and so to lay in it the
foundations of the monastery, requested of the king that he would give him
during the whole ensuing time of Lent leave and licence to abide there for
the sake of prayer; on all which days, with the exception of Sunday,
protracting his fast to evening according to custom, he did not even then
take anything except a very little bread and one hen's egg, with a little
milk and water. For he said this was the custom of those of whom he had
learnt the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord by
prayers and fastings the places newly received for building a monastery or
a church. And when ten days of the quadragesimal fast were yet remaining,
there came one to summon him to the king. But he, in order that the
religious work might not be intermitted on account of the king's affairs,
desired his presbyter Cynibill, who was also his brother, to complete the
pious undertaking. The latter willingly assented; and the duty of fasting
and prayer having been fulfilled, he built there a monastery which is now
called Laestingaeu [Lastingham], and instituted rules there, according to
the customs of the monks of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated. And
when for many years he [Cedd] had administered the episcopate in the
aforesaid province, and also had taken charge of this monastery, over
which he set superiors, it happened that coming to this same monastery at
a time of mortality, he was attacked by bodily infirmity and died. At
first, indeed, he was buried outside, but in process of time a church was
built of stone in the same monastery, in honour of the blessed mother of
God, and in that church his body was laid on the right side of the altar."
Cedd's death took place in 664, and Ceadda or Chad, one of his brothers,
succeeded him as he had desired.

[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale. (_From a rubbing by Mr J.
Romilly Allen, F.S.A._)]

Nothing remains of the buildings of this early monastery, and what
happened to them, and what caused their disappearance, is purely a matter
of conjecture. We can only surmise that they were destroyed during the
Danish invasions of the ninth century.

At Kirkdale church, which is situated close to the cave already described,
there was discovered about the year 1771 a sundial bearing the longest
known inscription of the Anglo-Saxon period. The discoverer was the Rev.
William Dade, rector of Barmston, in the East Riding, and a letter of
great length, on