24G 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
where a lofty tower or spire would so dominate it as to inter¬ 
fere with its imposing majesty. 
The excavations which it was necessary to make at the 
bases of the piers of the central tower, in order to test the 
state of their foundations, led to a very interesting discovery. 
At the foot of the south-eastern pier were found the remains 
of a Saxon building, doubtless the church of the ancient 
monastery. This church was destroyed by the Danes when 
they attacked the monastery in 870. The Abbot John tells 
us in his Chronicle that when they came to Medesliamstede, 
the Danes found the inhabitants of the neighbourhood 
collected beneath the walls of the monastery, which were of 
such strength that they were obliged to attack them with 
engines, and cover their approaches with archers. Enraged at 
the obstinacy of the defence, and especially at the death of 
his own brother, the Danish leader slew all the monks with 
his own hand, desecrated the shrines, trampled under foot 
the relics of the saints, and set fire to the monastery, which 
was entirely consumed, the fire continuing to rage for fifteen 
days. And now, after the lapse of a thousand years, the 
disinterred walls show traces of the action of the fire. The 
stone tells the story of the destruction. The intense heat to 
which it has been subjected has changed the colour, and in some 
portions has left the edges cindery and friable. The walls now 
exposed to view are of no great thickness, and were probably 
never of any great height, the upper part of the building having 
doubtless been of wood. First of all there was laid open to the 
north of the pier a wall, or rather two walls, with a narrow 
space between them running east and west. These walls, as 
has been said, are slight, and the method of their construc¬ 
tion and arrangement confirms the supposition that they 
were intended to carry a wooden superstructure. Beyond these 
to the north was evidently open ground, a short wall at right 
angles to the others coming there to an abrupt termination; 
whereas on the south side and west of the pier, at a depth of 
some six feet below the level of the present Cathedral, the 
workmen came upon the plaster floor of the ancient building. 
This was again reached in the south aisle, and extended in all 
probability to a considerable distance west and south. In 
the south transept the floor can be followed eastward to a 
plaster seat placed at the extremity of the building against 
the external eastern wall. Here it is plain that the limit of 
the building eastward has been reached, because in the open 
surface beyond a massive stone sarcophagus is standing, 
obviously of much more recent date. The lid of this coffin is 
of uncommon thickness, but at present it is impossible to open 
