DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6913#0102
52
architectural antiquities.
iltntitsfarn, or Holy plana fflonmttxy*
durham.
by william burdon, esq.
" The tide did now its flood-mark gain,
And girded in the Saint's domain;
For with the flow and ebb, its stile
Varies from continent to isle."
Scott's Marmion.
The history of Lindisfarn, or Lindisfarne, by some called Holy Island, as connected
with the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, cannot fail to be interesting to
those who delight in the study of mankind, under different forms of government
and religion ; for it belongs to the general history of civilization, and presents to
their view a description of beings whose singularities have hardly lost their effect
even on the present generation, as the legends of the saints yet find believers among
a numerous body of mankind, who reverence them more in a religious than a
political light, and consider their austerities as the model of human excellence. The
Saxons, a fierce and barbarous race of men, changed, in a great measure, their
character after they embraced the Christian faith; for though the profession of the
cross did not altogether subdue, as it ought to have subdued, their warlike dispo-
sition, it softened in some degree their national ferocity, and rendered them more
studious to cultivate those peaceful and elegant arts which a religion so much in-
debted to the imagination as Popery naturally gives rise to.
The island of Lindisfarn is situated three miles eastward from the eastern coast
of Great Britain, on the north part of Northumberland, and nine miles from Berwick :
it is nine miles in circumference, and contains 1020 acres, which have since the year
1792 been much improved by enclosure. It is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, and
is held, under lease from the crown, by H. C. Selby, Esq. St. Bede calls it a semi-
architectural antiquities.
iltntitsfarn, or Holy plana fflonmttxy*
durham.
by william burdon, esq.
" The tide did now its flood-mark gain,
And girded in the Saint's domain;
For with the flow and ebb, its stile
Varies from continent to isle."
Scott's Marmion.
The history of Lindisfarn, or Lindisfarne, by some called Holy Island, as connected
with the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, cannot fail to be interesting to
those who delight in the study of mankind, under different forms of government
and religion ; for it belongs to the general history of civilization, and presents to
their view a description of beings whose singularities have hardly lost their effect
even on the present generation, as the legends of the saints yet find believers among
a numerous body of mankind, who reverence them more in a religious than a
political light, and consider their austerities as the model of human excellence. The
Saxons, a fierce and barbarous race of men, changed, in a great measure, their
character after they embraced the Christian faith; for though the profession of the
cross did not altogether subdue, as it ought to have subdued, their warlike dispo-
sition, it softened in some degree their national ferocity, and rendered them more
studious to cultivate those peaceful and elegant arts which a religion so much in-
debted to the imagination as Popery naturally gives rise to.
The island of Lindisfarn is situated three miles eastward from the eastern coast
of Great Britain, on the north part of Northumberland, and nine miles from Berwick :
it is nine miles in circumference, and contains 1020 acres, which have since the year
1792 been much improved by enclosure. It is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, and
is held, under lease from the crown, by H. C. Selby, Esq. St. Bede calls it a semi-