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By "W. L. Baekee, Esq. 



sHE task of compiling an historical account of the town of 

 Hungerford, is one which I cannot approach without 

 considerable diffidence. To dive into the records of the past for 

 the words and deeds of men, whose names once of great celebrity 

 are now either unknown or forgotten, to invest the dry bones of 

 history with a living reality, to liberate the truth from the obscurity 

 in which the lapse of time has enshrined it, requires an effort on 

 the part of him who is so bold as to make the attempt, to which I 

 have hitherto been a stranger. Let me then crave your indulgence, 

 if in the course of my remarks I fail to exhibit that spirit of scien- 

 tific research, which should pervade the performances of those who 

 venture on a flight so far beyond the scope of man's immediate vision. 

 I shall endeavour to relate the chief events connected with the 

 History of Hungerford in chronological order, but I shall venture 

 to sacrifice symmetrical arrangement, whenever it seems opposed 

 to the lucid narration of facts. 



Prior to the year 878, no authentic record of Hungerford has 

 been discovered. Its history is lost in the depth of ages. At the 

 date I have mentioned, in the month of May, Alfred the Great 

 marched with his army from Brixton in Wiltshire to Aglea, a 

 Hundred lying north of Edington, then called Ethandune, in this 

 parish. At that spot he encamped for the night. (The two ancient 

 Hundreds of Aeglea and Cheneteberie, are now united under the 

 name of Kintbury Eagle, in which Hungerford is included.) On 

 the following morning Alfred attacked the Danish army which lay 

 at Edington and totally defeated them. The names of Daneford, 

 now Denford, Ingleford, now Hungerford, and Inglewood on the 

 opposite side of the Kennet, are said to form corroborative evidence 

 of a battle in this locality. 



Ethandune or Edington, was bequeathed with other estates in 



