18 Mr. G. TurnbuU on Edin's Hall 



proper name iu the possessive case. Edinsliall therefore means 

 the hall of Edin. Who then was Edin ? He must cither have 

 been the god Woden or the king Edwin, for to none else has 

 the name ever been attributed. But all the derivatives from 

 Woden are spelled with the letter W, as Wanborough, Wood- 

 nesborough, Wonston, and eleven others mentioned by Kemble*, 

 and the word Edin wants this characteristic. On the other 

 hand, Edin is the ordinary abbreviation of Edwin. Thus, of 

 the two derivations, that from Edwin is the more probable. 



The affix " Hall " strengthens the inference. It is an Anglo- 

 Saxon wordt, and therefore the building, if erected by Edwin, 

 may have borne its present appellation from the first. If it 

 had been called by any name of Celtic or Roman origin, the 

 inference that it is a Saxon work would have been more than 

 doubtful. 



Exhibits the architecture of his time. — We have found no 

 contemporary account of the architecture of the Anglo-Saxons 

 in the time of King Edwin, insofar at least as regards build- 

 ings of stone. We may infer, however, from incidental notices 

 and other circumstances, that it was similar to that exempli- 

 fied in Edin's Hall. (1.) The art of buildmg with mortar or 

 cement was then unknown in Northumbria. "The truth is 

 that the Anglo-Saxons, at their arrival in this island, were 

 almost totally ignorant of this art, and, like all the other 

 nations of Germany, had been accustomed to live in wretched 

 hovels built of wood or earth and covered with straw or the 

 branches of trees. Nor did they much improve in the know- 

 ledge of architecture for two hundred years after their arrival J.'' 

 The first stone buildings in this district in which cement w^as 

 used were the Cathedral of Hexham and the Monastery of 

 Weremouth, and these were constructed by masons brought 

 for the purpose from Rome and France towards the end of 

 the seventh century. Hence any edifice of stone, erected 

 during the reign of Edwin, must, like Edin's Hall, have wanted 

 mortar. (2.) The stone buildings of the tribes on the continent, 

 who were neighbours to the Saxons and of the same race, were 

 probably of the same kind as Edin's Hall. This inference arises 

 from the similarity between this ruin and the Burghs or Duns 



* Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. . p. 344. 



t Johnson's Dictionary. The following instances occur in the Saxon 

 Chronicle of places called by the name of Hall. " Pincan heal," Pencans- 

 hall, now Finkley in Durham. "Rihala," Roughhall, now Ryall in Rut- 

 landshire. (Henry's History, vol. ii. p. 609.) The word Hall occurs in the 

 following passage in the Saxon Laws : — ** If a man fight or diaw weapon 

 in the King's Hall and be taken in the act, he shall lie at the King's mercy 

 to slay or pardon him." (Kemble's Saxons, vol. ii. p. 60.) 



X Henry's Hist. vol. ii. p. 391. 



