Here lie
interred the remains
of
William Paley, D.D.
who died May 25th
1805
Aged 62 years.
Archdeacon Paley wrote both of his well-known works, "Horæ Paulinæ" and "Evidences of Christianity," at Carlisle.
Legendary Paintings.—Between the bays east and west of the Salkeld screen there is a broad stone plinth panelled in front. The stalls stand on the plinth west of the screen, and the backs are painted with scenes from the monkish legends of St. Anthony the Hermit, St. Cuthbert, and, in the south choir aisle, St. Augustine. A rhymed couplet explains each picture; and the paintings, though rudely executed, give good examples of late fifteenth-century dress and ornament. Prior Gondibour caused the work to be done, and as Richard Bell was bishop at the time he may have suggested illustrating the life of St. Cuthbert, who was really the first bishop of Carlisle, and whose body was enshrined at Durham, where Bell had been prior before his elevation to the bishopric.
The following is a detailed account of the Legendary Paintings, with short note of the principal persons therein represented:—
St. Cuthbert was born in the Lothians; at eight years he was living under the care of a widow in the village of Wrangholm.
In 651 while keeping watch over his master's flocks near the Lauder, which flows into the Tweed, he had a vision of the soul of Bishop Aidan being carried up to heaven by angels. A few days after, he heard of the death of the good bishop, and straightway journeyed to the monastery of Melrose. Here he was accepted, and in a short time received the tonsure.
The Northumbrian peasants at this time were, mostly, only Christians in name. Cuthbert wandered among them, choosing the most out-of-the-way villages, where other teachers would not go. "He needed no interpreter as he passed from village to village; the frugal long-headed Northumbrians listened willingly to one who was himself a peasant of the Lowlands and who had caught the rough Northumbrian burr. His patience, his humorous good sense, the sweetness of his look, told for him, and not less the vigorous frame which fitted the peasant-preacher for the hard life he had chosen.
"Never did man die of hunger who served God faithfully," he would say, when nightfall found them supperless in the waste. "Look at the eagle overhead! God can feed us through him if he will"—and once at least he owed his meal to a fish that the scared bird let fall.
In 664 he was made prior of Lindisfarne. "Gentle with others, he was severe with himself, and was unsparing in his acts of mortification and devotion."
In 676 he retired, first to a cave near Howburn, and later to Fame Island, where he remained in strict seclusion for nine years.