By Geo. Matcham, Esq. 261 
adapted for an encampment; in Alfred’s time it must have been a 
- swamp.”! Iley does not appear to have ever held a village, or in- 
habitant. Nor will I make any further observation on the poetical 
auxiliary, Geoffrey Gaimar, except that his statement is at issue 
with that of Asser, both in the nocturnal conduct and composition? 
of the Saxon army; since it is the observation of Mr. Scrope him- 
self, that “neither Dr. Thurnam nor any one else would seriously 
or otherwise venture to differ from Asser.” 
But the catalogue of my offences is not yet complete, for you are 
told that “Mr. Matcham is incorrect in his assertion that the White 
Horse”’ is the ensign of the West Saxons, who it seems, as to their 
standard rejoiced in the sign of the Dragon. Permit me to remind 
you, that I wrote not a word on the Saxons, as divided into east, 
west, north, or south, but on Savony the common country of that 
people. To dwell on so trite a theme, is all but useless, for every 
one sees and knows the “horse current argent for ancient Saxony ” 
engraved on the coins of the realm, the old Indo Germanic emblem 
of, and sacrifice to the sun. Allow me also to observe that the 
word ensign is used not only for a standard, but for a badge, trophy 
and distinction, and in this sense refers no more to the dragon, 
Wilkinson’s present description of the spot ‘‘a rich grazing meadow a little 
above the level of the river.” 
1 In comparison with this claim for Highley or Iley, may I be permitted to 
quote the following passage from Bishop Gibson’s notes on Camden’s Britannia. 
“Near Westbury is a village called Leigh or Ley, which is most probably the 
place where King Alfred encamped the night before he set upon the Danes at 
Edington. For the name comes very near it; it being an easy mistake for the 
Saxon scribe to write Avglea, for aec (oak), lea; here is also a field called court 
field, and a garden adjoining encompassed with a moat, and a tradition goes 
that here was a palace of one of the Saxon Kings.”’ If the aec lea of the 
_ Bishop should fail to convince, the Auglea of Asser, would still be represented 
by a moated enclosure, or one of an oval form, 
* Gaimar converts the whole army of Alfred after its assembly at Egbert’s 
stone into a body of cavalry; for he says, “they rede thro’ the night,” but all the 
_ remaining inhabitants, ‘‘omnes accole,” of Wilts, Hants, &c., were not likely to 
_ be mounted. Neither would it be said of an onslaught of horsemen that they 
attacked the enemy ‘‘densa testudine,” an expression I apprehend limited to 
_ infantry, ‘‘ Antecedebat testudo pedum sexaginta, &c.,” Cas. ‘Sublatis supra 
capita scutis continuatisque inter se, testudine facta ante se subibant.” Livius. 
Nor would a mere body of cavalry be in a condition to secure itself by castrame- 
_ tation. 
