By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 175 



and, as something had to be done, the owner preferred to get rid of 

 it. A large company attended, in an upper room. The auctioneer 

 exhausted all his eloquence to coax a buyer, but nobody offered a 

 shilling. The usual menace, " Going, going/" was repeated in a 

 very serious and impressive tone, but ceased to stimulate the com- 

 pany. At last it became necessary to knock the bargain down to 

 somebody who had ventured a trifle, so down went the hammer, and 

 " Gone " cried the auctioneer. At that very moment a great 

 cracking was heard, and down indeed went, not only the hammer, 

 but the audience, auctioneer, clerk, desk and all, into the room 

 below. It so happened that nobody was killed, but plenty of 

 bruises and broken bones. This story may sound ludicrous, but it 

 was well authenticated and is given in the late Mr. Warner's 

 History of Glastonbury (p. lviii.). 



There was a second meeting of the King's council held in the 

 King's house at Calne a few years after the one we are speaking of, 

 viz., in the year 997, attended by a very great number : but this 

 time they were more cautious, as the account particularly mentions 

 the apartment as The Hall, which would be on the ground-floor. 1 



I have dwelt rather long upon this story of Dunstan, out of some 

 wish to clear his reputation by simply showing the absurdity of such 

 a charge : for some even of our latest historians seem hardly disposed 

 to acquit him ; and it is rather surprising that even the late Dr. 

 Milman, in his great work on the History of Latin Christianity, 

 should betray a slight unwillingness to let Dunstan off altogether. 

 The Dean did not like Dunstan at all, so in taking leave of the 

 subject he turns back and sends a Parthian arrow after him. 

 " Although/'' he says, " the fall of the floor might have been for- 

 tuitous, it is difficult not to remember Dunstan's mastery over all 

 the mechanical skill of the day." This is rather in the tone of the 

 famous verdict, " Not guilty : but don't do it again." 



Dunstan was no common man. He was born in 925, near 

 Glastonbury, in the reign of King Athelstan : but came into public 

 notice in that of his successor Edwig. At first his life was political, 



l Kemble's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii., p. 257. 



