THE CONTENTS OF ST. CUTHBERT'S SHRINE 



hand outstretched from a cloud, with the inscription, ' Dextera Dei.' On the 

 one side is Pope Gregory the Great in act of benediction, and below him his 

 companion Peter the Deacon ; under these the maniple ends with a square 

 containing a half-length figure of St. John Baptist, with a second ' Pio 

 episcopo FriSestano.' On the other half there is St. Sixtus the Pope, and 

 beneath him Lawrence the Deacon ; and on the square end is, on the 

 front, a half-length figure of St. James the Apostle, with again the inscription 

 ' i'Elffla:d fieri precepit.' At each end of the maniple there hangs a fringe 

 of crimson or purple. 



There were also found, a part of Athelstan's gift, a girdle and two 

 bracelets in similar work, but without figures.^ A second maniple of a 

 later date was also discovered. 



Pieces of Silk Cloth 



In addition to the Frithstan vestments, the Library has also some remark- 

 able fragments of those five silk- woven pieces of ancient work, which have been 

 photographed full size and painted by hand by Mr. T. J. Williamson ; they 

 can be studied at South Kensington. The careful reproduction is more distinct 

 than the fragmentary and faded remains themselves, though preserved with 

 great care at Durham. That there is anything left to us is really due to 

 the infinite painstaking of Dr. Greenwell, the Cathedral Librarian. In 

 this, as in many another case, he has enormously enriched the Library by his 

 skill, knowledge, and devotion to antiquity. It has always been said that the 

 scenes of the Saint's life are here brought in — the sea, the eider-ducks, or the 

 solan geese, the porpoises, the rabbits ; these, it was thought, proved ' that the 

 silk had been woven for St. Cuthbert ' and at Lindisfarne. It is far more pro- 

 bable that these incomparable fragments were presents brought from the East, 

 from Persia perhaps, or Syria, or from orientalised Sicily. It is, most pro- 

 bably, Persian work of the eleventh century. One knows how intimate was 

 the intercourse between East and West in old times ; and the texture and 

 manner of ornament is not western, but oriental. 



I. The largest piece remaining is in thick soft silk. It appears to have 

 been a square, some part of the edging of it being still there ; the general effect 

 of colour, though much faded, being purple and crimson. The pattern of 

 this piece is chiefly confined within a circle of about two feet in diameter, 

 with a bordering in the circle of grapes and conventional leaves with pears, 

 or more probably mangoes, in couples, and other eastern fruits ; at the top 

 are 'golden apples,' i.e. oranges. The interstices between the repetitions of the 

 pattern are filled up with two geese (or more probably ducks) pecking at 

 bunches of grapes which fall from a vase or bracket standing on a pedestal. 

 Inside the circle, for nearly one-fourth of the height, is the sea, wherein swim 

 six fishes, and four ducks float on the water. Arising out of the sea between 

 the birds the upper part of the circle is filled with what may have been meant 

 for a great vase, standing on a base which rests on the sea ; or it may perhaps 

 be a conventional boat, with high ends rising almost to the top of the 

 circle and crowned with two large ornaments of pine-apple form. Much 

 of the space between these points is unhappily lost ; there is enough to show 



1 Sy«. Dur. (Rolls Series), i. 211. 



I 257 33 



