By J. U. Powell. 211 



Now Osmund, 1078 — 1099, the most eminent Bishop of Salis- 

 bury in Norman times, who built Old Sarum Cathedral, was clearly 

 a great admirer of St. Aldhelm (see Registrum Saneti Osmundi, ii., 

 Introd. p. xxxi., by the Eev. W. H. B. Jones). It was he who 

 translated Aldhelm's remains to a shrine at Malmesbury, and 

 obtained one of his bones for a reliquary at Salisbury, and helped 

 Archbishop Lanfranc to obtain his canonisation. What is more 

 likely, then, than that in Little Langford Church we find an 

 illustration of the influence of Osmund, and another trace of the 

 interest which he felt in Aldhelm ? 



Wiltshire is not very rich in folk-lore, and perhaps one may be 

 pardoned for giving the local legend (Dr. Guest, Journal of the 

 Brit. Arch. Assoc, vi. (1851), p. 85) : — 



" A fair and noble lady held vast possessions in the county, and 

 claimed in a spirit of avarice what did not strictly belong to her, namely, 

 a large portion of the Forest of Grovely. One day she went to the wood, 

 and gathered some nuts, in one of which she found a maggot of unusual 

 size, and in a fit of woman's caprice took it home and nursed it with 

 such care, that it grew to an enormous magnitude, but requited the lady's 

 kindness by biting her finger so severely as to cause her death. The 

 broken canopy they take for the maggot, the bishop for the lady, the 

 pellets for the nuts, and the birds and anchor for Grovely wood." 



The Eev. F. W. Macdonald tells the conclusion which brings in 

 the boar -hunt : — 



" The beast ate her, and the inhabitants came with dogs and killed 

 the beast." 



There is, perhaps, another representation of Aldhelm which 

 one may still see. In Wiltshire Notes and Queries, No. 49, 

 p. 12, are figured two Malmesbury Abbey seals, the first, that of 

 Walter Camme.appointed Abbot in 1360,and the second is probably 

 that in general use in the monastery. They are taken from Dr. 

 Birch's Catalogue of Seals in the British Museum. His description 

 is : — " Pointed Oval, the Abbot mitred, standing on a carved corbel, 

 lifting up the r. h. in benediction ; in the 1. h. a pastoral staff 

 ( ? turned inwards, denoting jurisdiction within the monastery). 

 In the field on either side, a small niche, with trefoiled arch con- 

 taining a head, probably that of St. Aldhelm on the 1., of St. Mary 



