112 The Battle of Eihandune. 



Eglei, and trusts that some Berkshire Archaeologist may some day 

 discover the exact spot from which the old "hundred" took its 

 name, suggesting that it may possibly be found under the disguise 

 o£ " Eggle, Aggie, Edgelease, Engle, Oakley, or Oxley, or some 

 name of similar sound." He further remarks that if the hundred 

 of Eglie in Berks anywhere touches the boundary of Wilts, a forced 

 march of thirty-five miles would have brought Alfred's men of 

 valour from Ecbright's stone on the western frontier of Wilts to 

 ^cglie on the eastern in the course of the second day. 



Now, in the ancient hundred of iEcglie or Eglei, now united to 

 the ancient hundred of Cheneteberie, or Kintbury, under the modern 

 name of Kintbury-Eagle, with which it coincides for the most part, 

 we have £nfflewood or Infflewood, Inlease, and many other names 

 which might easily have become degraded by the local dialect from 

 the original iEcglei. Eddington, near Hungerford (the Eddevetone 

 of Domesday, and the locality, we believe, where the battle of 

 Ethatuhme was fought), is within the hundred of Kintbury-Eagle, 

 and, moreover, is on the boundary of Wilts. The " County Cross" 

 is also in this neighbourhood, on " King's Heath," near Inholmes, 

 Lambourn Woodlands, and close by is Dane's Field ; while close to 

 Eddington we have the name of Daneford, now Denford. 



The Eddington of which we write is that mentioned in King 

 Alfred's will, already referred to as one of his own estates, and, as 

 Canon Jackson observes, " nothing is more likely than he should 

 have secured to himself the very soil on which he crushed the Danish 

 power and secured his throne." 



Exception will naturally be taken by the supporters of Edington, 

 near Westbury, Wilts, to the identity of Ethandune with the 

 Berkshire Eddington or Edington. " But why so ? " asks Canon 

 Jackson. Alfred's expedition was a master-stroke, the sudden 

 pouncing of a hawk upon its prey. It required energy and celerity. 

 Tardy movements of a few miles a day, almost within sight ot the 

 enemy, would never have answered his purpose, aud in this respect 

 the Berkshire Eddington seems to satisfy the most essential demands 

 of the ease." 



The learned Canon, although laying the scene of the battle within 



