328 fiecent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 



of the 18th century. Parish boundaries run along the road from Blunsdon 

 to Seven Bridges, Water Eaton. From the N.W. of Cricklade a straight 

 road runs for 3| miles to Driffield Cross. From Wanborough Plain Farm, 

 where there is a decided change in the general direction, to Cirencester, 

 no part of the road is as much as half-a-mile away from an absolutely 

 straight line 19 miles long. The road here bears the name of the Ermin 

 Way." 



This most useful book closes with a chapter on such evidence as exists 

 as to the respective ages of the different Roman roads. 



Reviewed Bristol and Gloucestershire Areliceological Society's 

 Transactions, vol. xxvi., 198. 



" Asser'S Life Of King Alfred, Together with the Annals of 

 St. Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser. Edited with Introduction and 

 Commentary by William Henry Stephenson, M. A., late Fellow of Exeter 

 College, Oxford." Clarendon Press, 1904. 12 shillings nett. 



Preface, pages i. — viii. ; Introduction, p. xi. — exxxi.; Text, Commentary, 

 and Index, 1 — 386 pp. 



This, says the Editor, is an attempt to supply one of the great wants 

 in our early historical literature, a critical edition of the text of the Life 

 of Alfred, and an endeavour to decide the question of its authenticity. 

 To review this book is beyond the province of this Magazine, but it will 

 be useful to summarize the conclusions at which he arrives as to the 

 Wiltshire localities mentioned in this life. 



As to its authenticity the editor is convinced that although there may 

 be no very definite proof that the work was written by Asser, Bishop of 

 Sherborne, in the lifetime of King Alfred, there is no anachronism or 

 other proof that it is a spurious compilation of later date. 



The part which concerns Wiltshire is that which deals with the 

 movements of Alfred which ended in the battle of Edington. 



Mr. Stevenson without any preconceived theory or prepossession 

 judiciously weighs the arguments which have been advanced for and 

 against several sites. With true scientific scholarship he deals with the 

 questions of etymology, and disposes of the wild guesses which have 

 defiled the work of previous writers, especially that of Dr. Clifford, 

 formerly Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton. Where are Petra Aegbryhta, 

 Ecgbryhtes Stan of the Chronicle ; Aecglea, or Iglea, which is the better 

 form ; Ethandun ? It is gratifying to find that with regard to Ecgbryht's 

 Stone Mr. Stevenson takes the view which was lately advocated in this 

 Magazine (vol. xxxiii., pp. 113 — 114, note), and for the same reason, 

 namely, that of the laws of etymology. As was pointed out there, and 

 as Mr. Stevenson says here, Hoare cannot be quoted as identifying it 

 with Brixton Deverill, because he contradicts himself in two consecutive 

 pages. The passage in his Modern Wilts, Hundred of Heytesbury, p. 3, 

 is one, among others, which he did not revise. (See p. 4 and Hundred 

 of Warminster, p. 46.) Thus the editor rejects Brixton Deverill; and 

 he does not favour Canon Jackson's view, which has found some support 



