Note 54 — Chapter IV · ACCESSION OF BALIOL—SIEGE OF BERWICK—BATTLE OF DUNBAR.

Before the attack, Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, joined the English army, with 140 knights, 500 horse, and 1000 foot, accompanied by the consecrated banners of St Cuthbert and St John of Beverley; the former carried by Henry de Horncester, a stout monk of Durham, and the latter by Gilbert de Grymmesby (so called by the English), a Scottish Vicar of Beverley College, born in the district of Kyle in Ayrshire,—who had spent a great part of his life in the service of Edward in France, where he had acted as a pursuivant. The banner of St Cuthbert accompanied the King only on extraordinary occasions. The following description of it may not be unacceptable.

“This banner was fastened to a staff, five yards in length. All the pipes were of silver, to be sliven (slipt) on along the banner-staff; and on the uppermost pipe, on the height of it, was a little silver cross, and a goodly banner-cloth pertaining to it, and in the midst of the banner-cloth was a white velvet, half a yard square every way, and a cross of crimson velvet over it, and within the said white velvet was the holy relique, wherewith St Cuthbert covered the chalice when he said mass, and the residue of the banner-cloth was of crimson velvet, embroidered all over with gold and green silk most sumptuously. It was not carried out but on his anniversary, and some other principal festivals in procession. It was the clerk’s office to wait on it in his surplice, with a fair red-painted staff, having a fork or cleft at the upper end, which cleft was lined with soft silk, having a down under the silk to prevent it hurting or bruising the pipes of the banner, which were of silver, to take it down and raise it up again, by reason of the weightiness thereof. There were always four men to wait on it, besides the clerk, and divers who carried it. This last wore a strong girdle of white leather, to which the banner was fastened by two pieces of the same, having at each end of them a socket of horn to put the end of the banner-staff into.”—Hist. and Antiq. of Durham Abbey, p. 118, 120.

By the Wardrobe Accounts, it appears that the monk who carried the banner of St Cuthbert into Scotland, was paid 1s. per day,—while he who carried that of St John was allowed 8½d., and one penny per day to bring it back.