Mr. Wilkins's Defcriptlon of daughter Alkfled d. It is very probable that this church was built about that time, or perhaps foon after, by Pendas fon, king Ethel- dred, who married QjMde, the youngeft daughter of the fame king Ofwy, anno 677. The intermarriages of the kings of Mercia with the daughters of the king of Northumberland, and the conditions of their embracing chriftianity, are circumftances which, with others, corroborate the idea of this church's having been founded here, upon the newly acquired part of Mercia, fouth of Trent, about that time. The Saxon coins of king Edwine, who began his reign A. D. 617, and of king Ethelard, A. D. 726, bear in the center, a crofs be- tween four points [e], exactly correfponding with the ornaments of a capital of one of the pillars towards the weft end, which ap- pears to have been a very favourite ornament adopted on the con- verfion of the Saxon kings to chriftianity. The iimilarity of the ar- chitecture, the plan, and other various contrivances of this build- ing, with that of the celebrated church of St. Andrew at Hexham in Northumberland [/], may by thefe intermarriages, in fome [d] Alkfled, the natural daughter of king Ofwy, was born before her father was king. Anno. 653. Speed, p. 304. [e~] Vide a Silver Coin of Ethelard, Fig. 2 ; and another of king Edwine, Fig. I. PI. XXII. Fig. 3. is the capital of the pillar referred to. The points between the crofs alluded perhaps to the nails of the crofs. [/] In the year 674 Bp. Wilfrid began the foundation of this celebrated church (St. Andrew's at Hexham) ; and Eddius fpeaks with great admiration of it in this man- ner. " Its deep foundations, and the many fubterraneous rooms there artfully dif- pofed, and above ground the great variety of buildings to be feen, all of hewn ftone, and fupported by fundry kinds of pillars, and many porticos, and fet off by furprifmg length and height of the walls, furrounded with various mouldings and bands curioufly wrought, and the turnings and the windings of th.e paflages, fometimes afcending or defcending by winding flairs to the different parts of the building, all which it is not eafy toexprefs by words, &c." p. 21 and 22. Bentham's Ely. Richard, prior of Hex- ham, more fully defcribes this building in A. D. 1 180. The building was then in a de- caying (late. Richardi Prioris Hagulft, Lib, I. cap. 3. manner,
