In Kenilworth Sir Walter Scott has immortalised Wayland Smith’s Cave, a neolithic burial-place of some ancient chieftain which lies to the west of Uffington Castle.  It is a circle of stone slabs with flat stones on the top.  Wayland was the “Vulcan” of the men of the north, and Alfred, in one of his translations, altered the “Fabricius” of the Roman account into the northern “Wayland,” the fairy smith who replaced lost shoes on horses.  It was in this cave that Scott made Flibbertigibbet play tricks on Tressilian.

[Illustration:  THE STATUE OF ALFRED THE GREAT AT WANTAGE.

It was designed by Count Gleichen.]

CANTERBURY AND ITS CATHEDRAL

=How to get there.=—­Train from Victoria, Holborn Viaduct, Charing
  Cross, or Cannon Street.  South-Eastern and Chatham Railway.
=Nearest Station.=—­Canterbury (East). =Distance from London.=—­61-3/4 miles. =Average Time.=—­Varies between 1-3/4 to 2-3/4 hours.

                     1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—­Single 10s. 4d. 6s. 6d. 5s. 2d. 
          Return 18s. 0d. 13s. 0d. 10s. 4d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=—­“County Hotel,” “The Fleece
  Family and Commercial Hotel,” Baker’s “Temperance Hotel,”
  “The Royal Fountain Hotel,” “Falstaff Hotel,” etc.

The city of Canterbury, originally an important station in Watling Street, the Durovernum of the Romans, was one of the earliest places occupied by the Saxons, by whom it was named Cantwarabyrig, or “town of the Kentish men,” and made the capital of the Saxon kingdom of Kent, and a royal residence.  About 597 the abbey was founded by St. Augustine and his royal convert King Ethelbert.  Canterbury was then constituted the seat of the primacy in England, a dignity it retains to this day.

At the period of the Norman Conquest the city was of considerable size, and the castle, of which very little now remains, is reputed to be the work of William the Conqueror.  The cathedral was burnt down at least twice before the present building was erected, but under the influence of the Norman archbishops, Lanfranc and Anselm, the erection of the new “Church of Christ” proceeded apace.  But it was not until the end of the twelfth century that the murder of Becket set the whole of Europe ringing with excitement, and Canterbury rose at once into the front rank as an ecclesiastical city and pilgrims’ shrine.

At the time when Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales the city was surrounded by a strong wall with twenty-one towers and six gates.  Of the wall there are some remains in Broad Street; of the gates “West Gate,” through which the pilgrims entered from London, is the only survivor.