concentrate about Alfred's court and to glow all the brighter for the prevailing gloom.

What it meant for an Irishman to leave his home and fare forth over the unknown sea in a coracle may be partly understood from the following beautiful lament, composed by a more famous Irish exile three centuries before, a lament that may well have come into the minds of Dubslane and his followers, for it is of a kind which, once heard, was not likely to be forgotten.1

Delightful to be on Benn-Edar [Howth]

Before going over the white sea,

The dashing of the wave against its face,
The bareness of the shore and its brim.

Delightful to be on Benn-Edar [Howth]
After coming o'er the white-bosomed sea,
To row one's little coracle

Ochone! on the swift-waved shore.

How swift the speed of my coracle,

And its stern turned upon Derry ;

I grieve at my errand o'er the noble sea
Travelling to Alba [Scotland] of the ravens.

My foot in my sweet little coracle,
My sad heart still bleeding:

Weak is the man that cannot lead,
Totally blind are all the ignorant.

There is a grey eye

That looks back upon Erin ;

It shall not behold while I live

The men of Erin nor their wives.

1 Cf. English Historical Review, vol. v. p. 216. (1890.)

U

My sight o'er the brine I stretch,
From the ample oaken planks;
Large is the tear of my soft grey eye
When I look back upon Erin.

Were the tribute of all Alba mine,
From its centre to its border,

I would rather the sight of one house
In the midst of fair Derry [The Oak Grove].

The reason I love Derry is

For its stillness, for its purity,
For its crowds of white angels,
From the one end to the other.

The reason why I love Derry is
For its stillness, for its purity,
Crowded full of heaven's angels
Is every leaf of the oaks of Derry.

My Derry, my little oak-grove,

My dwelling and my little cell;
O God everlasting, in heaven above,
Woe be to him that violates it.

Beloved are Durrow and Derry,
Beloved is Raphoe in purity:
Beloved Drumhome of rich fruits;
Beloved are Swords and Kell.

Beloved to my heart also in the west
Drumcliff at Culcinne's strand;
To behold fair Loch Tual,

The shape of its shores is delightful.

1 At Derry was a monastery founded by Columba.

Delightful is that, and delightful

The salt main whereon the seagulls shriek,

On my coming from Derry afar;

It is still, and it is delightful.
Delightful!

There is surely no more tenderly passionate expression of home-love and land-love in all our poetry than this: its strength is some measure of the attraction which was strong enough to draw Irishmen from home to the court of Alfred. If the Celtic monks from Ireland and Wales brought sentiment like this, simple, sensuous, and passionate in expression, to that court, it is no wonder they were welcome: they would strike a chord of feeling that is in complete consonance with much English eighth and ninth century verse.

It was only to be expected that as the mildness and generosity of Alfred's rule became known, its cosmopolitan breadth, and its inherent merits and attractions, it would draw into the circle of his influence and protection princes as well as subjects. Not only did "all the Angelcyn [English kin] turn to Alfred," some of the princes of Wales, always unsettled and at feud among themselves, at this time voluntarily sought his protection. "For instance King Hemeid [Asser's foe] with all the inhabitants of Demetia [S. Wales] compelled by the violence of the six sons of Rotri [Roderick] had

submitted to the dominion of the king.

Howell, son of Rhys King of Gleguising, and Brocmail and Fernmail, sons of Mouric King of Gwent [Monmouth], compelled by the violence and the tyranny of Earl Æthelred of the Marchmen, of their own accord sought King Alfred that they might enjoy his government and protection from him against their

enemies."

These strong expressions about Earl Ethelred show that Asser is taking the point of view of his countrymen probably strong feelings were roused by the injury done to the keen sense of dignity of the Kelt by the stern frontier rule of Æthelred. But Æthelred's rule was justified by its results. Asser continues the catalogue of those who sought Alfred's protection: "Helised also, son of Teudyr [Theodore], King of Brecon, compelled by the force of the same sons of Rotri (Roderick), of his own accord sought the governance of the aforesaid king; and [this is the climax, for Roderick's sons were in alliance with the Danes] Anarawd, son of Rotri (Roderick), with his brother, at length abandoning the friendship of the Northumbrians, from which he received no good but harm, came into King Alfred's presence and eagerly sought his friendship. king received him honourably, accepted him as his son by confirmation from the bishop's hand, and presented him with many gifts; thus he became

The

subject to the king with all his people, on the same condition, that he should be obedient to the king's will in all respects, in the same way as Æthelred with the Mercians." The kings of Dyfed (Pembrokeshire) and Morganwy (Glamorgan) became in this way Alfred's men.

Asser shows the process which was going on under his very eyes. So inestimable was the work of a strong, generous, and beneficent ruler in the chaos and confusion of a time when the hand of every man that ruled in Britain was against every man, each owning only the authority of the strongest, that men who by nature hated the Sais and all his doings were drawn voluntarily to accept the overlordship of Alfred. There had been an old alliance between the Welsh royal families and the West Saxon kings based on a common hostility to the Mercians. But it must have required strong pressure from without, and stronger attractions from within, to reunite them now in voluntary and friendly ties.