the number of hostages maidens of noble birth."1 It impressed the historian of the days of Roman decadence that divorce among the Germans was very rare, because the occasion for it was almost unknown, and that neither beauty, youth, nor wealth could procure for a repudiated wife another husband.

"To limit the number of their children, or to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infamous." We get a glimpse of the primitive happy family, where the "children, nine and ten" in every household, "naked and dirty, grow up with those stout frames and limbs which we so much admire"; and we can still catch the echo in the literature of the time of the sensation made among the dark-haired, dark-eyed Italian youths by the sight of the blue eyes, auburn tresses, and tall, developed figures of the English dames and damsels. Golden locks became so fashionable that they fetched a high price in the market. In Domitian's time, ladies who could not afford to buy a Teutonic head-dress dyed their natural hair auburn or yellow. The impression made in Rome by the Anglo-Saxon boys and girls is happily focussed and preserved in Gregory's famous pun— "Not Angles but angels."

1

1 Tacitus, "Germania." It is of some interest to compare with this the report of the part taken by Boer women in the recent war. They seem to have preserved some primitive features of the race.

The English dames were skilful with the needle, and already their embroidery and tapestry had a reputation abroad. It may have been in watching the deft fingers of his mother that Alfred got the taste for artistic work of this kind which he afterwards communicated to others. It shortens the centuries between us and him to find that a piece of woman's work of this period, woven by some skilful fingers, is still to be seen in the Chapter Library at Durham. It is a beautiful stole, "woven in goldwire, beaten flat like narrow tape; it is woven with selvedged openings for the insertion of figures in tapestry work." It is also recorded, as an illustration of the reputation of English embroidery, that the most gorgeous cope seen by Anselm at the Council of Bari in 1098 had been a Canterbury vestment in the time of King Canute (1013-35).

The one recorded incident in which Alfred and his mother play distinct and individual parts, has been challenged by the critical zeal of both English and German historians. As told by Asser, the story

1 The stole was made by command of Queen Elflaed for Frithestan (consecrated in 908) according to the inscription worked into it. It was given to St Cuthbert (i.e. to St Cuthbert's tomb) by King Athelstan in 934. The remains of St Cuthbert were removed

to Durham in 995. Pieces of the coffin are still shown in the Library at Durham with other relics taken from the tomb. A good deal of womanly piety for many generations went into decorating ecclesiastical garments which the Christian Church had inherited from Roman paganism. See also Bowker's "Alfred," p. 88.

is this: "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 looks, in speech, and in manners, he was more graceful than they. His noble nature implanted in him from the cradle a love of wisdom above all things; but, with shame be it spoken, by the unworthy neglect of his parents and nurses, he remained illiterate even till he was twelve years old or more; but he listened with serious attention to the Saxon poems, which he often heard recited, and easily retained them in his docile memory. He was a zealous practiser of hunting in all its branches, and hunted with great assiduity and success; for skill and good fortune in this art, as in all others, are among the gifts of God, as we also have often witnessed.

"On a certain day his mother was showing him and his brothers a beautiful book of songs, with rich pictures and fine painted initial letters, and she said to them, 'Whichever of you shall first learn this book shall have it for his own.' Then Alfred, moved by these words, or rather by a divine inspiration, and allured by the illuminated letters, spoke before his brothers-who, though his seniors in years, were not so in grace—and answered, 'Will you really give

that book to the one of us who can first understand and repeat it to you?' Upon which his mother smiled, and repeated what she had said. So Alfred took the book from her hand, and went to his master to get it read, and in due time. brought it again to his mother and recited it; so it became his own."

The reasons for rejecting the story in this form are stated by the trenchant hand of Professor Freeman. Alfred was not twelve years old till 861. By that time his brothers were not children playing round their mother, but grown men and kings, and two of these, Æthelstan and Æthelbald, were dead; and his mother must have been dead also, as Æthelwulf married Judith (his second wife) when Alfred was only seven years old. But it is easy for a chronicler to make a mistake in the age of a child. Asser may have heard Alfred tell this story of his own childhood, and also may have heard him say that he loved hunting and field sports and little else till he was twelve, and then awoke to other tasks and interests. Associating the two, a biographer looking back over many years might easily misdate his story. Some probability is given to this conjectural explanation by the fact that Asser is very doubtful himself about dates and numbers in the story: he says "twelve years old or more," and he leaves it doubtful

how many sons were concerned in the mother's offer. It is certainly easier to explain a biographer's mistake than to give up the incident. The story,

It

as it stands, has character and verisimilitude. is not of any stock type; there is no particular reason why it should have been invented, if it had not happened. It shows us Osburh as a woman with the instinct and interest of a thoughtful mother, with her children about her, quick to encourage the effort of an awakening faculty, with some interest herself in books and skilled workmanship. Such a woman we can well believe she was, for such are the mothers of kings in all ranks of life. It shows us Alfred also as a child we shall see that he cannot have been more than four years old,but a bright, quick-eyed child, with a love for brightly-coloured books, a feeling for the songs of his people, and a ready, because an interested, memory. This corresponds very nearly to the impression which we form of the bright boy who is much loved by his father, and graciously noticed by the Pope a little later.

The sons of the house of Cerdic were evidently a royal race. In a time when vigour and robust manliness were indispensable for a leader of men, each in turn was chosen king by the deliberate vote of the Witan. Although the land was Christian in name, we can understand how, in dealing with a