By J. U. Powell, M.A. 



117 



near the church ; the name, too, of Five Ash Lane is found in the 

 adjoining parish. If we adopt this derivation, we must look for 

 their position near the church ; for the population would he near 

 the water, the meadows, and the mill, and in the direction of the 

 cultivated land near the Eoman villas. There a missionary would 

 find his audience. In the same way, Brigit founded a church at 

 Kildare beside an ancient oak-tree, which gives its name to the 

 church ; Kil-dare means " church of the oak." (Hyde, Literary 

 History of Ireland, 158.) But another derivation has great plausi- 

 bility. " Treow " means not only " tree," but also " cross " ; and 

 Canon Jones (History of Diocese of Sarum, p. 44) suggests that 

 " more than a fragment of truth " underlies this story, and that 

 " perhaps Aldhelm held the cross up before the people, or fixed it 

 in the ground." In the same way, Kentigern " set up the cross " 

 at Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, in 553, and preached there (Bawnsley, 

 English Lakes, L, 7, 76 : — ) 



" They listened in their multitudes 

 To one that 'midst them stood 

 And reared the Cross ; as painters draw 

 John Baptist in the wood." 



(A. C. Coxe, Christian Ballads.) 



With this we may compare Stubbs (I., 225), " There were as yet 

 very few Churches ; crosses were set up in the villages and on the 

 estates of Christian nobles, at the foot of which the missionaries 

 preached " ; and Earle (Land Charters, p. 471), " Crosses . . . 

 above all were erected where as yet there was no church-house ; 

 then they were surrounded by a lic-tun (grave-yard), and a ring of 

 yew-trees." This derivation is very attractive and almost convincing. 

 A third suggestion as to the name must be mentioned, as it has 

 the authority of the Bishop of Bristol ( Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xxxi. 

 p.- 280). 1 He suggests that the name may mark the site of one of 

 the stone crosses which William of Malmesbury tells us were set up 

 by the order of Bishop Egwine of Worcester, wherever the body 

 of Aldhelm rested while it was being brought from Doulting, near 



1 This paragraph was written before the Bishop of Bristol's " A Idhelm's 

 Life and Times " (1903) appeared. He has withdrawn this view for other 

 reasons. 



