The hind was accordingly released in the presence of the King, and held a straight course over Thanet, running over forty-eight plough-lands, some ten thousand acres, in spite of the attempts made by Thunor to stop it. He had better have let the animal run, without any interference, for, as he attempted to ride across its path, the ground opened in an earthquake and swallowed him “in the infernal regions, in company with Dathan and Abiram,” as the old monkish chronicle has it.
Thunor is described by Simon of Durham as “a certain man of sin and son of perdition, a limb of Satan and of the house of the devil.” I don’t think much more to his discredit could be added; and altogether we may conclude that, if this genealogy be anywise correct, he simply went home to his relations when the earth opened and received him so dramatically.
The line taken by the hind was long known as “St. Mildred’s Lynch,” from St. Mildred, daughter of Domneva, who succeeded her mother as Abbess. It ran, a green bank, across Thanet, between the manor-house at the east end of Minster church and St. Mildred’s Bay, Westgate.
Most of it has been broken down and ploughed under in spite of the monkish legend that the cultivator who destroyed it would meet with the fate of Thunor.
[Illustration: MINSTER-IN-THANET CHURCH.]
Minster church is a worthy descendant of this monastery, its tower and lofty leaded spire forming a landmark for long distances. It is, in fact, by design and not chance that it stands thus, for near by was the Wantsum channel; and to this day we perceive, in the south-eastern angle-turret of this tower, the ancient beacon-tower, possibly of Saxon date, which guided the course of ships to and fro, and probably exhibited a light after nightfall. The general scale and style of the church is altogether superior to that of an ordinary parish church, and still markedly displays its monastic origin. Altogether, its Norman nave and Early English transepts and chancel, together with the carved oaken chancel-stalls, form by far the noblest ecclesiastical monument in Thanet. Some of the eighteen old _miserere_ seats remain. One, with the name of “John Curteys,” is singular in being dated 1401. It is a rare thing to find a date on woodwork of such antiquity.