potent person, Edward III., who in 1333 tried to sleep with her royal husband in the priory (now the deanery), was compelled by the monks to quit the place in hot haste and to seek shelter in the castle, clad only in her nether garments.[1]
It is a conspicuous feature of Durham Cathedral that there is no real Lady Chapel, as in most large churches. The legendary reason for this is because St. Cuthberht objected to the intrusion of a woman (even of so great a personage as our Lady) upon his quarters, and expressed himself in a very emphatic way to Bishop Pudsey, who proposed to build such a chapel at the east end, and who thereupon raised the beautiful, if bizarre, Galilee at the west end. The story was probably invented to explain the Galilee.
More than one miracle was attributed to this portion of Cuthberht's career. They are mostly otiose. I will report one which has more local colour. There was at this time a monastery at the mouth of the river Tine in Lothian, which was afterwards known as Tiningham, and was dedicated to St. Baldred. It was then a community of men, and it happened that some of the brothers were conveying wood for the use of the monastery on rafts, and when they drew near home and wanted to draw them to the shore a sudden and tempestuous wind came from the west and, catching the rafts, drove them to the mouth of the river. The monks who were in the monastery noticing this, launched some boats on the river to help their friends, but
- ↑ Raine, St. Cuthberht, 36 and 37, notes.
