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"In every tree I saw something which I needed at home, therefore I advise every one who is able, and has many wains, that he trade to the same wood where I cut the stud-shafts, and there fetch more for himself, and load his wain with fair rods, that he may wind many a neat wall, and set many a comely house, and build many a fair town of them; and thereby may dwell merrily But He and softly so as now I have not yet done. who taught me, to whom the wood belonged, (?) may He make me to dwell more softly in this temporary cot, the while I am in this world, and also in the everlasting home which He has promised us through St. Austin, St. Gregory, and St. Jerome, and through many other holy Fathers; as I believe, also, for the merits of all these, He will make the way more plain than it was before, and especially enlighten the eyes of my mind, so that I may search out the right way to the everlasting glory and the everlasting rest which is promised us through those holy Fathers. May it be so!

"It is no wonder though men sink in timber-working, and in the carrying and building; but every man wishes, after he has built a cottage on his lord's lease by his help, that he may sometimes rest him therein, and hunt, and fowl, and fish, and use in every way under the lease, both on water and on land, until that he earn bookland and everlasting heritage through his lord's mercy.

"So do the Wealthy Giver who wields both these May He temporary cottages and the eternal homes! who shaped both, and wields both, grant me that I be meet for each, both here to be profitable and thither to come!"

It

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle certainly owed more than mere encouragement to the king. The very words of Alfred are, it is claimed, to be found in that part which concerns the wars. is historically certain that Plegmund carried on the Chronicle, perhaps also he began it. As is well known, it is the principal authority-in many the sole authority - for the events de

scribed. If we were deprived of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there would be great gaps in our history quite impossible to be filled up.

In the course of time many other works were attributed to Alfred. Some of these were really his. Such is the king's "Book of Martyrs." There were also attributed to him a collection of Proverbs, a version of Æsop, a treatise on Falconry, and many other things. We have, however, quite enough of Alfred's genuine remains without adding doubtful or apocryphal works. They show a mind always active, always at work for the advancement of his people. His four principal works are deliberately designed each to fill its own place and to perform its own duty. The Bishop of Bristol sums up the four divisions.

"For general history, and for history and geography relating to their own race on the Continent of Europe, he chose Orosius; for mental study, the Consolation' of Boethius; for realization of the true principles of the life and work of religion, the Pastoral Care;' for the Church history of the English people, of course the great and priceless book of the Venerable Bede."

Let me on this subject quote the words of Mr. Frederick Harrison (Bowker's "Alfred "):—

"It is in his own writings that we come to love Alfred best. No ruler of men has left us so pellucid a revelation of his own soul. As in Meditations' of Aurelius and the Psalms of David, there is given to men the outpourings of his aspirations and his sorrows. Neither Richelieu, Cromwell, nor William the Silent ever recorded more frankly their problems and their aims. In the authentic writings of Alfred we are in the presence of one who is a teacher as much as a king, who recalls to us Augustine and À Kempis, or Bunyan and Jeremy Taylor. His Boethius served him as texts whereon he preached to

his people profound sermons on the moral and spiritual life. Read his homily on Riches that it is better to give than to receive; on the true Ruler-' that power is never good, unless he be good that has it;' on the uses of Adversity-'no wise man should desire a soft life.' Few men ever had so hard a life-with his mysterious and cruel malady, ‘his thorn in the flesh,' until his early death; with his distracted and ruined kingdom, his ferocious enemies, his never-ending cares. And amidst it all we have the king in his silent study pouring out poetic thought upon married love or friendship; on true happiness or the inner life; composing pastoral poetry or casting into English old idylls from Greek epic or myth; ending with some magnificent Te Deum of his own composition.

"Alfred did more than contribute translations to the literature of his country; he laid the very foundations of our literature, the most noble literature that the world has ever seen. He collected and preserved the poetry based on the traditions and legends brought from the German forests. He himself delighted to hear and to repeat these legends and traditions: the deeds of the mighty warriors who fought with monsters, dragons, wild boars, and huge serpents. He made his children learn their songs; he had them sung in his court. The tradition goes that he could himself sing them to the music of his own harp. This wild and spontaneous poetry which Alfred preserved is the beginning of our own noble choir of poets. In other words, the foundation of that stately Palace of Literature, built up by our poets and writers for the admiration and instruction and consolation of mankind, was laid by Alfred. Well, but he did more than collect the poetry, he began the prose. Before Alfred there was no Anglo

Saxon prose.

WE have considered Alfred as a warrior, and captain, Alfred as the restorer of religion, Alfred as the law-giver, Alfred as the encourager of education, Alfred as writer. A few points remain to be considered. He says

Returning once more to Asser.

"In the mean time the king, during the frequent wars and other trammels of this present life, the invasions of the pagans, and his own daily infirmities of body, continued to carry on the government, and to exercise hunting in all its branches; to teach his workers in gold and artificers of all kinds, his falconers, his hawkers, and dogkeepers; to build houses, majestic and good, beyond all the precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical inventions; to recite the Saxon books, and especially to learn by heart the Saxon poems, and to make others learn them; and he alone never desisted from studying, most diligently, to the best of his ability."

It would seem as if hunting was introduced here in a place of needless prominence. Let it be remembered, however, that hunting was more than a sport. Men did not go out with horse and hound in order to ride after a fox; they went out to fight big game-wild boar, wolves, wild cattle; they went out to provide food. Hunting was necessary. The fisher folk went after the fish in the sea and in the rivers. The fowler trapped the myriad wild birds of the fen and marsh. The nobler game, the wild deer, was hunted by king and nobles; while the ladies of

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down heron and wild swan, small birds and great birds of the woods. Hunting, the trade of the savage, became the sport of kings. It was regulated by a complicated system of rules and customs. Not to know this unwritten code was to be uneducated and ill-bred; while the servants themselves were instructed in the whole art of the chase for the conservation of their herds and the maintenance of the royal sport. Thus we find Alfred, as stated above, instructing his falconers, hawkers, and dog-keepers.

He also encouraged the work of the craftsmen, goldsmiths, and jewellers. In these arts the Saxons greatly excelled. A single instance of the work of his goldsmiths, King Alfred's jewel, is a monument of the level attained under the trying conditions of war and defeat, in which the artist had to work. This jewel was found near Athelney in the year 1693. It is now preserved at Oxford, beside another jewel of the same period. Pauli describes the jewel as

"a polished crystal of an oval form, rather more than two inches in length and half an inch thick, inlaid with a mosaic enamel of green and yellow. This enamel represents the outline of a human figure, which appears to be in a sitting posture, holding in each hand a sort of lily-branch in blossom. This figure may be meant to represent St. Cuthbert, or even Christ, or it may be simply a king in state attire. The reverse side of the jewel is covered by a plate of fine gold, on which, somewhat tastefully and fancifully, a flower is engraved. The oval sides are bordered by beaten gold, admirably and durably manufactured, bearing around them the words:

AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN'

Alfred ordered me to be made ').