Peterborough Cathedral—West Front

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

A GUIDE TO
PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL;

COMPRISING A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY
FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE PRESENT TIME,
WITH A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF ITS ARCHITECTURAL
PECULIARITIES AND RECENT IMPROVEMENTS;
COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF GUNTON, BRITTON,
AND ORIGINAL & AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS.

By

GEORGE S. PHILLIPS.

[JANUARY SEARLE.]

A New Edition, Revised and Corrected.

PETERBOROUGH:
PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. CASTER, BOOKSELLER, MARKET PLACE.
1881.

PRINTED BY GEO. C. CASTER,
AT HIS PRINTING OFFICE, IN THE "KING'S LODGINGS,"
WITHIN THE MINSTER PRECINCTS, PETERBOROUGH.
1881.

A GUIDE TO PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL.

CHAPTER I.

From the foundation of the monastery by Peada,a.d.655, to its destruction by fire in the reign of Henry the First;—embracing a period of 461 years.

The history of our monastic establishments is but little regarded and as little known. The obscurity in which all monastic institutions is involved renders it difficult to give any certain and positive information respecting the origin of the building to whose history these pages are devoted; but it appears to have been founded at a very early period—the churches of Canterbury, Rochester, London, Westminster, York, and Winchester, being the only large sacred edifices that preceded it. The date of the first building is stated to have beena.d.655—fifty-eight years after the introduction of Christianity into England by St. Augustine; and so large were the foundation stones, that it required eight yoke of oxen to draw them. From this it may be inferred that the structure was not, like many of the Anglo-Saxon churches of this period—built entirely of wood; though it was probably far inferior in size and style of architecture to the building which succeeded it.

It was one of the kings of Mercia who laid the foundation of the monastery ofMedeshamstede[1]in 655; his name was Peada, the eldest son of Penda, the fourth monarch of that kingdom. The facts are thus related by the Saxon chronicler:—"From the beginning of the world had now elapsed 5,850 winters, when Peada the son of Penda assumed the government of the Mercians. In his time came together himself and Osway, brother of King Oswald, and said they would rear aminsterto the glory of Christ and honour of Saint Peter; and they did so, and gave it the name ofMedeshamstede, because there is a well there calledMedeswell. And they began the ground-wall and wrought thereon, after which they committed the work to a monk, whose name was Saxulf. Peada reigned no while, for he was betrayed by his own queen in Eastertide, 658."

Wolfere was the youngest son of Penda, and when Peada died, King Osway assumed the government of Mercia, and ruled very despotically for about three years, when the nobles, incensed at his conduct, rebelled against him, drove him from the kingdom, and chose Wolfere for their king. It was in his reign that "Medesham