is part of a letter which he wrote to a friend of his, a bishop, on this subject.

"I wondered greatly that of those good, wise men who were formerly in our nation, and who had all learnt fully these books, none would translate any part into their own language. . . I then recollected how the law was first revealed in the Hebrew tongue, and that after the Greeks had learned it they turned it all into their own language, and also other books; and the Latin men likewise when they had learned it . . . turned it into their own tongue, and also every other Christian nation translated some parts. Therefore I think it better, if you think so, that we also translate some books, the most necessary for all men to know, into our own language; and we may do this, with God's help, very easily, if we have stillness."

42. So when they had a time of "stillness" the king and his learned friends set to work and translated books into English; and Alfred, who was as modest and candid as he was wise, put into the preface of one of his translations that he hoped, if any one knew Latin better than he did, that he would not blame him, for he could but do according to his ability.

43. Now what books did they translate?

For a religious book he chose one which had been written in Latin by Gregory the Great; the very Gregory who sent the missionaries to England, and who, it was believed, was inspired by the Holy Ghost. In old pictures and statues of Gregory we often see him with a dove on his shoulder whispering into his

ear.

44. For the history of England he took that beautiful and naïve one by Bede, of which we have already read parts. He also encouraged, if he did not write, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,' which had been very dry and poor before, but becomes full and interesting in his reign. This is the first history of themselves written by any Teutonic people in their own language, and not only scholars in England, but in Germany also, take great interest in it. I shall often give extracts from it as we go on, for it was carried on for some hundreds of years after this time.

45. For geography and general history he took a Latin book by Orosius, who was a friend of St. Augustine, and wrote in the fifth century. This he altered and added to, for in the time which had passed since it was written, men had learnt more about some parts of the earth. Two travellers whom Alfred knew had explored different parts of the north,-Norway, the

G

White Sea, &c.,--and gave the king accounts of what they had seen the reindeer and the whales, and the people with their strange habits and ways. Alfred was interested in all this; he wrote it down and put it into his geography-book, where we may read it to-day, if we like.

46. Then he translated a book called the 'Consolations of Philosophy,' and added to that a great many wise thoughts of his own. He tells us some of his ideas about the government of his kingdom. "Thou knowest that covetousness and the possession of this earthly power I did not well like, nor strongly desired at all this earthly kingdom. But oh! I desired materials for the work I was commanded to do. . . . These are the materials of a king's work and his tools to govern with-that he should have his land fully peopled; that he should have prayermen, and army-men, and work-men. . . . This I can now most truly say, that so long as I have lived I have striven to live worthily, and after my life to leave to the men that should be after me a remembrance of me in good works." Surely that noble wish and that noble striving have been fulfilled. 47. Beside all this, he had a great many other occupations. Asser, who often lived with him for months at a time, gives us an account of his busy life. Notwithstanding his infirmities and other hindrances, "he 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, hawkers, and dog-keepers; to build houses, majestic and good, beyond all the precedents of his ancestors, by his new mechanical inventions; to recite the Saxon books (Asser, being a Welshman, always calls the English, Saxon), and especially to learn by heart the Saxon poems, and to make others learn them; he never desisted from studying most diligently to the best of his ability; he attended the mass and other daily services of religion; he was frequent in psalm-singing and prayer; . . . . . he bestowed alms and largesses on both natives and foreigners of all countries; he was affable and pleasant to all, and curiously eager to investigate things unknown."

His other work.

He not only sent presents to the different Christian Churches in Rome, Jerusalem, &c., but all the way to India, where there, were some Christian settlements, and this was the very first intercourse between England and India. Could he but have foreseen the state of things now, how he would have been amazed!

48. In the midst of all this business he had a great want-he

could not tell how the time went. In those days there were no clocks; they had not yet been invented, or at all events none had come to England. And though in fine weather people can tell the time by looking at the sky, and seeing where the sun and the stars are, that is a very uncertain resource in a cloudy and foggy country like ours. Alfred had a very ingenious invention for getting out of this difficulty; he had wax candles made very carefully and measured into compartments, each of which would burn a certain time. Then, however, a fresh difficulty arose, which gives us a pleasing idea of the warmth and comfort even of kings' palaces in those days. The candles, however carefully weighed, often burnt out before their time on account of the violence of the wind, which blew day and night without intermission through the doors and windows, and the cracks and fissures in the walls, both of churches and palaces. But the king's ingenuity soon hit upon an expedient to remedy this-an expedient so wonderful and beautiful that Asser seems quite lost in astonishment and admiration as he describes it. This last invention was no other than a lantern of horn! by means of which protection the candle-clocks burnt for exactly the appointed period. It quite does one good sometimes to see how surprisingly clever things appeared at first when they were new, which we have now come to look upon as very obvious and commonplace affairs.

901.

49. Thus Alfred's years went by. He had some more trouble with the Danes before his reign was over, but they were fully conquered and driven off again. Then followed four more years of peace, and then he died, only fifty-three years old; worn out before his time, no doubt, by ceaseless toil; and leaving behind him, not a name at which the world grows pale," but a name at which every English heart grows warm with pride, and gratitude, and love.

66

LECTURE X.-ENGLAND IN PROSPERITY.

Alfred's descendants. Ethelstane. Condition of the people. Ranks of society. The poor. Slavery. Treatment of women. Food, amusements, dress, buildings. The names for the months.

901. Edward the Elder.

1. THOUGH Alfred died before his time, happily for England he left worthy children behind him. His eldest son, Edward, was made king, and under him England became greater and more glorious than it had ever yet been. He seems to have been quite as skilful a warrior and ruler as his father, but though he had had a good education, he was not so fond of study and books. Alfred appears to have taken special pains in training him and his eldest sister to succeed him in governing the kingdom and protecting it from the Danes. The sister, Ethelfled, was married to an alderman, a title which has been explained before. At the time of which we are now speaking an alderman seems to have been almost the same as a viceroy or under-king. Though Alfred was king over all (in a sense), still it was hundreds of years before it was forgotten that Mercia, Northumberland, and the others had been once separate kingdoms, and every now and then a king crops up among them, especially in the north.

2. Ethelfled's husband was Alderman or Viceroy of Mercia, and he helped Alfred and Edward most gallantly in the struggle with the Danes. After he died Ethelfled took his

of the

The Lady place, and was quite as brave and gallant as he. In Mercians. King Alfred's will he made a distinction between what he called the "spear-half" and the "spindlehalf" of his family. He provided very liberally for his wife and daughters; but had he lived to see how Ethelfled led armies, built fortresses, and conquered enemies, he would perhaps have said she belonged to the "spear-half."

3. She helped her brother Edward not only in defending the kingdom which Alfred left, but also in reconquering the other part of Mercia where the Danes had settled themselves very strongly, and had founded the five boroughs which were called

the "Danish boroughs," Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, Stamford, and Nottingham. The boroughs themselves, however, were not conquered till some time afterwards. They also reconquered Essex and East Anglia, and they built forts in all directions. This was something quite new in English or Anglo-Saxon warfare, for all the German race hated walls and cities. But in the time of danger they had most likely often profited by the strong walls which the old Romans had built in many places, which were still standing firm, and which would give them shelter from their enemies. And so, by degrees, they became partly reconciled to fortresses and walled towns, though they still loved the open forest and plain better.

Submission

of the

whole

island.

4. When Ethelfled, "the Lady of the Mercians," died, her brother succeeded to her dominions, and thus became king over all England south of the Humber. Here he was sole king, with no under-kings; but he was now so powerful that the other princes and kings in the whole island submitted to him. The Welsh and the Scotch had suffered from the Danes as much as the English had done, and no doubt they felt the need of a powerful protector; so "the kings of North Wales, and all the North Welsh race, sought him for lord." North Wales meant all that we call Wales now, and as these North Welsh were the descendants of the ancient Britons, we may say that their conquest was now complete for the time. Then a year or two afterwards "the King of the Scots, and all the nation of the Scots, and all those who dwelt in Northumbria, as well English as Danish, and Northmen, and others, and also the King of the Strathclyde Welsh, and all the Strathclyde Welsh, chose him for father and lord."

922.

924.

5. Edward was the over-king of all these; they owed him service, and he owed them protection. These under-kings and under-lords are called "vassals;" and we shall find the same system become more and more general throughout Europe as we go on. Thus Edward may be considered as sole king of England south of the Humber, and over-lord, or emperor, as he is sometimes called, of all the rest of the island-of all the Welsh and all the Scotch.

6. After his death his son Ethelstane was made king. He was as grand a king as his father. He too had had the advantage of being partly trained up by his grandfather Alfred; for we read that he was brought up at Alfred's court, and that, being a beautiful and gentle boy,

925. Ethelstane.