140 Mr. Wilson on Brinkbiirn Priorij. 



entangiement of foliage, througliwlucli juts of grey rock protrude 

 themselves covered with mellow iDatches of amber lichens, and 

 from which tall fir trees cast sombre shadows into the rippling 

 stream below. 



Situated in a spot so far removed from the highway, Brinkburn 

 unfortunately escaped the notice of our earHest chorographers. 

 This is to be regretted, as every notice of a building by a competent 

 person is a Hnk in its history. Camden, however, refers to the 

 book of Brinkburn abbey for information on various subjects. This 

 was the chartulary of Brinkburn Priory, an archseological treasure 

 which is happily still in existence. An index compiled by 

 Hodgson and published in the Archaeologia ^liana is the only 

 portion that is accessible now to the antiquary, for after a long 

 repose in the Stowe collection, the Book of Brinkburn Abbey passed 

 into private hands at the memorable sale. The topographer of the 

 last century, painstaking Francis Grose, Esq., was more exact in 

 his researches ; and has made due mention, with due appreciation 

 of the venerable pile. Hutchinson, Walhs, and Hodgson have all 

 endorsed Grrose's remarks. In ovu- own day, Turner in his "Beau- 

 ties of England and Wales," has immortalised the stage of decay 

 at which it had arrived before the jDresent restorations were 

 undertaken ; Cope, the royal academician has painted it ; and the 

 Eev. John Louis Petit, and the gifted Sidney Gribson, Esq., have 

 lit up this building with their pens, each after his own inimitable 

 manner. It would appear, after an enumeration of so many 

 learned notices of the Priory, that there can be but little left to 

 say upon the subject. But this is far from being the case. The 

 history of Brinkburn Priory is not finished yet. Year after year 

 facts of interest come to Hght which should be carefully recorded 

 for the benefit of future generations of such societies as this, of 

 which we have the honour of being members. In one year a 

 fragment of the bell of the church, which had so often called men's 

 thoughts from earth to heaven, and which Wallis says was removed 

 to Durham Cathedral, was found buried at the root of a tree on 

 the hill on the opposite side of the river. In another year a bronze 

 medieeval vase was dug up about twenty yards south-west from 

 the south-west angle of the nave, beneath a layer of charred earth 

 and wood ashes, apparently the debris of a wooden building. It 

 was nearly full of bright broad gold rose nobles of Edward the 

 Third's reign, most of which have the Calais mint mark ; a few 

 dated from the short reign of Eichard II. ; and one from the reign 

 of Henry lY. A roughly hewn stone trough was placed inverted 

 over the precious treasure — amounting in all to nearly three 

 hundred pieces. Old people in the neighbourhood talk about 

 curiously carved chairs, which they can remember as having seen 

 in cottages round about ; from which remembrance we may form 

 a hope, that we have not seen the last of the hidden treasure or 

 dispersed furniture of the long departed Canons. And when we 

 take into consideration the important restorations now in progress, 

 we may fairly assume that there are many chapters in the history 

 of Brinkburn yet untold. 



