Untitled

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3899, 28 June 1881, Page 2

Dean Stanley lately preached on© of his - broad Church sermons at Westminster Abbey for the benefit of the Borough-road students on the power of words. Being the anniversary day of the murder of Thomas a'Becket, he told the following pretty little story :—"There is only' on©> circumstance that occurs to me—l mean a legend—attached to the name of Thomas a'Becket which can in any way be made edifying and instructive even to yon whom I see before me. There was a story that his father, Gilbert Becket, had been a crusader in the Holy Land and that he there formed an attachment to a Saracen lady, who contrived his escape from prison. She followed him at a long interval, and s it is said that she only knew two words ia , any other language than her own. On«k was ' London,' and the other was 'Gilbert She travelled through different countries of Europe, repeating first of all this one word 'London,' which at last brought her to the shores of England. When she came to the outskirts of London she betook herself to the other word and repeated ' Gilbert,' and. going from street to street and still repeating the word,' Gilbert,' she at last came to the house where Gilbert Becket lived. He recognised her, took,, her'to his home, and they became tho parents of the famous Thomas."