3 93 L O N 
but we are not to expect, in this clip fell the number, or 
the elegance, of thofe of Weftminfter. “ St. Peter, the 
porter of heaven,” fays Pennant, “ had far the preference 
to the tutelar faint of this cathedral. Few crowned heads 
crowded here : except thofe of Saxon race, none were 
found within thefe walls.” 
Among feveral other curiofities which Dugdale men¬ 
tions as having feen is, a “ fine picture of St. Paul, richly 
painted, and placed in a beautiful tabernacle of wood on 
the right hand of the high altar.” It had been placed there 
under the reign of Richard II. in 1398 ; and we are told 
that the price of the workmanfhip was 12!. 16s. an enor¬ 
mous fum at that time ; but we regret that Dugdale did 
not impart to us in what manner it was executed, whe¬ 
ther in oil or in difiemper, the learned being not yet fa- 
tisfied with the idea that oil-painting was not exifting at 
that time. The tabernacle mentioned above was nothing 
more, we fuppofe, than a well-carved and decorated box 
with two folding doors, as they are often feen in churches 
on the continent, and particularly in Flanders. Thefe 
boxes were not open but upon certain occafions, and were 
intended to keep the pictures from- duft, fmoke, or any ac¬ 
cident which might deface their beauty by impairing the 
brightnefs of their colours; and fuch was the refpeft paid 
to the work infide, that the ableft painters did not difdain 
to adorn the outfide with fome excellent fpecimens of 
their fkill in the art. The high altar mutt have been in 
the fame ftyle, and uncommonly beautiful. “This,” fays 
Dugdale, after a manufeript in the pofi'effion of Afhmole, 
“ as appeared) by the indented covenants between Ralphe 
de Baldock bifhop of London ancf one Richard Pickerell, 
a citizen, bad a beautiful tablet made and fitted to fet 
thereon, anno 1309, 3 Ed. II. varioufly adorned with 
many precious ftones and enamel’d work; as alfo with 
divers images of metal; which tablet flood betwixt tw<o 
columns, within a frame of wood to cover it, richly fet 
out with curious pictures; the charge thereof amounted 
to 200 marks,” about iaol. of our prefent money. The 
offerings made at this altar were of immenfe value. On 
the day of the converfion of the tutelar faint, the cha¬ 
rities were prodigious, firfi: to the fouls, when an indul¬ 
gence of forty days pardon was given, vere pcenitentibvs, 
contritis et confejfis ; and, by order of Henry III. fifteen 
hundred tapers were placed in the church, and fifteen 
thoufand poor people fed in the church-yard. But the 
molt fingular offering was that of a fat doe in winter, and 
a buck in fummer, made at the high altar, on the day of 
the commemoration of the faint, by fir William de Baude 
and his family, and then to be diftrihuted among the ca¬ 
nons refident. This was in lieu of twenty-two acres of 
land in Effex, which did belong to the canons of this 
church. Till queen Elizabeth’s days, the doe or buck 
was received folemnly, at the fteps oi the high altar, by 
the dean and chapter, attired iu their facred veftments, 
and crowned with garlands of rofes. “ They fent the 
body of the bucke to baking ; and had the head, fixed on 
a pole, borne before the croffe in the procefiion, untill they 
ifftied out of the weft doore, where the keeper that brought 
it Llowed the deathe of the bucke ; and then the horners, 
that were about the citie, prefently anfwered him in like 
manner; for which paines they had each man, of the 
deane and chapter, four pence in money, and their din¬ 
ner; and the keeper that brought it was allowed, during 
his abode there, for his fervice, meate, drin-ke, and lodg¬ 
ing, and five (Hillings in money at his going away, toge¬ 
ther with a loafe of breade having the picture of St. Paul 
upon it.” Warton’s Hilt, of Poetry, vol. ii. p. 390. 
“ In the body of the church,” fays Dugdale, “ flood the 
glorious image of the Bleffed Virgin, fixed to the pillar at 
the foot of fir John de Beauchamp’s tomb,” (viz. the fe- 
cond pillar on the fouth fide from the fteeple weff wards.) 
In the year 1365, a grant was made to the dean and chap¬ 
ter, by John Barnet, bifhop of Bath and Wells, of one 
water-mill, feveral acres of arable land, meadow, pafture, 
and of wood, amounting in all to ninety-eight, and 43s. 
D O N. 
of yearly rent, laying in Raffcke, co. .Effex, for the per¬ 
petual maintenance of a lamp burning every nMrt before 
this image. It was ftipulated befides in the grant, that 
every day after mattins thofe prefent thould go out of the 
choir, and, placing themfelves before the image, fing an 
“ Anthem of Our Lady, foil. Ne/ciens Mater." This reli¬ 
gious cullom was kept up to the time of the reformation. 
The donations offered to this image, being very numerous 
and valuable, were the perquifites of the dean and canons, 
as well as the money which the devotion and charity of 
the faithful ufed to drop into an iron box placed at the foot 
of the image. We are not told what materials that image 
was made of; but it appears that mafs was performed on 
an altar below it. 
In the eaffern part of the church, called the New Work, 
was the Chapel of Our Lady, as we find it in nearly all 
ancient churches ; and there was alfo an image of the 
Virgin, in honour of whom the good people were invited, 
by the promife of forty days indulgence, to repeat a few 
Paters and Avcs, and to give books, veftments, tapers, and 
any other ornaments, to the church. A taper was con- 
ftantly burning before the great crofs which was in the 
body of the church : this was maintained by two acres of 
land fftuatea in Sandon, co. Herts, given by Ralph de 
Clatford. Towards the great north door, a crucifix was 
erefffed, to which frequent donations were made. 
But the principal objeft of devotion was the famous 
(hrine of St. Erkenwakl, the venerable bifirop, whom we 
have mentioned at pages 56 and 397. He was ftated to be the 
fon of Offa king of the Eaft Saxons ; and had been con¬ 
verted to the faith in Chrift by Mellitus, firfi bifirop of 
London, in 642. Before he was promoted to the dignity 
of a bifhop, he eretted two very handfome monafteries, at 
bis own expenfe, and out of his own patrimony : one in 
Surry, on the banks of the river Thames, at a place called 
then Cerotefeya, now Chertfey, where he prefided over his 
monks, giving them the belt examples of abnegation and 
piety ; and the other in Effex, at Berchingum, now Bark¬ 
ing, for Edelburga his fifter, whom he placed at the head 
of the nuns there. He was confecrated a biihop by 
Theodorus archbifhop of Canterbury, in the year 675 ; 
converted, and baptized with his own hands, Sebba king 
of the Eaft-Saxons, who, leaving the pomp and vanities- 
of this world, loon confecrated his life to the practice of 
virtue, and was buried in this cathedral under a marble 
vault, which exifted in the time of Dugdale, from whom 
we derive our bell information ; and fiiared with all the 
other monuments the fate of the church in 1666. 
St. Erkenwnld, or Erconwald, as the name is fome- 
times fpelr, fat eleven years on the fee, and appeared to 
have been moft defervedly beloved and revered by his 
flock. It would be ridiculous to report here many of the 
numerous miracles he is faid to have performed. The 
eafy belief yielded to many incredible relations found moll 
likely its origin in the blind relpeft vfhich they bore, in 
fpiritual matters, to a man whofe morality, humanity, and 
private and public liberality, had won their utmoll grati¬ 
tude. Man is too prone, indeed, to invent and believe 
wonderful things of the objefl of his ve'neration and his- 
love; and, from the ruftic clown who hangs to the lips 
and believes in the dreams of the girl of his heart, up to 
the fuperftitious Chriftians who thought they were cured 
by the mere touch of St. Erkenwald’s litter, we can trace 
the fame principle nearly every-where. We read in a 
Latin extract of his life, written in a moft florid ftyle of 
elegance, the following paffage: Quadam verd die, verbi Dei- 
pabula, comnijjo fibi gregi, miaijlratum dum duaruvi rotarum 
ferretur vehiculo injirmitale prapediente vel fenio, contigit . nt 
altera rotarum femitis difficultate axem rclinquerct, ct ibidem, 
jbeia rcliEla, remaneret. Citnique diu rota reliqua Jolum ojficiifui 
curfum continuaret ; ignorabant enim qui aderant, J'ubito currus en 
altera parte vacuus JvJlevtamine cerr.itur, cujus tamcn curfus ufit 
novo imd infolito, mirabiliter perjicetur . “ Riding one day in 
a two-wheel carriage, as he was going to dillribute the 
fpiritual food of his inftrudtion to the flock intruded to 
his 
