


















By J. U. Powell, M.A. 117 
_ near the church; the name, too, of Five Ash Lane is found in the 
adjoining parish. If we adopt this derivation, we must look for 
their position near the church; for the population would be near 
the water, the meadows, and the mill, and in the direction of the 
cultivated land near the Roman villas. There a missionary would 
find his audience. In the same way, Brigit founded a church at 
Kildare beside an ancient oak-tree, which gives its name to the 
church; Kil-dare means “church of the oak.” (Hyde, Literary 
History of Ireland, 158.) But another derivation has great plausi- 
bility. “Treow” means not only “tree,” but also “cross”; and 
Canon Jones (History of Diocese of Sarum, p. 44) suggests that 
“more than a fragment of truth” underlies this story, and that 
a Aldhelm held the cross up before the people, or fixed ‘ 
‘in the ground.” In the same way, Kentigern “set up the cross” 
at Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, in 553,and preached there( Rawnsley, 
Bergh Lakes, \., 7, 76 :—) 
‘“‘ They listened in their multitudes 
. To one that ’midst them stood 
And reared the Cross; as painters draw 
John Baptist in the wood.” 
(A. C. Coxe, Christian Ballads.) 
With this we may compare Stubbs (I., 225), “There were as yet 
very few Churches; crosses were set up in the villages and on the 
estates of Christian nobles, at the foot of which the missionaries 
preached”; and Earle (Zand Charters, p. 471), “ Crosses 
ove all were erected where as yet there was no church-house ; 
then they were surrounded by a lic-tun (grave-yard), and a ring of 
yew-trees.” This derivation is very attractive and almost convincing. 
: A third suggestion as to the name must be mentioned, as it has 
he authority of the Bishop of Bristol (Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xxxi. 
. 280).! He suggests that the name may mark the site of one of 
the stone Grosses which William of Malmesbury tells us were set up 
he order of Bishop Egwine of Worcester, wherever the body 
of Aldhelm rested while it was being brought from Doulting, near 
j 
_| This paragraph was written before the Bishop of Bristol’s ‘‘ Aldhelm’s 
if and Times” (1903) appeared. He has withdrawn this view for other 
