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With a view to expedite this object, and strictly to bear upon the topic in author-fashion, it has come into my thought how much we want a LIFE OF ALFRED: my little reading knows of none, beyond what dictionaries have gathered from popular history and vague tradition, rather than manuscripts of old time, and Asser, the original biographer.
One day it was eight or nine years after Alfred's victory over Guthrum and settlement of the kingdom the king and Asser were engaged in conversation in the royal apartments, and Asser quoted some Latin phrase with which, on its being explained, Alfred was very much pleased, and he asked Asser to write it down for him in his book.
The passage in Asser, commonly quoted in support of the statement, is an interpolation not older, perhaps, than the days of Edward III. During the twelfth century the town appears, from whatever causes, to have recovered from the effects of the Conquest, and from that period its growth was rapid, until circumstances brought about the growth of a University honoured throughout the civilised world.
The six months passed away and he did not return. Alfred sent a messenger into Wales to ascertain the reason. The messenger found that Asser was sick.
It is touching to see what a price the king set upon a good and able man. "I was called," says Asser, "from the western extremity of Wales. I was led to Sussex, and first saw the king in the royal mansion of Dene. He received me with kindness, and amongst other conversation, earnestly besought me to devote myself to his service, and to become his companion.
It gets its name from the land having been bestowed by Edward the Elder upon Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, in 904. Its church has an exceptionally fine tower, with double windows in the belfry. The W. window is good and the tower arch very lofty. There is also the base and broken shaft of what was once the village cross. Bishop's Sutton, a village 2-3/4 m. W. of Clutton, with a modern church.
An Anglo-Saxon translation upon this plan is extant. Alfred had taught himself Latin by translating: there were few vocabularies, and only the crabbed grammar of old Priscian. Shaking himself free from the trammels we have enumerated, he invited learned men from abroad, such as his biographer, Asser, and together they attempted a complete version of the Bible.
Another illustration of the policy of this Government to refer international disputes to impartial arbitration is seen in the agreement reached with Russia to submit the claims on behalf of American sealing vessels seized in Bering Sea to determination by Mr. T. M. C. Asser, a distinguished statesman and jurist of the Netherlands.
The families who live on this hill are exempted from taxation, in consideration of their keeping a watch for the moon, at the close of Ramazan. A series of signals, from hill to hill, is in readiness, and the news is transmitted to Constantinople in a very short time Then, when the muezzin proclaims the asser, or prayer two hours before sunset, he proclaims also the close of Ramazan.
No such panic had ever overcome the Britons, who made a more stubborn resistance. No prince ever suffered a severer humiliation than did the Saxon monarch during the dreary winter of 878; but, according to Asser, it was for his ultimate good. Alfred was deeply and sincerely religious, and like David saw the hand of God in all his misfortunes. In his case adversity proved the school of greatness.
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