MUCHELNEY ABBET. '*> 



vessels, and the whole force was believed to be the largeat 

 that had ever been embodied on English ground. The 

 battle was fougbt at some unidentified place in the north of 

 England, named Brunanburgh, henceforth faraous in Saxon 

 and Scandinavian song, and a most terrific slaughter en- 

 sued. The killed were innumerable, and included the son 

 of the King of Scots, five Sea-Kings, and seven Jarls. 

 Filled with gratitude for this signal deliverance, the pious 

 king, whose dominion was thus secured, founded and 

 munificently endowed a number of religious houses, one of 

 which was that with whose history we are now particularly 

 concerned. 



I am aware that the motive which influenced Athelstan 

 in the foundation of this Abhey is stated, after the too 

 frequent fashion of modern abbey historians, to have been 

 remorse for the murder of bis eldest brother Edwin. This 

 prince, as it is asserted, upon a false report that he was 

 plotting to destroy him, Athelstan had conveyed to sea in 

 an open boat, and had thus relieved himself of an unscru- 

 pulous rival. Such an idle tale is not only entirely opposed 

 to every trait which is known of his merciful and beneficent 

 character, but, what is more, is apparently doubted even by 

 the writer who mentions it. The Saxon Chronicle, upon 

 which too much reliance can hardly be placed, merely says 

 " that iEdwine the Etheling was drowned at sea." Athel- 

 stan's charter of the foundation of Middleton Monastery, 

 about which a similar story exists, makes no allusion to 

 Edwin's death, which would hardly have been the case 

 had these Abbeys been founded in its expiation. We may 

 dismiss, therefore, the uotion either of Edwin's murder, or 

 of our Abbey's origination through remorse for such a crime, 

 to those regions of romance, in which it might appropri- 

 ately find a place. 



VOL. VIII., 1858, PART II. L 



