By the Eev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A 



279 



I do not think it could possibly have been at Edington, near here. 

 There are four or five different claims, each of which looks so 

 probable that, if you were to examine them and read the arguments, 

 you would very likely find yourself in the same situation as King 

 James I. once did. He was a learned man, much of a pedant, and 

 fancied that he understood the laws, and the story is that, being a 

 king, he thought he would preside in his own King's Bench, and 

 decide a case. But the ingenious arguments and speeches on both 

 sides so bewildered him that he took up his hat in a hurry, saying, 

 < f Well, mon, I think ye are both right, and I'll have nothing more 

 to do with it." The latest claim to the site of the battle that I 

 have seen is made by Bishop Clifford, of Clifton, near Bristol, who 

 puts it at another Edington, in Somerset, near Athelney and Bridg- 

 water, and his statements and arguments are certainly very strong. 

 The public who are curious in the matter can study all these claims, 

 and are at full liberty to select which they think most likely. 



The other event in Alfred's life, which some have supposed to be 

 connected with Selwood, is that story so dear to the juvenile mind 

 of England, of the king and the burnt cakes in the herdsman's 

 cottage. There is no doubt that to keep out of the reach of the 

 Danes he skulked about the forest, and among the then inaccessible 

 swamps towards Bridgwater, and if he had only happened to go to 

 the Pen Pits to hide, I am sure all the Danes in Denmark would 

 never have been able to find him. It is the fashion with some 

 people to treat the cake story as nonsense and false, and till I was 

 preparing this paper I never knew what was the very earliest 

 authority for it. I find it comes from an Anglo-Saxon homily, 

 written upon the life and virtues of St. Neot. St. Neot was a 

 learned and pious man, who gave Alfred, when young, much good 

 advice about governing his people. Alfred, it seems, had not paid 

 much attention to the advice, so the saint warned him of the trouble 

 and distress which were in store for him. And (says the homily) 

 -so it came to pass," and then, as an example of the distress that 

 followed, it gives the adventure in the cottage. The story comes 

 in so artlessly and simply that I see no reason in the world for 

 doubting it. Another authority, Asser, who wrote the life of Alfred, 



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