(Barking), certain lands. And lest any should thereafter arise to dispute his grants to them, he enumerates them as so many terræ or estates. The eighth and last is that called Earbeth and Swanscomb given by the King Ethelbert, and consisting of several pieces of land to which houses were attached. The signatures follow of Erenwald, Bishop and Donor; Wilfred, Bishop; Hedda, Bishop; Guda, Priest and Abbot; Eggbald, Priest and Abbot; Sebbi, King of East Saxons; Sigecerh, King; Suebred, King.

This document would seem to establish the theory that the embankment of the Roding was of extremely early date. For it tells in detail of fields, woods, meadows, and marsh; and there could hardly be these distinctions of meadows and marsh, if the walls of the Thames and the Roding had not been inned. We find Dagenham in the first donation, which would have been partly under water, had there been no fence. If the latter syllable in Barking-name given by the Saxons-signifies meadows, we must suppose the lands drained at this time.

The author just quoted refers also to the date of the marsh "innings." He asserts that the Saxons were not only capable of these enclosures, but they actually recovered lands in Romney Marsh before the Conquest; but he thinks that if the embankments on the east side of London had been completed as they exist to-day, there would have been records in Domesday Book. But this is negative argument, and without much weight; lands are difficult of identification in this way. The owners might be chary of acknowledging their enlarged borders, which were a source of anxiety, expense, and often a questionable heritage. Some marshes to-day are of doubtful value, because of the liabilities and dangers which are attached to them.

In 870 a catastrophe happened, consequent on the inroads of the Danes. It would seem that the Roding was inned, and that these hardy Vikings who were masters of the sea, and had become a powerful people in the north, turned their attention southward, and at various times infested the coasts with a view of finally getting possession of the country. It would be an easy task to ascend the Roding on the flowing tide; the invading marauders leaving their vessels in the Pool, would only be a few minutes' march from the rich and defenceless abbey, where little resistance would be met with. We can imagine these sturdy

sea dogs hammering at the doors of the sanctuary. Penalties were inflicted on those who attempted to violate the privileges of a religious house, so that in times of peace no military protection was needed or provided. But strangers speaking another tongue, and arriving with the tidal current after this fashion, were unexpected, and the abbey was unprepared. The word and commands of the superior were sufficient in ordinary times, when the tenants of the demesne had only to hear and

to obey. Now the place was surprised by invaders, and taken unawares yielded an easy prey to the attack. The Nunnery was pillaged, then fired and entirely destroyed.

Alfred the Great called the Danes-these fearful men with red hair and red beards who descended from the North Sea and wrought such desolation-the Heathen Folk. They seemed invincible in arms-driving all before them, and spreading dread and destruction all around the coast which they haunted. By the terror of their name they compelled the natives to intercalate into their litany, a new petition; "A furore Normannorum,

libera nos, Domine ! " From the fury of the Northmen ! Deliver us, O Lord. Vikings (says Laing) were merely pirates, alternately peasants and pirates, deriving the name of viking from the vicks, wicks, or inlets on the coast, in which they harboured with their long ships or roving galleys. This entirely bears out their action in sailing up the Thames, and following their way on the tributary with the rising tide, to this rich and defenceless house, which easily fell to their blows.

The abbey lay in ruins for near a hundred years, till the enthusiasm of Edgar was kindled, when he started building in a vigorous fashion, quite of the revival pattern. He appears to have had ample funds at his disposal, and in the charter for rebuilding he expressed himself in fervent spirit thus:

"The monasteries, as well of monks as of virgins, have been totally destroyed and neglected throughout England, which I have determined to repair, to the glory of God, to my own soul's health, and so to multiply the number of God's servants and handmaidens ; and now already I have forty-seven monasteries with nuts and monks in them; and if Christ spare my life so long, I am determined, in offering my devout munificence to God, to proceed to fifty, even to the just number of a Jubilee."

The abbey was like a mixed school, and beneath its hospitable roof accommodated both sexes, but under an abbess the rule would be strict, and any breach of decorum would be severely dealt with. The lady superior was not only the governor of a religious community, but a large landowner in the county. All-hallows, Barking, near Tower Hill, was in her gift, besides many advowsons in town and country. She also owned the water-mill at Barking on the Roding, where her tenants brought their corn many miles to grind.

The protection of the monks was often demanded in those early ages. The monasteries sheltered great and small, and the virtues of these institutions were valued when they protected the oppressed. Under a due administration of justice this privilege would have been simply and constantly mischievous, as we properly consider it to be in those countries where it still exists. But in the rapine and tumult of the middle ages, the right of sanctuary might as often provide a shield to innocence as an immunity from punishment. In reflecting on the desolating violence around, we find some green spots in the desert, where the feeble and the persecuted could find refuge. How must this right have enhanced the veneration for religious

institutions! Hallam says the protection of the abbey was never withheld.

William the Conqueror took shelter at Barking Abbey whilst the Tower of London was rebuilding. The new monarch, who was accustomed to a fortified castle, did not like to lie under canvas in the field, nor in an unprotected dwelling, for there had been disorder at his coronation, and he was suspicious of the Londoners. But he could lie peacefully on his pillow in the

abbey, under the protection of sanctuary, and rest at ease in this quiet retreat. Here he received the homage of Edwin Earl of Mercia, Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, Coxo Edric, surnamed the Forester, and several other noblemen, who swore fealty to him, and were confirmed in their possessions.

It is instructive thus to think of William the Conqueror, quietly reposing about seven-and-a-half miles from his fortress then building, and invoking the hospitality and shelter of the lady superior meanwhile. He could inspect his new structure, encourage the builders, and return to his domicile within the

day. In the meanwhile he would occupy his leisure in hunting or hawking in the Forest of Waltham, which was within an easy ride, or going southwards, accompanied by his sturdy barons and followers, he could look on the noble Thames. He would find good fishing in the Roding in sight of his temporary residence, for the river was controlled by the monks, and fish was protected in those days as an important article of food. The Thames was noted for the variety of its fish many centuries later, and doubtless the fishing was carefully preserved in the Roding as an absolute necessity for the diet of the inmates. Fish, always an important feature in the regimen of a religious house, was especially so in medieval ages, when great stress was laid on the observance of fasts, and Saints' days. To rely entirely on seafish would have been a precarious arrangement, but with abundance of fresh-water fish at the doors of the establishment, there was enough provender for the needs of a numerous household, and plenty wherewith to entertain a royal guest accompanied by a distinguished retinue.

The Abbess of the Nunnery was appointed by the King till about the year 1200, when by the interference of the Pope, the election was vested in the convent and confirmed by royal authority. The Abbess of Barking was one of the four baronesses in right of their station; for being possessed of thir teen Knights' fees and a half, she held her lands of the King by a barony, and though her sex prevented her from having a seat in Parliament, or attending the King in the wars, yet she always furnished her quota of men, and had precedency over the Abbesses. In her convent she lived in great state; her household consisted of chaplains, an esquire, gentlemen, gentlewomen, yeomen, grooms, a clerk, a yeoman cook, a groom cook, a pudding-wife, &c. During the government of Adeliza, sister of Pain Fitz-John, a baron of considerable note, Stephen, with his Queen and the whole court, were entertained for several days at the abbey.

There is a charter of King Stephen with the great seal annexed, in the Cottonian Library, which is dated from Barking and witnessed by most of the great men of Stephen's court.

The annals of the abbey are scant; perhaps the most material, and as regards the inmates, the most grave, was the inundation of their lands, about the year 1376, which broke down