The Life and Times of Alfred the Great: Drawn Up from the Most Authentic Ancient Chroniclers, and Including Important Facts Now First Published: to which are Added Alfred's Will and Proverbs ... Description of Alfred's Gems, with Coloured Plates

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W. Baxter, 1854 - 417 pages

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Page 334 - I, then, Alfred, king, gathered these together, and commanded many of those to be written which our forefathers held, those which to me seemed good ; and many of those which seemed to me not good I rejected them, by the counsel of my
Page 237 - King Alfred the Great, in the year of our Lord 879, having been defeated by the Danes, fled for refuge to the forest of Athelney, where he lay concealed from his enemies for the space of a whole year. He soon after regained possession of his throne, and in grateful remembrance of the protection he had received, under the favour of Heaven...
Page 81 - He was loved by his father and mother, and even by all the people, above all his brothers, and was educated altogether at the court of the king. As he advanced through the years of infancy and youth, his form appeared more comely than that of his brothers ; in look, in speech, and in manners he was more graceful than they. His...
Page 335 - ... if there be writing or witness that it was forbidden by those men who at first acquired it, and by those who gave it to him, that he should do so ; and then let that be declared in the presence of the king and of the bishop, before his kinsmen.
Page 267 - Novis,§ my relation, and myself ; if in any manner I could secure the notice and friendship of the king. At that time, and long before, all the countries on the right hand side of Britain belonged to king Alfred and still belong to him. For instance, king Hemeid, with all the inhabitants of the region of Demetia, compelled by the violence of the six sons of Rotri, had submitted to the dominion of the king.
Page 366 - North-humbria; and they who were moneyless procured themselves ships there, and went southwards over sea to the Seine. Thanks be to God, the army had not utterly broken down the English nation ; but during the three years it was much more broken down by the mortality among cattle and among men ; and most of all by this, that many of the most eminent king's thanes in the land died during the three years...
Page 269 - ... to procure coadjutors in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a prudent bird, which rising in summer with the early morning from her beloved nest, steers her rapid flight through the uncertain tracks of ether, and descends on the manifold and varied flowers of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which pleases most, that she may bear it to her home, so did he direct his eyes afar, and seek without, that which he had...
Page 33 - I think it best, if you too think so, that we also should turn into the language which we all of us know, some such books as are deemed most useful for all men to understand, and that we do our best to effect, as we easily may, with God's help, if we have quietness, that all the youth of free-born Englishmen, such as have wealth enough to maintain them, be brought up to learn, that, at an age when they can do nothing else, they may learn to read the English language then, and that afterwards the...
Page 346 - The third portion was assigned to the school, which he had studiously collected together, consisting of many of the nobility of his own nation. The fourth portion was for the use of all the neighbouring monasteries in all Saxony and Mercia, and also during some years, in turn, to the churches and servants of God dwelling in...
Page 317 - Martin (Nov. 11), and he continued to learn the flowers collected by certain masters, and to reduce them into the form of one book, as he was then able, although mixed one with another, until it became almost as large as a psalter. This book he called his ENCHIRIDION or MANUAL, because he carefully kept it at hand day and night, and found, as he told me, no small consolation therein.

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