It is seen, therefore, that our royal family is descended from Alfred by two lines at least. There may be more: one through Judith, widow of Ethelwulf, and one through Margaret, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.

CHAPTER I.

ENGLAND IN THE NINTH CENTURY.

WHEN from the window of a railway train we gaze upon the broad lands of England, seeing pasture land followed by arable, with small woods on the hillsides, and villages peacefully lying round the venerable churches which sanctify the country; seeing every part of this lovely country

like a garden, enclosed by hedges, planted with trees, under care and cultivation, save here and there an expanse of moorland, of heath, or of barren mountain; seeing the whole land traversed in every direction by high-roads, cross-country roads, railways, and canals; we do well to ask how the country became so cultivated and so cared for; how long it has been the great and beautiful garden which we now look upon. On investigation, we discover that the present aspect of the land is not two centuries old, and that even in the time of the Stuarts the country presented an appearance and was subject to conditions such that, could we see it as it was then, we should hardly be able to recognize it as we see it now. This appearance, and these conditions, continued and preserved those of a thousand years. Between the England of the ninth century (with which we are here concerned) and that of the seventeenth, there was very little change, except that in the former period the forests covered a larger area, the marshes were more dangerous and more extensive, the villages and towns were more scattered, separate, and isolated.

Lay before you a map of England. Carry yourself back to the ninth century. With a brush and some water colour lay down upon the map the forests, the marshes, the seaboard, the moors, the divisions, provinces, or kingdoms of the country. You will find, first of all, a vast forest beginning with the coast of Kent, where a narrow strip had been cleared, and stretching westward across the country covering a great part of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorsetshire. This forest, on reaching the borders of