54 



^tvmit^, ifortJs, antr Britige=CEf)apcls. 



By Rev. Chas. Kerry. 



EW can have seen the early representations of S. Chris- 

 topher in his struggle through the turgid ford with 

 the Holy Child, without noticing a figure on the 

 bank of the river holding a lantern or torch for the 

 direction and assistance of the saint. This individual represents 

 the mediaeval hermit of the ford. The circumstances attending 

 the legendary life of S. Christopher — his direction by a hermit 

 to devote his strength to the service of Christ by carrying 

 travellers or pilgrims over dangerous streams, his solitary life, his 

 devotion to his labours, and finally his high and singular reward - 

 seem to have powerfully influenced the hermitical devotees of the 

 middle ages. Bridges were few and far between, fords treacherous 

 and perilous, and pilgrims bent on holy errands were many ; 

 what work could commend itself to the benevolent-minded 

 Christian more than the guardianship of a ford ? Indeed, in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there was hardly a ford, causeway, 

 or bridge, without such an attendant ; and when, by the liberality 

 of travellers, or the munificence of the wealthy, bridges were made 

 to span the old ford or ferry, the services of the hermit and his 

 primitive oratory were not discarded. As late as 1488, some cen 

 tiiries after the bridge of S. Mary's, Derby, had been erected, there 

 was a resident " hermit" in charge of it, and a chapel, too, with 

 its chaplain, to pray for the king, for the benefactors of the bridge, 

 and the God-speed of the travellers. 



