D. 879 on this summit erected his standard against
Danish invaders. To him we owe the origin of Juries, the
establishment of a Militia, the creation of a Naval Force. Alfred,
the light of a benighted age, was a Philosopher, and a Christian, the
father of his people, the founder of the English monarchy and
liberty.
In the gardens near that tower the three counties of Dorset, Somerset,
and Wilts meet; and here in a grotto, where the water runs from a jar
under the arm of a figure of Neptune, rises the River Stour, whose
acquaintance we were to form later in its sixty-mile run through Dorset.
Shaftesbury had been a stronghold from the earliest times, and so long
ago, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was born A.D. 1100, that an
Eagle spoke to the people who were building the walls words that even he
dare not write. Elgiva, the queen of the Saxon King Edward the Elder,
was buried in the Abbey at Shaftesbury, as were also the remains of
Edward the Martyr, who was murdered by Elfrida his step-mother in 980.
When the bones of this canonised king began to work miraculous cures,
there was a rush of pilgrims to the town, which at one time contained
twelve churches.
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