Netts and the
common people St. Noots, but here it was pronounced as spelt, with just
a slight stress on the first syllable--St. Ne-ot, the letter "s" not
being sounded officially.
St. Neot, supposed to have been related to King Alfred, being either a
brother or an uncle, came here from Glastonbury and built a hermitage
near his well, in which he would stand for hours immersed up to his neck
in the water in order "to mortify his flesh and cultivate his memory,"
while he recited portions of the Psalter, the whole of which he could
repeat from memory. Though a dwarf, he was said to be able to rescue
beasts from the hunters and oxen from the thieves, and to live on two
miraculous fishes, which, though he ate them continually, were always to
be seen sporting in the water of his well!
St. Neot was the original burial-place of the saint, and in the church
there was a curious stone casket or reliquary which formerly contained
his remains; but when they were carried off to enrich Eynesbury Abbey at
the Huntingdon St. Neots, all that was left here was a bone from one of
his arms. This incident established the connection between the two
places so far apart.
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