destruction only by the intervention of Ethelred, bringing with him
the blessing of Heaven.

In fact, the various narratives of these ancient events, which are
found at the present day in the old chronicles that record them,
differ always very essentially, not only in respect to matters of
opinion, and to the point of view in which they are to be regarded,
but also in respect to questions of fact. Even the place where this
battle was fought, notwithstanding what we have said about the
derivation of Aston from Æscesdune, is not absolutely certain. There
is in the same vicinity another town, called Ashbury, which claims the
honor. One reason for supposing that this last is the true locality is
that there are the ruins of an ancient monument here, which, tradition
says, was a monument built to commemorate the death of a Danish
chieftain slain here by Alfred. There is also in the neighborhood
another very singular monument, called The White Horse, which also
has the reputation of having been fashioned to commemorate Alfred's
victories. The White Horse is a rude representation of a horse, formed
by cutting away the turf from the steep slope of a hill, so as to
expose a portion of the white surface of the chalky rock below of such
a form that the figure is called a horse, though they who see it seem
to think it might as well have been called a dog. The name, however,
of _The White Horse_ has come down with it from ancient times, and
the hill on which it is cut is known as The White Horse Hill. Some
ingenious antiquarians think they find evidence that this gigantic
profile was made to commemorate the victory obtained by Alfred and
Ethelred over the Danes at the ancient Æscesdune.

However this may be, and whatever view we may take of the comparative
influence of Alfred's energetic action and Ethelred's religious faith