344 On the Succession ■ of the Abbesses of IFillon, Sfc. 



was re-built of stone by the Queen of Edward the Confessor about 

 a century later. We also g'et from the same authority some par- 

 ticulars of the decoration of this chapel In the following slanas 

 we are told "That a porch was made before this chapel by good 

 advice, with three small entrance gates on which were set cross-wise 

 three crosses of right good painting of the Passion and sepulchre of 

 Our Lord, and the image of S. Denis, in gold and azure and many 

 other colours " ; that the walls were " right royally " painted, also 

 with gold and azure and other colours. S. Wultrud died 20th 

 September, A.D. 1000 {stanza 772). 



After the death of S. Wultrud an interval occurs when two 

 abbesses reigned of whom nothing is known. This we learn from 

 the Chronicon {stanza 563), where it is stated that Bryghtwyde 

 was third abbess after S. , Wultrud. She is mentioned (in stanza 

 1075) as abbess when a certain miracle was performed in the 

 twenty- third year of the reign of Edward the Confessor, the year 

 before his death. This must also have been about the time of the 

 death of the abbess Bryghtwyde, for we also learn on the same 

 authority that she was succeeded by Alfyne. (See stanzas 1152 

 and 1158.) This abbess Alfyne governed the abbey for two years 

 and a half before the death of Edward the Confessor, and one year 

 in the time of W^illiam the Conqueror, when " hurre soule past up 

 to hevene blys." She was buried " in a ston " between Wultrud 

 and Bryghthwyne before the altar of the Angel Gabriel {stanzas 

 1X68 — 1180). The chronicler then goes on to say, these were days 

 of great peace amongst the sisterhood, with all manner of prosperity, 

 speed, and grace ; that the house was open to rich and poor, with 

 meat and drink for all comers. In the 1214th and subsequent 

 stanzas we are told a curious story of a visit paid by a lady of the 

 monastery to Herman, Bishop of Sarum, for the purpose of getting 

 some wrong redressed. The name of this lady was Tole, she is 

 alluded to as being sister to the Abbess Alfyne.' The successor of 



^ Amongst the former possessions of the Church of Wilton mentioned in 

 Domesday are " Two hides of land, which in the time of Edward the Confessor 

 had been given to the monastery by one Toeet with his two daughters, from 

 which they were to be always clothed, &c., which hides were unjustly taken by 



