called Laestingaeu [Lastingham], and instituted rules there, according to the customs of the monks of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated. And when for many years he [Cedd] had administered the episcopate in the aforesaid province, and also had taken charge of this monastery, over which he set superiors, it happened that coming to this same monastery at a time of mortality, he was attacked by bodily infirmity and died. At first, indeed, he was buried outside, but in process of time a church was built of stone in the same monastery, in honour of the blessed mother of God, and in that church his body was laid on the right side of the altar." Cedd's death took place in 664, and Ceadda or Chad, one of his brothers, succeeded him as he had desired. [Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale. (_From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A._)] Nothing remains of the buildings of this early monastery, and what happened to them, and what caused their disappearance, is purely a matter of conjecture. We can only surmise that they were destroyed during the Danish invasions of the ninth century. At Kirkdale church, which is situated close to the cave already described, there was discovered about the year 1771 a sundial bearing the longest known inscription of the Anglo-Saxon period. The discoverer was the Rev. William Dade, rector of Barmston, in the East Riding, and a letter of great length, on the stone, from the pen of Mr J. C. Brooke, F.S.A. of the Herald's College, was read at the Society of Antiquaries in 1777. The sundial, without any gnomon, occupies the central portion of the stone, which is about 7 feet in length, and the inscription is closely packed in the spaces on either side. It reads as follows, the lines in brackets having the contractions expanded:-- [Transcriber's Note: The "|"s below are my best rendition in plain ASCII of a Saxon ampersand, which is a long vertical bar with a short horizontal bar at the top, pointing to the left.] + ORM . GAMAL . SVNA . BOHTE . SC[=S] [ + ORM . GAMAL . SUNA . BOHTE . SANCTUS] GREGORIVS . MINSTER . EthONNE HIT [GREGORIUS . MINSTER . THONNE HIT] PES AEL TOBROCAN . | TOFALAN . | HE [WES AEL TOBROCAN . & TOFALAN . & HE] HIT IET . MACAN . NEPAN . FROM GRVNDE [HIT LET . MACAN . NEWAN . FROM GRUNDE] XPE: | SCS GREGORIVS . IN EADPARD [CHRISTE: & SANCTUS GREGORIUS . IN EADWARD] DAGVM C[=N]G | N TOSTI DAGVM EORL + [DAGUM CYNING & IN TOSTI DAGUM EORL +] Completed under the dial. + | HAPAREth ME PROHTE . | BRAND P[=RS] [+ & HAWARTH ME WROHTE . & BRAND {PRAEPOSITUS] {PRESBYTERS] The modern rendering is generally accepted as: "Orm, the son of Gamal, bought St Gregory's minster (or church) when it was all broken and fallen, and caused it to be made anew from the ground for Christ and St Gregory in the days of King Edward, and in the days of Earl Tosti, and Hawarth wrought me and Brand the Prior, (priest or priests)."