THE

HE Abbey of Waltham owes most of its celebrity to its connexion with the last of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs. Our early forefathers were distinguished by their attachment to the pleasures of the chase; and the vast forest with which this district was covered must have been a favourite resort of the East-Saxon kings, as it was, after the subversion of their independence, of the thanes of Essex. One of these, named Tovi or Thovi, who held the high office of stallere (or steward) in the household of Canute the Dane, built himself a hunting residence in the rich meadows on the banks of the Lea, in the same neighbourhood where King Alfred had drawn away the waters of that river in order to cut off the retreat of the Danish fleet. This huntinghouse was the weald-ham, or residence in the wood, from which the town afterwards received its name.

The "weald-ham" was a favourite residence of Earl Tovi, and was soon surrounded with the houses and huts of his retainers, thus becoming gradually

a village, occupied, as we are informed in the early half-legendary history of the place, by threescore and six householders. The erection of a church followed as a matter of course: although the monks of the Abbey afterwards built there published a wild legend-how a cross, miraculously discovered on the summit of a hill in Somersetshire, then called Lutegaresberi, but since known by the name of Montacute, which was also the property of Tovi, was no less miraculously conveyed to this spot, and gave to it the subsequent appellation of Waltham Holy Cross.* Tovi (who was lord of "Enefeld, Edelmetone, Cetrehunt, Mimmes (?), and of the barony which afterwards, under the Normans, passed into the family of the Mandevilles") placed in his church two canons, endowed it with lands in Waltham, "Chenleuedene, Hyche, Lamhee, Luketune, and Alwaretune," and gave to it the sword with which he had been first girt when he was made a knight. His wife Glitha, a very pious woman, added to these gifts a crown or wreath of pure gold. Their son Athelstan did not, however, inherit the virtues and wisdom of his parents; for, shortly after their death, he lost the manor of Waltham, which, with others in the neighbourhood, appears to have been forfeited to the Crown. Edward the Confessor gave it to his brother-in-law Harold.

Harold appears to have received these lands with the avowed purpose of founding a religious house, by which, while according to the superstitious belief

*This legend is preserved in two manuscripts now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 3776, and MS. Cotton., Julius, D VI.), both of which formerly belonged to Waltham Abbey, and were written in the twelfth century, the date of both the manuscripts. It was to the following effect:-In the time of King Canute, there lived at Lutegaresberi a smith, a man remarkable for the simplicity of his life, and respected amongst his neighbours for his virtues. One night he had a vision-an angel appeared to him, and directed him to repair early in the morning to the priest, and exhort him to proceed in solemn procession to the top of the hill, and there dig. The smith passed it over as a mere dream; but the warning was repeated the following night. He then consulted his wife, and by her advice again disregarded the injunction of the angel; but the latter repeated his visit on the third night, and threatened him with severe punishment for his continued disobedience. On the morrow the smith arose, and told his dream to the priest, who proceeded immediately with the town's people to the summit of the hill, where, after digging according to their directions, they found a large cross, with a smaller one, a little bell, and a book. (Ecce repentè apparuit oculis intuentium inestimabilis imago decoris crucifixi Salvatoris ex atro silice sic manuum

extensione et omnium corporis liniamentorum compositione miro fabrili et inaudito opere composita, ut ipsius summi artificis manibus perpendens operatam, et sub dextro ipsius brachiis alteram crucifixi effigiem modicam in sinistra parte, nolam antiqui operis quales bestiarum collo applicare solet antiquitas, ne indesuetione insolescant, librum etiam cognomento Nis grum Tertum sicut vix perpendere possumus Evangeliorum quem usque hodiè celebrem habet Walthamensis ecclesia propter multa quæ ipsi oculis nostris perspeximus miracula.) Having made known their discovery to Earl Tovi, they placed the cross on a cart, to which they yoked three red oxen and three white cows. Uncertain whither to convey their precious burden, the priest uttered in succession the names of the most famous monasteries of that day, such as Dover, Winchester, Glastonbury, London, &c., but the oxen and cows remained fixed to the spot. At length some one mentioned by accident the name of Waltham, when the animals immediately put themselves in motion, and conducted the cart to that place, amid the acclamations of the people, and of the crowds of cripples and invalids who were cured on the way by the miraculous influence of the cross. This story was long implicitly believed by our superstitious forefathers.

OF WALTHAM.]

THE CHURCH AS BUILT BY HAROLD.

263 of that age, he was securing the salvation of his own soul, he flattered the monastic prejudices of King Edward. In the twelfth century, the monks of Waltham had also a legendary account of this second foundation: they said that Earl Harold, on his return from the conquest of the Welsh, was visited by a dangerous attack of paralysis, which defied the skill of the physicians, until it was miraculously cured by a visit to the Holy Cross. From that moment, it is pretended the Earl never relaxed in his attachment to Waltham : in place of the small foundation of Tovi, he built a magnificent church; and there are strong reasons for supposing that, in spite of his patriotic feelings and his known hatred to foreigners, he employed Norman artists and workmen. The Waltham writers of the twelfth century, who saw Harold's church in its original form, speak of it in the most enthusiastic terms, and tell us how, under the hands of his builders, the walls and columns rose up in lofty majesty, while the latter were connected by numerous arches, and the walls supported a roof groined within and protected by lead without.† The interior of the building was covered with "plates of brass, gilt ;" and the bases and capitals of the columns, with the "bendings" of the arches, were ornamented with sculpture. It is now ascertained, that in early times the interior of churches, and also of other buildings, was painted in bright colours, and gilt: the gilding being probably executed on thin plates of metal which were attached to the stone-work. This mode of ornamentation afterwards gave place to elaborate sculpture and carving. The mouldering remains of these buildings, although still imposing by their grandeur, convey to us only a slight idea of the effect which they must have produced when adorned with paintings and glittering with gold. The Interior of Waltham Abbey Church, degraded and mutilated as its ornaments and proportions are at the present day, conveys to our mind no mean idea of the former splendour of Harold's church, of which we can hardly doubt that it forms a genuine portion. As we survey its rows of massive columns, and compare them with the humble objects around, we feel ourselves mentally carried back eight hundred years to the festive scene which followed their erection. At the consecration of those walls, were present, besides the founder Earl Harold, the last King and Queen of the regal line of the Anglo-Saxons-Edward the

See the Vita Haroldi, in the Chroniques AngloNormandes, Rouen, 1836, tom. ii. p. 156. The portions of the other Waltham Legend (De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis Walthamensis), which relate more particularly to the history of Harold, are printed in the same work.

Jaciuntur festinato ecclesiæ amplioris fundamenta, surgunt parietes, columpuæ sublimes distantes ab irticae parieves arcuum aut testudinum emicidiis

mutuo fœderantur, culmen impositum æris ab introgressis plumbei objectivæ laminis variam secludit intemperiem.-Vita Haroldi, p. 161.

Venusto enim admodum opere ecclesiam à fundamentis constructam laminis æreis, auro undique superducto, capita columnarum et bases flexurasque arcuum ornare fecit mirâ distinctione.-De Invent. Sanct. Cr. Waltham.