188 DR. GILLY ON NORHAM CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD. 



A cross, made out of the wood which composed the tahle 

 of St. Cuthbert, and on which he had been in the habit of 

 eating his meals, was preserved at the decay or destruction 

 of the Saxon church, and placed on the altar of St. Cuthbert 

 in the Norman church. Before this relic persons accused of 

 crimes used to declare their innocence, before they waged 

 battle in proof of their assertion. Reginald has recorded an 

 instance of a duel fought at Midhop in the presence of Swain, 

 priest of Fishwick, who was his contemporary. 



Reginald has preserved another anecdote illustrative of 

 the history of Norham : — 



A boy named Haldene attended the school which was kept 

 in Norham church (a custom very common, says Reginald). 

 This boy having neglected his books, and dreading the punish- 

 ment of his idleness, threw the key of the church into the 

 Tweed (in Thenodam) at a place called Padduel (hodie Ped- 

 wel). The services of the church would have been inter- 

 rupted, relates the historian, had not St. Cuthbert appeared 

 to the priest, and told him to go to the fishermen at Pedwel. 

 The priest went, and saw that they had just caught a salmon 

 in whose throat the key was found. The key was thenceforth 

 held in great veneration, and kissed devoutly by the people. 

 Reginald, pp. 149, 150. 



The cross and the key were doubtless among the sacred 

 objects before which King John and Edward I., with their 

 train of barons and prelates and knights, performed their 

 devotions, when Norham church was desecrated by the pre- 

 sence of those ruthless invaders of Scotland in 1216 and 1291. 



In the annals of Nicholas Trivet (p. «319) the scene which 

 took place in Norham church, when the claim of Edward I. to 

 the sovereignty of Scotland was asserted, is thus described: — 



" Eodem anno rex Angliae Scotiam appropinquans, (post 

 Pascha) parliamentum tenuit apud Noreham, ubi consultis 

 prselatis ac utriusque juris peritis, revolutisque priorum tem- 

 porum annalibus, vocari fecit prselatos ac majores regniScotias; 

 et coram eis in ecclesia parochiali de Norham jus suum et 

 superius dominium in regnum Scotiae fideliter declaravit, 

 petivitque ut hoc recognoscerent, protestando jus coronas 

 suae usque ad efFusionem sanguinis defensurum. Ab omnibus 



