This was in the year 871.
It was a matter of moment to find a safe and secure place of deposit for the body of Ethelred, who, as a Christian slain in contending with pagans, was to be considered a martyr.

His memory was honored as that of one who had sacrificed his life in defense of the Christian faith.
They knew very well that even his lifeless remains would not be safe from the vengeance of his foes unless they were placed effectually beyond the reach of these desperate marauders.

There was, far to the south, in Dorsetshire, on the southern coast of England, a monastery, at Wimborne, a very sacred spot, worthy to be selected as a place of royal sepulture.

The spot has continued sacred to the present day; and it has now upon the site, as is supposed, of the ancient monastery, a grand cathedral church or minster, full of monuments of former days, and impressing all beholders with its solemn architectural grandeur.
Here they conveyed the body of Ethelred and interred it.

It was a place of sacred seclusion, where there reigned a solemn stillness and awe, which no _Christian_ hostility would ever have dared to disturb.
The sacrilegious paganism of the Danes, however, would have respected it but little, if they had ever found access to it; but they did not.