OMB OF BISHOP THOS. CHARLETON.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.
BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.
PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.

[Illustration: HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.]

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL

CHAPTER I. - THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.

The early history of Hereford, like that of the majority of cathedral
churches, is veiled in the obscurity of doubtful speculation and shadowy
tradition. Although the see had existed from the sixth century, it is not
till much later that we have any information concerning the cathedral
itself.

From 755 to 794 there reigned in Mercia one of the most powerful and
important rulers of those times,--King Offa. He was a contemporary of
Charles the Great, and more than once these two sovereigns exchanged gifts
and letters. Under Offa Mercia became the first power in Britain, and in
addition to much fighting with the West Saxons and the Kentish men he
wrested a large piece of the country lying west of the Severn from the
Welsh, took the chief town of the district which was afterwards called
Shrewsbury, and like another Severus made a great dyke from the mouth of
the Wye to that of the Dee which became henceforth the boundary between
Wales and England, a position it has held with few changes to the present
day. In church history Offa is of no less importance than in secular, for
as the most powerful King in England he seems to have determined that
ecclesiastical affairs in this country should be more under his control,
or at least supervision, than they could possibly be with the Mercian
church subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 786, therefore, he
persuaded the Pope to create the Archbishopric of Lichfield. Although
Canterbury regained its supremacy upon Offa's death when Lichfield was
shorn by a new Pope of its recently acquired honours, the position gained
for the latter see by Offa, though temporary in itself, must have had
lasting and important influence. Offa is generally held responsible for
the murder, about 793, of AEthelberht, King of the East Angles, who had
been promised his daughter, AEthelthryth, in marriage.

Had AEthelberht been gifted with a knowledge of future events (which would
not have been a more wonderful attribute than many of the virtues whi