AMMOPHILA. 209 



built by shepherds in our muirlands as a shelter in bad weather ; and 

 the Saint, it is no improbable conjecture, may have got his lesson in 

 the art when he was a shepherd boy on the banks of the Leader. 

 The rude hut, built, Bede expressly tells us, of stones and turf, was 

 as rudely thatched : " culmina de lignis informibus et foeno super- 

 posuit." The fcenum we will assume was the Bent. Raine informs 

 us, p. 161, that in Holy Island, "a sandy soil whereon grows a sort 

 of grass called Bents, is common among the freemen, who have each 

 a right to depasture a certain number of cattle thereon, and to cut 

 Bents for covering their houses." In the Account Rolls there are 

 other notices respecting this grass. " 1344-5. Brushwood, fewel, 

 and bent bought, 43«. 4c?.*" In the same year another entry is, 

 "Bent for the hall and chamber in summer and autumn, 10c?." — 

 1346-7. "Bent for strewing the hall and chamber in summer, 5|d." 

 — These were the customs of a " good olden time," of which it is 

 pleasant pastime to read, — with a sense, I trust, of thankfulness that 

 we were not born then and therein. 



The Rev. Mr. Raine has written the history of Holy Island with 

 minute and learned accuracy. Another historian, of congenerous 

 taste and learning, describes it as " a poor shabby place," and the 

 town as " a dirty fishing town." But this is to look upon the sacred 

 isle with the eye half-awake, — to deprive it of the better half of its 

 function, and forbid it to wander afield lured by the light which 

 shines far off, glorious in the distance. To the' eye thus at freedom, 

 Lindisfarne becomes the greenest spot in our prospect, and the most 

 interesting field for the naturalist's researches. It was the mother 

 of all the churches in the north, — the nurse of our religion, and of 

 much of our civilization ; and you may wander amidst its ruins and 

 decay with the same reverential feelings that moved and agitated 

 Samuel Johnson at Icolmkill. Hence I have been induced to give a 

 plan of the island that you may more readily note the various locali- 

 ties, and more accurately indicate your own discoveries. For this 

 plan I am indebted to Mr. John Lowrey. On examining it, it 

 appears that the cultivated portion in the time of the good Prior, 

 extended over a larger space than at present, — he may have had more 

 corn and less bent. This fact was only discovered during the present 

 year, when the island was visited by Sir Walter Calverly Trevelyan ; 

 and he found the evidence in the traces of former culture on land 

 which is now buried under a layer of drifted sand. See Plate VII. 

 The Prior had also gardens there which the present plots do not 

 rival. There was his orchard ; and, mindful of his men and their 

 comfort, — ^he was a good Prior,— he gives " to John Quit, mowing 

 the orchard of the Monastery, for drink 3d." It was a hot day, 

 and the beer was good and grateful. There was, at least, another 

 "John the Gardener ; " and he had for certain an "outer garden" 

 to care for ; and doubtless too an inner garden, wherein grew all the 

 rare and cordial plants of that time, breathing their incense around 



* Mr. Raine infers that this entry proves the Bent to have served for 

 fuel, — an inference which does not seem naturally to follow. 



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