CITY OF DURHAM 



the battlements of the castle. Proof of this 

 disaster is found in the stone-work of the very 

 part in question which shows some traces of 

 the action of fire.^* The chronology of Pudsey's 

 building operations is as uncertain as that of 

 Flambard's work, but the view here taken is that 

 the rebuilding must be referred to the latter 

 half of the episcopate. During the former half 

 his time was much taken up by disputes with the 

 king, and Henry's policy of centralizing the 

 governing power was not likely to permit the 

 bishop to develop his capital too rapidly. It was 

 probably after the difficulties of 1173 and 1174 

 that Pudsey set to work with the help of his 

 architect Richard and carried out the series of 

 building operations connected with his name. He 

 practically rebuilt the castle. He renewed the 

 wall between the north and south gates which is 

 thought to be represented by the foundations 

 which still stretch along the river bank from the 

 Bailey to the Prebend's Bridge.^' His eager- 

 ness in building pressed him on, and he spared 

 no expense to carry out his designs and to win 

 general applause. As an instance of his lavish- 

 ness he restored the borough of Elvet which 

 Cumin had destroyed, and threw a splendid 

 bridge across the river to unite the old suburb 

 with the peninsula. When the work was com- 

 plete he gave back to the monks what had been 

 so long their own possession, resigning all right 

 and authority over it.*" No doubt at this time 

 the church of St. Margaret was erected as a 

 chapelry of Elvet (St. Oswald's) Church, though 

 the invocation as it now exists may probably 

 have been much later. The architectural evidence 

 of the building points pretty decisively to this 

 period, and had we more data we should prob- 

 ably find that the district in which the church 

 stands had been likewise ruined by Cumin. It 

 is equally certain, too, that the Church of St. Giles 

 was rebuilt by Pudsey at this time, and it is 

 probable that his work here was a part of his 

 refoundation of Kepier Hospital as described 

 above.*' The achievement in Durham most 

 widely associated with his name, however, is the 

 Galilee of the cathedral, which was completed 

 by the year 11 89, when his nephew the Count of 

 Bar was buried there.*^ Pudsey's position as 



^' An examination of the lower courses of the stones 

 in the buttresses on the North Terrace revealed this 

 to the writer and Mr. W. T. Jones. 



^* The summary is given in Hist. Dun. Scriptores 

 Tres (Surt. Soc), 11-12. 



*" To him is also due the sumptuous mediaeval 

 shrine of silver and gold in which the bones of Bede 

 were placed. The chronicler makes much of its impres- 

 siveness (Ibid.). *i V.C.H. Dur. ii, iii. 



"^ A reference in Reginald of Durham enables us 

 to date the Galilee with great exactitude to the year 

 1 177 {De Fita S. Godrici (Surt. Soc), 384, and for the 

 date ibid. 385 n.). 



Earl of Northumberland and also Earl of Sad- 

 berge *^ gave him no doubt some excuse for 

 the sumptuous and magnificent enrichment of 

 Durham, which was now the centre of a highly 

 developed franchise. 



But the most important event of Pudsey's 

 episcopate, so far as Durham is concerned, is 

 his charter to the burgesses. 



Durham is again fortunate in possessing two 

 books which were written in Pudsey's time and 

 illustrate in an interesting way the buildings 

 and life of that period. The writer is Reginald, 

 a monk of Durham, or, according to one account, 

 of Coldingham. He lived within the abbey and 

 held high position there, dying, as it might 

 appear, before the end of Pudsey's episcopate. His 

 earlier book** is a collection of sermons and ad- 

 dresses dealing with the miracles of St. Cuthbert, 

 and it is a probable conjecture that he him- 

 self was one of those whom Pudsey sent with 

 relics of the saint to perambulate various dis- 

 tricts of England and Scotland in order to spread 

 abroad the praises of St. Cuthbert*^ and to 

 attract pilgrims to his shrine. Somewhat later 

 than this, and with an appendix of probably 

 still later date, is Reginald's Life of St. Godric,^ 

 the celebrated recluse of Finchale. It is easy to 

 pick from the two volumes a large number of 

 references which throw much light upon what 

 Durham was then like. It was usually approached 

 from the north, apparently by a via regia *' which 

 is almost certainly the old road leading from 

 Elvet and the south towards Newcastle. At the 

 distance of one mile from the city stood a cross 

 which was probably one of an inner circle of 

 crosses marking the limit of the leuga or sanc- 

 tuary circle.** Reginald has several allusions to 

 Pudsey's buildings, and twice over to the ex- 

 tension of the cathedral by the Galilee. 



Without the city itself Reginald mentions 

 Kepier*' which was not only a hospital but a 

 shelter for pilgrims ; the Church of St. Giles" 

 where Godric had been a frequent worshipper ; 

 the city walls,'' which had to be passed in what- 

 ever direction the traveller came or went. Within 

 their circuit the details are minute. There was 

 the Church of St. Nicholas,'- in the midst of the 

 city ; the Church of St. Mary ,'3 with its school 

 where Godric strove to compensate for early 

 defects of education; the lodging houses'* 

 where the pilgrims stayed; the shops'* in the 



63 Roger of Hoveden, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 19. 

 ** Libellus de admirandis B. Cuthberti virtutibus 

 (Surt. Soc). ^ Ibid, no, cf. 77, 109. 



66 De Vita S. Godrici (Surt. Soc). *' Ibid. 334. 



68 Ibid. 334 ; Reginald, Libellus B. Cuthberti, 282. 



69 De Vita S. Godrici (Surt. Soc), 402. 

 '0 Ibid. 59. " Ibid. 334. 



'2 Ibid. 388. '3 Ibid. 59. 



'* Libellus B. Cuthberti, 271. 



'5 Ibid. 266 ; De Vita S. Godrici, 345. 



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