s reached their destination! The legend of the foundation of
the Abbey is engraved on the conventual seal in a series of scenes;
and we know it was also depicted in the glass of one of the large
windows in the church.

[Illustration: The Bell Tower Evesham]

How far the events of this early time are historical, how far
traditionary, or even mythical, it is impossible to say, but for many
years afterwards the record gives us merely the scanty information we
should expect. We hear of the depredations of the Danes, and the
destruction by them of the monastery, and later of discords and
dissensions between monks and canons; indeed, it is not until the
reign of Canute that the Benedictines gained complete and final
possession of the Abbey and its estates. The first church and
monastery were probably of wood. Later, in the Saxon period, stone
would have taken its place, but the form was no doubt primitive in the
extreme. The founder's tomb would be the principal treasure, but, as
time went on, other relics were acquired, and many shrines needed to
contain the precious remains.

It was to King Canute that the monks owed the relics of Saint Wistan,
which held the place of honour in the church in mediaeval days. They
were enclosed in a magnificent tomb erected behind the high altar, in
the position occupied by the shrine of Edward the Confessor in the
Abbey Church of Westminster. Soon afterwards we hear of the
acquisition by purchase of the body of Saint Odulf from some
travelling merchants, dealers in relics of sanctity, who, as will be
seen, had no right to have the remains of the saint in their
possession.

Saint Wistan was a scion of the royal house of Mercia, heir to the
throne, and for a short period nominal monarch, but his nature was
more fitted for a religious than a political life, and he took little
part in the affairs of the state. In the year 849 he fell a victim to
the treachery of his cousin Britfard, a rival claimant to the kingdom.

Saint Odulf was not an Englishman, his whole life having been spent at
the monasteries of Utrecht and Stavoren in the Netherlands. Several
miracles are recorded as having been worked by him both before and
after death. To the monastery of Stavoren, which he had founded, his
body belonged by right, but from here it was stolen and conveyed to
England. By unknown means it came into the hands of certain vendors of
holy wares, as related above, and from them it was purchased by Abbo