The evening times., 1899-12-05
ALFRED THE GREATS. GRAVE.
Hyde Abbey the Resting Place of His
Relics for Many Years.

4
| Alfred the Great, THAT immovabIa pillar
| OF the Western Saxons," as one OF his own
| kinsmen called him, and ''the most perfect
| character in history" as he is styled by
| Prof. Freeman died thousand years ago
1t is fttingly proposed to celebrate the
memory of the hero-saint of the Anglo
Saxon race upon the thousandth anniver-
! sary OF the traditional date of his death,
| namely, October 26, 1901. Meanwhile. schol-
| arly efforts are being made to verify even
| further than has yet been done the really
| surprising amount of information as 10 his
| personality and career, and to speed his real
| fame along the channels OF English and
American conversation.
The case of Alfred, says Mr.. Warwick
Draper in the 'Antiquary," can be no ex-
ception TO the rule by which mankind takes
a keen and reverent interest IN the burial
places of its great dead. Before the mys-
terry thickens or false notions misplace ig-
norance, it seems well TO say at once what
can be said as to the burial place of AL
fred. II is a point of his biography which
has escaped the attention of recent writers.
The very date OF his death is now a
question. Long tradition has. until re-
Gently. given it as October 2S, 901 Both
Freeman and ]. R. Green are content with
this. But the point has been carefully
examined by Mr.. W. II. Stevenson, who is
convinced that October &c. S99, is the reli-
able date. The date of october, S99, is
declared to be confirmed by a piece of
nearly contemporary evidence in the form
Of a manuscript rightly pretending TO be
written in the thirteenth year of Edward
iAlfred's successor), and the year of the
Incarnation 912. Mr.. Stevenson ingenious
ly explains away the "901,'' under which
the event is entered in the Parker man
uscript on grounds of photography. The
layman may be forgiven for scarcely feel
ing grateful for this discovery. but he is
bound to admit that Mr.. Stevenson seems
fairly to have proved his case.
Alfred. at any rate. died. closing his mar
velous reign of strenuous and manifold en-
ergies. No authority mentions where he
died; the place was probably his home at
Wolvesey. in Winchester, where two years
before he had hanged a crew of Danish
sea-dogs. We have no hint of the prox-
innate cause of his death. by which We
might infer that he succumbed to any Sc
rious attack OF the mysterious malady
which had remained thorn in the flesh
to him from the day of his marriage
feast. His bodily frame may well have
been exhausted by his labors.
The chronicle says nothing as to his
burial place, but most of the remaining
authorities agree upon Winchester. and no
other place has ever been suggested. His
kingdoms capital. where his soul had
chiefly labored. was fitly the resting place
of his mortal remains. The so-calle1
Annals say that he was buried '.in the
church of ST. Peter and that his tomb
is still extant. made Of the most precious
porphyry marble" William of Malmes-
bury Twelfth century, also relates that he
was buried in the Episcopal Cathedral
that is, the Old Minister. on the site of the
present pile, but that his body was removed
later to the New Minister, which stood i'm
mediately to the north of the Old, well
within the precinct Of the present cathe
dral close. This latter does not seem to
have been founded by Alfred. although he
had bought land for a chapel and dormi
tory, and left instructions to Edward to
complete the projected monastery. 1t is
not mentioned in Alfreds will.
According to the elaborate account in the
Hyde Register Of the building of the
New Minister. it was Edward who had the
remains Of his father solemnly transferred
thither from the Old Minister. There it
rested for two centuries, which saw the
tide Of Norman invasion. William the
ConQueror, indeed. against whom Abbot
Alwyn and the monks Of New Minister had
striven at Hastings. seized their estates
for two years. Under Henry l serious hos |
tilities seem to have broken out between /
the two clerical establishments, with the !
result that in 1121 the faithful few who re- |
mained in the New Minister removed them |
selves and their precious relics to a new |
home in the Benedictine Abbey situate at
Hyde outside the north wall Of the city. |
beyond the meads where Guy" Earl Of |
Warwick, is said to have conquered Col |
brand, the Danish giant"
Hyde Abbey remained the resting place |
of Alfred's relics for many centuries. It |
is between the bare level sward which |
marks where New Minister was and the |
wasted site Of Hyde Abbey that |
the pious student Of Alfred's memory must |
choose.