In the early history of the majority, if not of all of these cathedrals, it is interesting to note the many points of resemblance. It will be observed that most of them had their inception in the seventh century. A most convenient way also of remembering, if actual dates be forgotten, is that the commencement of the same century heralded the arrival of St. Augustine and his forty monks at Canterbury, and the re-establishment of Christianity in England. Whatever previous efforts had been attempted to christianise the natives (prior to this century) pale into insignificance after the landing of this great missionary from Rome. The subsequent important events are invariably five; namely, the devastations of the Danes in the ninth century, the erections of castles to overawe the inhabitants with the ecclesiastical foundations, still extant, after the dreaded millennium had passed, from the Conquest; the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.; the desecration and mutilation of the churches under Cromwell's Protectorate; and the inevitable restoration, not always happy, of these grand buildings. The Venerable Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical History," ingeniously attributes the derivation of the name to an eel, called "Elge," on the assumption of the great abundance of this fish in the neighbourhood. At the same time another rendering, by some one else, supposes that the Saxon "Helyg," a willow, which flourished extensively, owing to the marshy nature of the soil round about the city, gave rise to the present contraction. However it may be, Ely dates from the year 673. The subsequent history of the Church and state of this famous place originated in that year from the small foundation of a monastery for monks and nuns by Ethelreda. This princess was the daughter of the King of the East Angles, and the wife of Egfred, the King of Northumberland. She had devoted a great deal of her life to monasticism, and eventually constituted herself as the first abbess of her religious effort. A contradictory account gives it that this lady more likely became the first abbess of a religious house which she had filled with virgins. Their number is not stated. Nothing more is heard or worth relating of the welfare of this royal benefice until the ninth century, when, in the natural order of things, it was destroyed by the Danes. In 879, a matter of nine years after this devastation, it was partially restored by those brethren who had fortunately escaped the massacre. Under the government of provosts they were established and existed as secular priests for nearly a century. At the end of this period of inactivity it received much attention from Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. This prelate in 970 purchased the whole of the Isle of Ely from Edgar. He then rebuilt the monastery and endowed it munificently. In it regular monks were placed under the rule of an abbot, to whom Edgar granted the secular jurisdiction of two hundreds within and five hundreds without