and the old-world atmosphere of the scene. It seemed so
peaceful, so far removed from the bustle and noise of our hurrying,
pushing age, that they could almost throw their minds back through the
centuries, and imagine they heard the vesper bell tolling from the
tower overhead, and the slow footfalls of the monks pacing round the
cloister to those carved seats in the choir of which the very remains
were so exquisite.

"Yes, Baldurstone is a wonderful spot," began Miss Maitland. "I don't
believe any place in the neighbourhood has older traditions. St. Kolgan
was a British saint, and his legend has come down to us from the very
earliest times. You know that there was a thriving and orthodox Celtic
Church in Britain long before St. Augustine's 'introduction' of
Christianity--a Church that was so important and vigorous that it
contributed three bishops to the Council of Arles in A.D. 314, and
several to the Council of Nicaea in 325, thus showing that it formed
a part of united Christendom. It sent missionaries both to Ireland,
where St. Patrick preached the Faith, and to Scotland, where St. Ninian
spread Christian teaching in the north. Then came the invasion of the
heathen Norsemen, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes of history, who burnt
and plundered every sanctuary they could find, slaying the priests at
the altars, destroying both prelates and people, and forcing the
Britons to take refuge in the woods and mountains. Though driven
westward, the Celtic Church did not perish, and every now and then some
devoted monk would try to establish himself among the worshippers of
Thor and Odin. Such a mission was extremely dangerous, for so intense
was the hatred of the pagan conquerors for the religion of the New
Testament that it was almost impossible for a Christian teacher to show
himself among them and live.

"At about the beginning of the seventh century, when the Saxons had
spread so far westward as Dunscar and Avonmouth, and were practically
masters of all the country round, a monk called Kolgan came over from
Ireland with a little band of brethren, and prevailed upon Osric, the
chief, or 'under king', of the district, to allow him to settle at
Baldurstone. Those Celtic pioneers built a small monastery, and worked
very earnestly among the people, some of whom they persuaded to become
adherents of the Cross. Osric, though a pagan himself, tolerated them
for the sake of his British wife, Toura, and for a while they went
unmoles