DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0051
ESSAY. Su
mentioned by Malmesbury °, in Ms life of
Aldhelm bishop of Shireburn, in Dul tinge, a
village in Somersetshire, where Aldhelm died;
it belonged to the abbey of Glastonbury,
and the monks there rebuilt it of stone. Bede
likewise tells us, that Finan, bishop of Lin-
disfame, or Holy Island, built there a church
for his episcopal sec, composed wholly of
sawn oak, and covered with reed, according
to the fashion of the Scotsp; and that Ead-
berct, one of his successors, there took off
the reed, and covered the whole, both the
roof and sides, with sheets of lead. How-
ever, these wooden fabrics, 'tis probable, were
not very common, even in those early times
of the Saxons; and, as appears by the in-
stances produced, some of them were intended
only for temporary use ; and the last-men-
tioned church at Lindisfame, was built after
a manner peculiar to the Scots. This erro-
neous account of the Saxon churches being
generally of wood, or at least without any
pillars or arches of stone, Mr. Somner was
probably led into, by relying on Mr. Stow,
whose authority he vouches and implicitly
follows; and then mistaking the sense of that
passage in king Edgar's charter, applies it to
"le entire fabrics, which was indeed appli-
° Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. p. G3.
p Bedas Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 25.
mentioned by Malmesbury °, in Ms life of
Aldhelm bishop of Shireburn, in Dul tinge, a
village in Somersetshire, where Aldhelm died;
it belonged to the abbey of Glastonbury,
and the monks there rebuilt it of stone. Bede
likewise tells us, that Finan, bishop of Lin-
disfame, or Holy Island, built there a church
for his episcopal sec, composed wholly of
sawn oak, and covered with reed, according
to the fashion of the Scotsp; and that Ead-
berct, one of his successors, there took off
the reed, and covered the whole, both the
roof and sides, with sheets of lead. How-
ever, these wooden fabrics, 'tis probable, were
not very common, even in those early times
of the Saxons; and, as appears by the in-
stances produced, some of them were intended
only for temporary use ; and the last-men-
tioned church at Lindisfame, was built after
a manner peculiar to the Scots. This erro-
neous account of the Saxon churches being
generally of wood, or at least without any
pillars or arches of stone, Mr. Somner was
probably led into, by relying on Mr. Stow,
whose authority he vouches and implicitly
follows; and then mistaking the sense of that
passage in king Edgar's charter, applies it to
"le entire fabrics, which was indeed appli-
° Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. p. G3.
p Bedas Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 25.