. The Romans were astonished at the acuteness of their English visitor, and decreed that the title of Venerable should be thenceforth given to him. According to another story, Bede, having become blind in his old age, was walking abroad with one of his disciples for a guide, when they arrived at an open place where there was a large heap of stones; and Bede’s companion persuaded his master to preach to the people who, as he pretended, were assembled there and waiting in great silence and expectation. Bede delivered a most eloquent and moving discourse, and when he had uttered the concluding phrase, Per omnia saecula saeculorum , to the great admiration of his disciple, the stones, we are told, cried out aloud, ‘Amen, Venerabilis Beda!’ There is also a third legend on this subject which informs us that, soon after Bede’s death, one of his disciples was appointed to compose an epitaph in Latin Leonines, and carve it on his monument, and he began thus,

‘Hac sunt in fossa Bedae ossa,’