34 
once glorious work; of which we may truly say “sic transit 
gloria mundi.” 
There are photographs by Batiste, of Bath, of the exterior and 
interior of the Church, and of the Rectory, which latter though 
modernised into a plain and unpretending structure is in reality 
of great antiquity probably coeval with the Church. 
And here we will finish our notice of this retired and pretty 
parish, which not only possesses interest for the Archeologist, but 
would amply repay an ardent botanist or any other lover of 
nature who would care to expend upon it a summer day’s 
ramble. 
Ethandun (a narratwe). By H. D. SKRINE. 
(Read September 30th, 1873.) 
On the north western slope of the Wiltshire downs is cut, clear 
and sharp, the outline in chalk of a White Horse. Far and wide 
it may be seen, and far and wide has been its fame as the well- 
known symbol of the great Alfred’s victory of Ethandun, which, by 
one crushing blow, destroyed the power of the Danish invading 
host, and turned the enemy of England into its firm ally. It is 
true, nevertheless, that this view of the case has been of late years 
hotly disputed ; and some very clever papers suggesting other 
sites have been written. But there is one remarkable circumstance, 
that all the older, and I believe I may say, more learned 
Archceologists maintain this to be the site of the battle. Camden, 
Gibson, Gough, and last, not least, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, are 
very confident that Edington is Ethandun. 
Let us take for our text, as all these writers have done, the 
wo-ds of Asser, the contemporary, friend and biographer of Alfred 
—‘“In the same year (878), after Easter, King Alfred with a few 
assistants constructed a fort in a place called Aithelinga-Egge, or 
the Island of the nobles, now Athelney, and from that fort harassed 
