Raffles the Great
Written and Illustrated by
Stuart Roper
Š Stuart Roper
Raffles the Great
The intrepid Wheaten Terrier visits Wantage and discovers the story of Alfred the Great Written and Illustrated by Stuart Roper
Hello what’s this? Why are they putting my bed and bowl into the back of the car? OK so we are going somewhere, not the park, not the VET (phew) So it must be holiday time! “Are we nearly there yet? Are we nearly there yet? Are we ..” Oh they never get the message, I’ll lie down for a bit. Hello, we’ve stopped. If I could read that sign I know it would say: ‘Welcome to Wantage – Birthplace of Alfred the Great’ I hope they’ve got lots of trees here – no squirrels – just trees. So there’s a market in the Marketplace – what a surprise! OK, let’s see what they’ve got – fresh fruit, mm not my kind of thing Bakery - getting better – nice cheesy rolls
Aha what’s that I smell at the other end of the square? A butcher – Bingo! Let’s see if I can pull my owners that way. Yes of course doggy would like a bit of sausage, are you stupid? That’s what doggies like best. Yummy! What a nice man.
“Who’s this statue of a man with an axe in one hand and a roll of paper in the other?” “I’m King Alfred the Great” said the statue, rather surprisingly. “So what is it that makes you great?” “Well I wasn’t always great, when I was young there were constant wars against the Danes.” “Now they are great” said Raffles “You are thinking about dogs, Great Danes, I’m talking about Viking invaders from Denmark, that kind of Danes” “Fair enough, I quite like Great Danes though” “Do you want to hear my story?” “Sorry carry on” “I was King of Wessex” “Where’s Wessex?”
“Wessex is the ancient Kingdom that covered a large part of Southern England. Anyway my Kingdom was under threat from these invading Danes and I had to stop them so that my people were free to choose their own way of life” “Good call”
“Anyway, after one particularly nasty battle with the Danes, my army was scattered all over the countryside and I had to hide in the forest. I came across a small hut where a very nice lady was preparing food, she took pity on me thinking I was a poor beggar, offered me some food and something to drink.” “That was nice of her.” “After a while she said she had to go and milk her cow and told me to keep an eye on the cakes she was baking. Unfortunately I was tired and worn out after the battle and the long and the short of it is I let her cakes burn.” “Oops” “A very big oops, the women took a stick and started hitting me – me, King of Wessex!” “Fair enough, she didn’t know who you were and after all you had just burnt her cakes” “True”
“So, when did you become great?” “Well after that I gathered my army together and I defeated the Danes.” “And?” “Come on that’s not bad! Well I also set up the first navy” “Cool, I like water - particularly muddy water” “I encouraged art, established new schools, set up new laws.”
“Laws?” “You know, making sure that everyone behaves themselves.” “My owners would like that.” “Basically I made England a great place.” “So, pretty Great then.” “You’ve got it – hence the Name.”
“So why are you here in the middle of Wantage?” “I was born here and in 1887 Lord Wantage, a bit of a hero himself, commissioned this statue of me, so I’ve been standing here ever since.” “Isn’t that a bit boring?” “No, you should see the things that go on in the Marketplace, markets, carnivals, Dickensian evenings …” “What’s Dickensian?” “Named after the Victorian author, it seems to involve the townsfolk getting dressed up in silly clothes, drinking mulled wine and eating roasted chestnuts” “Mmm, no sausages?” “They all like it” “Well Mr Great..” “Your Majesty!” “Sorry, your Majesty, I think my owners have bought up half the food which is grown near here, so it’s time for me to go off to the park now I hope” “Nice to meet you Raffles.”
“You too, your Majesty – it’s been Great!”
To find out more about the historic town of Wantage visit: www.southernoxfordshire.com