in 691.

=Cuthbald= (675), is named in the Chronicle as having been second Abbot.
One of this name, possibly the same, was ruling the monastery at Oundle
in 709, when S. Wilfrid died there. Nothing further is known of him; and
nothing at all of =Egbald=, who appears in the usual lists as his
successor.

The chroniclers give for the fourth Abbot one Pusa. But Bishop Stubbs
has proved that =Bothwin= was Abbot from 758 to 789; and concludes that
the introduction of Pusa into the list is a mistake, if not a mere
invention.

Abbot =Beonna= came next, probably in 789 or very soon afterwards.
"Possibly this Beonna is the same who was made Bishop of Hereford in
823, and died in 830."

=Ceolred= succeeded, and in the year 852 signs a grant of land as Abbot.
Patrick conjectures that he became a bishop, but does not name his
diocese. There is no certainty about the dates at which these early
abbots entered upon their office; and possibly some names have been
altogether lost. But all accounts agree that the last Abbot of
Medeshamstede was =Hedda=; and that he perished when the monastery was
destroyed and its inmates killed by the Danes in 870. A graphic account
of the circumstances attending this attack is given by Ingulf; but as
authentic historians like Orderic and Malmesbury have no reference
whatever to the occurrences described by Ingulf, Bishop Stubbs
unwillingly is obliged to consider his version to be a pure romance. But
of the fact itself, the utter destruction of the monastery, there is no
question; nor of the fact that all the inmates, or nearly all, perished.
We read that at Crowland some monks escaped the general slaughter, and
met again, after the departure of the Danes, and elected a fresh abbot.
They then came to Medeshamstede, and buried the bodies of those that had
been murdered, in one vast tomb. It has been commonly supposed that the
Monks' Stone, before described, was the stone erected at the time in
commemoration of the disaster. The arguments against this supposition
have been already given.

The Fen monasteries remained desolate for 100 years. During that period
the lands were constantly being seized by different intruders. It was
not till the time of Alfred the Great, who came to the throne in 871,
that the invasions of the Danes were finally checked, and tranquillity
restored to the kingdom. Security being assured, the people began again
to improve their public buildings and the religious houses. Cr