was built, but the mere fact of the site having belonged in 
after days to the abbey is a sufficient reason for the name, just 
as Bishophill in York signifies the hill or property of the 
Archbishop. 
We must go back to an earlier period than Abbot Benedict 
and the Norman Conquest for the origin of the Selby Cemetery. 
When he set up the cross upon the river’s bank these forgotten 
members of an ancient race were laid in their wooden tombs 
below it. They had been there probably for many a long 
century even then. Instances of a similar mode of interring 
are attainable, although by no means frequent. At Gristhorpe, 
near Scarbro’, a remarkable coffin has been found, which is 
ascribed to the bronze age, and this is nearly identical in shape 
with the best of those found at Selby. Near Haltwhistle, in 
Northumberland, a similar cemetery has been discovered, in 
which the dead are all laid in trunks of trees. Professor 
Worsaae records the finding of one or two similar burials in 
Denmark, which he ascribes to the same chronological period. 
I do not see why these at Selby may not be also of a very early 
date. The beads found in them in 1857 point most probably 
to English or Saxon workmanship. The cemetery is in a 
position which our Teutonic ancestors were fond of selecting. 
In the wooden tombs in which they were interred there is the 
idea of a canoe or boat to carry them over the dark water 
which was to be crossed by the dead. The oaken trunk is the 
toctten baum of our Herman forefathers. A most remarkable 
illustration of the Selby cemetery is to be found in a paper by 
Mr. Wylie, in 1855, describing an ancient graveyard at 
Oberfiacht, in Suabia, which he ascribes to the fourth or fifth 
century. Here in little chambers of wood was laid the baum or 
coffin-tree of the dead. Ligentem quercum , decisis undique ramis , 
constituit tumulo. In these trees were evidences of wealth and 
importance—such as we may look for in vain at Selby—weapons, 
domestic utensils, and a great variety of ornaments. Beads are 
common to both. On the coffin lids in Suabia the forms of 
serpents were sculptured, a mysterious symbol which has not 
been observed in a like position in England, except on stone. 
There was, however, one remarkable point in which the two 
G 
