210 Mr. J. Stuart on St. Ehba and Coldingham. 



to St. Cuthbert, by Verca, Abbess of South Tiningbam. " I 

 declined to use it while living," said the saint, " but out of 

 affection for that woman, beloved of God, who sent it to 

 me, I have caused it to be reserved for wrapping round my 

 corpse." This was said by St. Cuthbert when dying, and 

 the cloth was found in the stone coffin or sarcophagus which 

 had been given to him by the venerable Abbot Cudda.* 



I think, however, we may infer, that the operations neces- 

 sary in the preparation of linen and cloth, formed part of the 

 duties of the inmates of the Saxon nunneries, as we have 

 instances of two gifts of such substances made to St. Cuth- 

 bert by the Abbesses of Coldingham and Tiningbam ; and I 

 may add as a fact tending in the same way, that among the 

 complaints soon made against some of the practices of St. 

 Ebba's nuns, one was that they gave themselves to the weaving 

 of fine garments, with which they adorned their persons like 

 brides, or as if to covet the society of men from without, to 

 the peril of their own state.f 



St. Ebba's Monastery was consumed by fire in 679, and a 

 second monastery which, according to Wendover, was pre- 

 sided over by another Ebba, was ruined by the Danes about 

 a century afterwards.:}: 



It is probable that St. Ebba was buried in the church of 

 her own monastery. § Her remains were undisturbed till the 

 early part of the eleventh century, when Alfred Westoue, a 

 monk of Durham, being commanded in a vision to visit the 

 ancient monasteries and churches of Northumbria, and collect 

 the bones of saints, paid a visit to Melrose, where he obtained 

 the remains of Boisil, the instructor of St. Cuthbert ; to Tin- 

 ingbam, where he secured those of Balther, the hermit ; and 

 to the burial place of St. Ebba, where he secured, at least, 

 one of the feet of the abbess, as that member of hers appears 

 among the relics at Durham, long after this time.|| 



It is probable that as in the case of Melrose, the early 

 foundation was now ruined and continued deserted, although 



* Vita S. Cuthbert, Auct. Ven. Beda., cap. xxxvii., s. 60. 



f Beda. Hist. Eccl., Lib. IV., cap. 25. 



f Simeon Dunelm. de Dunelm. Eccl., col. 32. 



§ In the early traditions of the Scotch Church, it is said that St. Ebba was 

 buried within her monastery, and that by the carelessness of the people, her tomb 

 went to decay, and for many years the place of her burial remained unknown, 

 till at last it was discovered by some shepherds. Her tomb was then opened by 

 the Prior and Monks of Coldingham, when the linen in M'hich the body of the 

 saint had been wound was found undecayed. Her remains were then translated 

 to the priory with great rejoicings of the people. 



Ij Raine's S. Cuthbert, p. 121. 



