84 Sir Frederick Pollock [March 3, 



In the course of 877 Alfred raised a fleet, and manned it with 

 foreign adventurers, to stop the constant reinforcements which came 

 to the Danes. At the same time he sat down before Exeter. A great 

 Danish fleet, a hundred and twenty sail, weakened by storms and foul 

 weather, fell in with Alfred's ships and was destroyed off Swanage. 

 But such were the enemy's numbers on land that this had no general 

 effect. The Danes left Exeter for Gloucester, and then seized 

 Chippenham in Wiltshire by surprise, having made a forced march 

 in mid-winter, soon after Christmas. Here they may have been 

 reinforced from Mercia, now in complete subjection to them. About 

 this time an independent expedition was completely routed on the 

 North Devon coast ; the place is supposed to be Ken with, near Bide- 

 ford. This victory, again, though to all seeming brilliant, was merely 

 local. The main army of the heathen was in as great strength as ever, 

 and met with no serious resistance inland. Apparently the English 

 power in the heart of Wessex was exhausted for the time. This 

 collapse after a campaign in which the English ou the whole had 

 the best of it remains somewhat obscure ; but there is no doubt that 

 it was so. 



Whatever the exact course of events may have been, the Danes 

 were masters of the best part of Wessex in the early part of 878. 

 Alfred was driven to abandon open war for a season, and fall back 

 with a small personal following into the marshes of Somersetshire. 

 To this time belongs the famous tale of Alfred burning the loaves in 

 the neatherd's cottage. It does not rest on the best authority, but 

 there is nothing incredible in it, and there is no obvious motive for 

 invention. It does not require us to suppose that Alfred was in 

 hiding, or flying for his life ; only that he was for a short time alone 

 in a house where the goodwife did not know him by sight. This 

 might be accounted for in various ways — a surprise visit to outposts, 

 for example. But the story of the king going to the Danish camp 

 disguised as a harper is absurd. In the genuine account, as Freeman 

 well says, there " is no forsaking and no hiding ; iElfred is reduced to 

 extreme distress, but he never lays down his arms." After Easter, 

 however, Alfred entrenched himself at Athelney, an eyot (as the 

 name denotes) in the fenland at the junction of the Parret and the 

 Tone. Here the well-known " Alfred jewel," now in the Ashmolean 

 Museum at Oxford, was found ; but perhaps it is due to Alfred's later 

 establishment of a monastery, of which we have not room to speak, 

 rather than to his encampment. In May the king was able to 

 summon the levies of Somerset, Wilts and Hampshire — these last a 

 mere remnant — to meet him on the eastern border of Selwood Forest, 

 near Warminster. Within three days the English had occupied the 



interest it was to think so. The whole story of these two years is meagre 

 and confused. Asser seems to say that there was a treacherous slaughter at 

 Wareham. 



