118 The Early History of the Upper Wylye Valley. 



Frome, where he died, to Malmesbury, where he was buried. These 

 crosses, William says, were called " Bishop's-stones." This view 

 does not seem likely, on the whole, chiefly because Bishop Egwine's 

 words, given by William of Malmesbury, " quinquaginta ferine 

 milibus ultra Maldunense monasterium deveni," seem to mean 

 simply that Doulting is about fifty miles from Malmesbury, as 

 he found on his journey ; and do not imply that the funeral 

 procession reached Malmesbury after a round to Bishopstrow. 

 Apart from the intrinsic unlikeliness of this, the mileage would be 

 too great, for Egwine is probably reckoning by the Roman mile, 

 fourteen of which are generally reckoned to thirteen English miles ; 

 and as Doulting is a good forty English miles from Malmesbury, 

 the expression " about fifty " is not a bad reckoning. Again, 

 William of Malmesbury says that these crosses were called "Bishop's- 

 stanes," so that if the place was named after this incident, the name 

 would have probably been, not Bishopstrow, but Bishopstone. 



We may, then, dismiss this last view, and return to the connection 

 of Aldhelm and Bishopstrow, and see if there is more than the 

 name only. It has been observed by Dr. Baron that two churches 

 which are traditionally associated with Aldhelm are of a peculiar 

 build. At Bishopstrow, there was an apsidal chancel with no east 

 window, but the eastern part of the apse was an unbroken space 

 of wall with a window on each side ; and at Bradford there was a 

 small doorway in the east wall of the nave instead of a chancel 

 arch. 1 Dr. Baron finds in these peculiarities a trace of the Greek 

 ecclesiastical tradition due to Aldhelm's training under Adrian, a 

 follower of Theodore of Tarsus, for Theodore was a learned Greek 

 who founded a school in Canterbury for the study of Greek, and 

 thereby created a certain sympathy with the Greek Church. 



During this time, monasteries such as Shaftesbury, and Glaston- 

 bury under Dunstan, were the centres of religion and learning. 

 The great abbey of Glastonbury, founded probably on a spot of 

 ancient sanctity, was growing, and, although we have no local details, 

 it is not likely that it would have neglected to evangelise the upper 



1 See Dr. Baron's paper in Wilts Arch. May., xx., and Mr. Ponting's 

 criticism in vol. xxvii., p. 254. 



