Let us turn to the sister city, as yet only Thorney, the Isle of Bramble. We all know the legend of St. Peter’s Hallowing. The legend became in later times an article of faith. The right of Sanctuary at Westminster was made to rest upon the sanctity of a place so blest as to have been consecrated by Peter: on the strength of this sanctity Westminster claimed the tithe of the Thames fishermen from Staines to Gravesend; and as late as 1382 a Thames fisherman representing Edric had the right to sit at the same table as the prior; he might demand of the cellarer ale and bread, and the cellarer again might take for him of the fish’s tail as much as he could with four fingers and the thumb erect.
Sebert was buried in the church, and his tomb is pointed out to this day. Walsingham says that when his grave was opened for the purpose of removing his body from the old church to the new, “his right hand was found perfect, flesh and skin, nails and bones, up to the middle of his arms.” And Robert of Gloucester writes:—
“Segbrit that I remped was a right holy man,
For the Abbey of Westminster he foremost began:
He was the first king that thilke church gan rere,
And sithe at his ende day he was buried there.
Seven hundred yere and six there were nigh agon,
Sithe that he was buried faire under a ston:
And some dede of him was also hooly found
As thilk day that he was first laid in the ground.”