the
foundation.

It was appropriate that the first of the great schools should be
established in the city of the warrior-student Alfred, the first of
that semi-barbarian race of monarchs to turn to the higher things of
the mind, and without losing the leadership of the nation and the love
of his people in so doing. On the contrary, he gained his niche in the
world's history as much for this virtue as for the heroic side of his
character. The King's palace stood not far from the river bank and
probably the college buildings cover part of the site. Like most Saxon
domestic structures, it was of wood, and no visible traces remain,
though the recent interesting discoveries at Old Windsor lead one to
wonder what may lie hidden beneath the turf here.

[Illustration: STATUE OF ALFRED.]

The Hero-King was buried, first in the cathedral, and then in the
Newminster. After the destruction of this building by fire, his
remains were removed to Hyde Abbey on the north of the city. This met
the fate of most other monasteries at the Dissolution, and the site of
the final interment and, according to some accounts, the actual
sarcophagus itself, were desecrated by eighteenth-century vandals in
order to build a lock-up!

The bronze figure of Alfred, standing with sword held aloft as a
cross, on its colossal block of granite at the bottom of High Street,
is an inspired work by Hamo Thornycroft. It was erected in 1901 to
commemorate the millenary of the king's death and is the most
successful statue in the kingdom, imposing in its noble simplicity.

High Street is still quaint and old fashioned, though it has few
really ancient houses. "God-Begot House" is Tudor and the old "Pent
House" over its stumpy Tuscan pillars is very picturesque. Taking the
town as a whole it can hold its own in interest with the only other
English medieval city worthy of comparison--Chester. The visitor must
have a fund of intelligent imagination and a blind eye for
incongruities and then his peregrinations will be a remembered
pleasure. The beautiful gardens belonging to the houses around the
close and the black and white front of Cheyney Court will be
recollected when more imposing scenes have faded.

The "George Hotel," though it but modestly claims to be "old
established," is said by some authorities to stand on the site of an
hostelry called the "Moon" that was very ancient in the days of
Richard II. The new title was given about the time of Agincourt