Page:Somerset Historical Essays.djvu/32

 was inscribed on his tomb at Ferremere. Then followed British abbots, whose names are lost, save only three—Worgret, Lademund and Bregored.

Of this only the portion dealing with St Benignus is in G. R.3: the rest has been said too often already, except the last sentence which anticipates what is to come.

Of the Illustrious Arthur. It is told in the Deeds of K. Arthur how he lost a young knight who slew three giants on the Mount of Frogs, otherwise called Brent Knoll, and in sorrow gave this hill to the abbey of Glastonbury.

After all that we have learned of the interpolations in the De Antiquitate we shall not be disposed to attribute this section to William of Malmesbury. But the next section appears in G. R.3 (pp. 28 f.).

Of the land of Yneswitrin, given to Glastonbury in the time of the English who were converted to the Faith. In A.D. 601 a king of Domnonia granted to the Old Church which was situated there the land called Yneswitrin, at the request of Abbot Worgret, namely five hides. ' I, Mauron the bishop, wrote this charter. I, Worgret, abbot of the same place, have subscribed it.' Who that king was the age of the document prevents us from knowing. That he was a Briton may be gathered from his calling Glastonbury Yneswitrin. Worgret, whose name sounds British, was succeeded by Lademund; and he by Bregored. Their dates are unknown, but their names are shown by a painting in the great church. Bregored was succeeded by Berthwald.

The strange and apparently inconsistent mention of the conversion of the English which is found in the title is perhaps explained when we find in G. R.3, after the date A.D. 610, the additional words: 'that is, in the fifth year of the coming of the blessed Augustine'. It is plain that William of Malmesbury had seen what purported to be the charter of a British king, whose name could no longer be read: but of this charter we have no further knowledge. In favour of its early date may at any rate be pleaded that it speaks only of five hides, and not of twelve. The next section deals with K. Coenwalch and Abbot Beorhtwald, and is found with some modifications in G. R.3. It closes the first insertion in the third edition of the Gesta Regum, bringing us back to the times of K. Coenwalch, whose name had led the historian to introduce the subject of Glastonbury. The succession of the English abbots which begins at this point must be treated in a separate essay.

When we come to sum up the results of our investigation, we recall in the first place the sharp difference between William of Malmesbury's assertion that the names of the missionaries sent by K. Lucius were