Near the font is an oak case containing a fourteenth century coffin chalice and paten, and fragments of a wooden pastoral staff and sandals, discovered during the restoration of the church in 1865.[32]
The pulpit is also modern, of carved oak; but it is interesting, because it contains statues of all the patron saints connected with the Abbey and the parish, and of these there are no fewer than six, viz.: St. Sampson of Dol, St. Branwalader,[33] St. Mary the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael the warrior-archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. James the Great.
St. Catherine of Alexandria is the patron-saint of “King Athelstan’s Chapel,” which stands in the woods at the top of the hill to the east of the Abbey. And this little church has also had a history well worth the telling. When Athelstan was fighting for his throne he had to pass through the county of Dorset, and he encamped on Milton Hill, and threw up an earthwork, or made use of one already existing there, the remains of which can still be seen beyond the east end of the chapel. During the night he believed that some supernatural revelation was made to him, assuring him that he would conquer his many enemies and become King of all England. He pushed on, and at Brunanburh, “Christ helping him, he had the victory, and there slew five kings and seven earls” (Saxon Chronicle). The song commemorating this important and decisive victory is given in the Old English Chronicle; and the first stanza of Professor Freeman’s version and that of Lord Tennyson reads thus:
| Now Æthelstan King, Of Earls the Lord, In warriors the ring giver And his brother eke, Eadmund Ætheling, Eld-long glory Won in the fight With the swords’ edge By Brunanburh, The boardwall they clave, And hewed the war-linden, With hammer’s leavings Offspring of Eadward. Freeman. | Athelstan King, Lord among Earls, Bracelet bestower and Baron of Barons, He, with his brother Edmund Atheling Gaining a life-long Glory in battle, Slew with the sword-edge There by Brunanburh, Brake the shield-wall, Hew’d the linderwood, Hack’d the battle-shield, Sons of Edward, with hammer’d brands. Tennyson. |
St. Catherine’s Chapel.
Athelstan, being a thoroughly religious man, as well as a great warrior, expressed his thankfulness to God in the way usual in those times. He founded the monastery at Milton, and erected the ecclesiola, afterwards dedicated to St. Catherine, within the entrenchment where he received the remarkable revelation. Chapels on the top of hills were often dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, on account of the legend which tells that St. Catherine’s body was buried by angels on Mount Sinai. Other instances, in many places, of this dedication with its connection still remain—in Dorset, for example, at Abbotsbury and Holworth. The little church at Milton did its work in Saxon times, and then underwent a considerable restoration in Norman days. It also underwent a lesser restoration in the early part of the sixteenth century. As it stands at present, it consists of a nave and chancel. The main walls, which are very thick, and the door arches are Norman. On the west jamb of the south door there is a curious and rare inscription in Lombardic capitals relating to an indulgence:
INDVLGENCIA ⁝ H’ ⁝ SC̄I ⁝ LOCI ⁝ C ⁝ E ⁝ X ⁝ DIES ⁝[34]
The windows in the nave are Early Norman and Perpendicular. The old west front was taken down for some reason in the eighteenth century, and at this time an effigy of a monk in his habit (lying along and resting on his hands, looking down at the Abbey below) was destroyed. Some paintings also perished at the same time. The chancel was also partly rebuilt, and the roof raised, but the Transition-Norman chancel-arch was preserved. On the south side of the altar is a pedestal, on which the statue of St. Catherine may have formerly stood. The encaustic tiles in the chancel were removed from the Abbey Church in the year 1865. Some of these mediæval tiles are heraldic, and contain the arms of the See of Exeter, the Earls of Cornwall, Gloucester and Hertford, and others. A tile manufactured at Malvern has an inscription and date, 1456.
In pre-Reformation days King Athelstan’s Chapel was possibly used as the capella extra portas—the chapel, that is, outside the gates of the monastery, at which strangers and women who were not admitted within the gates might hear Mass. That women used St. Catherine’s Chapel for another purpose is also possible. St. Catherine is the patron-saint of spinsters, and in days gone by she was supposed to have the power of finding a husband for those who sought her aid. The following Milton rhymes in use to-day may be echoes of the mediæval Latin doggerels:—