recorded, Peada in the foundation of it "laid such stones as that eight
yoke of oxen could scarce draw one of them."[1] It has nevertheless,
utterly perished. We read of the continued support bestowed by a
succession of princes and nobles, of the increasing dignity of the
house, and of the privileges it acquired; but there is nowhere a single
line descriptive of the buildings themselves. Gunton does indeed speak
of a goodly house for the Abbot constructed by King Peada; but he must
have been capable of strange credulity if he imagined, as his words seem
to imply, that this very house was in existence in the time of Henry
VIII. He writes thus:[3] "The Royal Founder ... built also an house for
the Abbot, which upon the dissolution by Henry the Eighth, became the
Bishop's Palace. A building very large and stately, as the present age
can testifie; all the rooms of common habitation being built above
stairs, and underneath are very fair vaults and goodly cellars for
several uses. The great Hall, a magnificent room, had, at the upper end,
in the Wall, very high above the ground, three stately Thrones, wherein
were placed sitting, the three Royal Founders carved curiously of Wood,
painted and guilt, which in the year 1644 were pulled down and broken to
pieces."

[Illustration: The Cathedral; from the North, c. 1730]

There is no doubt that this first monastery was utterly destroyed by the
Danes about the year 870. The very circumstantial account given in the
chronicle of Abbot John, derived from Ingulf, is well known; but as it
is entirely without corroboration in any of the historians who mention
the destruction of the monastery, recent criticism has not hesitated to
pronounce the whole account a mere invention. It is unnecessary,
therefore, to give it here. The account "may have some foundation in
fact," Professor Freeman admits, "but if so, it is strange to find no