ON MILTON ABBEY GHUBOH. 81 



then the utmost perfection of style had not yet been reached, 

 but had finally to be developed in what has been truly called 

 "the rich and elegant complexity" of Decorated Gothic, of 

 which this choir is so chaste and refined an example. Athelstan, 

 no doubt, like every true-hearted founder, gave to God the very 

 best he had to offer in material, form, and skill. But to judge 

 from the few remains of the Saxon style that still survive, what- 

 ever he built must necessarily have been comparatively small in 

 extent and primitive in character. 



THE OIL PAINTINGS. 



This church contains, as you may have already noticed, two 

 oil paintings of the rudest description, one of which represents 

 Athelstan delivering to the first Head a model apparently of 

 the Minster over which he was to preside. Those paintings 

 cannot be older in point of execution than the reign of Eichard II. 

 as a portrait of that king still preserved in Westminster Abbey, 

 has long been considered the earliest example of oil paint- 

 ing existing in the kingdom. If those portraits were not evolved 

 out of the artist's own consciousness, they were probably copied 

 from some older pictures belonging to the Abbey. It is by no 

 means unlikely that the Queen is altogether a myth, as it is quite 

 uncertain whether Athelstan were ever married ; for although 

 a great deal is known about Athelstan' s family, and especially 

 about the excellent marriages made by his sisters, yet even the 

 best informed historians have hitherto failed to discover any 

 traces of his marriage. I once had some correspondence on this 

 subject with Mr. Freeman, the eminent historian of the Norman 

 Conquest, and I learnt from him that there had never yet been 

 found any proofs of her existence, such as would be given by her 

 signature to any charter or grant, or any other of those docu- 

 ments which are of such great value in attesting the actions of 

 illustrious persons in the Middle Ages. Mr. Freeman ingeniously 

 accounted for this portrait of the Queen by regarding it as the 

 work of some local artist, not too well acquainted with history 

 who thought the King could not be happy without a wife, and 



