even to give a list of the known places of pilgrimage in every county.
Let it suffice to mention the shrines of St. Cuthbert at Durham, St.
William at York, and little St. William at Norwich, St. Hugh at Lincoln,
St. Edward Confessor at Westminster, St. Erkenwald at London, St.
Wulstan at Worcester, St. Swithun at Winchester, St. Edmund at
Bury, SS. Etheldreda and Withburga at Ely, St. Thomas at Hereford,
St. Frideswide at Oxford, St. Werburgh at Chester, St. Wulfstan at
Worcester, St. Wilfrid at Ripon, St. Richard at Chichester, St. Osmund
at Salisbury, St. Paulinus at Rochester. There were famous roods, as
that near the north door of St. Paul’s, London, and the roods of
Chester and Bromholme; and statues, as that of Our Lady of
Wilsden, and of Bexley, and of other places. There were scores of
sacred wells; that of St. Winifred at Holywell, near Chester, with its
exquisite architectural enclosure and canopy, is still almost perfect,
and still resorted to for its supposed healing virtues.
Before a man went on any of the greater pilgrimages, he obtained a
licence from his parish priest, and first went to church and received
the Church’s blessing on his pious enterprise, and her prayers for his
good success and safe return, and was formally invested with his
staff, scrip, and bottle (water-bottle). The office for blessing pilgrims
may be found in the old service books. While he was away he was
mentioned every Sunday, as we have seen, in the Bidding Prayer, in
his parish church. On the road, and at the end of his journey, he
found hospitals founded by pious people on purpose to entertain
pilgrims, and on the exhibition of his formal licence he received
kindly hospitality. At every great place of pilgrimage “signs” were
sold to the pilgrims, the palm at Jerusalem, scallop shells at St.
James of Compostella, and the like. In many places water, in which
had been dipped one of the relics, was sold, to be used in case of
sickness, enclosed in a leaden ampul, and was worn suspended by a
cord from the neck. Fragments of the pilgrim roads may still be
traced in narrow deep overgrown lanes on the hillsides between
Guildford and Reigate, between Westerham and Seven Oaks, leading
towards Canterbury, and in green lanes through Norfolk leading
towards Walsingham. On his return the pilgrim went to church to