22 Malmeshury. 



manners. His grandfather, King Alfred, made him a Knight at a 

 very early age, giving him a " scarlet cloak, a belt studded with 

 diamonds, and a Saxon sword with a golden scabbard." He was 

 well brought up, and succeeded to the throne at 30 years of age. 

 All England was subject to him except Cornwall and Northumbria. 

 Cornwall he never got : but Northumbria he obtained by your help 

 against the Danes. He subdued the Welsh, and made them do 

 what they had never done before, and never liked to do at any 

 time — pay him an annual tribute, of gold and silver and oxen, 

 besides any number of hounds and hawks that he might ask for : 

 which shows that even in those remote days hawking was a favourite 

 amusement in this country. His name became European ; costly 

 presents were sent to him from Norway and France, and the pre- 

 sents are particularly described, " Such perfumes as had never been 

 seen in England before : jewels that illuminated the countenance of 

 the beholders ; fleet horses, champing golden bits ; alabaster vases, 

 on which the figures seemed to move with life ; the sword of Con- 

 stantino the Great, bearing his name in golden letters, and on the 

 pommel thick plates of gold with an iron spike said to have been 

 used at the crucifixion of our Lord ; the spear of Charlemagne, said 

 also to have been that which pierced our Saviour's side ; a diadem, 

 so sparkling that the more you looked at it the more you were 

 dazzled ; besides a portion of the Holy Cross and Crown of Thorns." 

 These two last he gave to the Abbey of Malmeshury, and as such 

 alleged relics were in those days great stimulants to piety, no 

 wonder that Malmeshury became a place of general resort. His 

 two nephews, killed in the great fight against the Danes, were 

 brought hither, and buried at the head of the sepulchre of their 

 relative St. Aldhelm, which would be in the Chapel of St. Michael. 

 The King himself dying at Gloucester in 941, was also buried at 

 Malmeshury, under the altar : or as William of Malmeshury says 

 (De Pontif. Lib. v.) " at the altar of St. Mary, in the tower." 

 William of Malmeshury the historian, who supplies these par- 

 ticulars, was the librarian of the monastery here 200 years after 

 Athelstan's time. He tells us that upon one occasion he saw the 

 King's body in the coflBn ; that he had been of becoming stature, 



