By the Rev. J. J. Reynolds. 



257 



very ancient wall, with this inscription : — " In the year of the Incar- 

 nation of our Lord, Alfred the King built this city, 880, of his reign 

 the 8th." Camden says that he is the more particular in giving this 

 because it is wanting in some copies of William of Malmesbury, 

 but that he (Camden) had himself seen it in the copy belonging 

 to the Lord Treasurer Burghley. There is a MS. copy of 

 Malmesbury in the Bodleian Library (" Bodley MSS." 956) in 

 which this passage is extant. The words of the inscription however 

 are not placed quite in the same order as Camden gives them, but as 

 follows : — " In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 880 Alfred the 

 King built this city, of his reign the 8th ; " but doubtless through 

 an error of the transcriber it is written "980." And instead of 

 "Anno Dominicae," as given by Camden, it runs "Anno enim 

 Dominicao," as if there had been something more belonging to the 

 inscription. John of Brompton writing about two hundred and 

 fifty years later, says " Alfred repaired Shaftesbury, as a great stone 

 testifies, which is walled into the Chapter House of the monastery, 

 even unto this day ; (usque hodie est insculptus.") Leland, who 

 presented his work to King Henry VIII. A.D. 1545, says "There 

 was an inscription on the right hand entering of the Chapter House 

 set up by King Alfred in knowledge that he repaired Shaftesbury 

 destroyed by the Danes." By the little circumstance of his men- 

 tioning that it was "on the right hand," we may conclude that he 

 had himself seen it. He adds ; " The Inscription of the remains of 

 the which William of Malmesbury speaketh, stood in the wall of St. 

 Mary's Chapel at the Town's end. This Chapel is now pulled down." 

 This must have been the*Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, which 

 stood at the south-west corner of Bim-port Street, at the end of 

 the lane which divides the Borough from the Parish of St. John. 

 Leland spent six years in travelling over the kingdom and visiting 

 the religious houses to collect materials for his work. He might 

 very likely have visited so important a Monastery as Shaftesbury 

 twice, and on the first occasion have found the inscription still in 

 the Chapter House as it was in Malmesbury's time, and afterwards 

 removed to the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, which however 

 very soon suffered the fate of the Abbey, and was destroyed. But 



