60 White Horse Jottings. 
vious night, which was only some four or five miles off (as the crow 
flies), if we identify it with Brixton, or a mile further if we take it 
to have been at the Redbridge Stone. It has been also pointed out 
on very high authority that one great secret of King Alfred’s success, 
like that of Napoleon and of many other distinguished generals, lay 
in the rapidity of his forced marches. There is no doubt some force 
in this objection : still I cannot think that it is conclusive. It must 
be remembered that there were no telegraphs or war correspondents 
in those days to tell generals the exact whereabouts of the opposing 
armies, and it may not have been until he got to Ecbyrt’s stone that 
the King found that he had fixed upon a place of rendezvous so very 
near to the encampment of the enemy upon Bratton Hill. 
For now comes a very noteworthy part of the history. On the 
morrow after the encampment at Aicglea, King Alfred “ came at 
dawn,” says the chronicler, “ to a place that is called Ethandunum, 
where fiercely warring against the whole army of the Pagans, he 
at last gained the victory, overthrew them with very great slaughter, 
and pursued them even to their stronghold, where he boldly en- 
camped with all his army.” 
And now you see the importance of this question of the position 
of Aieglea. If Acglea be in Berkshire, Ethandunum cannot be 
Edington, in Wiltshire, as we have all been accustomed to believe 
it to be, but another place, not far from Hungerford, which bears 
the same name, or perchance Yattendon, near East Ilsley, in the 
same county. Let me hasten to assure you that there does appear 
to me to be very strong testimony in favour of our Edington ; and 
that notwithstanding a conflicting tradition, of which I was told 
some years ago by a learned Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 
who had come down some while previously to visit our White Horse. 
This gentleman informed me that when first he visited Bratton he 
was accompanied by a local guide, who informed him that the 
Battle of Waterloo had been fought in that place, and that on that 
occasion the cart tracks had “ run down full of blood!” 
Putting aside, however, this counter-tradition, notwithstanding 
its element of circumstantiality, I will venture to assume that it was 
on Bratton Down that Alfred sat down to besiege the Danes, who 
