The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-12-18
The Oldest English Church.

En- crying from the old monastery
grounds, we find ourselves presently at
the lych-gate of the Oldest Christian
onurch ia Great Britain. st. Martins.
onthe-hill. The king whom st. Au-
gustine found in Kent was pagan
when he came. but the queen was a
Christian. Bertha was French
princess, one Of that long succession
of royal brides and exiles from a
brighter birthplace. for whose newt
able homesickness IN this insular at
mosphere and under these iroWning
skies we feel an undying sympathy.
We do not know much about Queen
Bertha, but the fact that her Kentish
lord-a monarch of mark and might
in his day-Was won over to her faith
after their marriage inolines Us 10
invest her image With something OF
power as we'll as o! charm. She was
accompanied by chaplain and con-
fessor, whose name every ancient
spells as him listeth, and no two
alike; but all agree that he was a
man of exceptional holiness, and that
he consecrated for her use. to St.
Martin of Tours, the bowed, shape
less, ivy.smothered chapel on the
slope before US, and afterwards bap-
tized King Ethelbert within i's walls.
The psychologists, after long and du-
bious discussions OF the case el this
venerable little church, and much. of
denying aud disproving. inform Us,
at last accounts, that We may say With
a species Of truth, acithi7l Its tcdILS.
The greater part OF the building must
have been reconstructed, partly out of
Roman materials, in q much later
reign than Ethelbert's, but a fraction
of the original edifice remains. Two
things within the shadowY interior
strike even the lightly. learned OBJ
server as pointing to such conclu-
sion; the font, which unwaveFing
tradition declares to have been that
OF King Ethelbert's baptism, ia deco.
rated around its lower section with
Runic rings. and the pavement o:
portion of the cnancel is OF inch
square Roman tesserse.
The view from the porch OF st.
Martins is one of rare loneliness.
Framed in the rus.Iing foliage Of the
trees which overshadoW the church
yard, We zee below us the fair cathed-
raj spires, towering over the red-tiled
roofs of the town, and the soft and
cultured hills beyond them, which
enfold the valley of the Stour. We all
know that some landscapes possess,
Independently of the grace OF the con-
tours, an 'indescIibabIe smenity of
look, a tender and appealing physiog-
nomy, and this ia such an one.
1t eeems 10 hold suspended for us the
emotions Of countless others OF our
kind who have surveyed it from this
spot. We cannot choose but fancy
the smile which it wore 10 Queen
Bertha when she looked upon it after
he devoutly desired contamination OF
ler husbands baptism; that King
Etheioert may have paused upon the
threshold here. seeing in toe scene,
IS in a mirror, the reflection OF ais
altered ife;i thai its wistful beauty
nay have wrupg from the eppeased
md subiugated spirit OF the saint
himself one of those poignant cries
If MS, which even the secular world
;annot forget, for they tremble with |
be passion of his stormiest years; |
Too late l loved thee. o thou Beauty
# Ancient Days, old and yet ever
lew, --too late loved P'-Hor.
let ". Preston.