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give its leading facts, extracted from an admirable paper on this sub- 

 ject by Messrs. Dennet and Barton, of the Isle of Wight, and published 

 in "The Archaelogical Association Journal" for August, 1 847, as explana- 

 tory of a mural painting discovered atShorewell Church in April, 1847. 

 The authors take for their authority Gaxton's edition of " The Golden 

 Legend," printed in the year 1483, and translated by him from Jacobus 

 de Yoragine. 



" St. Christopher was of right great stature, with a terrible and fear- 

 ful countenance, and he was twelve cubits in length. He was in the ser- 

 vice of the king, but it came into his mind that he would seek the 

 greatest prince, and him only would he obey." Accordingly, he travels 

 till he comes to one sovereign who is renowned as the greatest in the 

 world ; in his service he stays till upon a time a minstrel " song to fore 

 him a song in which he named the devil oft ;" and the king, which 

 was a Christian man, when he heard him name the devil, made anon 

 the sign of the cross. Christopher asks the reason of this ; and, on 

 learning that it was to protect him from the power of evil, concludes 

 that the devil is mightier far than the king, whom he therefore leaves, 

 saying, " I will go to search him [the devil] to be my lord, and him 

 will I serve." 



In journeying over the desert he meets a great company of knights; 

 and one of them, with a cruel and horrible countenance, tells him 

 that he is the power he seeks. They journey on till they come to a 

 cross ; and the devil, in sore affright, leaves the direct road in which it 

 stands. This excites Christopher's curiosity, who, discovering the 

 true reason for this fear, exclaims, "I have laboured in vain ; I will 

 serve thee no longer, for I will go seek Jesus Christ." 



He travels then into a desert, and meets a hermit, who instructs 

 him in Christianity, and ultimately places him beside a rapid river, 

 where many perish who try to cross it, to bear over travellers harm- 

 less, because he is of gigantic stature and strength. Christopher then 

 bare a great pole in his hand, instead of a staff, by which he sustained 

 him in the water ; and bare over all manner of people without ceasing. 



One night, as he slept on his bed, he heard the voice of a child 

 calling him. Then Christopher "lyft up the child on his shoulders, 

 and took his staff, and entered into the ryver for to passe;" and the 

 water of the river rose more and more, and the child was heavy as 

 lead ; and alway he went further, the water increased, and the child 

 more and more waxed heavy, so that Christopher had great anguish, 

 and was afraid to be drowned." When he had escaped to the other side, 

 he set the child aground, and said, " Thou hast put me in great peril; 

 thou wast almost as I had all the world upon me." And the child 

 answered, "Thou hast not only borne all the world, but thou hast 

 borne Him that made all the world, upon thy shoulders. I am the 

 Chris te the King, to whom thou servest in thy worke." And, as a 

 token of the truth, he tells him that, if he sets his staff in the earth by 

 his house, it shall grow ; and when he arose in the morning, he found 

 his staff like a palmy er tree, bearing flowers, leaves, and dates. 



