OBJECTS OF INTEREST. 63
ships lay at anchor here, while their owners were
busy despoiling the country, King Alfred, by
diverting the stream above or deepening the
channel below, or by damming out the tide at
Blackwall, left these ships high and dry, so that
the Danes had to sacrifice them and save them-
selves by an overland flight. The spot originally
derived its sacred character and its name of Wal-
tham Holy Cross from a cross discovered by a
holy man in Somersetshire, and thence miracul-
WALTHAM ABBEY.
ously transported to Waltham by oxen, acting
under divine guidance. Tovi, standard-bearer to
Canute, thereupon founded a church and religious
establishment. King Harold greatly enlarged and
enriched the foundation, and hither, tradition says,
he came to pray before he went forth to meet the
Normans, and hither his body was brought for
burial after he was killed at the battle of Hastings.
His tomb was within the chancel, inscribed with
the words " Haroldus Infelix," but the destruction