[135] Edington in Wiltshire, a little east of Westbury. Near this place is another White Horse, at Bratton Castle, but we have not sufficient evidence to connect this with Alfred’s victory.
[136] This was pointed out half a century ago by Dr. Reinhold Schmid, the accurate German editor of the Anglo-Saxon laws.
[137] It is interesting to note that the Watling Street is still the chief boundary between the counties of Warwick and Leicester. Through a large part of its course the London and North Western Railway so nearly coincides with this old Roman road that the traveller faring northwards may consider himself to be looking forth from the right-hand window over the “Danelaw” and from the left over “Saxony”.
[138] The value of the mark of pure gold is not yet clearly ascertained. Mr. Chadwick (Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions, p. 50) argues from this passage that a single mark of gold = 300 scillings, and that the fine hereby imposed was 1,200 scillings, equal to the wergild of a West Saxon noble. But in that case one would have expected to have some more distinct indication of rank than is contained in the words “gif man ofslagen weorthe”.
[139] For some valuable suggestions on the mysterious subject of Alfred’s diseases see Plummer’s Life and Times of Alfred the Great, pp. 28, 214.
[140] Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles, ii., civ.
[141] Quotations are given from Mr. Sedgefield’s translation, which has the great merit of distinguishing Alfred’s interpolations by a different type from the original text.
[142] Against the genuineness of the passage are its omission from Ã, the earliest and best MS. of the Chronicle, from Asser, and from the original text of Florence of Worcester. See Stevenson, Asser, pp. 287–90.
[143] Professor Vinogradoff in his essay on Folkland contributed to the English Historical Review, vol. viii.; further illustrated by his Growth of the Manor.
[144] “Terra popularis, communi jure et sine scripto possessa.” This was Spelman’s definition (1626), and Vinogradoff shows good ground for reverting to it with a slight modification, instead of adopting Allen’s theory that the folkland was land owned by the nation like the ager publicus of Rome.