Ruined remnants of the Iona monastery are still to be found on that little Western island--within hearing almost of the waves that surge into the caves of Staffa. And from this island stand-point, the monkish missions were established athwart Scotland; finding foothold too all down the coast of Northumberland. Early among these and very notable, was the famous Abbey of Lindisfarne or the Holy Isle, not far southward from the mouth of the Tweed. You will recall the name as bouncing musically, up and down, through Scott’s poem of “Marmion.” A little farther to the south, upon the Yorkshire coast, came to be established, shortly afterward, the Whitby monastery; its ruins make now one of the shows of Whitby town--one of the favorite watering places of the eastern coast of England, and well known for giving its name to what is called Whitby jet--which is only a finer sort of bituminous coal, of which there are great beds in the neighborhood.[8] The Abbey ruin is upon heights, from which are superb views out upon the German Sea that beats with grand uproar upon the Whitby cliffs. To the westward is the charming country of Eskdale, and by going a few miles southward one may come to Robinhood’s bay; and in the intervening village of Hawsker may be seen the two stones said to mark the flight of the arrows of Robinhood and Little John, when they tried their skill for the amusement of the monks of Whitby. _Cædmon._ Well, in the year of our Lord 637, this Whitby Abbey was founded by the excellent St. Hilda, and it was under her auspices, and by virtue of her saintly encouragements, that the first true English poet, Cædmon, began to sing his Christian song of the creation. He was but a cattle-tender--unkempt--untaught, full of savagery, but with a fine phrenzy in him, which made his paraphrase of Scripture a spur, and possibly--in a certain imperfect sense, a model for the muse of John Milton. Of the chaos before creation, he says:-- Earth’s surface was With grass not yet be-greened; while far and wide The dusky ways, with black unending night Did ocean cover. Of the great Over-Lord God-Almighty, he says-- In Him, beginning never, Or origin hath been; but he is aye supreme Over heaven’s thrones, with high majesty Righteous and mighty. And again,--that you may make for yourselves comparison with the treatment and method of Milton,--I quote this picture of Satan in hell:--