|encamped.--Alfred, with the utmost secresy, concealed his |intentions, and by rapid movements appeared in sight of their camp |before they had intelligence of his designs, immediately attacked |them, and gained a complete victory. | |The Danes, however, defended themselves with great bravery, |retreated to Bratton Castle, where they held out a siege of |fourteen days, and obtained terms of capitulation, more favourable |than they had reason to expect in their reduced situation. | |Gough supposes Bratton Castle to have been a fortification situate |on the pinnacle of White Horse Hill, and that the horse here seen |was formed to commemorate the victory of Alfred: while, on the |other hand, Mr. Wise, in his dissertation on the White Horse of |Berkshire, asserts, that this at Oldbury Camp is of modern |construction, and that it was made within the memory of persons |living at the time he visited it in 1742, by the inhabitants of |Westbury, who instituted a revel, or festival, thereupon. | |The writer of this article was also informed, when making his |survey, that it was executed at the expense and under the |direction of Dr. Alsop, of Calne, about thirty years ago, at a |revel then said to be held upon the spot. | |Camden, Gibson, and Gough, all agree in identifying Ethandun with |Eddington, near Bratton Castle, and conceive the latter to have |been the fortress to which the Danes retired after the battle. |Such also are the sentiments of Sir Richard Colt Hoare. | |To attempt a discussion of the merits of these several opinions |would occupy more space than our limits will admit. Amidst such |conflicting testimony it is difficult to decide, but the writer is |much inclined to adopt the opinion of the learned Baronet, that |the inhabitants of Westbury might but retrace the nearly |obliterated remains of an imperfect original, and in this he feels |warranted from the information himself received, as before |observed, upon the spot. | |In conclusion, he takes occasion to remark, that modern |information is so extremely contradictory as to merit very little |attention, and deems it most probable, that from the White Horse |having been the standard used by Alfred, and the majority agreeing |in fixing this as the spot to which the Danes retreated, it is not |unreasonable to suppose that it was originally executed in |commemoration of that victory. | 205|Old Street Down, Devon, 151. | |Oliver’s Tomb, Sussex, 218, erected to the memory of Oliver, many |years the tenant of the adjacent mill, who, from partiality to the |spot while living, requested, when dead, he might be here |interred. | 61|Ore, Sussex, 22. A parish containing 34 houses, and 243 |inhabitants. |