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The man in the elaborate cloak and blue hosiery with red ribbons is King Ecgfrith. He made the journey with Bishop Trumwine to Inner Farne to persuade Saint Cuthbert to become bishop at Hexham.
Cuthbert was reluctant but eventually agreed on condition that he could be based at Lindisfarne. The year was AD 684.
During Ecgfrith’s reign, Northumbria was at its most powerful. He provided the land for the foundation of the monasteries at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow.
Saint Cuthbert was loved as a great Bishop bringing the Gospel to ordinary people throughout Northumbria. He advised King Ecgfrith, warning him not to be too ambitious in his plans for expansion.
The King didn’t listen; travelling northwards to engage with the Picts in battle, he was killed in battle in AD 685 – a month after he had probably attended the laying of the foundation stone of Saint Paul’s Jarrow. Cuthbert was in Carlisle at the time, he served as Bishop for only a short while before he returned to Inner Farne to die.
The painting is one of a series by William Bell Scott which can be seen in Wallington Hall, Northumberland.
The duck probably stayed put.
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