OBJECTS OF INTEREST. 



63 



ships lay at anchor here, while their owners were 

 busy despoiling the country, King Alfred, by 

 diverting the stream above or deepening the 

 channel below, or by damming out the tide at 

 Blackwall, left these ships high and dry, so that 

 the Danes had to sacrifice them and save them- 

 selves by an overland flight. The spot originally 

 derived its sacred character and its name of Wal- 

 tham Holy Cross from a cross discovered by a 

 holy man in Somersetshire, and thence miracul- 



WALTHAM ABBEY. 



ously transported to Waltham by oxen, acting 

 under divine guidance. Tovi, standard-bearer to 

 Canute, thereupon founded a church and religious 

 establishment. King Harold greatly enlarged and 

 enriched the foundation, and hither, tradition says, 

 he came to pray before he went forth to meet the 

 Normans, and hither his body was brought for 

 burial after he was killed at the battle of Hastings. 

 His tomb was within the chancel, inscribed with 

 the words " Haroldus Infelix," but the destruction 



