REASSEMBLING OF THE ARMY.


Ethelney, though its precise locality can not now be certainly
ascertained, was in the southwestern part of England, in
Somersetshire, which county lies on the southern shore of the Bristol
Channel. There is a region of marshes in that vicinity, which
tradition assigns as the place of Alfred's retreat; and there was,
about the middle of this century, a farmhouse there, which bore the
name of Ethelney, though this name may have been given to it in modern
times by those who imagined it to be the ancient locality. A jewel of
gold, engraved as an amulet to be worn about the neck, and inscribed
with the Saxon words which mean "Alfred had me made," was found in the
vicinity, and is still carefully preserved in a museum in England.
Some curious antiquarians profess to find the very hillock, rising out
of the low grounds around, where the herdsman that entertained Alfred
so long lived; but this, of course is all uncertain. The peculiarities
of the spot derived their character from the morasses and the woods,
and the courses of the sluggish streams in the neighborhood, and these
are elements of landscape scenery which ten centuries of time and of
cultivation would entirely change.

Whatever may have been the precise situation of the spot, instead of
being, as at first, a mere hiding-place and retreat, it became, before
many months, as was intimated in the last chapter, a military camp,
secluded and concealed, it is true, but still possessing, in a
considerable degree, the characteristics of a fastness and place of
defense. Alfred's company erected something which might be called a
wall. They built a bridge across the water where the herdsman's boat
had been accustomed to ply. They raised two towers to watch and guard