Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/81

Rh of the Grand Duke's Villa, Il bello sguardo. The neighbours now commonly call it Bello Squardo, or sometimes, I believe, Bellers' Garden, and certainly it was not there that the curious traveller, in search of the spot where Christian worship was first established on these hills, in Anglo-Saxon times, would have lingered on his ascent to St. Anne's well. The Hermitage, at the time when it so strangely lost its ancient name, appears to have been an old-fashioned building, little worthy of the notice even of an antiquary: it had been fitted up as a dwelling-house, probably, soon after the dissolution of monasteries. An ancient vault, or crypt, of small dimensions, fragments of dressed ashlar, and a few trifling relics, have from time to time been found: several interments in rudely-formed cists, or graves lined with stones, were also discovered, which seem to shew that the spot had been consecrated ground. Here, then, in default of tradition, or any more conclusive evidence, it may be credibly supposed that the simple oratory of St. Werstan had stood; here did he suffer martyrdom, and here was the memory of his example cherished by those whose labours tended to the establishment of Christian institutions in the wild forests of this remote district of our island.