above described,--

"Which rood and pictures were all three very richly wrought in silver,
and were all smoked blacke over, {410} being large pictures of a yard
or five quarters long, and on every one of their leads a crown of pure
beaten gold," &c.

I have one more (too brief) notice of this famous rood. It occurs in the
list of reliques preserved in the Feretory of St. Cuthhert, under the care
of the shrine-keeper, which was drawn up in 1383 by Richard de Sedbrok, and
is as follows:

"A black crosse, called the _Black Rode of Scotland_."--MS. Dunelm., B.
ii. 35.

Strange to say, Mr. Raine, in his _St. Cuthbert_, p. 108., appears to
confound the cross brought from Holy Rood House, and in honour of which it
was founded, with the Black Rood of Scotland. He was misled, no doubt, by
the statement in the passage above extracted from the _Ancient Monuments_,
that this cross was brought out of Holy Rood House.

I fear that the fact that it was formed of silver and gold, gives little
reason to hope that this historical relique escaped destruction when it
came into the hands of King Henry's church robbers. Its sanctity may,
indeed, have induced the monks to send it with some other reliques to a
place of refuge on the Continent, until the tyranny should be overpast; but
there is not any tradition at Durham, that I am aware of, to throw light on
the concluding Query of your correspondent P.A.F., as to "what became of
the 'Holy Cross,' or 'Black Rood,' at the dissolution of Durham Priory?"