THE WHITE HORSE 55 



When Edmund discovered this, the huntsman 

 was exposed on the sea without oars in Lod- 

 broc's boat, and in some days he was cast 

 ashore in Denmark. There he was put to the 

 torture by Lodbroc's sons, and being a liar and 

 murderer told them that their father had been 

 put to death by King Edmund. This was the 

 cause of their landing in England. They fought 

 many battles with King Edmund, who was at 

 length wounded and taken prisoner; he was 

 tied to a tree and shot through the body with 

 their arrows. 



At Ashdown in the year 871 King Ethelred 

 and his brother Alfred defeated these pagans 

 with great slaughter. It is a year for Berkshire 

 men to be proud of, and in memory of the great 

 battle King Alfred caused his army to carve 

 the White Horse, the standard of Hengist, on 

 the hillside, just under the castle as you see it 

 this day. 



The last "scouring" took place in 1857; 

 since that time it has been allowed to get 

 silted up and overgrown with weeds. The com- 

 memoration of the millennial of the great king's 

 death seems to be the time for giving it another 

 scouring. 



