est domus ista domorum." The slight sketch I enclose may, therefore, I trust be acceptable. It will serve for a memorial of what we could once show in Norfolk; and I shall be happy if the Society should think it on this account deserving of a place in their volumes.

On the following day we met with the stone Coffin-lid and Column, of which I also send outline sketches, and, I own, with the same hope. The former of these occurred to us in the burial-ground of Durham Cathedral, among many of an interesting character; and it is, if my memory be correct, unlike any of the great variety figured in the Sepulchral Monuments. The Cow at the foot of the Cross at once attracted our notice; so obvious appeared the inference that the sculpture could scarcely fail to refer to the legend which assigned its present locality to the sacred building. Dogs, lions, and different animals, emblematical of fidelity, strength, courage, &c., we know to be commonly found in a similar position; but how, except by such reference, could we account for a cow? The curious tradition is detailed at much length in Hutchinson's History of Durham, and Davies, in his edition of the Antient Rites and Monuments of the Cathedral, relates it with more terseness and naïveté. From this latter, therefore, are mainly gathered the following particulars, requisite to throw light upon the sculpture. When the Danes in the ninth century ravaged Holy Island and destroyed the church of Lindisfarn, the depository of the remains of St. Cuthbert, Eardulph, the bishop, attended by many of the monks and inhabitants, fled southward, carrying with them this their most precious possession. They wandered and wandered, till, finding no rest for the soles of their feet, they determined to cross the sea, hoping to meet with that repose and safety in Ireland, which seemed denied them at home. But storms and tempests, accompanied with fearful portents, forbade their passage; and they returned, disheartened and irresolute what course to take, till, by a fresh interposition from above,

"a red horse came running towards them, and did offer himself to be bridled, and to ease their pains by carrying the chest wherein St. Cuthbert's body was laid.” Thus aided and comforted, they transported their charge to Craike near Easingwold, and, after a residence there of four months, proceeded to Chester-le-Street, where King Guthred built them a Cathedral. Here they remained 111 years; at the expiration of which time another incursion of their former enemies occasioned another flight, and they sought refuge in Ripon. The war soon ceasing, they thought to return to Chester, but had proceeded no further than Wardlaw in their way thither, when on a sudden the body became immoveable : it was wedded, as it were, to its mother earth, and all human efforts were powerless towards effecting a removal. It were injustice to my author not to allow him to relate the subsequent part of the story in his own words: "This strange and unexpected accident," he says, "wrought great admiration in the hearts of the Bishop's monks and their associates; and, ergo, they fasted and prayed three days with great reverence and devotion, desiring to know by revelation what they should do with the holy body of St. Cuthbert: which thing was granted unto them, and therein they were directed to carry him to Dunholme. But being distressed because they were ignorant where Dunholme was, see their good fortune! As they were going, a woman that lacked her cow, did call aloud to her companion to know if she had not seen it, who answered with a loud voice that her cow was in Dunholme, a happy and heavenly echo to the distressed monks, who by that means were at the end of their journey; for there they should find a resting-place for the body of their honored saint." At Dunholme accordingly they interred him, nothing reluctant; and over his grave they erected first a small church, and subsequently a splendid cathedral. The historian proceeds to relate, how, in the construction of the latter, Aldwinus, the then bishop, and

i