118 A CITY OF MANY WATERS 



Hyde Abbey and Monastery. Alfred's bones they carried 

 with them, and laid in a new tomb ; but it is our mournful 

 part to record, with what patience God may grant us, that 

 towards the close of last century the corporation of Win- 

 chester — Alfred's own city — being fired with the modern 

 craze for improvement, caused the ruins of Hyde Abbey 

 to be swept away, and used the material thereof for 

 building a new jail. Worst of all, they suffered a wayfar- 

 ing antiquary to carry off a certain stone of memory to 

 Corby Castle in Cumberland, where it may still be seen, 

 and the inscription thereon read — 



jELFBED REX: DCCCLXXXI.^ 



Thus the ashes of the great king were scattered, as well as 

 those of his doughty son Edward. But he still lives in 

 his writings, and space may be found to quote one of the 

 numerous interpolations he made in his translation of 

 Boethius ; for albeit it contains no more than a weU-worn 

 reflection on a trite subject, such as thoughtful men have 

 ejaculated through all the ages, it throws some light on 

 the intellectual degree of the first King of England : — 



' True friends ! I say that this is the most precious of all the 

 riches of the world. They are not even to be reckoned among 

 the goods of the world, but as divine onesj because false 

 fortune can neither bring them nor take them away. Nature 

 attracts and limes men together with inseparable love. But 

 with the riches of this world, and by our present prosperity, 

 men more often make an enemy than a friend.' 



The kingdom founded by Alfred endured for a century 

 and a half, and owed its destruction to one of the first 

 acts in the long struggle for civil supremacy between 



' This on the authoi-ity of Dean Kitohin [ Winchester, 1893] ; but the 

 date does not tally with that of Alfred's death, which took place in 901. 



