a later chapter his own
analysis of his very slow progress. Meanwhile in his books he was at
once deepening and widening his vision of the faith.

Fragments of verse used in _The Ballad of the White Horse_ had come
to Gilbert in his sleep; a great white horse had been the romance of
his childhood; the beginning of his honeymoon under the sign of the
White Horse at Ipswich had been "a trip to fairyland." But it is hard
to say when the motif of the White Horse, the verses ringing in his
head, and the ideas that make the poem, came together into what many
think the greatest work of his life.

In _Father Brown on Chesterton_ we are told of the long time the poem
took in the making. They talked of it on the Yorkshire moors in 1906
and Father O'Connor noted how Frances "cherished it. . . . I could
see she was more in love with it than with anything else he had in
hand." Father O'Connor also gives some interesting illustrations of
the way talk ministers to a work of genius. He had begun one day "by
saying lightly that none of us could become great men without leaning
on the little ones: could not well begin our day but for those who
started theirs first for our sake, lighting the fire and cooking the
breakfast." This was said just before the dressing bell rang and
between the bell and dinner Gilbert had written about nine verses
beginning with King Alfred's meditation:

And well may God with the serving folk
Cast in His dreadful lot
Is not He too a servant
And is not He forgot?

In 1907, Gilbert published in the _Albany Review_ a "Fragment from a
Ballad Epic of Alfred" which evoked the comment "Mr. Chesterton
certainly has in each eye a special Roentgen ray attachment."

He wrote _The White Horse_ guided by his favourite theory that to
realise history we should not delve into the details of research but
try only to see the big things--for it is those that we generally
overlook.

People talk about features of interest; but the features never make
up a face. . . . They will toil wearily off to the tiniest inscription
or darkest picture that is mentioned in a guide book as having some
reference to Alfred the Great or William the Conqueror; but they care
nothing for the sky that Alfred saw or the hills on which William
hunted.

In the King Alfred country especially can be found "the far-flung
Titanic figure of the Giant Albion whom Blake saw in visions,
spreading to our encircling seas."*