the victory a statue of the Virgin was then erected in
the churchyard of Old Alresford." [Footnote: V.C.H., Hampshire, vol. 3,
p. 350.] Local tradition cannot, at any time, be put lightly aside, and
when as here it preserves for us one of the great truths of the early
history of modern Europe we should rejoice indeed. For here we have the
obvious reality of the eighth century when Europe, slowly recovering
itself and beginning to realise itself as Christendom, was everywhere
attacked by hordes of pagans. The work of Charlemagne, of Offa and of
Alfred was not merely the conquest of the barbarians, but really since
they could not be wholly destroyed, their conversion, and thus alone
could Christendom be certainly preserved. So after Ethandune Guthrum
must be christened at Aller, and after the fight here on the Alre the
defeated heathen must be christened at the ford. Since New Alresford
has preserved for us a memory of this fundamental act we can easily
forgive her lack of material antiquity.

The little village thus founded, certainly still existed in the time of
the Conquest, and such it would always have remained but for Godfrey de
Lucy, Bishop of Winchester, who, among his many achievements, numbers
this chiefly that he made the Itchen navigable not only from
Southampton to Winchester but here also in its headwaters, and this by
means of the great reservoir, known as Alresford Pond, into which he
gathered the waters of many streams to supply his navigation. In
return, King John not only gave him the royalty of the river, but a
weekly market here for which he rebuilt the place and called it New
Market a name which was soon lost, the people preferring their old name
New Alresford. So the market town of New Alresford came into existence,
and, but for the unfortunate fires of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, would bear upon its face the marks it now lacks of
antiquity.

Bishop Godfrey de Lucy was constantly in residence at Bishop Sutton in
the palace there. The road passes through this delightful village a
mile or more to the east of New Alresford and something remains, the
ruins of the kennels it is said, of the palace. This was doubtless "the
manour-house ... a verie olde house somtyme walled round aboutte with
stone now decaied well waterid with an olde ponde or moote adjoyning to
it," of which we hear in the time of Edward VI. It seems to have been
destroyed in the Civil war, but even in 1839 much remained