118 THE BIRDS OF THE OUTER FARNES 



took sanctuary on the islands were under the mira- 

 culous protection of St. Cuthbert was security enough 

 for them and their eggs. ' Beatus etenim Cuthbertus,' 

 wrote Reginald of Coldingham in the reign of King 

 Stephen, 'talem eis pacis quietudinem praebuit, quod 

 nullus hactenus hominum earn impune temerare prse- 

 sumpsit.' 



Once on a time an unlucky monk Leving, servant 

 of Elric the hermit, uncle of Bernard, sacrist of Durham 

 in a moment of weakness, when his holy master was 

 away, yielding to his lower appetite, killed a Duck and 

 ate it, scattering the bones and feathers over the cliff'. 

 When, fifteen days later, Elric came back he found 

 bones, feathers, beak, and toes neatly rolled up into a 

 parcel ' cunctis in unum convolutis' and laid inside 

 the chapel door, 'the very sea,' says the devout 

 historian, 1 who had the tale first-hand from the 

 repentant monk, ' not having presumed to make it- 

 self participator in the crime by swallowing them up.' 

 Leving was flogged, and for many years though there 

 are records of Puffins and other ' wyelfoyle ' sent from 

 the brethren on the Fames as delicacies for high-day 

 feasts at Durham St. Cuthbert's peace was probably 

 unbroken. 



But saints in these freethinking days have lost some- 

 thing of their power, and need at times, to enforce 

 obedience to their commands, the help of the secular 



1 ' Reginald! Monachi Dunelmensis libellus de Admirandis Beati 

 Cuthberti virtutibus,' cap xxvii. (Published by the Surtees Society 

 in 1835.) 



