his monastery of St. Asaph in Wales, he built the church and other offices, of dressed wood, "more Britonum," " quum de lapide nondum construere poterant nec usum habebant." 1

St. Gwynllyw, towards the end of the sixth century, “signavit cimiterium, et in medio tabulis et virgis fundavit templum."" About the same time St. Cadoc erected "insigne monasteriolum ex lignorum materie."s

Before the middle of the ninth century, Ron wallon, a man of power, conveyed to the Abbot of Redon his house made "ex tabulis ligneis."*

The use of wooden materials in buildings was also common among the Saxons.

Venerable Bede notices many instances of the erection of stone churches on sites previously occupied by wooden structures, and in describing the conversion of Northumbria, and the numbers baptized in streams by Paulinus, he adds "Nondum enim oratoria vel baptisteria in ipso exordio nascentis ibi ecclesiæ poterant edificare.” To the same effect William of Malmesbury writes, "Neque ante Benedictum [Biscop] lapidei tabulatus domus in Britannia nisi per raro videbatur.”6

In King Edgar's charter to the Abbey of Malmesbury, dated A.D. 974, he describes the state of the monasteries in his kingdom, "quæ velut muscivis scindulis cariosisque tabulis tigno tenus visibiliter diruta."

Bede describes a wooden dwelling-house in 654. The occupants were engaged in feasting at night, and having kindled a great fire in the middle, it happened that the sparks flying up set on fire the roof, which was made of wattles and thatched with hay.1

It was after their visits to the imperial city that Benedict Biscop, and his friend Wilfrid, were incited to erect their monasteries at Wearmouth and Hexham "Romano opere," and by means of tradesmen brought from abroad,—as at a later period, we have seen the Irish Malachi desirous of erecting a stone church like those which he had seen on his journey to Rome.2

1 H. E. lib. iii. c. x.

As ideas of Roman art were diffused by the pilgrims to the Holy City, on their return to their own homes, so it is interesting to notice, on the other hand, how the Irish ecclesiastics clung to their own customs. Thus, when the great Irish missionary, St. Columbanus, received from the King of Lombardy a site for his monastery at Bobbio in A.D. 615, he erected" ecclesiam in honore almæ genitricis semperque virginis Mariæ ex lignis." Towards the end of the ninth century, the erection of a church of stone, by the Abbot Agilulf, is recorded: "ecclesiam ex lapidibus construxit, turremque super eam edificavit et campanas fecit in ea pendere sicut nunc cernitur."-(Vita S. Columbani Abbatis, ap. Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. Ben. Tom. ii. p. 37.) Another Irish custom is recorded in this life-The saint erected a cross near to his church for his devotions, "consuetudo est enim hominibus hujus gentis unumquemque per diem centies et eo plus genuflectere."-(Idem, p. 38.)

The conflict of Roman with Scotic customs appears under other aspects in an ordinance of Louis le Debonnaire, in which, after reciting that the monastery of Landevennec, in Brittany, continued to follow the tonsure and other customs which had been received from the Scots, he enjoined the adoption of the rule of St. Benedict.— (Cartul. Landev. ap Morice, Memoires pour servir de Preuves a l'Histoire Ecclesiastique et Civile de Bretagne, vol. i. col. 228. Paris, 1742.)

We can trace the Scotic feeling of strangeness to stone churches so late as the thirteenth century, in the same country where the stone church of St. Ninian had been erected in the fifth. In the year 1164 Ailred of Rievaux went on a visit into Galloway, and was present at Kirkcudbright on the festival of its patron, St. Cuthbert. A bull was brought to the church as an oblation, which the clerics of the place baited in the churchyard. The more aged remonstrated against such a profanation, but one of the clerics mocked and

Contact with Roman art was followed in other countries by a like result. Thus, of St. Josse, a Breton saint who lived in the middle of the seventh century, we read that on his withdrawing to a retired life, "oratoria duo manibus suis nitebatur construere, unum videlicet B. Petri principis Apostolorum, aliud Sancti Pauli doctoris gentium venerationi deputans, et utrumque ex lignis." Afterwards he went to Rome, and on his return it is said, "Habebat enim jam tunc ecclesiam novam ex petris constructam, quæ mox, postquam Dei famulus Roma veniens in eam patrocinia multa detulerat, dedicata est in honore Sancti Martini."

The "mos Romanus," introduced into Northumbria by Benedict Biscop and Wilfrid, co-existed for a long time with the earlier custom of wooden buildings, just as the introduction of glassmaking by these ardent improvers did not for a long time lead to a general knowledge or use of it, or to the extinction of the earlier modes of giving light."

No doubt the use of stone in buildings came to be predominant in Northumbria at an earlier period than in Alba; but at the time when the use of wood in building is spoken of as a Scotic custom, it was in reality common to the Irish with many other people.

The wooden cathedral at Chester-le-Street, which had sheltered the body of St. Cuthbert in its wanderings, remained till about A.D. 1042, when Egelric, who became Bishop of Durham in that

said," Nec Cuthberti hujus adesse presentia, nec huic loco talis ei probatur inesse potentia, licet hujus ipsius sit petrosa et de lapidibus compacta ecclesiola."-(Reginaldi Dunelmensis Libellus de Admir. B. Cuthberti Virtutibus, p. 179. Surtees Soc.)

1

Morice, Memoires pour servir de Preuves a l'Histoire de Bretagne, col.

210.

2 See Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. ii. pref. p. 12, and note.

year, destroyed the ancient fabric, and in its place erected one of stone, "pro eo quod aliquando beati Cuthberti corpus ibidem quieverat."

In some cases, however, the wooden erections were succeeded by others of stone at a much earlier period, as at Tynemouth, where King Edwin [616-633] "sacellum erexit ex ligno;" and his successor Oswald "monasteriolum de Tinemuthe ex ligno lapideum fecit."2

In the same way, the buildings of wooden materials in France were described as of " opus Gallicum."3

It will thus be seen that the custom, which has been termed a Scotic one, was, in so far as the materials of their buildings is