[44] Eyrie: the nest of a bird of prey; here, a gathering-place for Roman soldiers.
[45] Cairn: a heap of stones set up to mark a spot.
[46] Sappers and miners: usually, soldiers employed in working on trenches and fortifications or in undermining those of an enemy; here, engaged in surveying.
[47] Ordnance Map: an official or government map.
[48] Balak: see Numbers xxii.
[49] Alfred: Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, 871. He defeated the Danes, who had overrun most of England, at Ashdown, and compelled them to make a treaty of peace. He is justly considered one of the noblest and wisest of the English sovereigns; and the thousandth anniversary of his birth was celebrated in 1849, at Wantage, Berks.
[50] Asser: a contemporary of Alfred; he wrote his life.
[51] Saxons: a name given to certain German tribes who conquered Britain, in the fifth century. The name England came from the Angles, a people of the same stock, who settled in the east and north of the island. From these Anglo-Saxons the English have in great part descended.
[52] Alma: a river in the Crimea where a desperate battle was fought between the Russians and the allied English and French in 1854.
[53] Chronicler: Asser, from whom this is quoted.