Page:The golden days of the early English church from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede, volume 3.djvu/25

Rh -tinued to survive, to much later times, in spite of all effort. He was often away for a week or even a month at a time on these errands, being all the time in the mountains. It was customary for the travelling missionaries, and notably for St. Cuthberht, to use tents on such journeys.

There were, in remote places, lonely groups of shepherds' huts, which having been roughly put together in summer were in winter ruinous and deserted. Stevenson speaks of these temporary habitations being still to be seen among the wilder Northumbrian hills, and as being called "sheals" or "shealings," and of their having long before arrested the attention of Camden whea he visited this part of the country. The latter says of them: "All over 'the wastes,' as they call them, as well as in Gilsland, you would think you saw the ancient nomadi, a martial sort of people that from April to August lie in little huts, which they call sheals or shealings, here and there among their several flocks."

Once when Cuthberht found himself benighted, he entered one of these shealings to pass the night. He tied his horse to a ring in the wall, and set before it a bundle of hay, or rather of thatch, which the wind had blown from the roof, to eat, and meantime spent the night in prayer. Suddenly in the midst of the psalmody he noticed the horse raise its head, and pulling at the thatching