ABSTRACT
IN the history of education it will be found that, almost invariably, the development of schools has followed on the development of power. Power breeds wealth, and wealth creates a demand for literature and learning. So in Saxon England schools followed the standard of the Bretwalda. A gloomy interval in the history of English education ensued after the death of Offa and the widespread devastation caused by the Viking invasions. When the curtain rises again, the scene has shifted from the North and the Midlands to the South, and centres in the great figure of Alfred.
