INSCRIPTION NEAR CIRENCESTER.
(Vol. viii., p. 76.)
This inscription is not "in Earl Bathurst's park," as your correspondent A. Smith says, but is in Oakley Woods, situated at some three or four miles' distance from Cirencester, and being separated and quite distinct from the park; nor is the inscription correctly copied. Rudder, in his new History of Gloucestershire, 1779, says:
"Concealed as it were in the wood stands Alfred's Hall, a building that has the semblance of great antiquity. Over the door opposite to the south entrance, on the inside, is the following inscription in the Saxon character and language [of which there follows a copy]. Over the south door is the following Latin translation:
"'Fœdus quod Ælfredus & Gythrunus reges, omnes Anglia sapientes, & quicunq; Angliam incolebant orientalem, ferierunt; & non solum de seipsis, verum etiam de natis suis, ac nondum in lucem editis, quotquot misericordiæ divinæ aut regiæ velint esse participes jurejurando sanxerunt.
"'Primò ditionis nostræ fines ad Thamesin evehuntur, inde ad Leam usq; ad fontem ejus; tum recta ad Bedfordiam, ac deniq; per Usam ad viam Vetelingianam.'"
I copy from Rudder, with the stops and contracted "et's," as they stand in his work; though I think the original has points between each word, as marked by A. Smith.
The omissions and mistakes of your correspondent (which you will perceive are important) are marked in Italics above.
Rudder adds,—
"Behind this building is a ruin with a stone on the chimney-piece, on which, in ancient characters relieved on the stone, is this inscription:
'IN . MEM . ALFREDI . REG . RESTAVR . ANO . DO . 1085.'
"It would have been inexcusable in the topographer to have passed by so curious a place without notice; but the historian would have been equally culpable who should not have informed the reader that this building is an excellent imitation of antiquity. The name, the inscription, and the writing over the doors, of the convention between the good king and his pagan enemies, were probably all suggested by the similarity of Achelie, the ancient name of this place, to Æcglea, where King Alfred rested with his army the night before he attacked the Danish camp at Ethandun, and at length forced their leader Godrum, or Guthrum, or Gormund, to make such convention."
It is many years since I saw the inscription, and then I made no note of it; but I have no doubt that Rudder has given it correctly, because when I was a young man I was intimately acquainted with him, who was then an aged person; and a curious circumstance that occurred between us, and is still full in my memory, impressed me with the idea of his great precision and exactness.
I would remark on the explanation given by Rudder, that the Iglea of Asser is supposed by Camden, Gibson, Gough, and Sir Richard Colt Hoare to be Clayhill, eastward of Warminster; and Ethandun to be Edington, about three miles eastward of Westbury, both in Wilts.
Asser says that, "in the same year," the year of the battle, "the army of the pagans, departing from Chippenham, as had been promised, went to Cirencester, where they remained one year."
On the signal defeat of Guthrum, he gave hostages to Alfred; and it is probable that, if any treaty was made between them, it was made immediately after the battle; and not that Alfred came from his fortress of Æthelingay to meet Guthrum at Cirencester, where his army lay after leaving Chippenham.
If the treaty was made soon after the battle, it might have been at Alfred's Hall near Cirencester, especially if Hampton (Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire), which is only six miles from Oakley Wood, be the real site of the great and important battle, as was, a few years since, very plausibly argued by Mr. John Marks Moffatt, in a paper inserted, with the signature "J. M. M.," in Brayley's Graphic and Historical Illustrator, p. 106. et seq., 1834.
The mention of Rudder's History brings to my mind an inscription over the door of Westbury Court, which I noticed when a boy at school, in the village of Westbury in this county. This mansion was taken down during the minority of Maynard Colchester, Esq., the present owner of the estate. Rudder, in his account of that parish, has preserved the inscription—
"D.
O. M.
N. M. M. H. E. P. N. C."
He reads the first three letters "Deo Optimo Maximo," and says the subsequent line contains the initials of the following hexameter:
"Nunc mea, mox hujus, et postea nescio cujus,"
alluding to the successive descent of property from one generation to another.
Perhaps one of your readers may be enabled to tell me whether the above line be original, or copied, and from whom.
P. H. Fisher.
Stroud.
The agreement referred to is no other than the famous treaty of peace between Alfred and Guthrun, whose name, by the substitution of an initial "L." for a "G.," among various other inaccuracies for which your correspondent is perhaps not responsible, has been disguised under the form of "Lvthrvnvs." The inscription itself forms the commencement of the treaty, which is stated, in Turner's Anglo-Saxons, book iv. ch. v., to be still extant. It is translated as follows, in Lambard's Αρχαιονομια, p. 36.:—
"Fœdus quod Aluredus & Gythrunus reges ex sapientum Anglorum, atque eorum omnium qui orientalem incolebant Angliam consulto ferierunt, in quod præterea singuli non solum de se ipsis, verum etiam de natis suis, ac nondum in lucem editis (quotquot saltem misericordiæ divinæ aut regiæ velint esse participes), jurarunt.
"Primo igitur ditionis nostræ fines ad Thamesim fluvium evehuntor: Inde ad Leam flumen profecti, ad fontem ejus deferuntor: tum rectà ad Bedfordiam porriguntor, ac denique per Usam fluvium porrecti ad viam Vetelingianam desinunto."
Another translation will be found in Wilkins's Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ, p. 47., and the Saxon original in both. As to the boundaries here defined, see note in Spelman's Alfred, p. 36.
At Cirencester Guthrun remained for twelve months after his baptism, according to his treaty with Alfred. (See Sim. Dunelm. de gestis Regum Anglorum, sub anno 879.)
J. F. M.