174 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 



picturesque garden overlooking the river, whicli is believed to 

 be the site of the old monastic buildings, and by a footpath along 

 its steep umbrageous bank to a modern summer-house, situated 

 close by the fish-pond of the monks, and recently restored 

 by its former proprietor. From its windows, as well as 

 from the cleared space on which it stands, a delightful vista 

 opened out, the alternating scaurs and herbage of the 

 l)recipitous cliffs on the opposite bank, and the winding of 

 the river as it flows towards the Holy Wheel and the 

 Monks' ford presenting a picture of rare charm and beauty. 

 The whole neighbourhood, sequestered and silent save for 

 the sound of the river by which it is almost encircled, 

 harmonises well with the spirit of sanctity, and imparts a 

 sense of the fitness of its selection for the site of a house 

 of piety and a place of pilgrimage. 



That the primitive inhabitants of this part of Britain were 

 not entire strangers to Christian enterprise and devotion, is 

 attested by the legend of the birth of St. Kentigern, a 

 descendant of King Loth, who gave his name to Lothian. 

 Such native Christianity, however, suffered extinction at the 

 hands of invading Angles, and the first confessor of the faith 

 to gain possession of the lands in this district was King 

 Edwin, won to Christ by the preaching of Paulinus in 627. 

 But the method of evangelising adopted by this saint entailed 

 no erection of places of worship, or ordination of preachers 



of the Gospel, so that on his retiring Southward 

 Historical the influence gained over the inhabitants was 

 Notes. speedily effaced by the encroachments of "a 



tide of pagan victory." Not till King Oswald 

 had raised his cross of wood, and made obeisance before it, 

 did the dwellers in Bernicia own any emblem of the Christian 

 faith; but as soon as he obtained dominion, "he sent," on 

 the authority of the Venerable Bede, "to the elders of the 

 Scots, among whom himself and his fellow-soldiers when in 

 banishment had received the Sacrament of Baptism, desiring 

 that they would send him a bishop, by whose instruction 

 and ministry the English nation which he governed might 

 be taught the benefits of the faith of Christ, and receive its 

 Sacraments. Nor were they slow in granting his request, 

 but sent him Bishop Aidau, a man of singular meekness, 



