different from the simple structures of the Saxons. During his troubles
he had vowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome; but the Pope gave him leave
to build an Abbey to St. Peter instead. Edward accordingly resolved to
restore the monastery on the Isle of Thorns, on a very different scale
from anything that had been before attempted in England.

According to a legend told in after years, there was near Worcester a
holy hermit "of great age, living on fruits and roots," who dwelt "far
from men in a wilderness on the slope of a wood, in a cave deep down in
the grey rock." To this holy man St. Peter appeared one night, and bade
him tell the king that he was released from his pilgrimage, and that at
Thorney, near the city, he must build a Benedictine Abbey, which should
be "the gate of heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence those who serve St.
Peter there shall be by him admitted into Paradise." The hermit wrote
out his dream on parchment, and sent it to the king, who compared it
with the message to the same purpose just received from Rome, and at
once set to work on the project.

Another story was told to show that Thorney was specially under the
patronage of St. Peter. It was said that on the evening before Mellitus,
first Bishop of London, was about to consecrate the monastery built here
by King Sebert, a fisherman named Edric was engaged by a venerable
stranger to ferry him across to the island. The stranger entered the
church, and assisted by a host of angels, who descended with sweet
odours and flaming candles, dedicated the church with all the usual
ceremonies. Then returning to the awe-struck fisherman, the mysterious
stranger declared himself to be St. Peter, Keeper of the Keys of Heaven,
and that he had consecrated his own Church of St. Peter, Westminster.
When the king and Bishop Mellitus arrived next day, Edric told his
story, and pointed out the marks of the twelve crosses on the church,
the walls within and without moistened with holy water, the letters of
the Greek alphabet written twice over distinctly on the sand, the traces
of the oil, and even the droppings of the angelic candles. The bishop
could not presume to add any further ceremonial, but retired.

Edward restored the old royal palace close by, and dwelt there fifteen
years, superintending the erection of the Abbey. Dean Stanley says he
spent upon it one-tenth of the property of the kingdom. His end was
approaching when he dedicated the Abbey, on Innocen