JUNE 115 



tribune of the Legion fixed on a bare chalk down, marking 

 the verge of the Andredesweald — the primeval forest, 

 stretching eastward a hundred and twenty miles — as the 

 best strategic position in the valley. This down men now 

 speak of as St. Catherine's Hill ; but the intrenchments 

 thereon were known to their Celtic garrison as Caer Gwent 

 — the white stronghold — and the invaders appropriated 

 both the fortress and its name. Thus Winchester owes its 

 present name to its native chalk, for when the Romans 

 marked out a fresh camp in the vale below the hill, they 

 found, as so many explorers have done, that it was much 

 easier to keep the old name than invent a new one, and 

 on their lips Gwent naturally became Venta — Venta Bel- 

 garum. Then, when these had run their day, came the 

 Saxons, who transformed it into Winte-csester — the camp 

 of Venta — Winchester. 



It is a curious reflection that this quiet little cathedral 

 town, nestled so snugly in its leafy valley, was within an 

 ace, or two two's, or whatsoever most forcibly expresses 

 ' all but,' becoming the capital of all England. It was the 

 royal city of Wessex : here Alfred the Great held his 

 Court ; though of his palace of Wolvesey hardly any 

 traces remain at this day, for it was dismantled in 1155 

 by Henry ii., when he set himself to humble the pride 

 and cripple the power of Henry de Blois, brother of King 

 Stephen and Bishop of Winchester. But it was in Wol- 

 vesey that the 'Liber de Winton' was compiled by 

 Alfred's order — the origin of Domesday Book, remaining 

 the official statistical record till, as is said, it was destroyed 

 as useless on being superseded by the Conqueror's more 

 comprehensive survey. 



Of Alfred's doings at Winchester the records are tolerably 



