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Lot Essay
The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by the Irish born Saint Aidan, who had been sent from Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, to Northumbria at the request of King Oswald around AD 635. It became the base for Christian evangelising in the North of England. Saint Cuthbert, Northumbria's patron saint, was Abbot of the monastery: his life and miracles recorded by the Venerable Bede. In the early 700s the Lindisfarne Gospels, now in the British Museum, were produced there and the community remained settled until a series of Viking raids beginning in 793, prompted the removal of the monks to Durham.
The priory depicted was re-established in Norman times as a Benedictine house. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 it became a picturesque ruin, painted by Turner, Girtin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh amongst others.
Sir Walter James was elevated to the peerage in 1884. Like his son, who lived at Otterburn in Northumberland, he was a talented amateur artist.
The priory depicted was re-established in Norman times as a Benedictine house. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 it became a picturesque ruin, painted by Turner, Girtin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh amongst others.
Sir Walter James was elevated to the peerage in 1884. Like his son, who lived at Otterburn in Northumberland, he was a talented amateur artist.