A BEAUTIFUL LEGEND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 205, 9 March 1877, Page 3

A BEAUTIFUL LEGEND.

♦-» A bkautiful legend of Durham Cathedral is thug related by Reginald of Durham : —

A monk of Durham, keeping nightly vigil ia the minster, sat down in the stalls and thought; he raised his eyes; he beheld in the misty distance three forms descend, and with slow steps come from the east toward the choir steps ; each had a bishop's habit each was comely, veuerable and glorious to behold; and, as they paused, they sang Alleluia with the verse, with the sweetest strains of melody ; then, toward the south, where the great crucifix stands, was heard a choir of ninny voices sinking in their several parts the prose, and it seemed as though clerks in their ministri>s wore serving the bishop celebrant, for there the clear shinin" of the tapers was brightest, and thence the rich delicious perfume of the iacense breathe,! around. Then the three bishops sang t!ieir part and the choir m\'le answer with chanting wondrous sweet, while one celebrate! as beseems a bishop, a-id then all was done ; once more the solemn procession passed on its w ly, and disapp jared like faint images behind the altar ; and they say that they who were at that service lie asleep, re/ereJ, in that ancient church, Aidan, Cuthberr Egbert, and ' All the Year Bound.'