liam's own measurements, fixing the
extent of St. Michael's Mount at two hundred cubits. After that we are met
by a passage which, though it hardly construes, can be understood in one
sense only, namely, as giving an account of the Abbey of St. Michel in
Normandy. I suppose it is not too bold if I recognize in _Aubertus
Autbertus_, and in _Abrincensis antistes_, the _Abrincatensis episcopus_
or _antistes_, the Bishop of Avranches.

Now it is well known that the Mont St. Michel in Normandy was believed to
have been originally surrounded by forests and meadows. Du Moustier in the
"Neustria Pia" relates (p. 371), "Haec rupes antiquitus Mons erat cinctus
sylvis et saltibus," "This rock was of old a mount surrounded by forests
and meadows." But this is not all. In the old chronicle of Mont St.
Michel, quoted by Mabillon, which was written before the middle of the
tenth century, the same account is given; and if we compare that account
with the words used by William of Worcester, we can no longer doubt that
the old chronicle, or, it may be, a copy of it, had been brought from
France to England, and that what was intended for a description of the
Norman abbey and its neighborhood was taken, intentionally or
unintentionally, as a description of the Cornish Mount. These are the
words of the Norman chronicler, as quoted by Mabillon, compared with the
passage in William of Worcester:--

_Mont St. Michel._ _St. Michael's Mount._
"Addit idem auctor hunc "Predictus LOCUS
locum OPACISSIMA OLIM OPACISSIMA OLIM
SILVA CLAUSUM fuisse, et CLAUDEBATUR Sylva ab
MONACHOS IBIDEM oceano miliaribus distans
INHABITASSE duasque ad sex, aptissimam praebens
suum usque tempus latebram ferarum, in quo
exstitisse ecclesias quas loco olim comperimus
illi scilicet monachi MONACHOS DOMINO
incolebant." SERVIENTES".

"The same author adds that this place was formerly inclosed by a very
dense forest, and that monks dwelt there, and that two churches existed
there up to his own time, which those monks inhabited."

The words CLAUSUM OPACISSIMA SILVA are decisive. The phrase AB OCEANO
MILIARIBUS DISTANS SEX, too, is taken from an earlier passage of the same
author, quoted above, which passage may likewise have supplied the
identical phrases OCEANO UNDIQUE CINCTUS, and the SPATIUM DUCENTORUM
CUBITORUM, which are hardly applicable to St. Michael's Mount. The "two
churches _still_ existi