328 



perhaps a part of that " agreeable plain further in," as a place 

 better suited for what was evidently made the chief show and 

 ceremony, and the occasion of parting munificen^'e and honour. 



Another speaker at this meeting alludes to a " treaty which 

 was signed on the occasion," and sees Guthrum and Alfred, 

 Christians ahke, " sit down, one at each side of the table," and 

 draw out a treaty of peace, which now becomes the Peace of 

 Wedmore. Again here there is no authority for these statements, 

 they are imaginary. The peace was made and settled before the 

 unnamed fortress or walled town, into which the Danes fled, was 

 completed with the " many oaths " there enacted, and acted upon 

 first by the baptism at Aller. The treaty, as can be seen,* is of 

 five paragraphs only, is between Alfred and Guthrum, and is 

 chiefly occupied in defining the boundaries of the two kingdoms. 

 There is no mention as to where it was made, and there is no 

 evidence of its having been written at the time. Still, as the 

 Peace was concluded, or rather cemented by the visit and final 

 ceremony there, it may well and fairly be known as the Peace of 

 Wedmore. 



Another carelessness may be noted from Collinson, who, under 

 Wedmore.f makes no mention whatever of Alfred, but under 

 Aller, J he notices the baptism of Gutlu'um, and adds, — the Danes 

 stayed twelve days after at Aller with the king, and were then 

 dismissed with large presents of money. For this he refers to the 

 Saxon Chronicle, which certainly does not say so. 



If a conjecture may be hazarded, it would be that, before the 

 victory of Ethandune, Alfred had no private ownership in the 

 land, either at Athelney or at Wedmore, for the Saxon King was 

 not like his Norman successor, in theory lord of all land. After 

 Ethandune, Alfred settled himself M^ith so much more power as a 



* Wilkins's "Leges Saxonicse." 



t Histo)^ of Somerset vol. i. , p. 189. 



1 Vol. iii. 



