Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, &c. 633 



The site of the Battle of Edington is doubtless one of those things 

 as to which it is vain to hope for any finality of opinion. Mr. Stevenson 

 had apparently, at all events to his own satisfaction, settled the matter 

 once for all, largely on etymological grounds, in favour of the Wiltshire 

 site, and now, so far from acquiescing in their defeat, here are the 

 Somerset antiquaries, in the person of Mr. Greswell, boldly returning 

 to the charge and asserting that Mr. Stevenson knows nothing of the 

 Somersetshire terrain ; that the Wiltshire site owes its acceptance with 

 antiquaries almost solely to the unsupported statement of Camden ; and 

 that the geographical probabilities of the campaign are very largely in 

 favour of the Edington on the Polden Hills rather than of the Edington 

 under Bratton Camp. The theory here detailed at considerable length 

 —at rather too great length, to tell the truth, to be quite clear — is 

 practically that which was upheld by Bishop Clifford, and has been 

 already somewhat contemptuously treated by Mr. Stevenson. Shortly 

 put it identifies " Arx Cynuit " with Cumwich Castle, near the mouth 

 of the River Parret, and Eglea with Eggarley (or Edgarley), assumes 

 that the Danes were encamped at Downend, near Viking's Pill, on the 

 Parret, and that the battle was fought on the Polden Ridge, in the near 

 neighbourhood of Alfred's base at Athelney, where " the battlefield of 

 Edington is still pointed out and old men unconsciously say " They of 

 Athelney fought there." On the face of it there is undoubtedly a certain 

 fascination about this theory to the " man in the street," especially 

 when the author asks why, if the battle was fought in Wiltshire, was 

 the peace made atWedmore near Athelney? but it is essentially a question 

 on which the reader whose life has been too short to allow him to spend a 

 considerable portion of it in the investigation of the matter had best re- 

 frain from expressing any decided opinion at all. The author elaborates 

 a suggestion that the curious observances of " Hock day " are really a 

 survival of the rejoicings in Wessex over the overthrow of the Danes 

 in this battle. There are appendices on " The Place Names Edington, 

 Dimetia, Dumnonia, &c," "Athelney Abbey," "Newton Court and 

 Petherton Park," and the old ballad of " King Alfred and the Shepherd,'' 

 in which Mr. Stevenson is dealt with very faithfully. Evidently the 

 men of Somerset are as keen fighters now as their forefathers were in 

 the days of the Great King Alfred. 



Wiltshire Parish Registers. Marriages. Edited by 



W. P. W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L., Thomas H. Baker, and John Sadler. 

 Vol. IX. London, 1910. 



8vo, cloth, pp. vii. + 155. Price 10s. Qcl. 



This volume is taken up entirely with the marriages of St. Martin's, 

 Salisbury, which have been transcribed by Mr. T. H. Baker. 



Stokes Records. Notes regarding the Ancestry 

 and Lives of Anson Phelps Stokes and Helen 

 Louisa (Phelps) Stokes, by Anson Phelps Stokes. 



In Four Volumes. Vol. I. Part I. New York : privately 

 printed for the family, 1910. 



