I have one more (too brief) notice of this famous rood. It occurs in the list of reliques preserved in the Feretory of St. Cuthhert, under the care of the shrine-keeper, which was drawn up in 1383 by Richard de Sedbrok, and is as follows:
"A black crosse, called the Black Rode of Scotland."—MS. Dunelm., B. ii. 35.
Strange to say, Mr. Raine, in his St. Cuthbert, p. 108., appears to confound the cross brought from Holy Rood House, and in honour of which it was founded, with the Black Rood of Scotland. He was misled, no doubt, by the statement in the passage above extracted from the Ancient Monuments, that this cross was brought out of Holy Rood House.
I fear that the fact that it was formed of silver and gold, gives little reason to hope that this historical relique escaped destruction when it came into the hands of King Henry's church robbers. Its sanctity may, indeed, have induced the monks to send it with some other reliques to a place of refuge on the Continent, until the tyranny should be overpast; but there is not any tradition at Durham, that I am aware of, to throw light on the concluding Query of your correspondent P.A.F., as to "what became of the 'Holy Cross,' or 'Black Rood,' at the dissolution of Durham Priory?"
That the Black Rood of Scotland, and the Cross of Holy Rood House were distinct, there can, I think, be no doubt. The cross mentioned by Aelred is not mentioned as the "Black Rood:" probably it acquired this designation after his time. But Fordoun, in the Scoti-Chronicon, Lord Hailes in his Annals, and other historians, have taken Aelred's account as referring to the Black Rood of Scotland. Whether it had been brought from Dunfermline to Edinburgh before Edward's campaign, and remained thenceforth deposited in Holy Rood Abbey, does not appear: but it is probable that a relique to which the sovereigns of Scotland attached so much veneration was kept at the latter place.
W.S.G.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nov. 2. 1850.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Hæmony (Vol. ii., p. 88.).—MR. BASHAM will find some account of this plant under the slightly different type of "Hēmionion" in Pliny, xxv. 20., xvi. 25., xxvii. 17.: