XLII. Extract of a Letter from the Reverend Mr. Bentham, of Ely, to the Dean of Exeter, concerning certain Discoveries in Ely Minster

Extract

Give me leave to add the following particulars (by way of additional note to what is said in the History and Antiquities of the Church of Ely, page 85,) concerning the removal of some Bones, in the pious conservation of which our ancestors were pleased to interest themselves, from a grateful remembrance of that beneficence which the persons there mentioned had exercised towards the Religious of this place. These bones had for a long time been immured within the north wall of the late choir. When it became necessary, on account of removing the choir to the east end of the church, to take down that wall, I thought proper to attend, and also gave notice of it to several gentlemen, who were desirous of being present when the wall was demolished. There were the traces of their several effigies on the wall, and over each of them an inscription of their names. Whether their relicks were still to be found was uncertain; but I apprised those who attended on that occasion, May 18, 1769, that, if my surmises were well founded, no head would be found in the cell which contained the bones of Brithnoth, duke of Northumberland. The ground of my expectation in that particular circumstance was the account given by the author of the Liber Eliensis of the unfortunate battle of Maldon in Essex, A. D. 991, that the Danes took away with them the head of that brave warrior. The event corresponded to my expectation.