Mount Dunstan

“ Lord Mount Dunstan's almost military supervision of and command over his villagers had certainly saved them from the horrors of an uncontrollable epidemic; his decision and energy had filled the alarmed Guardians with respect and this respect had begun to be shared by many other persons. A man as prompt in action, and as faithful to such responsibilities as many men might have found plausible reasons enough for shirking, inevitably assumed a certain dignity of aspect, when all was said and done. Lord Dunholm was most clear in his expressions of opinion concerning him. ”

“ Lord Dunholm explained. “One invites ALL one's neighbours and is invited again. It is a friendly duty one owes.”
“I do not see Lord Mount Dunstan,” Betty answered. “Is he here?”
She had never denied to herself her interest in Mount Dunstan, and she had looked for him. Lord Dunholm hesitated a second, as his son had done at Miss Vanderpoel's mention of the tabooed name. But, being an older man, he felt more at liberty to speak, and gave her a rather long kind look. ”

“ Their eyes met with a singular directness of gaze. Between them a spark passed which was not afterwards to be extinguished, though neither of them knew the moment of its kindling, and Mount Dunstan slightly frowned. ”

“ But, for a short time, Lord Dunholm remained to converse with Mount Dunstan. In a way the situation was delicate. To encounter by chance a neighbour whom one—for reasons—has not seen since his childhood, and to be equal to passing over and gracefully obliterating the intervening years, makes demand even upon finished tact. Lord Dunholm's world had been a large one, and he had acquired experience tending to the development of the most perfect methods. ”

“ He knew more of all this than Mount Dunstan could, since Mount Dunstan's existence had isolated itself, from rather gloomy choice. But as he rode, Mount Dunstan knew that he liked to hear these things. There was the suggestion of new life and new thought in them, and such suggestion was good for any man—or woman, either—who had fallen into living in a dull, narrow groove.
“It is the new life in her which strikes me,” he said. “She has brought wealth with her, and wealth is power to do the good or evil that grows in a man's soul ”

“ In the smoking-room at Dunholm that night he and his son talked of their chance encounter. It seemed possible that mistakes had been made about Mount Dunstan. One did not form a definite idea of a man's character in the course of an afternoon, but he himself had been impressed by a conviction that there had been mistakes.
“We are rather a stiff-necked lot—in the country—when we allow ourselves to be taken possession of by an idea,” Westholt commented. ”

“ As far as Yangford and Marling inmates of cottages and farmhouses were inclined to think it probable that Dunstan would be “swep away,” and rumours of spreading death and disaster were popular. Tread, the advanced blacksmith at Stornham, having heard in his by-gone, better days of the Great Plague of London, was greatly in demand as a narrator of illuminating anecdotes at The Clock Inn.
Among the parties gathered at the large houses Mount Dunstan himself was much talked of. If he had been a popular man, he might have become a sort of hero ”

“ Dunstan left the shelter, which was no longer needed, the rain having ceased, and followed the guide to the summit of the huge mound which marked the fall of some giant bastion of early days. From that position they could see the Foss Way, now about half-a-mile distant in the bright moonlight, and Dunstan’s eye at once caught twelve figures—horsemen—sweeping down it like the wind, which brought the sound of their passage faintly to the ear.
“Wait,” he said, “and see whether they pass the bypath; in that case we are safe.” ”

“ He was in no way fitted to be a warrior. He loved art and song, and preferred a book to a sword. For such youths there was no place amongst the fighting laymen, and Dunstan early found the peace which he sought as a monk at Glastonbury. Eadmund made him abbot, but Dunstan had almost to create his monastery before he could rule it. Monasteries had nearly vanished from England in the time of the Danish plunderings, and the few monks who remained had very little that was monastic about them. ”

“ About two A. M. the last volley of nature's artillery boomed majestically overhead, the last heavy patter of rain-drops was heard, and the tempest, passing on, left the village serene and peaceful, except for the sound of the distant guns.
"Ah, mes amis, I breathe freely again," cried Dunstan. He laughed. "To tell the truth, I had dreadful visions of taking Number Three along that water-soaked road. It shows the folly of borrowing trouble. Be a philosopher. Being a philosopher prevents wrinkles from creasing the brow. It holds the gray hair at bay. ”

“ In Butler's Remains, vol. ii. p. 235, we read: "these spirits they use to catch by the noses with fumigations, as St Dunstan did the devil, by a pair of tongs." St Dunstan lived in the tenth century, and became successively abbot of Glastonbury, bishop of London and Worcester, and archbishop of Canterbury. He was a man of great learning, a student of the occult sciences, and proficient in the polite arts, particularly painting and sculpture. The legend runs, that as he was very attentively engraving a gold cup in his cell, the Devil tempted him in the shape of a beautiful woman. ”

“ This wonderful story ended to Dunstan’s liking, for the artful do flourish briefly sometimes.
The boy king Edred was in ill-health, and suffered from a lingering illness for years. He felt the need of the counsel of a good man. He said to himself,—
“There is Dunstan, a man who has given up all selfish feelings and aspirations, a man whom even the Devil cannot corrupt. ”

“ But once again the famous "No Man's Land" aroused their greatest interest. Through Dunstan's binocular the field of ripening grain which flourished upon its sinister surface was plainly visible, still waving and rippling in the capricious breeze.
"Magnificent!" exclaimed the art student. "There's only one thing that prevents me from making a sketch."
"What's that?" asked Chase.
"The danger of being discovered by the Germans," chuckled Dunstan.
"My, what a jolly fine park this is!" broke in Don. "There's the fountain we saw the other night." He turned the field-glass upon it. "Crickets! ”

“ Then the people said, ‘How humble and penitent Dunstan is! He has the back-ache all day, and the legs-ache all night, and he suffers all for the cause of purity and truth.’
“Then Dunstan told the people that the devil came to tempt him, which, with his aches for the good cause, made his situation very trying. ”

“ When, with a spirit far beyond his years, he boldly resented the insult that Dunstan had offered to him, the whole power of the court was at once arrayed against him, for Dunstan was already venerated by the ignorant people as a saint: he had the chancellor and the primate on his side; and few would be found to make head against a cause on the part of which such powerful authorities were arranged as leaders. The respect which was due to a king must have been greatly lessened by the insult which Dunstan had offered to his sovereign. ”

“ A battery to the north suddenly started into action, fired a number of rounds with tremendous rapidity, then relapsed into silence.
"We are living in a great age," declared Dunstan.
"It is certainly a little grating to some," said Chase.
A half hour's journey through a devastated country brought the Red Cross men to a little one-street village.
During their sojourn in northern France both Don and Dunstan had seen many ruined towns and villages, but in none was the destruction so complete as here. The pale moonlight streaming over this once peaceful little hamlet revealed indescribable havoc. ”

“ In the midlands years of disturbance caused much of the organisation of the Church to disappear, bishoprics to cease, monasteries to be destroyed. After the Danish wars the work of reconstruction was an urgent need, and a great prelate came to lead it.
[Sidenote: Dunstan, 924-88.]
Dunstan (924-88) was a West Saxon who was taught at Glastonbury by Irish priests, and who rose, through his friendship with leaders in Church and State, by the holiness of his life, and by the experience that he won when in exile in Flanders, to be head of the English Church. As archbishop he was "a true shepherd." ”

“ It is probable that no one ever set out in the world with a firmer determination of acting honestly and uprightly than Dunstan; it is also clear, that in intellectual attainments he ranked amongst the highest which that age produced ”

“ Poor Dunstan in his little cell at Glastonbury, whenever at his devotional practice as harpist, or using his forge and anvil as blacksmith, was certain to receive a visit, and his sweet song drowned by the black visitor’s unholy jeers. At last the day of reckoning came, Dunstan seized a golden [64] opportunity when his tyrannical tormenter put in appearance at the very time his forge was at work and his pincers hot. Little was said, no doubt, but the doings were great—the greatest ever recorded of man’s work—for
St. ”

“ As he holds a very prominent place in the history of this and the following reign, it will not be irrelevant to give the following particulars of him.
Dunstan was the son of Herstan, and nephew of Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was born at Glastonbury in 925. He spent his youth with his uncle, the archbishop, who took care to have him instructed in all the sciences, as far as that age of ignorance would permit. He is said to have excelled particularly in music and painting, in which he took great delight all his life. ”

“ Three steps from the door, Dunstan stumbled against something neither hard nor soft, and in many fights he had learned what that thing was.
"There is a dead man here," he said, and Gilbert had stopped also.
They stooped down, trying to see, and Dunstan felt along the body, touching the mantle, till he found something sharp, which was the point of a dagger out of its sheath.
"He is a knight," said Dunstan, "for he wears his surcoat and sword-belt under his mantle." ”

“ Dunstan is said to have been a man of distinguished birth, and to have spent the early years of his life in much licentiousness. He was however doubtless a person of the most extraordinary endowments of nature. Ambition early lighted its fire in his bosom; and he displayed the greatest facility in acquiring any talent or art on which he fixed his attention. ”

“ THE VAULTS OF ST. DUNSTAN'S. A ponderous stone was raised in the flooring of St. Dunstan's church. The beadle, the churchwarden, and the workmen shrunk back—back—back, until they could get no further.
"Ain't it a norrid smell," said the beadle.
Then the plain-looking man who had been at Sweeney Todd's advanced. He was no other than Sir Richard Blunt, and whispering to the churchwarden, he said—
"If what I expect be found here, we cannot have too few witnesses to it. Let the workmen be dismissed."
"As you please, Sir Richard. Faugh! what an awful—fuff!—stench there is. ”

“ Dunstan's, the place was practically deserted. The summer holidays were on, and all the men were away, either at their homes in the British Isles or at one of the annexes of St. Dunstan's. Sir Arthur sees to it that no man goes without his vacation. Torquay and Brighton were within easy reach, and at these seaside resorts there were rest homes for the St. Dunstan's men. Since that time, so greatly has the attendance increased, it has been found necessary to open other vacation resorts. It is to these places that the sightless Colonials go. When the boys got back, work began in earnest. ”

“ Out from behind a tree shot a human figure. Its owner sprang at Tom Halstead, locking him in a sturdy embrace. Down to the ground went Halstead and his assailant, rolling over and over in fierce, battling embrace.
Ted Dunstan lost not an instant in seeing and seizing his opportunity. His feet, at least, free and able, that youngster whirled and dashed back toward the farmhouse. ”

“ He and his monks carried him to Winchester and buried him in the Old Minster with great honour (A.-S. Chron.)
The death of Eadred rendered Dunstan's position insecure; the nobles generally turned against the queen-mother's administration, the West-Saxon party came into power. Eadwig or Edwy [q. v.] , the elder son of Eadmund, was chosen king and Eadgifu was despoiled of all her property. Before long, Dunstan incurred the ill-will of a powerful enemy. When Eadwig left his coronation feast for the company of Æthelgifu, a lady of the highest rank, and of her daughter Ælfgifu [q. v.] ”

“ St. Dunstan's-in-the-East stands where St. Dunstan's Hill and Idol Lane meet, between Little Thames and Tower streets. In the building of this church Wren made his first effort at perching a steeple upon quadrangular columns. Though the work was much criticised, the architect was well satisfied with the effect. [Pg 75] Once when told that a violent windstorm had toppled over all the steeples of the City churches Wren exclaimed, "Not St. Dunstan's, I'm sure." For many years Archbishop Morton, the tutor of Sir Thomas More, was rector of this church. ”

“ He is unable to sit his horse.”
“There is a cottage close by, kept by a cowherd, who is a good and true man.”
“Then lead us to it at once,” replied Dunstan.
Alfred had by this time recognised his position, and he implored Dunstan not to endanger his own safety for his sake; but the abbot paid no attention. They reached the cottage just as the day was dawning, and the east was bright with rosy light. It was such a place as the great king, after whom Alfred was named, had found refuge in when pressed by the Danes. ”