Dunholme.
("Doomsday Book.")
Hac sunt in fossa Bedae Venerabilis ossa.
Though Durham dates from the tenth century, yet it is necessary, to
understand the growth of its power, to go back to the seventh century.
The exact date of the birth of St. Cuthbert is unknown. As a youth he
was admitted into Melrose Abbey, where in the course of fourteen years
he became monk and prior. From there he passed another fourteen years in
the Convent of Lindisfarne, after which he retired to Farne for nine
years. At the end of this period he was persuaded, most unwillingly, by
Egrid, King of Northumbria, to become Bishop of Lindisfarne, a See in
Bernicia, as Durham County was then called.
But after two years' office he retired to Farne. There died St. Cuthbert
on March 20, A.D. 687, in the thirty-ninth year of his monastic life,
still undecided as to where he should be buried. However, the remains
were reverently preserved in the Church of Lindisfarne, till the monks
were compelled to flee, owing to the invasion of the Danes, towards the
end of the ninth century. Though in dire dread and confusion, the monks
forgot not their sacred trust, but carried the holy remains of St.
Cuthbert with them.
They wandered many a weary day throughout the North of England in search
of "Dunholme," which Eadner, a monk of their order, declared to them had
been divinely revealed to him as the lasting place of rest for the holy
and incorruptible body of St. Cuthbert. They seemed to have had great
difficulty in locating the whereabouts of Dunholme, for according to
tradition they were miraculously delivered from their nomadic life. As
they proceeded they heard a woman inquire of another if she had seen her
cow, which had gone astray. Much to their joy and relief they heard the
reply, "In Dunholme."
Thereupon they climbed to the summit of the "Hill Island," at the base
of which they had arrived, as they wished to deposit their corruptible
burden on a spot so close to Heaven that it should remain incorruptible,
and by its incorruptibility be a fitting foundation on which to build a
shrine worthy of their Saint and the God who honoured him.
[Illustration: DURHAM