Blowing Stone Hill, where 19th-century antiquarians thought King Alfred the Great's Saxon troops had camped, and that this was how Alfred summoned them for the Battle of Ashdown against the Danes in AD 871. Thomas Hughes' novel "Tom Brown's School Days" refers to it as the "Blawing Stwun" and calls the village "Kingstone Lisle". It is also one of the "sacred stones" mentioned in William Horwood's "Duncton Wood", the first book in his fantasy fiction series about a group of moles. Blowing Stone The Blowing Stone is a perforated sarsen at in Kingston Lisle, Oxfordshire (Berkshire until 1974). The stone is in
Battle of Ashdown on Ordnance Survey maps of the area. Some years after the Boer War, manoeuvres were held at Ashdown Park. On the final day one year, in full view of a grandstand full of dignitaries and the general public, two large bodies of cavalry, including the Household Cavalry, came too close for comfort. The ensuing melee caused many injuries and was referred to as 'The Battle of Ashdown'. There is a comprehensive account of the battle in "The King of Atheleny" by the prolific historical novelist Alfred Duggan. There is a detailed account of the battle in "The Namesake", a juvenile