised and the legs are crossed, the feet resting on a lion. ”

“ Over this scene of complex organization and activity dark shadows came in the fourteenth century. The Scots, who had been quiescent for some time, fell upon the Bishopric with great ferocity during the reigns of the first three Edwards, and the years were seldom free from the record of invasion or pillage. It had come to be regarded as a prime duty of the Bishop to repress all northern incursions, and, as a contemporary document puts it, to serve as a wall of brass against the Scots. He had his fortified castles, Norham in Norhamshire, Durham in its own county, and Northallerton in Yorkshire. ”

“ Certainly no Roman Christian remains have been found as yet; but when in the seventh century Christianity came to the Anglian invaders who settled in these parts after the departure of the Romans, the history of the English people was born within the confines of the modern county. Bede, the first of English scholars and writers, compiled his history in the monastery of Jarrow. He tells us all we know of the earliest Durham Christians—of Benedict Biscop and of Hilda, who, with himself, are the first three historic personages in the district. ”

“ There are farmers who take a manor or farm on condition of rendering so much agricultural produce to the lord. There are cottiers who work so many days in the week, and have to give so many eggs, or so many fowls for the table, in return for the little home that they occupy. In Durham itself certain houses were let to tenants, who had to defend the North Gate, or help act as garrison, or render herbs and other necessaries for the Bishop’s kitchen. The conditions of service among the villeins were often onerous, and a tone of deep discontent is marked in the medieval villages of Durham. ”

“ In the winter of 1068-69 Robert Cumin, the newly created Norman Earl of Northumberland, advanced to Durham with his troops, but as the Normans lay there they were surprised by a sudden rising of the whole population, and slain almost to a man. A year later news came that William himself was approaching Durham to avenge the death of Cumin, whereupon Bishop Egelwin and the priests took the sacred body of St. Cuthbert and such of the treasures of the church as they could carry and fled to Lindisfarne, followed by the people of the city, who dared not remain without the sacred relic. ”

“ If you seize the opportunities, which are many, you may have what you please by wishing for it. But the condition is in every case the same: the nature of the wish must be kept secret. You may journey to Jarrow, and sitting in Bede’s chair, make your wish; or, nearer at hand, there is a stone seat at Finchale Priory credited with the same power. If you see a horseshoe or a nail, pick it up, throw it over your left shoulder and wish; and wish also if you see a piebald horse, but you must manage to do so before you see its tail. ”

“ Those who come to see the corpse are expected to touch it, in token that they are in peace with the dead. It is often said that if you do not touch it you will dream{52} of it. The coffin must be carried to the church by the old-established "church-road," and the notion still prevails that the way over which a body is carried to its burial thereby becomes a highroad. Therefore in the case of private roads or bridges (the Prebend’s Bridge at Durham, certainly) a small toll is levied when a funeral procession passes over it. ”

“ The long reign of Elizabethan Churchmanship had accustomed the people to one uniform type of worship and ornament, and they were not prepared for the alterations now made in ritual and in the appearance of the churches. When the Scots entered England in 1640, by way of remonstrance against the King’s policy in Church and State, the Bishopric was not altogether unsympathetic; but when the armed demonstration proved{20} to be an armed occupation extending over a year in duration, the royalism of Durham re-asserted itself. ”

“ When the corpse is "laid out," the death-chamber is shrouded in white, the clock is stopped, and the looking-glass covered, to show that for the dead time is no more and earthly vanity departed. There is also the dread that if the mirror were left uncovered the ghost of the dead man might be reflected in it. ”

“ Nothing should be allowed to go out of the house on this day, for that would mean a year of poverty, but as much as possible should be brought in, as that will insure a year of plenty; and for the same reason a new dress should be worn with money in its pocket. ”

“ In Weardale, situated in the western and mountainous part of the county of Durham, and surrounded by brown and heath-clad fells, the ancient Briton lived in the limestone caves, and hunted in the oaken forests. In the Wear Valley, near Hamsterley, and about seven miles east of Stanhope, there is a remarkable relic of the ancient Britons. This ancient fortification—like many other works constructed by the Britons of old, such as the Dene Holes of Essex and the Cliff Castles—has its name, and is called The Castles. ”

“ These monasteries became the centres of religion, civilization, and learning all over Northumbria; and, in particular, the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth, twin foundations of Benedict Biscop, were the commencement of everything best worth having between Tyne and Tees.
Thus religion, art, and literature, were born in Durham. In the last years of the eighth century a terrible calamity fell upon the wider province, of which Durham was only a part, when the Danes raided Lindisfarne, where had been the starting-point of the Northumbrian Church. ”