Note 382 — APPENDIX D.

Cædmon was a monk of St. Hilda's Abbey, and died in 680. Bede (Eccl. Hist. iv. 24) tells the well-known story of his being miraculously enabled by a vision to compose vernacular verses, when previously he had been entirely unable to compose or sing a line, so that when present as a layman at feasts where, on the principle of 'no song, no supper,' every one was expected to raise a lay in his turn, he was wont, when he saw the harp coming round, to rise from his place and go home supperless.