Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/421

 THE BATTLE OP ASHDOWN". 327 states, that it comprised almost a third part of his whole kingdom ; ^ and Dr. Mihicr, ^ remarking on tlie transaction, adds, that the principality appears to be the same which his father Qnilchelm (or Cwicchelm) had formerly held, con- sisting of Berkshire and part of Oxfordsliire.^ In fact, it seems the most probable supposition, that Kenwal, being restored to his kingdom, and having acquired, as the old historians relate, while in a state of adversity, a due sense of his former iniquities, was anxious on his restoration to prosperity, to make restitution, and accord- ingly, among other acts of justice, gave Cuthred the patrimony of his father Cwicchelm, comprising the domain called from him, Cwicchelmslawe, or Cwicchelm's territory. The name, it is probable, centered subsequently in a town or village situated somewhere on or near the Berkshire Hills, and not far from the tumulus before mentioned. It is said, that the Danes went to Cwicchelmslawe, evidently as to an inhabited place, and there awaited better cheer.''^ There is a record of a court or judicial assembly being held there, in the time of King Ethelred, and we learn from Dugdale^ that these courts were held in a church or church- yard. Wherever it was situated, all traces have long been lost, for it does not appear in the Norman Survey, or in any subsequent record ; having perhaps been destroyed in some of the plundering excursions of the Danes. W. NELSON CLARKE, D.C.L. EXTRACT FROM ASSER'S HISTORY OF ALFRED. GIVING THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF ASHDOWN, A.D. 871. " Christiani — post* quatuor dies contra prasfatum exercitum in loco, qui dicitur ^scesdun, quod Latine Mons fraxini interpretatur, totis viribus et plena voluntate ad proelium prodeunt ; sed Pagani in duas so turmas dividentes ajquali lance testudines parant (habebaut enim tunc duos Reges, et multos Coinites) concedentes inediam partem exercitus duobus Kegibus, et alteram omnibus Comitibus ; quod Christiani cernentes, et etiam ipsi exercitum in duas turmas similiter dividentes, testudines non segnius " " Quippe qui filio fratris pene tertiam granted as a province or principality, to regni partem magnanima liberalitate com- be held under himself, municaret." — Will. Malmsb. lib i., cap. 2. - Saxon Chron., ann. 1006. 8 History of Winchester, vol. i., p. 93. ^ Orig. Jurid. Lond. 1671, pp. 31, 32. ^ Bp. Kennett says, that it consisted of * That is, after the battle of Heading, all that part of Kenwal's kingdom, which in which Ethehvulf was slain, lay south of the Thames, and that it was