1899.] on King Alfred. 93 



because it 1ms been considered and rejected, or because it has remained unknown, 

 I iim not able to say. The broad and obvious objection to it is that it attributes 

 an improbable amouut of skill in strategical combination to both parties at a time 

 wheu the Roman art of war was forgotten in Western Europe, and the mediaeval 

 art of war was in its first infancy. The truth is that we have to deal with hope- 

 lessly uncritical and unmilitary narratives, written by men who not only had not 

 our modern apparatus of maps, gazetteers, and so forth, but cared for none of these 

 things, and were chiefly intent on edification, rhetoric, or personal anecdote ; and 

 we cannot even assume that chroniclers not known to have been familiar with the 

 places mentioned had endeavoured to form any clear notion of their situation or 

 relative distances and bearings. If there was a genuine local tradition it is long 

 since lost ; and, as we are reduced to guess-work, the simplest guess consistent 

 with such facts as we have appears to be the safest. On the whole I do not feel 

 justified in departing from the received account, though it is by no means free 

 from difficulty. 



Another possible view of the earlier part of this campaign is that the main 

 body of the Danes who seized Chippenham came not from Exeter but from Mercia, 

 where they had spent the first half of the winter season. 



[F. P.] 



GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING, 



Monday, March 6, 1899. 



Sin James Ckiohton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



W. Bruce Bannerman, Esq. F.G.S. F.RG.S. 



Arthur Bellin, Esq. F.R.G.S. 



Lady Currie, 



Charles Henry Gatty, Esq. LL.D. F.RS.E. F.L.S. 



Arthur Christian Gibbons, Esq. B.A. 



Edward James Gibbons, Esq. M.A. 



Mrs. J. E. Home, 



Mrs. Edward Kraftmeier, 



Sir George Henry Lewis, 



Mrs. John List, 



Frederick James Longton, Esq. 



Oswell S. Macleay, Esq. 



Mrs. Parker, 



Herbert Pulford, Esq. M.A. M.B. 



Colonel Euston Sartorius, V.C. C.B. 



were elected Members of the Eoyal Institution. 



The Special Thanks of the Members were returned to Sir Andrew 

 Noble, K.C.B. for his donation of £100, and to Mr. Edward Kraft- 

 meier for his donation of £52 10s., to the Fund for the Promotion of 

 Experimental Research at Low Temperatures. 



His Grace The Duke of Northumberland was elected President 

 of the Royal Institution in the place of the late Duke his father. 



