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 Mared Battle of Mared Battle of Mared was a battle in the Nordic Seven Years' War between the Swedish and Danish forces on 9 November 1563. The battle was held on the site of present-day locality Oskarström in Sweden. After the outbreak of the war, a Swedish army under the command of Eric XIV marched into Halland. The goal was to besiege Halmstad, but it failed because of the lack of artillery. Since the Danish king Frederick II was on his way with reinforcements, the Swedes pulled back. But they were caught up in Mared, where they were defeated. The Danes