846 On the Succession of the Abbesses of Wilton, 



Editha, who had received her education in this monastery. Here 

 the widow of Edward the Confessor, the sister of Harold, the 

 daughter of Godwine, lived in quasi-regal state, surrounded by a I 

 following purely English, with not a Norman name among the 

 officers of her household. The bargain was made before the twenty- 

 six witnesses in the up-flooring of the church ; Mr. Freeman regards 

 this as the triforium, and says, "as the up-floor was used for the 

 transaction of business attended by many witnesses, we may suppose 

 that it was a large, lofty upper story, such as is found in many 

 early Norman minsters. The Church of Wilton, in short, followed 

 the proportions of Waltham and Norwich, not those of Gloucester 

 and Tewkesbury." It will thus be seen that the widowed Queen 

 of S. Edward was living at the monastery in semi-regal state, but 

 she is not mentioned as actually presiding over the house as abbess. 

 This connection of Eadgyth with the monastery perhaps accounts for 

 the tenderness shewn to the Abbey of Wilton by William the 

 Conqueror. In stanza 1095 of the Chronicron we are told of 

 William that " He lovede welle Seynt Edus Abbay, and meche gode 

 to hit he oft tymes dede/" Of William Rufus the chronicler has 

 no good word to say. For the list of abbesses since the Conquest 

 the writer has been enabled to make several additions from documents 

 connected with the Monastery of Wilton, now preserved in the 

 muniment room of Wilton House, he having lately had the oppor- 

 tunity of being present when the Commissioner for the Preservation 

 of Historical Documents examined the records still existing at 

 W T ilton Abbey. The names of all the abbesses which were found 

 in the MSS. of the collection were noted and are as complete as 

 the limited opportunities of the writer would aVow. By the kind 

 courtesy of the Earl of Pembroke a few of these documents now 

 appear in an epitomised form, to which seals of some interest are 

 attached. These documents must not be taken to represent any 

 important items in the collection, in which there seems to be nothing 

 earlier than the twelfth century, but have been mainly selected on 

 account of their seals ; the information, however, they convey is 

 not inconsiderable, and the names found as attesting witnesses will, 

 at least, have some local interest. 



