«;>-4-,.^,. 



WILTON HOUSE, 



WILTSHIRE, 



THE SEAT OF THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. 



WlLTON OR WILYTOWJST, called by olden writers, Vilodunum, is in a broad and fertile valley, 

 watered by the rivers Noddre and Wily. It is a place of great antiquity, and is supposed by 

 Baxter to have been the chief* seat of the British Prince Carvilius; according to Henry of Huntingdon, 

 it afterwards constituted the capital of the West Saxon dominions. In the year 823, Egbert engaged 

 in this vicinity and completely defeated the Mercian Army, commanded by their King Beornwalf, who 

 had invaded Wessex ; this signal overthrow established the supremacy of the West Saxon Prince, and 

 eventually enabled his successors to render themselves sole sovereigns of England. Here was also 

 fought in 871 a battle between King Alfred and the Danes. Wilton House is built on the site of 

 an Abbey, which owed its origin to Wulstan, Earl of Wiltshire, who, having defeated Ethelmund, King 

 of the Mercians, in a great battle, repaired a certain old church at Wilton, which, according to the 

 chronicle of Wilton, was for a Chantry or Oratory for priests to pray for the soul of his father, 

 Alquimund,* whom the Mercian Monarch had put to death ; f this foundation took place in the year 773, 

 during the lifetime of Wulstan. 



Following the authority of the chronicler, the foundation of the Priory was thirty years after the 

 death of Wulstan, in the year 830, when Egbert, at the request of his sister, Alburga, the now a^ed 

 widow of Wulstan, and by the advice of Helmstanus, Bishop of Winchester, converted the Oratory into 

 a Priory of thirteen sisters, of which Alburga, taking " the mantle and the ring," was the first Prioress. 



Alfred, in the year 871, after his battle with the Danes in the vicinity of the Town, at the 

 instigation of his Queen, not only refounded, but removed it from its former situation to the site of what 

 had previously been the Royal Palace, and added twelve nuns and an abbess, and gave it the title of 

 an Abbey, and granted his Manor of Wilton, with all its rights and privileges in perpetual alms. 

 Edward, his son, being witness, wishing thereby to increase both the revenue and importance of this 

 establishment. 



A rather romantic and ludicrous incident is related of one Sir Osborne GifFord, who surreptitiously 

 obtained entrance to the nunnery of Wilton, and stole therefrom two fair nuns, carrying them off as his 



* Hoare's ' History of Wiltshire.' 

 f This is probably the account given by a Monkish historian. 



