IXVl. MILTON ABBEY MEETING. 



The Peesbyteby. — Some fragments, supposed to be original portions of the 

 altar screen, have been found (they are lying in the south transept), including 

 parts of the original inscription. The present inscription on the screen, with its 

 date 1492, may be therefore a copy. The portion of a saint's statue, found with 

 the other fragments, confirms the tradition that the original niches were filled 

 with figures. The irons which remain in the screen may have been connected 

 with a Tabernacle. Above the screen is the dwarfed east window, which con- 

 tains the only old glass in the church. There are the arms of King Athelstan 

 with his motto, " Spes mea in Deo est," and also several shields impaled and 

 quartered, of which I have obtained full heraldic particulars, but have not yet 

 been able to trace all their owners (Hussey and Chideock are two of the families 

 represented). There is the monogram " W.M." and crosier of Abbot Middleton, 

 and also his monogram " W.," with a crosier and three rudders. This latter 

 appears twice. There is also a monk kneeling in a dark blue habit ; and there 

 are angels, roses, leaves, and other devices. The hooks in the wall above the 

 pulpit and vicar's desk may have been connected with the Lenten veil. 



The Ladye Chapel, behind the high altar, probably had three bays. Some 

 of its columns can be seen outside, and between two of them are the arms of Sir 

 John Tregonwell, in whose time the Ladye Chapel was ^lulled down. 



The Choir. — The queen represented in the painting under the canopied stall 

 on the east side of the rood-loft is not the wife of Athelstan, for he was never 

 married. It very possibly represents his mother, Amphelisa (or Egwynca), 

 whose bones were buried in the church. On the west face of the rood-loft, on 

 the north side of the entrance, is a small recess about one foot in depth, and on 

 the south side is a consecration cross on one of the stones. In considering these 

 things it is well to remember that the rood-loft is partly built up of fragments 

 from various parts of the church. The bosses in the choir and presbytery are of 

 very rich design. The first one is of a bearded man with bare feet and loose 

 short garment, holding an orb in his left hand. The third is composed of two 

 sei'pents with remarkable heads, each biting the other's body. The fourth is of 

 an archbishop (full length) in full pontificals, in the act of blessing, holding a 

 cross in his left hand (possibly this represents Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury, 

 through whose influence the Collegiate Church of Milton became an Abbey) ; 

 and the fifth is a head with closed eyes and open mouth showing three teeth. 

 The other three bosses are of leaves. 



NoETH Aisle. — A fragment of St. John Baptist's Chapel has been discovered, 

 bearing the words SCS. JOHES BAP. . . This fragment is preserved, with 

 others, in the south transept. The doorway in the easternmost bay of this aisle 

 is probably post-Keformation. The fine brass of Sir John Tregonwell (1565) 

 bears traces of having once been coloured. The middle door in the aisle was 

 supposed to have led into a chapel, which was destroyed in 1737. More likely 

 this was the sacristy, which would have measured about 25 feet long and 

 12 feet broad. The wall-ribs of it can be seen outside the church. The door- 

 way nearest the north transept most probably led into a side chapel. A grave 

 slab, dated 1711, in this aisle— that of "John Clevees" (or, as it should be, 



