Note 15 — ALFRED AS A RELIGIOUS MAN AND AN EDUCATIONALIST

A mediæval editor proposes to read Hiberiæ instead of Hiberniæ, Spain instead of Ireland. But the English Chronicle tells of a visit to Alfred in 891 of three Scots, that is, Irishmen, smitten with the desire to wander. A later Chronicle assigns their departure from their own land to the death of their favourite teacher Swifneh. He was known as the most wise, or most skilled, of the Scots, and the English Chronicle mentions his death. His beautiful Celtic grave slab is at Clonmacnoise. The close connection which existed between the early Anglo-Saxons and the Irish schools of learning had now ceased.