especial honour. For he was great and beneficent, not only in those brilliant qualities and public actions which strike the imagination of the world, but also in all the virtues of the really good man, which every man may imitate. He had none of the vices and displayed none of the extravagances which have thrown some characters into prominence on the page of history. He was as pure in heart as he was active in mind, as lovable as he was strong. This is why a thousand years have only deepened our memory of him and strengthened our affection.

F. S. MARVIN

73

ALFRED THE GREAT:

HIS LIFE AND TIMES.

CHAPTER I.

THE COMING OF THE KING.

WE are going to consider the life of our great King Alfred, the greatest and best of all our kings; and although he was born so long ago as 849, we know quite enough of his history to be able to say that he really deserved to be so called. Indeed, if we search the history of the world, there have been very few kings, and very few men of any sort, so great and good as Alfred.

It is very wise on our part to honour our great men, and Carlyle was quite right when he said that "we cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him." The same writer also reminds us that "great men, taken in any way, are profitable company"; and so we shall take King Alfred for our hero, and find a delight in wandering in his company.

A.G.

Other nations have had great heroes, and pride themselves in doing honour to their memory. Scotland boasts of a Wallace and a Bruce; Switzerland glories in a William Tell; and Holland delights to honour a William the Silent. But look where we will we can find no nation that has a hero to compare with the English Alfred. His whole life was spent in doing good, and it is really wonderful in how many ways he proved himself great and good. He was a brave leader, a wise law-giver, and a real book-lover; and, besides all this, he was a devout Christian in all he did.

We should like to know a great deal about the early days of Alfred, but we have to content ourselves with very brief notices in some of the old chronicles. Alfred was born in the year 849 at Wantage, a little market town in Berkshire, situated in the midst of smiling meadows and clumps of trees. In those far-off days it was simply a clearing in the great forest which covered the gently undulating country. Now the train hurries through the district, and, except a statue in the market-place, there is little to remind us of the time when Alfred lived at Wantage with his royal parents. The site of the palace in which he was born is uncertain; but it is supposed to be an enclosure called the High Garden, on the south side of the little stream which runs through the town.

The father of Alfred was Ethelwulf, who was son of Egbert, a great West-Saxon king. Egbert was acknowledged by the other kings as their overlord or chief. He reigned thirty-seven years in

England, and he gave the name of Anglia to the whole kingdom. Some years before his death he had appointed Ethelwulf, King of Kent, who there reigned with some credit, for ten years, before he became king of the most important part of England. Although Ethelwulf was of a religious turn of mind, he showed much courage in fighting the Danes in several pitched battles.

While Ethelwulf was King of Kent he married Osberga, the daughter of his cup-bearer, Oslac. She and her father sprang from a highly-honoured race, and their names betoken their German descent. We know very little of this remarkable woman, and her end is shrouded in mystery. It is certain that, besides being of noble lineage, she was noble in heart and spirit, and that she showed great piety and much affection for her children, of whom Alfred was the youngest. Thus Alfred had an ideal mother, and from her lips he received his earliest and best lessons.

Not content with giving the parents of Alfred, his biographer and friend traces his genealogy through twenty-three generations right up to Adam. But though we may smile at this, Asser gives us at the same time a few sentences describing Alfred's character and appearance. We are not surprised to find he was loved by his father and mother above all his brothers, for this is generally the fate of the youngest child; but we also like to know he was loved by all the people. In his younger days Alfred was more goodly to look upon than his brothers; and in charm of speech and manners he

was more graceful than they, and thus probably he won the hearts of the people.

In those days an English king did not live in a great castle, or in a capital city, surrounded by his family and courtiers; but of necessity he led a wandering life, making his presence felt in all parts of his dominions. Accordingly, in the first year of his reign, Ethelwulf was living in a Kentish mansion; and in the next year he was at Southampton. In 845 he was again in Kent, and in 849 he was at Wantage, in Berkshire. Wherever the king went he was accompanied by his family, his attendants, and his servants. So Alfred from his earliest years was accustomed to the pleasures and to the hardships of a travelling life. This constant change was good for such a boy, for it brought before his mind the varied pictures of his beautiful country. Moving from place to place, he caught glimpses of the verdant woods and smiling fields; and when the household reached the coast he saw the evermagnificent ocean, upon whose waves his descendants were to win such renown.

As to the name of our hero, it may be well to note that the correct spelling is really Ælfred, and not Alfred; but as the latter has now passed into common usage, that is the form we shall adopt through this book. The word consists of two parts, which you will recognise-Elf and rede, and thus Alfred means the counsel of the elves. A very little knowledge of names in old English times tells us how many people were named after the elves or fairies, which, even now, in many parts of Wessex,