SAINT BEES, an ancient village of Cumberland, pleasantly situated on the hay formed by St. Bees Head. It is 4 m. s. of Whitehaven, and about 10 in. beyond the limits of the lake district. Saint Bees is a.statioti on the Wliiteliaven and Furness Junc tion railway. The parish is very large, comprising town and port of Whitehaven, village of Saint Bees, and several ehapelries and ownshipsr The village of St. Bees contains about 1.100 inhabitants. According to tradition, preserved by the early chroniclers, Saint Bees originated in a nunnery founded here, 650 A.D., by an Irish saint named of whom Sandford's MS. (in the Dean and Chapter library, Carlisle) records a very pretty l6gend. It appears to have been destroyed before the reign of henry I., in whose time we find that Ranulph, earl of Cumberland, reconstituted it as a priory; but after the dissolution of the monasteries, it went to ruin. The institution known as SAINT BEES COLLEGE was eSlahlishN1 in 1816 by Dr. Law, then bishop of Chester, to supply a systematic training in divinity to young men desirous of ordination. whose means were inadequate to defray the expenses of a university education. ,The hislmps of the province of 'York had previously been compelled to ordain a number of such men as literates, the poverty of many of the northern benefices not securing a sufficient sup ply of graduates. A portion of the ruined priory of Saint Bees was fitted up by the earl of Lousdale as lecture-rooms, library, etc. On the recommendation of the bishop, an incumbent was selected for the perpetual curacy of Saint Bees (value, .f.,100 per
annum) by the patron, the earl of Loins&le, with a view to his holding the position of principal of the college in connection with the living. The crincipal selects his own staff of lecturers. The expenses are defrayed from the fees paid by the students—.1:10 each term. The college course extends over two each divided into two terms, from about Jan. 2S to May 5, and Aug. 25 to Dec. 5. During this period. the standard English divinity works, with the Greek Testament, are chiefly studied, and the com position of sermons, etc., practiced. The students reside in lodgings in the village, under the control of the principal, and attend the service in the parish church. the transepts of which were restored in 1855 for their accommodation. A new lecture-room and library were built ia 1863, adjoining the ancient structure. Students are mlmitted at the age of 21, on producing testimonials of laracter, etc., satisfactory to the princi pal. Graduates of a university where there is to divinity course are ralinitted to the second year's course on their diplom , along with the usual testimonials as to their fitness for the ministry. Students who have passed the course are not now con fined to the northern province, as was the original design, but are admitted into most of the southern dioceses. The average number of students in the college is about HO. Near the church is an endowed grammar school. Saint Bees is in some repute as a sun bathing place.