diers. A few yet remain, and a fine one, com-jected from his see, that province was divided; memorative of the abbot Thomas Delamere, was Hexham was erected into a see, over which saved from their fury by the inhabitants reversing Ihumbert was consecrated by Theodore, which its sides. The large brass font, which was in the remained under a succession of bishops for more chapel of the abbey of Holyrood House (see than a century, when, being united with LinChurch of England Magazine, No. 515), was disfarne, it eventually became a portion of the presented to the church by sir Richard Lee, with see of Durham. Tilford, the last bishop, was the following inscription:-" Cum Læthia, oppi- expelled from his bishopric by the Danes A.D. 821, dum apud Scotos celebre, et Edinburgus, primaria who, fifty years afterwards, destroyed the moapud eos civitas, incendio conflagrarent, Ricardus nastery, and plundered the town. In 1112, Leus, eques auratus, me flammis ereptum ad Ang- the monastery was restored for Augustine canons, los perduxit. Hujus ego tanti beneficii memor, under the second archbishop of York, and Hexnon nisi regum liberos lavare solitus, nunc ham, together with Holme, appropriated to the meam operam etiam in fines Anglorum libenter endowment of a prebendal stall to the cathedral condixi-Leus victor sic voluit. Vale, anno of York, which was rebuilt by the same prelate, Domini MDXLIII, et anno Henrici octavi termed its fifth founder, in a manner more magXXXV." This shared the same fate with the nificent than before. The Scots, under David I., brasses, and was melted down for money. pillaged the monastery, A.D. 1138; and, again attacking the town in 1296, burned the monastery and the nave of the conventual church.

The last prior of Hexham, being involved in the "Pilgrimage of Grace," was hanged at the gate of the monastery, A.D. 1536.

"On the 3rd of February, 1832, a part of the wall of the upper battlement on the south-west side of the abbey fell upon the roof below, in two masses, at an interval of five minutes between the fall of each fragment. The concussion was so great, that the inhabitants of the neighbouring In 1463, the battle was fought, near the town, houses described it as resembling the loudest thun-between the Yorkists and the Lancasterians, in der, and the detached masses of the wall came which the former, under lord Montacute, defeated down with such force that a large portion of the the latter, under the duke of Somerset, who was roof, consisting of lead and heavy timber, was taken, and beheaded at Hexham. driven into the aisle below. Besides the damage thus occasioned, the abbey generally has been a good deal out of repair for several years. The nave has been restored; but there is still a great deal to be done, which cannot be attempted by local subscription" (see "Old England," where a good account of the abbey is given). Should it be fully repaired when Hertfordshire shall become a portion of the see of Rochester, it will indeed be a very splendid building.

Half a mile to the south-east stood the nunnery of Sopwell, founded by abbot Geoffry de Gorham, about A.D. 1140, "on his observing two poor women dwelling there in a wretched hut of their own constructing, and living a most austere life on bread and water, and in regular devotion to God." This induced him to build a house for their comfortable living, and to bestow on them some possessions. He appointed also a chapel and a churchyard; ordaining that none should be buried there except the nuns; none to be admitted into the house but maidens, and the number not to exceed thirteen.

Of these some remarkable remains exist. Of two hospitals founded by the abbots, and dedicated respectively to St. Julian and St. Mary de Pratis, there is no vestige.

THE ABBEY OF HEXHAM.

WILFRID, bishop of York, founder of the church of Ripon, having obtained from Ethelreda, wife of Egfrid, king of Northumberland, a grant of the town, and a large district adjoining, called Hexhamshire, there founded a monastery, and erected a church at the Hextoldesham, or Halgustad of the Saxons. In A.D. 678, Wilfrid, being re

"Old England" is one of Mr. Knight's (Ludgate Hill) works, which we trust is well known and widely circulated among our readers. It is exceedingly interesting and instructive.

6

6

"In the spring of 1463," says Miss Strickland, in her "English Queens," Percy was defeated and slain at Hedgeley Moor, by Montague; and, a few days later, England was again set on a field' at the fatal battle of Hexham. 'King Henry,' says Hall, was the best horseman of his company that day, for he fled so fast, no one could overtake him; yet he was so closely pursued, that three of his horsemen, or body-guard, with their horses trapped in blue velvet, were taken; one of them wearing the unfortunate monarch's cap of state, called a bycocket, embroidered with two crowns of gold, and ornamented with pearls.' When the victorious Yorkists broke into the camp at Levels*, Margaret, seized with mortal terror for the life of her boy, fled with him on foot into an adjacent forest, where, in momentary dread of being overtaken by the foe, she pursued her doubtful way by the most unfrequented paths. Here she unfortunately fell in with a gang of robbers, who, attracted by the richness of her dress and that of the young prince, surrounded and despoiled them of their jewels and costly robes of estate. While they were quarrelling about the division of the plunder, Margaret, whose intrepidity and presence of mind had been the means of extricating her from a similar peril when captured by lord Stanley's followers, after the battle of Northampton, snatched her son up in her arms, and fled to a distant thicket, unobserved by the pitiless ruffians, who were deciding their dispute at swords' points. When the shades of evening closed round, the fugitive queen and her son crept fearfully from their retreat, and, uncertain whither to turn for refuge, began to thread the tangled mazes of the forest, dreading, above every other peril, the misfortune of falling into the hands of king Edward's partizans. It was possible that one random turn

Hexham Levels, near Dawil Water, vulgarly called "Devil's Water."

of Somerset, executed at Hexham. Near a spot, called St. Mary's Chare, are some remains of the ancient church, founded by Wilfrid, A.D. 678, and dedicated to the virgin.

A number of Saxon coins were found in the churchyard of Hexham in 1832, in a part called the "Campy hill." They were chiefly Saxon coins of the Northumberland kings, Eanred, Ethelred, and Redulf, and of the bishops of York, Eanbald and Vigmund. There were about 8,000.

John, prior of Hexham, in the twelfth century wrote the history of the reign of Henry II.; and his successor, Richard of Hexham, was the author of several historical works. Joseph Richardson, the dramatist, who died in 1803, was a native of Hexham; and John Tweddell, who greatly distinguished himself as a classical scholar and antiquary, was born in 1769, at Threepwood, near this place.

The following paragraph is extracted from "Old England":

might lead them into this very danger. While Margaret, bewildered with doubt and alarm, was considering what course to pursue, she perceived, by the light of the moon, another robber of gigantic stature advancing towards her with a drawn sword. Gathering courage from the desperation of her situation, Margaret took her son by the hand, and, presenting him to the freebooter, with the dignity of look and bearing that were natural to her, she said, "There, my friend; save the son of your king.' Struck with astonishment at the majestic beauty of the mother and the touching loveliness of the boy, the robber dropped his weapon at the feet of the royal suppliants, and offered to conduct them to a place of safety. A few words explained to the queen that this outlaw was a Lancastrian gentleman, who had been ruined in king Henry's service; and she frankly committed herself and her son to his care. Taking the prince in his arms, he led the queen to his own retreat, a cave in Hexham forest, where the royal fugitives were refreshed, and received such Wilfrid began the edifice by making crypts and attentions as his wife was able to afford. Strong subterraneous oratories and winding passages confirmation is given to this incident by the local through all parts of its foundations. The pillars that traditions of Hexham. No one, who has minutely supported the walls were finely polished, square, and surveyed the antiquities of that town, can doubt of various other shapes, and the three galleries were of the fact. The cave is in a most secluded spot of immense height and length. These and the on the south bank of the little rapid stream which capitals of their columns and the bow of the sancruns at the foot of Blackhill. It is still known tuary he decorated with histories and images, by the name of queen Margaret's cave; and, at carved in relief on the stone, and with pictures the time it gave shelter to her and the prince of coloured with great taste. The body of the church Wales, it must have been surrounded by forest. was surrounded with wings and porticoes, to which It is about two miles from Hexham. The en-winding staircases were contrived with astonishing trance to the cave is still very low, and was formerly artfully concealed from sight. Its dimensions are thirty-four by fourteen feet: the height will barely allow a full-grown person to stand upright. A massive pillar of rude masonry in the centre of the cave seems to mark the boundary of a wall which, it is said, once divided it into two distinct apartments. When warmed and cheered by fire and lamp, it would not appear quite so dismal a den as at present."

art. These staircases also led to long walking galleries and various winding passages, so contrived that a very great multitude of people might be within them unperceived by any person on the ground-floor of the church. Oratorios, too, as sacred as they were beautiful, were made in all parts of it, and in which were altars of the virgin, of St. Michael, St. John the Baptist, and all the apostles, confessors, and virgins. Certain towers and block-houses remain unto this day specimens of the inimitable excellence of the architecture of this structure. The relics, the religious persons, the ministers, the great library, the vestments and utensils of the church, were too numerous and magnificent for the poverty of our language to describe. The atrium of the cathedral was girt with a stone wall of great thickness and strength, and a stone aqueduct conveyed a stream of water through the town to all the offices. The magnitude of this place is manifest from the extent of its ruins. It excelled in the excellence of its architecture all the buildings in England; and, in truth, there was nothing like it at that time to be found on this side the Alps."-(Richard, prior of Hexham*).

The church-part of the conventual church of the monastery, erected on the side of the ancient cathedral-is a noble, uniform structure, in various styles of English architecture, a tower rising from the centre. The nave, burnt by the Scots in 1296, has not been rebuilt. The choir is separated from the transepts by a screen of wood richly carved in the lower part, and ornamented in the upper with an allegorical painting of the "Dance of death." On the south side of the communion table, lighted by an east window of fine tracery, is a gallery of oak, beautifully carved, beneath which are four stalls, enriched with tabernacle work; and on the north side is a shrine, or oratory, in the decorated English style, Meetings have been held to adopt measures for exquisitely ornamented, supposed to have been the restoration of some portion at least of this erected for prior Richard, of Hexham, to whom noble edifice. The illustration presents the apalso is attributed a recumbent figure on an altar-pearance of the chapel as proposed to be restored, tomb adjacent.

Among the monuments is one, said by Pennant and others, to be that of Elfwald, a Northumbrian king, killed in 788; but its style appears to be that of the thirteenth century. And on an altar-tomb is the figure of an armed knight, cross-legged, with a shield of arms, identifying him as one of the baronial family of Umfraville, though supposed by some to be that of the duke

which is now very much dilapidated, and which, until recently, was completely obscured from the town by some unsightly buildings.

B.

• A manuscript copy, entitled "Richardus prior Nagustal

densis Ecclesia de Statu et episcopis Nagustaldensis Ecclesiae," probably written about 1140, and taken from the ten ancient this little work there is a very interesting but short account of the original church.-Correspondent of "Church of England Mag."

writers in English history in the library of Bamburgh castle. In

BRIEF COMMENTS ON CERTAIN PASSAGES | unto the good-man of the house, The Master saith

OF SCRIPTURE.

BY RICHARD HUIE, M.D.

No. V.

chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And

and they made ready the passover."-LUKE Xxii. 7-18.

To an attentive observer, little things serve to indicate the character of an individual with as great certainty as those more striking acts which attract the notice of the world around him; just as the flight of the thistle-down points out the direction of the wind as accurately as the waving of the royal standard upon the palace wall.

unto thee, Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready."

Short and simple as these directions were, many circumstances were necessary to make them cor"Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover In the first place, it was must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and respond with the event. prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto necessary that, in a particular part of the city, him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, there should be a house with an upper room fitted Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water: follow him into the house up as a guest-chamber, and with a table of suffiwhere he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the good-man of cient size to accommodate thirteen persons. In the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest the second place, it was necessary that that room he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make should not be pre-occupied by any of the numerous ready. And they went, and found as he had said unto them; companies of strangers, then congregated at Jerusalem. In the third place, it was necessary that, at a particular juncture, it should be discovered that the supply of water in that house had fallen short, and that a messenger should be despatched for more. In the fourth place, it was necessary that that messenger should be a man; whereas the service, which he was sent upon, was usually performed by women. In the fifth place, it was necessary that he should not loiter by the way, nor at the well, nor be detained at the latter beyond a certain moment, in order that he might meet Peter and John as they entered the city. In the sixth place, it was necessary that these apostles themselves should not linger on their path, nor be prevented by any means from reaching the spot, where he was to meet them, at the precise instant when he arrived at it. In the seventh place, it was necessary that, in order to point out this very messenger unequivocally to the notice of the apostles, there should be, at that particular time, no other man engaged in a similar domestic duty at that part of the city. And, in the eighth, and last place, it was necessary that "the good-man of the house" should be at home when the apostles entered it, and that he should have sufficient knowledge of the Redeemer, and of his habits, to understand at once whom they meant, when they merely mentioned him by the designation of "The Master."

It is thus that the Christian, who peruses the history of his divine Master's sojourn upon earth, in the full persuasion that he is tracing the footsteps of incarnate Deity, will perceive, in the varied incidents which mark his course, as decided proofs of his being "One with the Father," as in those stupendous miracles which astonished and appalled, even when they did not convert, his prejudiced countrymen.

One of those incidents is recorded in the passage before us. It is told in simple and unpretending language, and we have no doubt is often read as if it contained nothing remarkable; yet it is one of the most singular occurrences in the New Testament, and affords as decided proof of the divinity of Christ as the most sceptical could desiderate or the most pious love to dwell on.

The hour of our Lord's deep agony was at hand; but, before his departure, he wished to eat the passover once more with his disciples, and, in so doing, to institute that feast of love by which his followers, in all ages, were to commemorate his death, and to testify their obedience to his command: "Do this in remembrance of me." All the circumstances of the solemn yet hallowed meal were already well known to him. The time, the room, the position of the table and the guests, he had arranged in his own infinite wisdom; but, willing to give his disciples the fullest evidence of his divine prescience, even of the minutest circumstances which could befall them, he names neither the house where he intends to eat the passover with them, the street in which it is situated, nor the person to whom it belongs. He merely directs Peter and John to go, and make the usual preparations for the national festival.

As he anticipated, they reply to his instructions with the natural and respectful inquiry, "Where wilt thou that we prepare?" In answer to which he gives them such directions as none but One who knew all things could have given, and such an assurance of their finding those directions effectual as none but One who ruled all things could have ventured on. "Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water: follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ve shalla ay

Here, then, were eight several circumstances; every one of which was indispensably necessary to enable the apostles to fulfil the instructions, unimportant as these were, which their divine Master had given them. If a single link in the chain had been wanting, our Lord's directions could not have been followed out. Yet, who could have foreseen and foretold these apparently trivial and fortuitous occurrences, but he, who, by his unseen and irresistible power, was directing them the while? And, when we see him thus foreseeing and foretelling and overruling events, which, though in themselves unimportant and even commonplace, were still connected with his purposes of mercy and of grace, can we wonder when we find him saying, upon another occasion, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. x. 29-31).

Of Peter and John-that singular pair, who, though strikingly dissimilar in character and disposition, are so often associated in the sacred narrative-we are simply told that, "they went, and found as he had said unto them; and they made

OMISSION.

[By an accident, the following paragraph was omitted in the article on Scottish Episcopacy, in page 363, col. 1. The reader will please to take notice that it should follow the sentence ending, "but one use."]

ready the passover." No expression of wonder at the exact fulfilment of all things, in the precise order in which Jesus had foretold them, appears to have escaped either. They had seen their divine Master do so many surprising things-they had seen him exhibit so many evidences of superhuman power, in healing the sick, restoring the maimed, controlling the elements, and even raising the dead -that the circumstance of his being able to predict the movements of a water-carrier does not seem to The death of the count of Albany, eldest have struck them as in any degree peculiar. And grandson of James VII., in 1788, released the yet we have no doubt that, after his ascension into Scottish episcopalians from their inability to comheaven, when they came to review the astonishing ply with the existing laws. In a synod held in events which had been crowded (so to speak) into the three short years of his public ministry, and April of that year, the episcopal college having had leisure to compare those mighty triumphs over met at Aberdeen, it was resolved that they and disease and death, which demonstrated his divine their clergy should submit to the present gopower, with those less striking instances of fore-vernment of this kingdom, as invested in his knowledge and prediction, which equally proved his omniscience, they would find their faith strengthened and their spirits comforted by the thought, that he who had shown himself by so many proofs to be "The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. ix. 6), would also in every circumstance, which either gilded or chequered their lot, reveal himself to them as "Emmanuel, God with us" (Matt. i. 23). And is not the same reflection eminently calculated to strengthen the faith and comfort the souls of his disciples now? Do we learn, from the New Testament, that he, who offered himself up as an offering for sin" on Mount Calvary, was the same God who propounded the moral law with such solemnity on Mount Sinai? Do we learn that he, who bade the winds and waves of Gennesaret be still," was the same almighty Being who, in the days of Noah, destroyed a guilty world by the flood? Do we learn that he, who regulates the rise and fall of empires, who commands or forbids the sun and moon to shine, at the same time upholds the sparrow and supplies the wants of the raven? And is there one event, whether prosperous or adverse, which can happen to his people without being foreseen, and appointed, and overruled by him? Or, can they ever allow despondency to take possession of their minds so long as they have a throne of grace to come to, and are assured by the apostle "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans viii. 28)?

upon

To the writer of these remarks, at least, it is at all times a source of unspeakable consolation to know that the Saviour, who died for him the tree, is also the God to whom he prays; and that, not only has he "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against his people, and taken it out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (Col. ii. 14), but that he has likewise the treasures of heaven at his disposal, and will withhold "no good thing" from them "that ask him" (Matt. vii. 11). And, with regard to every temporal concern, the writer also feels that he can rely, with implicit confidence, on the bounty of the same great and glorious Being, who, while he directs "the stars in their courses" and "measures the waters in the hollow of his hand," at the same time clothes the callow nestlings of the timid wren, and gives life and buoyancy to the minutest insect which flutters in the breeze.

majesty George III.; and it was agreed to pray for the king and royal family in the language of the English liturgy. Such a determination was not, however, at all in accordance with the feelings of a great many of the old adherents of the Stuart dynasty. It was most strenuously opposed by bishop Rose, of Dunblane, and the rev. James Brown, of Montrose. Obvious uneasiness was testified, approaching in some cases almost to irreverence, when that particular portion of the service was read; and persons advancing in life cannot fail to recollect the somewhat severe censures pronounced upon those who introduced the alteration. Soon after bishop Sandford had commenced officiating in Edinburgh, his attention was attracted by the movements of an old lady in his congregation, who was in the habit of starting from her knees during the most solemn parts of divine service. Not suspecting that political scruples were the cause of her conduct, he was on the point of remonstrating, when he was informed that, if he was offended at her indecorum, she was not less so at his conformity, and that, in her estimation, prayer for the house of Hanover, as the royal family of England, was little short of sacrilege.

A bill was brought into parliament, A.D. 1792, statutes. A convocation of the episcopal church and passed into a law, for abrogating the penal was held at Laurencekirk, Oct. 24th, 1804, when it was unanimously resolved to adopt the thirtynine articles of the church of England, which was to be their confession, and without subscription to which no persons could be admitted to holy orders.

London: Published for the Proprietors, by EDWARDS and

HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; J. BURNS, 17,

Portman Street; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

FRINTED BY

JOSEPH ROGERSON,24, NORFOLK-STREET, STRAND, LONDON.

Pop.

179 H. S. Thornton
428

1996 R. Lomax....
D. & C. of
Hereford

Parish

Quarrington

Linc...

Trinity (P. C.), Green

wich..

Houghton-Magna

(R.), Northampton

Irwin, C. K.. Magherafelt (R. & V.), 7275

Armagh
Gisleham (R.), Suff..
Grainsby (R.), Linc..
Cleator (P. C.), Cumb.
Pembroke Dock (P.C.)
Hamerton (R.) Hunt-
ingtonshire.
Rathdrummin

Louth......
Guilden-Morden (R.),
Cambridge.
Rudbaxton

Pembroke
Littleborough (P. C.),

Lancashire ...
Scisset (P. C.), near
Huddersfield, York
St.Mark (P. C.), La-`
kenham-Trowse,
Norfolk
Inniskeel (R.), Done-
gal

Llanynys (V.), Den-"

bigh, c. Cyfylliog (P. C.)........ Caythorpe (R.), Linc.

Wingham (P. C.), 1129 J. Bridge

Kent
Keady (R. & V.), Ar-
magh
Dobcross (P. C.),
Rochdale, Lanc... S
Marden (V.), Wilts..
Ideford (R.), Devon.

Markfield (R.), Leic. 1204 {Marquis