1 78 DR. GILLY ON CHURCHES AND CHURCHYARDS. 



and the ground on which it stands, are sure to present 

 something that will add to their stock of information. 



Much is to be learnt from the style and order of the archi- 

 tecture of the Church, from the stone and materials of which 

 it is built, from the date of its original construction, from 

 the changes and repairs through which it has passed, — from 

 the sepulchral inscriptions traced on its tomb-stones, — from 

 the historical and family recollections preserved in its re- 

 cords and registers, — from the relics and coins of various 

 ages, which are occasionally exhumed within its precincts, — 

 from the curious spelling and antique words detected in its 

 epitaphs, — from the age of the yews and other time-honoured 

 trees which shade its site, — and from the general character 

 of the ground on which it stands, which, to say the least, is 

 the best known of all remarkable places in every parish, for 

 here the living bring their dead for interment, if they do not 

 resort to it themselves for instruction. Every endeavour, 

 therefore, should be made to rescue from oblivion the inte- 

 resting objects that still may distinguish our Churches and 

 Churchyards, and to perpetuate the memory of the past, as 

 far as it is connected with these parochial monuments. In 

 this Border land especially, we should show some anxiety to 

 let nothing of good fame become obsolete, — for here Berwick 

 has a celebrity of its own, and possesses the singular distinction 

 of being mentioned expressly, and standing alone in every 

 Royal and Parliamentary document as "owr town of Berwick- 

 upon-Tweed ;" here Lindisfarne is celebrated as the Holy 

 Island, from which the whole of the kingdom of Northum- 

 berland was first christianized ; and here Norham is of suffi- 

 cient importance to give a county name to the district in 

 which it is situated — Norhamshire. As a sample of the 

 many facts in history and nature which are illustrated in 

 the local records of Churches and Churchyards, we will first 

 mention Lindisfarne. An excursion to the Church of Lindis- 

 farne will introduce the visitor to a knowledge of some of 

 the most soul-stirring events connected with the religious 

 and civil history of the North of England, from the Saxon 

 Heptarchy to the Norman Conquest. The very stones of 

 the old ruined Cathedral cry out with the names of great and 



