60 



White Horse Jottings. 



vious night, which was only some four or five miles off (as the crow 

 flies), if we identify it with Brixton, or a mile further if we take it 

 to have been at the Bedbridge Stone. It has been also pointed out 

 on very high authority that one great secret of King Alfred's success, 

 like that of Napoleon and of many other distinguished generals, lay 

 in the rapidity of his forced marches. There is no doubt some force 

 in this objection : still I cannot think that it is conclusive. It must 

 be remembered that there were no telegraphs or war correspondents 

 in those days to tell generals the exact whereabouts of the opposing 

 armies, and it may not have been until he got to Ecbyrt/s stone that 

 the King found that he had fixed upon a place of rendezvous so very 

 near to the encampment of the enemy upon Bratton Hill. 



For now comes a very noteworthy part of the history. On the 

 morrow after the encampment at iEcglea, King Alfred " came at 

 dawn/' says the chronicler, " to a place that is called Ethandunum, 

 where fiercely warring against the whole army of the Pagans, he 

 at last gained the victory, overthrew them with very great slaughter, 

 and pursued them even to their stronghold, where he boldly en- 

 camped with all his army." 



And now you see the importance of this question of the position 

 of iEcglea. If iEcglea be in Berkshire, Ethandunum cannot be 

 Edington, in Wiltshire, as we have all been accustomed to believe 

 it to be, but another place, not far from Hungerford, which bears 

 the same name, or perchance Yattendon, near East Ilsley, in the 

 same county. Let me hasten to assure you that there does appear 

 to me to be very strong testimony in favour of our Edington ; and 

 that notwithstanding a conflicting tradition, of which I was told 

 some years ago by a learned Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 

 who had come down some while previously to visit our White Horse. 

 This gentleman informed me that when first he visited Bratton he 

 was accompanied by a local guide, who informed him that the 

 Battle of Waterloo had been fought in that place, and that on that 

 occasion the cart tracks had " run down full of blood ! " 



Putting aside, however, this counter-tradition, notwithstanding 

 its element of circumstantiality, I will venture to assume that it was 

 on Bratton Down that Alfred sat down to besiege the Danes, who 



