Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, dr. 445 



the museum at Brescia there is sculptured work of precisely the same 

 character as that of our best Anglian remains. 



Battle of iEthaudune. The Eev. W. Greswell, Eector of Dodington, 

 Bridgwater, writes a letter in the Athenaeum, reprinted in Devizes 

 Gazette, Aug. 23rd, 1906, in which he vigorously asserts the rights of 

 Somerset to the honours of Alfred's campaign against the Danes, making 

 Edington, on Polden Hill, the site of .lEthandune. He argues that the 

 Danish ships came up the River Parret (from South Wales) to the foot 

 of Polden Hill, at Downend, that the camp above this at Puriton, or 

 Periton, was the fortress to which they fled after the battle, and where, 

 after fourteen days' siege Guthrum surrendered to King Alfred, and that 

 " Aller, where Guthrum was christened, and Wedmore, where the peace 

 was signed, are both in the valley of the Parret, and both far from 

 Wiltshire." "If we suppose that King Alfred descended upon them 

 from yEgbryte's Stone, which is in the eastern part of the wood which 

 is called Selwood," the site (Edington on Polden) is where we should 

 expect to find it. He also relies on the fact that just before the battle, 

 Hubba was slain "by the King's servants before the castle of Cynuit 

 (Asser), or Cymwich (Roger of Hoveden)." "There is no such place as 

 this in Wiltshire. But at the mouth of the Parret there was a castle at 

 what is now called Combwich, where the old pack road from the west 

 ran up to Combwich Passage. There is still ' Castle Close,' and it lay 

 within the royal Saxon demesne of Cannington, where ' King Street ' still 

 exists." 



Mr. Greswell seems to make out a stronger and more reasonable case 

 for the Somerset site than any yet put forward. 



Kuowle Pit and the Gloss on Flints, in Man for August, 



1906, pp. 115, 116, the Eev. H. G. O. Kendall prints a note entitled " A 

 Correction and a Note on the Gloss on Flint Implements." The cor- 

 rection refers to a section illustrating his former paper " Investigations 

 at Knowle Pit Farm," which appeared in Man for March, 1906, pp. 38 

 — 41, and was reprinted (without this section) in Wilts Arch. Mag., 

 with some additions. Mr. Kendall's note on the gloss well describes the 

 varying conditions of the flints on which the gloss is found, which 

 in his opinion militate against the " Sand polish " theory. He notes, 

 too, that he has obtained from the top of Hackpen Hill both Eoliths 

 and Neoliths which show some degree of glossiness and one Eolith ? 

 " which bids fair to rival even the best Knowle gloss in intensity." 



A Guide to Swindon, containing a Map of the Town, 

 twelve illustrations, and descriptive letterpress, 



being No. 28 of the "Borough" Guides, Edward J. Burrow, Eoyal 

 Publishing Oflice, Cheltenham. [1906.] 



Pamphlet, price Id., &\\n. X 3|in., pp. 44. This little guide is com- 

 mendably free from the usual padding and puffing of guide Books, and 

 is filled with short, practical and apparently accurate paragraphs on the 



