Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six CantosScott, Walter
General
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos
Scott, Walter
Flodden, Battle of, England, 1513 -- Poetry
'The resting-place of the remains of this Saint is not now matter of
uncertainty. So recently as 17th May, 1827,--1139 years after his
death--their discovery and disinterment were effected. Under a blue
stone, in the middle of the shrine of St. Cuthbert, at the eastern
extremity of the choir of Durham Cathedral, there was then found a
walled grave, containing the coffins of the Saint. The first, or
outer one, was ascertained to be that of 1541, the second of 1041;
the third, or inner one, answering in every particular to the
description of that of 698, was found to contain, not indeed, as had
been averred then, and even until 1539, the incorruptible body, but
the entire skeleton of the Saint; the bottom of the grave being
perfectly dry, free from offensive smell, and without the slightest
symptom that a human body had ever undergone decomposition within
its walls. The skeleton was found swathed in five silk robes of
emblematical embroidery, the ornamental parts laid with gold leaf,
and these again covered with a robe of linen. Beside the skeleton
were also deposited several gold and silver insignia, and other
relics of the Saint.
'(The Roman Catholics now allow that the coffin was that of St.
Cuthbert.)
'The bones of the Saint were again restored to the grave in a new
coffin, amid the fragments of the former ones. Those portions of the
inner coffin which could be preserved, including one of its rings,
with the silver altar, golden cross, stole, comb, two maniples,
bracelets, girdle, gold wire of the skeleton, and fragments of the
five silk robes, and seme of the rings of the outer coffin made in
1541, were deposited in the library of the Dean and Chapter, where
they are now preserved.'--LOCKHART.
For ample details regarding St. Cuthbert, see 'St. Cuthbert,' by
James Raine, M. A. (4to, Durham, 1828).
line 263. For 'fair Melrose' see opening of Canto II, 'Lay of the
Last Minstrel,' and Prof. Minto's note in the Clarendon Press
edition.
Stanza XV. line 292. 'Every one has heard, that when David I, with
his son Henry, invaded Northumberland in 1136, the English host
marched against them under the holy banner of St. Cuthbert; to the
efficacy of which was imputed the great victory which they obtained
in the bloody battle of Northallerton, or Cuton-moor. The conquerors
were at least as much indebted to the jealousy and intractability of
the different tribes who composed David's army; among whom, as
mentioned in the text, were the Galwegians, the Britons of Strath-
Clyde, the men of Teviotdale and Lothian, with many Norman and
German warriors, who asserted the cause of the Empress Maud. See
Chalmers's "Caledonia," vol. i. p. 622; a most laborious, curious,
and interesting publication, from which considerable defects of
style and manner ought not to turn aside the Scottish antiquary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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