238 A. D. 604. 



king of Ken: and monarch of all the country on the fouth fide of the 

 Humber. {Bed. Hijl. ecclef. L. ii, c. 3.] Sabereth, nephew of Ethel- 

 bert, and the immediate king of the Eaft-Saxons, whofe capital London 

 was, is faid to have allb founded a church at Thorney on the weft fide 

 of London in honour of St. Peter, which, from its fituation, afterwards 

 obtained the name of Weftminfter, a name fince extended to a large 

 city, which has arifen between the church of St. Peter and London. 

 l^ilred, col. 385. — Gervaf. Cant. col. 1633.] 



628 — Hitherto all the churches, and moft probably all the houfes 

 alfo, in England were built of wood, or of wattles. A church of flone, 

 apparently the fecond in Britain, (fee above, p. 214) was founded at 

 York by Edwin, king of Northumberland, and the moft powerful of 

 all the Englifh kings at this time, who did not live to finifh it. About 

 the fame time a church of flone was alfo built at Lincoln : and in the 

 following age Bilhop Wilfrid reflored or completed that which Edwin 

 had begun at York, covering the roof with lead, and filling the win- 

 dows with glafs *, ' which, while it excluded the birds and the rain, 

 * admitted light into the church.' Wilfrid built another church of po- 

 lifhed flone at Rippon, which was furnifhed with columns and porticoes, 

 and adorned with gold, lilver, and purple. Among the donations to 

 the church of Rippon by this magnificent prelate, there was one, which 

 was thought a wonderful work ; the four gofpels written in letters of 

 gold upon purple vellum, with a cafe of pure gold fet v/ith gems for 

 preferving the pretious volume. Unfortunately we are not told, whe- 

 ther this fuperb book and cai'e were executed in England, or imported ; 

 though the words ' he gave orders to write' and the like, may feem 

 rather to infer, that the work was performed at home. The fame great 

 bifhop built a third church at Hexham in the fame manner, which was 

 fo long and fo lofty, that his biographer thought, that no building on 

 this fide of the Alps could be compared to it. \_Eddi Vita Wilfridi, cc. 16, 

 17, 22. — Bedtt HiJl. ecclef. L. ii, cc. 14, 16.] 



674 — The tafte for ecclefiaftical magnificence being now introduced 

 in the Northumbrian kingdom, Benedid: Bifcop built an abbay at the 

 mouth of the River Were with flone in the Roman manner. For this 

 work he brought mafons from the continent, and alfo glafs-makers, 

 who taught the Englilh the art of making window-glais, and lamps, 

 vefTels for drinking, &c. of glafs : and thus was the elegant and ufeful 

 art of making glafs, an art fo eflential to our comfortable lodging in 

 thefe cold northern climates, introduced in England f . Benedidl made 



* Tilt f;lafs for the church of York muft have pofing it to remain among their pofterity, it does 



been imported, as appears from the fubfequcut pa- not follow, that they would impart the knowlcge 



rjgraph. N. B. Kddius, the biographer of Wil- of it to their Englidi enemies. According to 



i'tid, lired before Bcde. Adamnan the ufe of glafs was known to the re- 



f Strabo feems to fay, that the antient Britons mote Northern Pichts before this time. (See aboTC 



jmdcrllood the manufailure of glafs. But, fup- pp. 133, 223.) 



