they are old, though wishing to learn them, they are unable. But this skill of young and old in acquiring letters, we have explained to the knowledge of the aforesaid king.[145] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 86: Wantage.] [Footnote 87: The Gewissæ, generally understood to be the West-Saxons.] [Footnote 88: Carisbrooke, as may be conjectured from the name, which is a combination of Wight and Caraburgh.] [Footnote 89: Wembury.] [Footnote 90: Minster.] [Footnote 91: Canterbury.] [Footnote 92: Ockley, in Surrey.] [Footnote 93: This is one the few instances to be met with of the name Britannia applied to Wales.] [Footnote 94: Thanet.] [Footnote 95: Wilts.] [Footnote 96: Offa's dyke, between Wales and England.] [Footnote 97: Ingram supposes this to be Stonehenge. Stæningham, however, is the common reading, which Camden thinks is Steyning, in Sussex. The Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 855, states, that Ethelwulf was buried at Winchester.] [Footnote 98: We must understand this epithet as denoting his mother-in-law, Judith, rather than his own mother, who was dead in A.D. 856, when Alfred was not yet seven years old. When his father brought Judith from France Alfred was thirteen years old.] [Footnote 99: This nobleman occurs as a witness [Mucil, dux] to many Mercian charters, dated from A.D. 814 to 866.] [Footnote 100: Inhabitants of Gainsborough.] [Footnote 101: Englefield Green is about four miles from Windsor] [Footnote 102: Aston, in Berkshire.] [Footnote 103: Stratclyde Britons.] [Footnote 104: Cambridge.] [Footnote 105: The Frome.] [Footnote 106: They swore oaths to Alfred on the holy ring, says the Saxon Chronicle, p. 355. The most solemn manner of swearing among the Danes and other northern nations was by their arms. Olaus Magnus, lib. viii. c. 2.] [Footnote 107: Exeter.] [Footnote 108: It is necessary to inform the reader that many passages of this work are modern interpolations, made in the old MS. by a later hand. The "Annals" referred to in the text are supposed not to be a genuine work of Asser.] [Footnote 109: Swanwich, in Dorsetshire.] [Footnote 110: This clause is a mere repetition of the preceding. See a former note in this page.] [Footnote 111: Athelney, a morass formed by the conflux of the Thone and the Parret. See Saxon Chron. p. 356, and Chronicle of Ethelwerd, p 31.] [Footnote 112: The original here is in Latin verse, and may therefore be rendered into English verse, but such as every housewife in Somersetshire would understand.] [Footnote 113: Probably the sanguinary Hubba.] [Footnote 114: Or South Wales.] [Footnote 115: Kynwith castle stood on the river Taw. Camden, p. 35.] [Footnote 116: Now called Brixton Deverill, in Wilts.] [Footnote 117: Selwood Forest extended from Frome to Burham, and was probably much larger at one time.] [Footnote 118: Or Iglea. Supposed to be Leigh, now Westbury, Wilts.] [Footnote 119: Wedmore is four miles and three quarters from Axbridge, in Somersetshire.]