ST. aldhelm's chapel. 137 



On the north side, where the door is placed, there has been an 

 enclosure, as the foundations of a wall are still visible ; I should 

 conceive this to have been the dwelling place of the priest. As 

 the chapel evidently takes its name from St. Aldhelm, it will not 

 be irrelevant, perhaps not uninteresting, if I give a short out- 

 line of his history. All accounts represent him as having been 

 an eminent man for the time in which he lived. He was a pupil 

 of Adrian, abbot of Canterbury, who died a. d., 710, and was 

 one of the royal family of Wessex ; afterwards abbot of Malmes- 

 bury, and bishop of Sherborne. He conferred great benefits 

 upon his countrymen, the West Saxons, and his memory was 

 honoured in a life of him written by King Alfred, but which is 

 not now extant. We have therefore only such accounts as the 

 monks of later ages have mixed up with too much of legendary 

 tales. He was a founder of the abbey of Malmesbury, and of 

 the town adjoining; and at different periods of his life he built 

 other churches in Wessex, particularly at Dorchester. He died 

 A. D., 709. 



It is highly probable that his name is not incorrectly connected 

 with the building of this chapel. Nor was it uncommon for 

 even monasteries to be built upon islands, or near dangerous 

 coasts, which often became places of refuge to ship-wrecked men. 

 The bell-rock on which a light-house is now erected, near the 

 Frith of Forth, is said to owe its name to a hell formerly fixed 

 upon it by the monks of the abbey of Aberbrothock, or Arbroth, 

 and thus alluded to by Southey: 



" When the rock was hid by the surges swell, 

 The mariners heard the warning bell; 

 And then they knew the perilous rock, 

 And blessed the abbot of Aberbrothock." 



These lines suggest what in reality might have been the use of 

 the superstructure mentioned by Sir H. Englefield as having 

 been discovered here, and which appeared to require considerable 

 support, viz : that it was a tower adapted to the suspension of a 

 heavy bell, which the priest continued tolling during dark 

 weather. Had it contained a light, there must have been a stair 

 case leading to it, which does not appear to have existed. 



In reply to some enquiries made of Mr. T. Bond upon the 

 subject of this paper, he says, "From the general character of 



