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1830.]

Mr. URBAN,

Ancient Paintings in Baston House, Kent.
Dec. 8.

HE ancient paintings which form

plate, were discovered by me about the year 1813, in Baston Manor House, on Hayes Common in Kent, in a very degraded situation, into the particulars of which it is no further needful to enter than to say that they had been sadly mutilated to form the wainscot of a small closet in one of the domestic offices of the building. The intention in placing them against the walls of this apartment was, I suppose, or namental, if not complimentary or respectful to their antiquity and the style of their execution. Little attention had, however, been paid, whether some of the personages whom they represent were placed on their heads or their heels, or whether they were made to recline on their faces or their backs, while others were unceremoniously sawed in pieces to fill up vacant spaces on the surface of the wall. Two portions of sound oak panel nearly six feet in height, and each bearing a regal figure, as seen in the print, were fortunate enough, however, to be preserved nearly entire, and to obtain their proper upright position in this obscure

recess.

The larger apartments of Baston House were at the time when I first saw these pictures submitted to the ornamental labours of a paper-hanger and stencil-painter from London, who, as coming from the fountain head of taste, had been requested to devote the day following that of my discovery to restoring and beautifying these old paintings; supplying them with new beards and noses, as he might think necessary, renovating the lustre of their eyes, or accommodating them with new ones if the old should appear beyond repair.

A word or two of persuasion to the worthy gentleman who was at that time the proprietor of Baston (and

497

who was not aware of the curious na-
ture of the paintings in an antiquarian
sufficient

them from the purposed innovations.
I lost no time in informing my friend
the late Mr. Charles Stothard of the
discovery, and he with his usual zeal
in the pursuit of subjects of this na-
ture, repaired promptly to the spot,
and by permission of the owner com
menced the drawings which have been
now placed in the hands of the en-
graver. I remember Mr. Stothard in-
formed me at the time, that they were
the earliest specimens of painting in oil
which he had ever seen, and expressed
his opinion that they were of the time
of Edward IV. and that the erect fi-
gure with a crown and sceptre might
be a portrait of that Monarch. I know,
however, he had no other ground than
what was derived from the period to
which the pictures belonged for the
conjecture, and I cannot trace any re-
semblance between the countenance
of this figure and that of received
likenesses of the fourth Edward; two
of which, among other ancient por
traits, the donation of the late Rev.
Thomas Kerrich of Cambridge, Fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries, now
adorn the walls of the meeting-room of
that body. The Royal personage on
one of the larger portions of these mu-
tilated panels, who is represented as
seated under a cloth of estate, his rich
crimson robe powdered with golden A's,
is a representation of the Saxon King
Athelstan. The back ground to this
figure is formed by a delineation of
tapestry, in which is worked a shield
charged with a cross patée, the ar-
morial bearing fabricated for the Mo-
narchs of the Saxon dynasty by the taste
of a period much later than their own.
Athelstan occupies a sort of stone or
marble bench, ornamented in the
Pointed style, which reminds us of
that regale solium, which stood on the
high marble dais at the upper end of

* The term dais, daiz, deis, signifying the platform with which the upper ends of our ancient halls were furnished, in its strict and original application belonged to that alone, although it was afterwards, it would seem, extended also to the canopy of estate, which was suspended over the principal seat on the dais, as in the following passage: “Sa Ma jesté estant revetue dautres tres somptueux habillemens, se sied a table sur un haut daiz preparé en la salle episcopale, et ornée dexcellentes tapisseries, soubs un grand daiz de singu liere etoffe." Here the King is described as sitting both on and under the dais.-Lé Ceremonial de France par Theodore Godefroy, p. 688.

I am led from another passage in this work to infer that the luminous editor of Chaucer mistakes, when in his note on the following lines,

GENT. MAG. December, 1830.

498

The History of King Athelstan.

Westminster Hall, and from which our ancient Kings occasionally were wont to dispense justice in person; a practice still commemorated in the title "Court of King's Bench." This portrait of Athelstan is, I suppose, chiefly imaginary, although it were difficult to say what traditional materials for it might have existed at the time of its execution. He is depicted at least with one real peculiarity of his person, auburn hair. Malmesbury, and after him later historians, describe Athelstan as not exceeding in his stature the middle size, slender in person, his hair yellow, and beautifully wreathed with golden threads, as he (Malmesbury) had seen with his own eyes from his remains. §

Under the picture of Athelstan was an inscription in the old English black letter character, of which the following words remain legible:

Athelstanus Edwardi.......filius....regnabit anno...... ...... et consecravit sanctus......tanus hic reges WallenSium et Scot...... ....pacem recepit cos sub se regnare...

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This inscription was a brief sum. mary, perfectly according with the old

[Dec.

chronicles, of the acts of King Athelstan, who, as his grandfather Alfred was the most virtuous, was certainly himself the most powerful Monarch who had wielded the sceptre of the Anglo-Saxons. The deficiencies being supplied, it must have run nearly to the following effect:

"Athelstan, the son of Edward the elder, reigned fifteen years; holy Wulfstan consecrated him. He conquered the Kings of Wales and Scotland, received them to his peace, and suffered them to govern under him."

There is in this inscription as much of the authentic history of the Monarch as could be well comprised in so small a space; all authorities agree that his coronation was performed with peculiar solemnity by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on a lofty scaffold erected in the market place of the town of Kingston-upon-Thames. Stow says, "he brought the land into one monarchy, utterly expelled the Danes, and quieted the Welch; he caused the latter to pay him a tribute of twenty pounds of gold, three hundred pounds of silver, two thousand five hundred head of neat, with hounds and hawks

"Wel semed each of them a fair burgeis
To sitten in a gild halle on the deis;"

speaking of the extended sense of the word, he says that Matthew Paris by deis means the dinner table on the dais.

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"Priore prandente ad magnam mensam quam deis vocamus," Vit. Abbat. S'e'i Alban. The platform itself is here I think understood, for Godefroy tells us, in another place, that upon the great marble table in the hall was placed a chair for the King to sit on," &c. -Ceremonial de France, p. 381. The high marble table, alla mensa marmoralis, so often mentioned in ancient MSS. as being in Westminster Hall, was nothing more than the dais, on which the King's seat was placed, and on which by the bye the Court of King's Bench till lately stood. The stone dais itself still remains.

* I beg to corroborate this assertion by the following passage from Stow: "And heere is to be noted, that the Kings of this realme have used sometimes to sit in person in the King's Bench; namely, King Edward the Fourth in the year 1462, in Michaelmas tearme, sate in the King's Bench three dayes together, in the open court, to understand how his laws were ministred and executed."-Survey of London, 4to, 1613, p. 890.

+ There might for instance exist at this time, a received portrait of Athelstan at Malmesbury Abbey, as St. Alban's had one of Offa.

The words of the historian are "capillo ut ipsi ex reliquiis ejus vidimus flavo filis aureis pulchrè intorto," which I believe must be understood literally, and that consequently it was the custom for Saxons of distinction thus to decorate their tresses, when living, or that respect for their rank or sanctity procured such attention for their reliques when dead. The head of the Saxon Saint Cuthbert was found at the recent disinterment of his body at Durham, encircled with the finest gold wire; and this circumstance was turned in after ages by the monks to a fraudulent account, for they cut off from St. Cuthbert's reliques minute portions of this wire as his hair, and exposing them to the flames, pretended not only that they were incombustible, but that they were converted into gold!-See the Rev. J. Raine's account of the opening of St. Cuthbert's Tomb in 1827, pp. 56 and 212. § Athelstan was buried at Malmesbury Abbey, Wilts.

Speed says he was crowned by Athelm, who was succeeded in the same year in the archbishopric by Wulfelm.-See Historie of Great Britaine, p. 339. Sax. Chron. sub anno

921.

1830.]

The History of King Athelstan.

to a certain number. After he had conquered Scotland by his arms, he made one Constantine King of Scots under him."*

Malmesbury tells us that Athelstan, (who was a great favourer of Christianity,) on subduing Constantine, and entering into a treaty with him, (which allowed him to retain a tributary sway,) ordered his son to be baptized at the sacred font; Althelstan himself being his Sponsor. Malmesbury inserts in his history some Latin verses in the praise of Athelstan, in imitation perhaps of the Saxon Chronicle, which, in recording the events of the year 938, under this King's reign, leaves the ordinary track of prosaic narration, and launches out into a poetical flight, of much simple grandeur, in his praise. The passage much resembles in style the poems which are ascribed to Óssian; and I may be allowed to quote it from the translation which emanated some years since from the pen of a literary lady, and was printed for private

circulation.

"This year King Athelstan, the Lord of Earls, the Giver of Bracelets to the Nobles, and his Brother Edmund the Atheling, the elder,

the survivors of their race, the children of Edward, won lasting glory with the edge of the sword in battle at Brunanburh. They clave the wooden walls, they hewed down the tall banners, for it was the portion of their lineage that oft in the field they should defend their lands, their treasures, their homes, against the enemy. The Scot and the Ship-man fell on every side the din of arms resounded sith the

sun in the morning-tide rose glad over the earth, greatest of the stars, bright Candle of

God the Lord eternal, till the noblest of

things created sank in the West. There, struck down with darts, lay many a warrior -Northmen pierced over their shieldsScots, the savages of war-the West Saxons, a chosen band, pressed the livelong day upon the hated people-sternly they smote down the flying multitudes with swords well sharpened at the stone. The Mercians shrank not from the hard play of hands-safety there was none for the companions of Anlaf, for those who sought the land for deadly fight over the billowy sea, bosomed in ships. Five young kings lay on the battle field, put to sleep by the swords; so also seven Earls of Anlaf; and of the host from the fleet and of the Scots, more than can be numbered. The King of the Northmen, with his little

* Stow's Chron. 4to edit. p. 107.

499

troop, fled in his terror to the voice of the ship; the King of the Fleet, with one ship's crew, living, escaped over the yellow deep. So, also, the routed Constantine returned a fugitive to his Northern hills. The hoary

warrior needed not to exult in the conflict of swords. He was the remnant of his race. His kiusmen were heaped on the field. He left his son on the place of blood covered with wounds. Young in war, though old in wisdom, the fair-haired youth was staid in his glorying by the bill of slaughter., Neither could Anlaf and his broken army boast that they were better in works of battle, at the fall of banners, at the meeting of darts, in the conflict of men, in the exchange of weapons, when they had played with the children of Edward in the field of death. The Northmen, the sorrowful few spared by the darts, departed in their nailed ships over the roaring sea-over the deep waters. They sailed for Dublin, and disgraced their land. Then the Brothers, the King, and the Atheling, returned to their country, the West Saxon land. They left behind them the screamers of war, the birds of prey. The sallow kite, and the black raven with the hoary beak, and the hoarse-voiced eagle, devouring the white flesh, with the battlehawk and the grey beast, the wolf of the wood. Never in this island had a greater destruction of men been worked by the edge of the sword, say the books of the Wise Elders, since the Saxons and the Angles came hither from the East; since those

glorious Earls who smote the Welsh on the anvil of battle, and obtained their lands."

It is impossible to appropriate with certainty any of the remaining figures of these paintings to real historical personages, the inscriptions which probably were placed underneath them being cut off. Whether any thing like a connected subject, of persons distinguished by their relation to the history of Athelstan were intended, would be a mere conjecture.

In which to indulge:-The figure distinguished by the plain sceptre (while Athelstan himself has a triple one of golden rods, united by bands), might be taken for Constantine King of Scots, his tributary: the youthful figure in the act of prayer, or liege homage, might be assigned to his son. Such an explication would amount, however, to a mere surmise; and it appears quite as probable that other characters distinguished in the History of England are depicted on these panels. The figure which wears singularly-formed red cap, lined with

a

+ Sharpe's William of Malmesbury, p. blue, and topped by a round button, has all the air of a real portrait. Other

153.

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