324 Beozviilf and IVidsith 



Search has been more than once made for the bones of the king, 

 but in vain. The vicinity of Driffield has, however, yielded many 

 valuable facts respecting British burials. In the tumuli have 

 been found flint spear heads, fragments of urns, beads of jet, 

 amber, and glass, and other ornaments, along with the crumbling 

 skeletons of their possessors. The skeletons of females have been 

 found in the tumuli on these Wolds, with the bracelets, rings, 

 brooches, and beads that adorned them in life ; and British char- 

 ioteers have been found with their accoutrements, and even the 

 remains of the skeletons of their steeds lying beside them.'^ 



In Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Yorkshire (1874; 

 earlier edition, 1866-8), compiled by the accomplished antiquary, 

 Richard John King (181 8- 1879), we have the following (p. 156) : 

 'Driffield, . . . the "field," or open space, in the midst of the 

 great woods of Deira.^ . . . Many tumuli and sepulchral mounds, 

 of various dates, exist in the neighborhood, one of which, a high 

 tumulus, . . . was opened in 185 1, and proved to be British. . . . 

 Early Saxon grave-mounds have also been opened here, and have 

 disclosed amber beads and rock-crystal pebbles. . . . Some large 

 barrows on the road N. of Driffield are known as "Danes' 

 graves." ' Of the church at Little Driffield this work observes : 

 'Here is the supposed tomb of Alfred, King of Northumbria (died 

 circa 72"/). The tradition that he died and was buried here is as 

 old as the time of Leland, who says that a Latin inscription was 

 to be seen on the tomb. This, and the tomb itself, have disap- 

 peared.' Later we are told by the same writer (p. 177) concern- 

 ing Ebberston, some eighteen miles distant : 'Above the village is, 

 or was, a small cave in a rock, called Ilfrid's or Alfrid's Hole. 

 Tradition (and one of long standing, since there was formerly an 

 inscription over the cave recording it) asserts that Alfred of 

 Northumbria was wounded in a battle within the entrenchments of 

 Scamridge (long lines on the moors above Ebberston, which are, 

 however, in all probability, British works), that he fled, took 

 shelter in this cave, and was on the following" day taken to Drif- 

 field, where he died.' Bishop Stubbs, in his sketch of Aldfrith in 

 the Dictionary of Christian Biography, summarizes King's state- 



^ Cf. Greenwell, Britisli Barrozvs, p. 484; Raine, Histor. Church York i. 

 ix, X. 

 ' See White, p. 42. 



