ARTHUMBERLAND,

SYMEONIS DUNICIS (LIBELLUS INCERTI AUCTORIS).

OSULF, First Earl, temp. Eades to the Firth of Forth was given to Eadulf Yvilchild : in 975, Oslainuing to govern there till his death.

IN the spring of 1891, the foundations of the eastern portion of the original Chapter House, which, with the apsidal termination, had been removed in 1796, were taken up, in order that new foundations might be put in for the rebuilding of these parts. A very remarkable and valuable discovery was then made. Among the mass of stones, rough from the quarry, which constituted the under setting of the walls, the broken and dispersed portions of the heads of four crosses, and of the greater part of a grave-cover, of the coped form, all richly sculptured, were found. The memorial crosses, for such they must be considered, of which these fragments formed a part, had, recklessly and without regard to their artistic merit or monumental character, been broken up and treated precisely in the same way as any ordinary rough stones might have been. It is evident that they formed an integral part of the building when it was constructed, for no alteration had ever taken place in it except the insertion of windows, and none of the original walls had ever been rebuilt. These stones, therefore, belong to a time before the foundations of the Chapter House were laid. No record of that event is in existence, but it may have an approximate date assigned to it within a narrow limit. We learn from the contemporary chronicler, who continued Symeon's valuable History of the Church of Durham, that during the episcopate of Galfrid Rufus, who reigned from 1133 to 1140, the Chapter House was finished.

He does not say it was begun in his time, and its commencement perhaps dates from a period earlier than the reign of Bishop Galfrid. A careful examination of the building appears to show conclusively that it was constructed at two different, though possibly not very distant, times. The north and south side walls and the apsidal east end, at all events as far as the top of the surrounding arcade, possess features which differ in detail from those of the groined roof they support, and of the west wall, including the doorway, which separates the Chapter House from the cloisters. The capitals of the shafts in the two parts of the building, as well as some of the mouldings, are markedly distinctive in each case. It is not improbable that the Chapter House was begun during the reign of Flambard, or perhaps in the interval (1128-33) before the accession of Bishop Galfrid, to be completed in his time, as the continuator of Symeon tells us. It is impossible that the crosses and grave-cover whose broken portions formed part of the foundation can be later than the commencement of the building of the Chapter House, which may have been about 1130. The earliest date to which they can be assigned may be fixed with almost absolute precision. They cannot have been erected before the year 995, when the body of St. Cuthbert was brought from Chester-le-Street to its final resting-place at Durham, for up to that time the plateau which was to be so nobly crowned by the Cathedral and Castle was unoccupied. It may, however, be possible to assign to them a more precise date than that of the period already indicated, between the years 995 and about 1130. In considering this, it will be necessary to make enquiry about the persons in whose memory the crosses may be supposed to have been set up. Some investigations which were made in 1874 on the site of the destroyed eastern end of the Chapter House disclosed the fact that, at a level below that of the graves of the post-Conquest bishops, there were a number of burials of men, women and children. These have been supposed, no doubt correctly, to be the graves of members of the old congregation of St. Cuthbert and their families, who were the custodians of the body of the Saint, and

in possession of his Cathedral at Durham, until the establishment there of the Benedictine order of monks by Bishop William of Saint Carilef in 1083. The ancient discipline and rule had become relaxed, as was the case at other places, notably for instance at Hexham, and the old order of celibates had become a married clergy, and hence the occurrence of the graves of women and children. The Chapter House appears, on the evidence of these burials, and the evidence is fairly conclusive, to have been built on the site of the cemetery in which were interred the bodies of the members of the congregation and their families. If this were so, then the site would also contain the crosses and other stones erected as memorials of, at all events, some of these persons. The sculptured stones which were found among the foundations lately dug out must have been portions of these monuments. is scarcely probable, when we remember that the body of St. Cuthbert was brought to Durham in 995, and Ealdhun's Cathedral was not completed before 999, that any memorial should have been placed in the cemetery before 1000. On the other hand it is impossible to suppose that any sepulchral cross raised in memory of one of the members of the new Benedictine Monastery would have been destroyed by his brethren within a very few years of his death. The time, therefore, within. whose limits the erection of these monumental stones must be placed appears to be necessarily that between 1000 and 1083.

It

That they were sepulchral monuments of members occupying a high place in the congregation must, I think, be admitted as certain, for it cannot be supposed that such large and elaborately sculptured crosses would have been placed at the graves of ordinary members. Had any portions of the shafts been left, the probability is that the remains of inscriptions would have told us in whose memory they had been wrought. Nothing, however, has been found, except parts of the heads of the crosses, the reason for which will be explained later on.

It cannot but cause wonderment that the memorials of their predecessors should have been mutilated and desecrated by members of a religious body, some of whom may even have