ports, bays, and creeks between the Thames' mouth
and Land's End, quitted this fleet and sent it back, and going on board
the western fleet did the like in those parts, as also on the coasts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and among the Hebrides or Western
Islands, where being met by the northern fleet, he went on board the
same, and came round to the Thames' mouth. Thus encompassing all his
dominions, and providing for the security of their coasts, he rendered
an invasion impracticable, and kept his sailors in continual exercise.
This he did for the whole sixteen years of his reign.

May our rulers ever possess the wisdom of Alfred, the greatest of
England's kings, and by the same means preserve inviolate the shores of
our native land.

It would have been well for Old England had all its monarchs imitated
the excellent example set by King Edgar, and had never allowed any
decrease in the naval establishment. Let the present generation do as
he did, with the modifications changed times and circumstances have
introduced, and then, although we may not be able correctly to troll
forth "_Hearts of oak_ are our ships," we may sing truly--

"Iron coats wear our ships,
Lion hearts have our men;
We always are ready;
Then steady, boys, steady;
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again."

King Edgar appears to have been the last great naval sovereign of the
Saxon race. When his son Ethelred, by the murder of his brother Edward,
came to the throne, his navy was so neglected that the Danes made
incursions with impunity on every part of the coasts of England, and in
the year A.D. 991, they extorted no less a sum than 10,000 pounds from
that wicked monarch, or rather from his unfortunate subjects (who,
depend upon it, had to pay the piper), as the price of their forbearance
in refraining from levying a further amount of plunder.

This circumstance might have served as a strong hint to the English of
those times to keep up the strength of their navy, but it does not
appear to have had any such effect; and even that wise monarch, Canute
the Great, had only thirty-two ships afloat. We find, however, that
when Harold, son of Earl Godwin, was striving to maintain his claim to
the crown of England (A.D. 1066), he fitted out a numerous fleet, with
which he was able to defeat his rivals. Now, as we are elsewhere told
that one of these rivals alone had a navy of three hundred sail, his
must have been of considerabl