ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS. 
 
ON SOME 
 
 ANCIENT 
 
 BATTLE-FIELDS in LANCASHIRE 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 Jlbtorial, l^cgenbain), anii ^i^sthetii: ^JciirOi:iatioit0. 
 
 CHARLES HARDWICK, 
 
 M 
 
 Author of a " History of Preston and its Environs," "Traditions, Superstitions 
 
 and Folk-Lore, " '* Manual for Patrons and Members of 
 Friendly Societies," &c. 
 
 MANCHESTER : 
 
 ABEL HEYWOOD & SON, OLDHAM STREET. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co., STATIONERS' HALL COURT 
 
 1882. 
 
^'- 
 
 ^^ 
 
 • • • » • •• 
 '! ..•.••• • • . ' 
 
TO 
 
 GEORGE MILNER, Esq., President, 
 
 AND TO THE COUNCIL AND MEMBKRS OF THE 
 
 MANCHESTER LITERARY CLUB, 
 
 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY ONE OF ITS FOUNDERS. 
 
 CHARLES HARDWICK. 
 
 Q 
 
 373903 
 
PRE FACE 
 
 To the transactions of the Manchester Literary Club 
 (1875-8) I contributed four papers on ''Some Ancient 
 Battle-fields in Lancashire." These essays form the 
 imclei of the four chapters of the present volume. Their 
 original scope, however, has been much extended, and 
 the evidences there adduced largely augmented. I have 
 likewise endeavoured to still further fortify and illustrate 
 my several positions, by citations from well-known, 
 and many recent, labourers in similar or cognate fields of 
 enquiry. 
 
 I am aware that the precise locality of any given 
 battle-field is of relatively little interest to the general 
 historian, the causes of the conflict and its political 
 results demanding the largest share of his attention. 
 Consequently, doubtful topographical features are often 
 either completely ignored, or but slightly referred to. 
 Such a course, however, is not permissible to the local 
 student. Scarcely anything can be too trifling, in a 
 
vni. 
 
 certain sense, to be unworthy of some investigation on 
 his part. This is especially the case with respect to 
 legendary stories, and traditional beliefs. Their interest 
 is intensified, it is true, to the local reader or student, 
 but the lessons they teach, on patient enquiry, will often 
 be found in harmony with larger or more general truths, 
 and of which truths they often form apt illustrations. 
 "Alas!" truly exclaimed "Verax," in one of his recent 
 letters in the Manchester Weekly Times^ " it is hard to 
 disengage ourselves from inherited illusions. They 
 become a part of our being, and falsify the standard of 
 comparison." Modern science may be able to demon- 
 strate that many of the conceptions respecting physical 
 phenomena dealt with in these legendary stories are 
 utterly at variance with now well-known facts. This 
 may be perfectly true, but human nature is influenced 
 in its action, quite as much by its faiths, beliefs, and 
 superstitions, as by the more exact knowledge it may 
 have acquired. Subjective truths are as true, as mere 
 facts or actualities, as objective ones. Thomas Carlylc 
 forcibly expresses this when he asks — "Was Luther's 
 picture of the devil less a reality^ whether it were formed 
 within the bodily eye, or without it } " Mr. J. R. Green, 
 in his " Making of England," says — " Legend, if it 
 
IX. 
 
 distorts facts, preserves accurately enough the imi?ressions 
 of a vanished time." And these impressions being 
 emotionally true, whether scientifically correct or not, 
 have ever been, and will continue to be, powerful factors 
 in the formation of character, and in the progressive 
 development of humanity, — morally, socially, and 
 politically. Our predecessors felt their influence and 
 acted accordingly, and many of the presumedly ex- 
 ploded old superstitions survive amongst the mass of 
 mankind to a much greater degree than we often 
 acknowledge or even suspect ; although many of 
 their more repulsive forms may have undergone 
 superficial transformation amongst the more educated 
 classes. 
 
 Referring to superstitious legendary reverence as a 
 marked feature in the religious characteristics of the 
 seventeenth century, the author of "John Inglesant, a 
 Romance," places in the mouth of the rector of the 
 English College, at Rome, in the seventeenth century, 
 the following words : — " These things are true to each 
 of us according as we see them j they are, in fact, but 
 shadows and likenesses of the absolute truth that 
 reveals itself to man in different ways, but always 
 imperfectly, as in a glass." 
 
X. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that, in the 
 year 685, "it rained blood in Britain, and milk and 
 butter were turned into blood." Of course, educated 
 persons do not believe this now ; but our conventionally 
 educated predecessors did, and their conduct was sensibly 
 influenced by such belief. The Chinese think them- 
 selves much superior personages, in very many respects, 
 to the " barbarian " European, yet the following para- 
 graph "went the round of the papers" during May, in 
 the present year : — " The Kaiping coal mines have been 
 closed in deference to the opinion expressed by the 
 Censor, that the continued working of them would 
 release the earth dragon, disturb the manes of the 
 empress, and bring trouble upon the imperial family." 
 
 From the very nature of many of the subjects in- 
 vestigated, and the character of the only available 
 evidence, some of the inferences drawn in the 
 following pages can only be regarded as probabilities, 
 and others as merely possibilities, and they are put forth 
 with no higher pretensions. In such matters dogmatical 
 insistence is out of place, and I have studiously 
 
 endeavoured to avoid it. 
 
 C. H. 
 
 72, Talbot Street, Moss Side, Manchester. 
 August, 1882. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Early Historical and Legendary 
 
 Battles. 
 
 The Arthur of History and Legend. King Arthtr's presumed 
 Victories on the Douglas, near Wigan and Blackrod. 
 
 Historical works are chiefly records of battles, squabbles and intrigues 
 of diplomatists and politicians. More details now required as to the 
 domestic habits and conditions of the people, and the degree and kind of 
 intellectual and moral culture which obtained at any given period of their 
 history. Progress of man from the savage to a more civilized condition. 
 Records of many battles survive, the sites of which are either unknown or 
 involved in the greatest obscui-ity. Many genuine historical events are 
 inextricably interwoven with mythical and traditionary legends. The 
 Roman conquest of the Brigantes. Remains of some of these conflicts in 
 Lancashire. The narratives of Gildas, Nennius, Geoff"rey of Monmouth, 
 and some others, combinations of historic truths with a mass of tradition, 
 superstition, and artistic fiction. Wales the birthplace of much of 
 European mediaeval fiction. Views of Sig. Panizzi, Professor Henry 
 Morley, Mr. E. B. Tylor, and Mr. Fiske. The Arthurian legends the 
 " source of one of the purest streams of English poetry." Notwithstanding 
 untrustworthy strictly historical elements, they enshrine much genuine 
 legendary national faith as well as superstition. The Rev. John Whitaker's 
 belief in Arthur's historical verity. Other advocates of this view : Mr. 
 Haigh, Henry of Huntingdon and Professor Fergusson. Arthur's 
 traditionary tomb at Glastonbury, opened a.d. 1189. Mr. Haigh's 
 exposition of the fraud then practised. Welsh traditions thereon. The 
 Rev. R. W. Morgan's views. William of Newbury's contempt for 
 Geoffrey's fictions. Shakspere's almost total absence of reference to 
 Arthur. Sir Edward Strachey's comments on the erroneous geography in 
 Sir Thomas Malory's work. Mr. J. R. Green's views. Sir G. W. Dasent, 
 
XII. 
 
 on the paucity of trustworthy historic record from about A.D. 420 to AD. 
 730. The deeds of other heroes, especially those of Urien, of Rheged, 
 assigned to Arthur by the mediaeval romance writers. Doubts as to the 
 authenticity of the authorship and dates of the composition of the works of 
 Gildas and Nennius discussed. No mention of Arthur by either Gildas or 
 the Venerable Bede. Mr. Haigh's defence of the old histories, and his 
 conjectures as to the authors. Nennius says the second, third, fourth, and 
 fifth of Arthur's twelve great victories were gained on the banks "of a 
 river called Duglas, in' the region Linuis." The Rev. John Whitaker's 
 contention that these battles were fought on the Douglas, near Wigan and 
 IMackrod. The archaeological and traditional details advanced in support 
 thereof. Opening of the huge barrow "Hasty Knoll," and excavations at 
 Parson's Meadow and Pool Bridge, in the last century, where remains 
 were found, which Whitaker and others regarded as conclusive evidence 
 that some ancient battles had been fought in the localities. Derivation of 
 the word Wigan. Geoffrey's single battle on the Douglas, in which 
 Arthur defeated Colgrin. Mr. Haigh's arguments respecting the dates of 
 these conflicts. His advocacy of the Wigan sites, and identification of 
 another battle on ** the river Bassas," i.e.^ Bashall Brook, near Clitheroe. 
 His hypothesis that Ince is a corruption of Linuis. Probability of the 
 exploits of Cadwallon or Cadwalla, king of the Western Britons, being 
 inextricably interwoven with the legendary ones of the heroes of the 
 Arthurian romances. Views of Lappenberg. Mr. H. H. Howorth and 
 Mr. Haigh on the appropriation by the Britons and Danes of the deeds 
 and heroes of their enemies or neighbours. HoUingworth, in his 
 "Mancuniensis," refers to the Roman conquests in the district by Petilius 
 Cerealis, and afterwards speaks of Arthur's great victory near Wigan, and 
 gives credence to the legends about the giant Tarquin, his castle at 
 Manchester, and his combats with some of Arthur's knights. Bishop 
 Percy on the historical truth underlying legend in such ancient ballads as 
 "Chevy Chase," and the confusion of incidents and heroes. Professor 
 Boyd Dawkins on "the date of the conquest of South Lancashire by the 
 English." Mr. J. R. Green's views. During the seventh century many 
 sanguinary battles were fought, the sites of which are now unascertainable. 
 Ethelfirth's great victory at Bangor-Iscoed. Some of the struggles of this 
 period may have been absorbed by the romance writers into their slock of 
 Arthurian legends. The Rev. John Whitaker and Tarquin's castle at 
 Manchester. Sir "Launcelot du Lake." Martin Mere. Gradual growth 
 of legendary heroic fiction. Mr. Tylor's view. The Arthurian legends 
 enshrine some of the oldest Aryan myths, and are the source of some of 
 our noblest poetry. Sir George Ellis on the foundation of mythic legends. 
 Mr. Fiske on artistic Icgcnd.ary development. Mr. E. A. Freeman and Mr. 
 Fiske on the historical and legendary Charlemagne. Some of the deeds of 
 
Xlll. 
 
 Charlemagne, probably absorbed into the latter Arthurian legends. Mr. 
 H. H. Howorth on Saxo-Grammaticus. Historical and legendary Crom- 
 wells, Alexanders, and Taliesens. Mr. Kains-Jackson on Arthurian 
 accretions. Mr. F. Metcalfe on Alfred the Great and trial by jury. ** The 
 famous story of Theophilus." The Rev. Sir G. W. Cox on the distri- 
 bution of ancient Aryan mythic heroes. Historical novels. Opinions there- 
 on of Sir Francis Palgrave, Dean Milman, Arminius Vambery, and Leslie 
 Stephen. Historic and aesthetic truth distinct but not antagonistic. The 
 ideal and the real, or subjective and objective truths. Shalcspere's 
 treatment in the character of Macbeth. Artistic truths not necessarily 
 individual or strictly biographical or historical facts, but result from wider 
 generalisation, and possess an inherent or subjective vitality of their 
 own. Views of Thos. Carlyle, Gervinus, R. N. Wornum, Dr. Dickson 
 White, M. Mallet, and Tennyson. Nennius's tenth battle, said by some, 
 but on very inconclusive evidence, to have been fought on the Ribble. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— The Defeat and Death of King 
 
 Os^A^ald, of Nopthumbria, by the Pagan 
 
 Mercian King, Penda, at Maserfeld 
 
 (A.D. 642.) 
 
 The Legend of the Wild Boar, " the Monster in former ages 
 
 which prowled over the neighbourhood of Winwick, 
 
 inflicting injury on Man and Beast." 
 
 The Venerable Bede and the Saxon Chronicle's account of the battle. 
 The site disputed. Some suggest Winwick, in Lancashire, others 
 Oswestry, in Shropshire. Dean Howson's suggestion. Different ortho- 
 graphies and etymologies of the name Maserfeld. The subject phonetically 
 and topographically considered. Views of Mr. Roberts and Mr. Howell 
 W. Hoyd. St. Oswald's Well, at Winwick. Its sanctity and legendary 
 connection with the death of St. Oswald. The inscription on the church 
 dedicated to St. Oswald. Hollingworth's view, in " Mancuniensis." 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth's statement that the battle was fought at a place 
 called Burne. Oswald's previous victory over Cadwalla at Heavenfield. 
 Bede's narrative, and his relation of the miracles performed by the Saint's 
 
XIV. 
 
 bones, and even the earth taken from the spot on which he fell. Curious 
 coincidence revealed during the excavations at " Castle Hill," Penworthan, 
 in 1856. Penda, not Oswald, the aggressor, consequently the site of the 
 battle-field may be presumed to be within the Northumbrian rather than 
 the Mercian territory. Bryn, Brun, or Burne in the Fee of Makerfield. 
 The great barrow or tumulus called •' Castle Hill," near Newton. 
 Nennius says the battle was fought at Ccx:boy. Cockedge. Latchford. 
 Probable etymology. Professor Dwight Whitney on the difficulties 
 inherent in topographical etymology. Winwick. a place of victory. At 
 " Win field " Herman defeated Varus, A.D. lo. Present appearance of the 
 'Castle Hill." Mr. Baines and Dr. Kendrick's descriptions. Opening of the 
 tumulus in 1843. Description of its contents by the Rev. Mr. Sibson and 
 Dr. Kendrick. A burial mound haunted by the ghost of a " White Lady." 
 Traditionary burial-place of Alfred the Great. Professor Fergusson and 
 B. E. Hildebrand on the contents of Odin and Frey's "howes," near 
 Upsala, opened in 1846-7. Similarity to those found at " Castle Hill." 
 Dr. Robson's description of two burial mounds opened at Arbury, in 
 1859-60. The contents consisted of burnt bones and wood, rude pottery, 
 a stone hammer-head, and a bronze dart. Etymology of Arbury. The 
 "Mote Hill," at Warrington, removed in 1852. Opinions respecting the 
 date of this tumulus of Pennant, Ormerod, W. T. Watkin, and John 
 Whitoker. The Rev. Mr, Sibson thought it a *' tumulus or burial-place, 
 raised after the battle fought at Winwick." Dr. Kendrick's description of 
 its contents. Christian and Pagan modes of sepulture contrasted. De- 
 scription of the latter in "Beowulf," the oldest Anglo-Saxon poem extant. 
 Date of first erection of a church at Winwick unknown. The date of the 
 erection of the church at Oswestry. St. Oswald's church, according to 
 Domesday book held '' two carucates of land exempt from all taxation."^ 
 In 1828, three large human skeletons found eight or ten feet below the 
 floor of the chancel, uncoffined, and covered with a heap of large stones. 
 St. Oswald's Weil. Opinions of Baines respecting the saint's wells at 
 Winwick and Oswestry. "Cae Naef," or "'Heaven's Field," site of 
 Oswald's previous victory over Cadwalla. Dennis-brook. Sharon-Turner, 
 Camden and Dr. Smith's views of this site. Some of the Oswestry 
 traditions evidently have reference to Oswald's previous victory. The 
 dedication of the church to St. Oswald could not have proceeded from the 
 then British Christians. Contests between the disciples of Augustine and 
 Paulinus, and the earlier British Church. The Welsh word "tre" means 
 simply hamlet, homestead. Penda's defeat in the following year near the 
 river Vinwid. Mr. T. Baines's conjecture as to the site being near 
 Winwick. The evidence, however, conclusive as to Winwidfield, near 
 Leeds. Mr. J. R. Green on Oswald's and Penda's policy. Cromwell's 
 victory at "Red Bank," near Winwick, in 1648. Supposetl crest of 
 
XV. 
 
 Oswald. Rude sculpture of a " chained hog." Baines's legend of a 
 ** monster in former ages, which prowled over the neighbourhood inflicting 
 injury on man and beast.*' Other demon-hogs. Mythical monsters, 
 "harvest-blasters,-' huge worms, serpents, dragons, and wild boars, 
 common in the North of England. Several instances cited. Mr. Haigh's 
 argument as to the site of the poem Beowulf being near Hartlepool, 
 Durham. Dr. Phene on Scandinavian and Pictish customs on the Anglo- 
 Scottish Border. Aryan myths of the lightning and the storm cloud. Mr. 
 Walter Kelly on ancient Aryan personifications of natural phenomena. 
 Stormy winds, howling dogs or wolves. The ravages of the whirlwind 
 that tore up the earth, the ''^ work of a wild hoarP Lancashire superstition 
 that pigs can "see the wind." Monstrous boar slain in the Greek legend 
 of the Kalydonian hunt. Origin of modern heraldry. Totems or beast 
 symbols amongst many ancient as well as modern nations or tribes. 
 Instances. Views of Mr. E. B. Tylor, the Rev. Isaac Taylor, and others. 
 The boar favourite helmet crest or totem amongst the Teutonic invaders. 
 Sacred to the goddess Freya. The "boar of war." Illustrations from the 
 Anglo-Saxon poems Beowulf, the Battle of Finsburgh, the Scandinavian 
 Edda, and the ancient British poem Gododin. The boar probably the 
 crest of Penda. St. Anthony's pig. Re-crystallisation of ancient myths 
 around relatively more modern nuclei. Illustrations from the works of 
 Keightley, Mackenzie, Wallace, Bishop Percy, Sir John Lubbock, 
 Arminlus Vambery, John Fiske, and the Vedic hymns. Origin of 
 modern surnames. Many beast, bird, or flower symbols. Examples. 
 Shakspere's reference to the bear symbol of the Earl of Warwick and the 
 boar of Richard III. "Pitris," or ancestral spirits. Their supposed 
 action in the storm and the battle-field. Icelandic kindred customs and 
 superstitions. Professor Gervinus on the importance and conditions of 
 such critical enquiry. Views of Professor Tyndall and Mr. J. A. Farrar. 
 
CHAPTER III.-Battles in the Valley of the 
 Ribble near Whalley and Clitheroe. 
 
 Wada's Defeat by King Eardulph, at Billangahoh (LanghOy) 
 
 A .D. 798, and Contemporary Prophetic Superstitions. The 
 
 Victory of the Scots at Edisford Bridge in 11 38. Civil 
 
 War Incidents during the struggle between Charles I. 
 
 and the English Parliament, 
 
 Wada's defeat recorded in the Saxon Chronicle and by Simeon of 
 Durham. The Murder of Ethelred (a.d. 794) by Wada and other con- 
 spirators. The murderous and lawless characteristics of the age illustrated. 
 Sharon-Turner's summary of these characteristics. Superstitious fore- 
 warnings : whirlwinds, lightnings, and fiery dragons. Ravages of Danish 
 pirates. Treasons and civil wars. The locality of Wada's defeat undis- 
 puted. The names of places still retained, with only sueh phonetic 
 changes as philologists anticipate. A probable ancestor of Wada men- 
 tioned in the " Traveller's Tale." The Legend of St. Christopher. Other 
 chieftains referred to in the same poem : " Hwala, once the best," and 
 Billing who " ruled the Woerns." Watling-street. Wade and his boats. 
 Beautiful scenery in the Ribble valley around the battle-field. Tumuli. 
 One superficially opened by Dr. Whitaker, without result. When the 
 mound was entirely removed in 1836, the remains of a buried chieftain 
 (probably Alric son of Herbert) were discovered. Tradition concerning 
 the battle. Two other " lowes " or " mounds," apparently tumuli, on the 
 opposite bank of the river. Some confusion in the descriptive references 
 to these mounds. Observations of Dr. Whitaker, Canon Raines, Mr. 
 Abram and others. Second visit of the present writer to the Icxality in 
 1876. Curious circular agger. Supposed ancient artificial grout at 
 " Brockhole Wood-end." Geological phenomena. Possibly the •' lowes " 
 outliers of the partially denuded glacial "drift." Further excavations 
 necessary. Probable direction of the battle. Dr. Whitaker's argument 
 as to the southern boundary of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria 
 discussed. Mr. J. R. Green on Anglo-Saxon bishoprics. King Eardulph 
 dethroned. Other superstitious warnings attendant thereon. Patriotism 
 and rebellion. The fight at Edisford Bridge in 1138. The Bashall Brook 
 the *• Bassus "according to Mr. Ilaigh. Bungerley ** hyppingstones." 
 Capture of Henry VI., after the battle of Hexham in 1464, by the 
 Talbols of Bashall and Salcbury. Civil war incidents during the struggle 
 
XVII. 
 
 between Charles I. and the English Parliament. Cromwellian 
 traditions respecting the destruction of Clitheroe and Bury castles. Captain 
 John Hodgson's details of Cromwell's march by Clitheroe and Stonyhurst 
 to the great battle at Preston. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Athelstan's great Victory at 
 
 Brunanburh, A.D. 937, and its connection 
 
 AA/'ith the great Anglo-Saxon and Danish 
 
 Hoard, discovered at Cuerdale in 1840. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invasions of Britain. First arrival of 
 the Danes, A.D. 787. The Anglo-Saxons and Ancient British inhabitants 
 Christians, the Scandinavians Pagans. Savage warfare of the period. 
 Progress of the invasion. Ella, king of Northumbria and Ragnar Lod- 
 brog. The real and mythic Ragnar. Halfden's settlements in Northumbria. 
 Athelstan succeeds to the throne of Wessex and its dependencies. Sub- 
 mission of the Welsh and Scots. Marriage of Editha, Athelstan 's sister, 
 to Sihtric, king of Northumbria. Sihtric's relapse into paganism and 
 repudiation of his queen. Sudden death of Sihtric. Athelstan's vengeance 
 falls upon his sons by a former wife, Anlaf and Godefrid, the former of 
 whom fled to Ireland, and the latter sought refuge with Constantine, king 
 of the Scots. Athelstan dominant king of all Britain. Revolt of the 
 Scottish king and his defeat. Powerful combination of Athelstan's 
 enemies. Their defeat and rout at Brunanburh. Difficulty as to the exact 
 date of the battle. British Christian chiefs, as on previous occasions, 
 espoused the cause of the pagan invaders, and fought against their hated 
 rivals of the party of St. Augustine. Defeat of Athelstan's two governors, 
 Gudrekir and Alfgeirr. Athelstan's arrival at Brunanburh. Anlaf 's 
 stratagem in the guise of a harper. Similar story related of King Alfred. 
 Improbability of both being historically true. Mr. T. Metcalfe's doubts 
 on the subject. Anlaf s midnight assault of Athelstan's camp frustrated. 
 Details of the great battle. Total rout of Anlaf and his allies. Five 
 " youthful kings " and seven of Anlaf's earls slain. Flight of Anlaf to 
 Dublin. Importance of the victory. The famous Anglo-Saxon poem. 
 Claims to the title of first king of England discussed. The causes of the 
 site of the battle being at the present day merely conjectural. The 
 influence of the after Danish and Norman-French conquests. Suppression 
 
XVIU. 
 
 of evidence, Henry of Huntingdon's views on the subject. Mr. D. Haigh 
 on the destruction of ancient Runic inscriptions by the disciples of 
 Augustine and other Christian missionaries. Archbishop Parker's labours 
 in the saving of Anglo-Saxon MSS. from destruction in the sixteenth 
 century. John Bale's account in 1549 of the wholesale destruction of 
 MSS. during his day. Thorpe, Dr. Gnmdlvig, and J. M. Kemble's testi- 
 mony to the ignorance of the Anglo-Norman copyists. The great 
 "Cuerdale find" in May, 1840. Mr. Hawkins's description of the 
 treasure. Its great value at the time of its deposit. The latest coins 
 minted a short time previously to the great battle of Brunanburh. Dr. 
 Worsaae's analysis of the " hoard." Various places suggested as the 
 probable site of the battle : Colecroft, near Axminster, Devonshire ; near 
 Beverley, and at Aldborough, Yorkshire ; Ford, near Bromeridge, 
 Northumberland ; Banbury, Oxfordshire ; Bourne, Brumby, and the 
 neighbourhood of Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire. A Bambro', a Bam- 
 bury, and some other places have likewise found advocates. Their 
 respective claims discussed. The present writer's position that the 
 Cuerdale hoard was buried owing to the disastrous defeat of the allies 
 under Anlaf near the "pass of the Ribble." The tradition respecting its 
 burial and non-disinterment. The three fords at the " pass," at Cuerdale, 
 Walton, and Penwortham, opposite Preston. Evidence of ihe coin s. 
 Discovery of Roman remains at Walton, in 1855. Revival of the tradition. 
 The hoard at Cuerdale all silver. Finds of Roman hoards not uncom mon 
 in the county. Other battles known to have i^een fought in the neighbour- 
 hood. Two great Roman roads, and some vicinal ways pass near the 
 locality. From the positions of the belligerents, the " pass of the Ribble " 
 a very probable site ol the conflict. The certainty of its having taken 
 place in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Anlaf, the Dane, 
 ruling chief of Dublin, head of the Confederacy. The ports of Ribble 
 and Wyre suitable for the landing of his vessels, and for his after 
 escape to Dublin. From a topographical and military point of 
 view, "the pass of the Ribble" a very probable site of the conflict. 
 The name Brunanburh, in some presumedly corrupted form, very 
 common. Examples. Name of place of conflict variously written by 
 the older historians. Doomsday book defective in South Lancashire, in 
 consequence of its ravaged condition; still many corrupted names remain 
 to furnish important etymological evidence in favour of the author'.s 
 position. These evidences and readings in old maps and deeds discussed 
 in detail. Origin of the names Brindle (Brunhull, in Saxton's map) ; 
 Bamber (Brunber), Brownedge (Brunedge). Mr. Weddle's view that 
 Wecndunc is a mistake for Weordunc. Origin of the names Wearden and 
 Cuerden. Etymological and philological evidence considered. Probable 
 modern remains of Ethrunnanwerch in Ethcrington and Rolhelsworlh. 
 
XIX. 
 
 Other names of places in Lanzashire which require consideration. Proofs 
 that the battle was fought not far from the sea shore and not in the 
 interior of the country. Other evidence of Athelstan's connection with the 
 district. His grant of Amounderness to the Cathedral church at York, 
 A.D. 930. The Harleian MSS. " Mundana Mutabilia," of the early part of 
 the seventeenth century. Tumulus named " Pickering Castle," near 
 Roman vicinal way. Etymological origin of the word " Pickering " 
 discussed. ''Pickering Castle," a probable corruption of "Bickering 
 Castle," or the castle or tumulus of the battle-field. Ancient stone coffin 
 in Brindle church-yard. Discovery of Ancient British burial urns at 
 "Low Hill," near Over Darwen, in 1867. Ancient traditions respecting 
 a battle in the neighbourhood of Tockholes in Roddlesworth valley. 
 Concluding remarks in support of the view that the country south of the 
 "Pass of the Kibble" is the most probable site of Athelstan's great 
 victory. More recent battles in the neighbourhood. Bruce's foray in 1323, 
 Cromwell's victory in 1648, and Milton's sonnet thereon. The number of 
 troops engaged. Legends connected with the battle. The Siege of 
 Preston under Wells and Carpenter in 1715. March of the "Young 
 Pretender, ' in 1745. Doggrel ballad : "Long Preston Peggy to Proud 
 Preston went." 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The disposal of St. Oswald's remains. The dun bull, the badge of the 
 Nevilles. The Genesis of Myths. Anglo-Saxon Helmet. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 On page 51, line 21, insert marks of quotation ( " ) after — ■' or without 
 
 itr 
 
 Transpose the note on page 65, beginning — " Boswortk, in his Anglo- 
 Saxon Dictionary,'' to page 64, and place the * after *' massacre, etc.^' at the 
 end of the sixth line from the bottom of the text. 
 
 Transpose the note commencing on page 64 to page 65. 
 
 •' For " Doivnham in Yorkshire^'' (page 143, fourteenth line from the 
 bottom), read ''■ Downham into Yorkshire,''' 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY 
 BATTLES. 
 
 THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY, LEGEND, AND ART. KING 
 
 ARTHUR'S PRESUMED VICTORIES ON THE DOUGLAS, 
 
 NEAR WIGAN AND BLACKROD. 
 
 T has often been remarked, and with some truth, 
 that our standard historical works, until very 
 recent times at least, contained little more than 
 the details of battles, the squabbles and intrigues of 
 diplomatists and politicians, and the pedigrees of 
 potentates, imperial or otherwise. Now-a-days we 
 seek to know more of the domestic habits and conditions 
 of the mass of the population, and the degree and kind 
 of intellectual and moral culture which obtained amongst 
 a people at any given period of their history. But man's 
 advance from the savage to his present relatively 
 civilized condition has been one of fierce and sanguinary 
 strife, and the piratical and freebooting instincts which 
 he inherited, along with some of his nobler attributes and 
 aspirations, from his remote ancestors, are by no means 
 extinguished at the present time, although, in their 
 practical exhibition, they may generally assume a some- 
 
2 ANCIENT Battle-fields in Lancashire. 
 
 what more decorous exterior. Still, courage and physical 
 endurance, however rude and uncouth in outward aspect, 
 as well as heroism of a higher mental or moral order, 
 ever possessed, and ever will possess, a strange and un- 
 controllable fascination ; and the associations, social, 
 political, or religious, attendant upon the more prominent 
 of the bloody struggles of the past, excite, in a most 
 powerful degree, the emotional as well as the imaginative 
 elements of our being. This is notoriously the case when 
 any special interest is superinduced, national or provincial. 
 "All men naturally feel more interested in the historical 
 associations of their own race than they do in those of 
 any other portion of mankind. The soil daily trodden by 
 the foot of any reflecting being, — the locality with whose 
 present struggles, progress or decay, he is practically 
 acquainted, — whose traditions and folk-lore were first 
 fixed in his memory and his heart, long before more exact 
 knowledge or cultivated judgment enabled him to test 
 their accuracy or correctly weigh their value, — must 
 possess historic reminiscences not only capable of com- 
 manding his attention, by exciting in the imaginative 
 faculty agreeable and healthy sensations, but of teaching 
 him valuable lessons in profound practical wisdom."* 
 
 It might be said, without much exaggeration, that if 
 the soil could be endowed with vocal utterance, we might 
 learn that the surface area of the earth which has not 
 sustained the shock of battle at some period of the world's 
 history is not very much greater than that which has felt 
 the tread of armed men in deadly conflict. In the early 
 
 *IIis. Preston, viii. 
 
LANCASHIRE BEFORE THE ROMAN OCCUPATION. 3 
 
 historic and pre-historic times, when clan or sept fought, 
 as a matter of course, against clan or sept, for the 
 privilege of existence or the means to secure it ; or when 
 baron or other chieftain " levied private war " against his 
 neighbour, from ambition, passion or greed, numberless 
 fierce and bloody struggles must have taken place of 
 which no record has been preserved. 
 
 The names of many important ancient battle- 
 fields have been handed down to the present time, the 
 sites of which are either utterly unknown or involved in 
 great obscurity. Some genuine historical events have 
 been so inextricably'/intervvoven with the mythical and 
 traditionary legends of our forefathers, that it is now 
 impossible to detect with exactness the residuum of 
 historical truth therein contained. The battle-fields and 
 all authentic record of the battles themselves amongst the 
 inhabitants of Britain prior to the Roman conquest are, 
 of course, utterly lost in the gloom of the past. Nay, we 
 know, with certainty, very few even of the sites of the 
 struggles of the Britons with the victorious Roman 
 legions. The locality we now denominate Lancashire was, 
 at that time, inhabited by the Volantii and the Sistuntii, 
 Setantii, or Segantii, and was included in the "country of 
 the Brigantes," a numerous and warlike tribe which 
 frequently " measured blades " with the imperial troops. 
 There exists, however, no record to inform us where any 
 specific conflict took place, notwithstanding the numerous 
 archaeological remains which attest the after-presence of 
 the conquerors. Yet we know on the best authority that 
 the Brigantes espoused the cause of the Iceni, who 
 
4 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 inhabited the Norfolk of the present day, and were 
 defeated by Ostorius Scapula, in the reign of Claudius. 
 Soon after the death of Galba, an insurrection broke out 
 amongst them, headed by a chief named Venutius, who 
 had married the Brigantine queen, Cartismandua, a 
 woman infamous in British history as the betrayer of the 
 brave but unfortunate Caractacus. This royal lady like- 
 wise played false with her husband, but Fortune refused 
 to smile on her second perfidy. She escaped with 
 difficulty to the territory occupied by her Roman allies, 
 and Venutius remained master of the "country of 
 the Brigantes," and for a considerable time successfully 
 resisted the progress of the imperial arms. Petilius 
 Cerealis, however, in the reign of Vespatian, after a 
 sanguinary conflict, added the greater portion of the Brig- 
 antine territory to the Roman province. The final conquest 
 was effected about the year 79, by Julius Agricola, in the 
 reign of Domitian. Remains of stations established by 
 him are numerous in Lancashire. On Extwistle Moor, 
 about five miles to the east of Burnley, and about the same 
 distance south of Caster-cliff, a Roman station, near 
 Colne, are the remains of two Roman camps and three 
 tumuli. The sites are marked in the ordnance map. A 
 few years ago, in company with my friend, the late T. T. 
 Wilkinson, I visited this locality and inspected the 
 remains. In the transactions of the Historic Society of 
 Lancashire, for 1865*6, 1 described and figured an ancient 
 Ikiti.sh urn, taken from one of these tumuli. It was in 
 the possession of the late Mr. R. Townlcy Parker, of 
 Cuerden, the owner of the estate. In the same paper I 
 
FACT AND FICTION INTERMIXED. 5 
 
 have described and figured British remains, including 
 about ten cremated interments and a bronze spear-head, 
 found in a mound on the Whitehall estate, contiguous to 
 Low Hill House, near Over Darwen, the property of Mr. 
 Ellis Shorrock. Similar tumuli have been opened in 
 several other places in the county, to which further refer- 
 ence will be made. From these remains it is not 
 improbable some of the struggles of the Brigantes with 
 the imperial legions took place in these localities, or 
 they may have been ordinary burial places of dis- 
 tinguished chieftains and their relatives. 
 
 After the departure of the Roman legions and their at- 
 tendant auxiliaries, history becomes inextricably allied to, 
 and interwoven with, legend and romance. The marvellous 
 narratives of the elder '' historians," such as Gildas, 
 Nennius, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, may have some 
 substratum of fact underlying an immense mass of 
 tradition, superstition, and artistic fiction. In the en- 
 deavour to unravel this complicated web, much ingenuity 
 and valuable time have been expended, with but relatively 
 barren results, at least so far as the so-called " strictly 
 historical element " is concerned. Mr. E. B. Tylor, in 
 his "Researches into the Early History of Mankind and 
 the Development of Civilization," referring to the value of 
 " Historical Traditions and Myths of Observation " to the 
 ethnologist, says — " His great difficulty in dealing with 
 them is to separate the fact and the fiction, which are both 
 so valuable in their different ways ; and this difficulty is 
 aggravated by the circumstance that these two elements 
 are often mixed up in a most complex manner, myths 
 
6 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 presenting themselves in the dress of historical narrative, 
 and historical facts growing into the wildest myths." 
 The reputed deeds of Arthur and his "Knights of the 
 Round Table" have not only given birth to our most famous 
 mediaeval romances, but they have furnished the laureate 
 with themes for several of his more delightful poetic effu- 
 sions. Professor Henry Morley, in his "English Writers," 
 regards Geoffrey's work as "a natural issue of its time, and 
 the source of one of the purest streams of English poetry." 
 Indeed, it appears to be the opinion of many scholars, 
 including Mr. J. D. Harding, Rev. T. Price, and Sig. 
 Panizzi, late chief librarian of the British Museum, that 
 the entire European cycle of romance "originated in 
 Welsh invention or tradition." The last named, in his 
 " Essay on the Narrative Poetry of the Italians," prefixed 
 to his edition of Boiardo and Ariosto, distinctly states 
 that "all the chivalrous fictions since spread through 
 Europe appear to have had their birth in Wales." Mr. 
 Fiske, of Harvard University, in his " Myths and Myth- 
 makers," referring to the Greek tradition concerning the 
 "Return of the Ileraklieds," says " it is undoubtedly as 
 unworthy of credit as the legend of Hcngist and Horsa ; 
 yet, like the latter, it doubtless embodies a historical 
 occurrence." Such may likewise be the case with some 
 of the battles known from tradition to the early story- 
 tellers, poets, or romance writers, who crystallized, as it 
 were, all their floating warlike legends around the names 
 of Arthur and his knights. Our mcdiajval ancestors, with 
 very few isolated exceptions, innocently accepted 
 Geoffrey's wild assertions as sober historical facts, not- 
 
THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY AND ROMANCE. 7 
 
 withstanding the gross ignorance and falsehood patent in 
 many passages, and the childish superstition and credulity 
 which characterise others. Indeed, only about a century 
 ago, the Rev. Jno. Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, 
 placed so much faith in the statements of Nennius and 
 Geoffrey, that he regarded their Arthur as a really 
 historical personage, and he fixed the sites of several of 
 his presumed exploits in the county of Lancaster. There 
 may undoubtedly have existed, nay, there probably did 
 exist, a British chieftain who fought against Teutonic 
 invaders during some portion of the two or three centuries 
 occupied in the Anglo-Saxon conquest, whose name 
 was Arthur, but his deeds, whatever may have been their 
 extent or character, have been so exaggerated and inter- 
 woven with far more ancient mythical stories, and con- 
 founded with those of other warriors, that his individuality 
 or personality, in a truly historical sq\-\?>q, is apparently lost. 
 Indeed, Mr. Haigh expressly says — " There was 
 another Arthur, a son of Mouric, king of Glamorgan, 
 mentioned in the register of Llandaff." In his 
 " History of the Conquest of Britain by the Saxons," 
 by altering the time of the " coming of the Angles " to 
 A.D. 428, " in accordance with a date supplied by the 
 earliest authority," and of the accession of Arthur to A.D. 
 467, " in accordance with a date given by other authori- 
 ties," he contends that " all anachronisms — involved in 
 the system which is based upon the dates in the Saxon 
 Chronicle and the Annals of Cambria, — have disappeared 
 one after another ; every successive event has fallen into 
 its proper place ; the Saxon Chronicle and the Brut have 
 
8 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 been proved accordant ; and the result is a perfectly con- 
 nected and consistent history, such as has never yet been 
 expected, vindicating the truth of our early historians, 
 and showing that authentic materials formed the 
 substance of their Chronicles." In another place he con- 
 tends that, by adapting his chronology, "a foundation of 
 historic truth " is discovered " in stories which have 
 hitherto been looked upon as mere romances."* 
 
 Notwithstanding this conviction, Mr. Haigh does not 
 assume that all the legendary lore which has attached 
 itself to the name of Arthur is of this character. Re- 
 ferring to the traditionary tomb of the hero, he thus 
 fearlessly exposes the mediaeval imposture which sought 
 to demonstrate the truth of the legend : — " An ancient 
 sepulchre, intended by those who were interested in the 
 search to prove itself the sepulchre of Arthur, was opened 
 in A.D. II 89 (the last year of Henry II. and most probably 
 the first of Abbot Henry de Soilly, under whom the 
 search was made), in the cemetery at Glastonbury. There 
 was on the one hand a superstition that he was not dead, 
 and on the other a tradition that he was buried at Glaston- 
 bury ; and it was the policy of Henry II. to establish the 
 truth of the latter ; and a search was ordered to be made 
 in a spot which was sure to be crowned with success by 
 the discovery of an interment. It was recognized as a 
 sepulchre ; indeed, distinctly marked as such by the 
 pyramids (tapering pillar-stones), one at either end, — 
 objects of curious interest on account of their venerable 
 
 ♦Mr. Haigh's ingenious hypothesis, however, is not accepted by 
 histoiical students generally. 
 
"ARTHUR'S GRAVE ' AT GLASTONBURY. 9 
 
 antiquity ; and William of Malmsbury, thirty years before, 
 (at a time when no suspicion that Arthur was buried there 
 existed at Glastonbury), had recorded his belief that the 
 bodies of those whose names were written on the monu- 
 ments were contained in stone coffins within. To prove 
 that this was the sepulchre of Arthur, nothing more was 
 necessary than to forge an inscription, which might 
 impose upon the credulity of the twelfth century, but 
 which the archaeological science of the nineteenth must 
 condemn. The cross of lead, which served to identify 
 the remains of Arthur and his queen is lost, but a 
 representation of it has been preserved, sufficiently to show 
 that its form and character were precisely such as were 
 usual in the twelfth century, such as those discovered in 
 the coffins of Prior Aylmer (who died A.D. 1137), and of 
 Archbishop Theobald (who died A.D. 1161), and in the 
 cemetery of Bouteilles, near Dieppe, present. The 
 pyramids appear to have resembled the Bewcastle and 
 Ruthvvell monuments ; their age is determined by the 
 names of King Centwine and Bishop Hedde,- inscribed 
 
 * " It was twenty-six feet high, and had inscribed on it these names, 
 and two others, Bregored and Beorward. Centwine became King of the 
 West Saxons, and Hedde, Bishop of Winchester, in A.D. 676; the former 
 became a monk in A.D. 683, the latter died in A.D. 705. Bregored was an 
 Abbot of Glastonbury (but not in the times of the Britons, as William of 
 Malmsbury concluded from his name, for it is clearly Saxon), and Beorward 
 may be the Abbot Beornwald who attested a charter of Ine in A.D. 704. 
 The larger pyramid, twenty-eight feet high, which stood at the head of the 
 grave, is said to have been in a very ruinous condition, and the only 
 intelligible words in the inscription upon it (as given by William of Malms- 
 bury), are the names of Wulfred and Eanfled. The discovery of these 
 trunk coffins at Glastonbury has not been noticed by Mr. Wright, in his 
 account of the similar discoveries at Gristhorpe, Beverley, Driffield, and 
 
10 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 on the smaller one ; to have been the close of the seventh, 
 or the beginning of the eighth century ; and as the 
 skeleton of a man and a woman were found in coffins 
 hollowed out of the trunks of oak trees, it is probable 
 that they were those of Wulfred and Eanfled, whose 
 names occur in the inscription on the larger one." 
 
 Welsh traditions and writers ignore the Glastonbury 
 legend, and regard, in some way or other, Arthur as a 
 being exempt from ordinary mortality. The Rev. R. VV. 
 Morgan, in his " Cambrian History," says, — " His farewell 
 words to his knights — * I go hence in God's time, and in 
 God's time I shall return,' created an invincible belief that 
 God had removed him, like Enoch and Elijah, to Paradise 
 without passing through the gate of death ; and that he 
 would at a certain period return, re-ascend the British 
 throne, and subdue the whoie world to Christ. The 
 effects of this persuasion were as extraordinary as the 
 persuasion itself, sustaining his countrymen under all 
 reverses, and ultimately enabling them to realise its spirit 
 by placing their own line of the Tudors on the throne. 
 As late as a.d. 1492, it pervaded both England and 
 Wales. ' Of the death of Arthur, men yet have doubt,' 
 writes Wynkyn de Worde, in his chronicle, * and shall 
 have for evermore, for as men say none wot whether he be 
 alive or dead.' The aphanismus or disappearance of 
 Arthur is a cardinal event in British history. The pre- 
 tended discovery of his body and that of his queen 
 
 Selby {fimt. Mag. 1857. vol. ii., p. 114), nor by .Mr. Wylic in his pa|icr on 
 the Obciflacht graves {.'lnfi<rohgia, vol. xxxvi., p. 129), but deserves to be 
 
 nicnlionccl in connccliou wilh ihcm." 
 
CORRUPTED RECORDS. II 
 
 Ginevra, at Glastonbury, was justly ridiculed by the 
 Kymri as a Norman invention. Arthur has left his name 
 to above six hundred localities in Britain." 
 
 Mr. Haigh, whilst maintaining the substantial 
 historical veracity of Arthur's invasion of France, never- 
 theless adds : " When we consider how miserably the 
 history of the Britons has been corrupted, in the several 
 editions through which it has passed, we cannot expect 
 otherwise than that the Brut should have suffered through 
 the blunders of scribes, and the occasional introduction of 
 marginal notes, and even of extraneous matter into the 
 text, in the course of six centuries. Such an interpola- 
 tion, I believe, is the story of an adventure with a giant, 
 with which Arthur is said to have occupied his leisure, 
 whilst waiting for his allies at Barbefleur ; and I think 
 the reference to another giant-story (not in the Brut), 
 with which it concludes, marks it as such. But I am con- 
 vinced that the story of the Gallic campaign is a part of 
 the original Brut, and is substantially true." 
 
 Dr. James Fergusson, in his learned ]and elaborate 
 work on the " Rude Stone Monuments of all Countries," 
 although stoutly contending for the historical verity of the 
 victories ascribed to Arthur by Nennius, somewhat 
 brusquely rejects the Lancashire sites, because, on his 
 visit to the localities indicated by Whitaker and others, 
 he found no megalithic remains to support his ingenious 
 hypothesis respecting battle-field memorials. He says 
 " I am much more inclined to believe that Linnuis is only a 
 barbarous Latinization of Linn, which in Gaelic and Irish 
 means sea or lake. In Welsh it is Lyn, and in Anglo- 
 
12 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Saxon Lin, and if this is so, * In rcgione Linnuis * may 
 mean in the Lake Country." However, he confesses he 
 can find no river Duglas in that district, and in another 
 sentence he regards the nearness of the sea to Wigan as 
 an objectionable element on military grounds. I hold 
 a. contrary view. A defeated commander near VVigan had 
 the great Roman road for retreat either to the north or 
 south, besides the vicinal ways to Manchester and Rib- 
 chester. The objection, moreover, is valueless, from the 
 simple fact that battles have been fought in the localities, 
 as is attested both by historic records and discovered 
 remains. 
 
 Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote in the earlier portion 
 of the twelfth century, regarded Arthur as a genuine 
 historical character, and attributed the then ignorance of 
 precise localities of the twelve battles described by 
 Nennius to " the Providence of God having so ordered 
 it that popular applause and flattery, and transitory 
 glory, might be of no account." 
 
 William of Malmsbury, in the twelfth century, although 
 evidently aware of the legendary character of the mass 
 of the Arthurian stories, seems, however, to have had 
 some confidence that a substratum of historic truth under- 
 lying or permeating the mass, might, with skill and 
 diligence, eventually be extracted. Probably a few 
 years before Geoft*rey's work appeared, he writes—" That 
 Arthur, about whom the idle tales of the Bretons (nuga 
 Bniofinm) craze to this day, one worthy not to have mis- 
 leading fables dreamed about him, but to be celebrated 
 in true history, since he sustained for a long time his 
 
SHAKSPERE AND KING ARTHUR. I 3 
 
 tottering country, and sharpened for war the broken spirit 
 of his people." 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that Shakspere, who 
 has availed himself so profusely of the old historic and 
 legendary records, as well as of the popular superstitions, 
 with two trivial exceptions, which merely prove 
 his acquaintance with the traditional hero, never 
 refers to Arthur. The exceptions are so slight and even 
 casual that they seem rather to confirm the probability 
 that the great poet, in the main, endorsed the opinion of 
 William of Newbury as to Geoffrey's presumed historical 
 verities. This critical monk, in the latter portion of the 
 twelfth century, indignantly exclaims : " Moreover, in his 
 book, that he calls the * History of the Britons,' how 
 saucily and how shamelessly he lies almost throughout, 
 no one, unless ignorant of the old histories, when he falls 
 upon that book can doubt. Therefore in all things we 
 trust Bede, whose wisdom and sincerity are beyond doubt, 
 so that fabler with his fables shall be straightway spat 
 out by us all." The fact that the story of " Lear " 
 is given pretty fully in Geoffrey's work in no way affects 
 this conclusion, as Shakspere, in the construction of his 
 plot, has followed an older drama and a ballad rather 
 than the soi-disant Welsh historian. One allusion by 
 Shakspere to Arthur is in the second part of "Henry 
 IV." (Act 3, Scene 2), where Justice Shallow says: "I 
 remember at Mile-end Green (when I lay at Clement's 
 Inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show)," &c. 
 The other is in Act 2, Scene 4, of the second part of 
 King Henry IV., when Falstaff enters the tavern in 
 
14 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Eastcheap singing a scrap of an old ballad, as follows : 
 '''IV/iejt Arthur first in co//rt '^Empty the Jordan— 
 ' And ivas a ivorthy king' — [Exit Drawer.] — How now, 
 Mistress Doll ? " 
 
 Sir Edward Strachey, in his introduction to the 
 Globe edition of Sir Thomas Malory's '* Morte 
 D'Arthur," confesses that it is impossible to harmo- 
 nise the geography of the work. This, however, 
 is a very ordinary condition in most legendary 
 stories, literary or otherwise. Speaking of the 
 renowned Caerleon on Usk, he says — " It seems through 
 this, as in other romances, to be inter- changeable in the 
 author's mind with Carlisle, or (as written in its Anglo- 
 Norman form) Cardoile, which latter, in the History of 
 Merlin, is said to be in Wales, whilst elsewhere Wales 
 and Cumberland are confounded in likemanner. So of 
 Camclot, where Arthur chiefly held his court, Caxton in 
 his preface speaks as though it were in Wales, probably 
 meaning Caerleon, where the Roman amphitheatre is 
 still called Arthur's Round Table." Other geographical 
 elements in the work are even more unsatisfactory. 
 There is, indeed, a Carlion and a Caerwent referred to in 
 the Breton laid' Ywenec, and the latter is said to be "on 
 the Doglas," and was the capital city of Avoez, *'lord of 
 the surrounding country." Even, if the scene of the 
 Breton romance be presumed to be in the present 
 Monmouthshire, where we yet find the names Caerleon 
 and Caerwint, still we have a claimant in the Scottish 
 Douglas, as well as in the Lancashire river of that 
 name. 
 
DISPUTED SITES OF ARTHUR'S VICTORIES. I 5 
 
 Mr. J. R. Green, in his recently published work, " The 
 Making of England," says, " Mr. Skene, who has done 
 much to elucidate these early struggles, has identified 
 the sites of" (Arthurian) "battles with spots in the 
 north (see his 'Celtic Scotland,' i. 153-154, and more at 
 large his 'Four Ancient Books of Wales,' i. 55-58) ; but 
 as Dr. Guest has equally identified them with districts in 
 the south, the matter must still be looked upon as 
 somewhat doubtful." The doubt is increased by the fact 
 that Hollingworth, Mr. Haigh, the Rev. John Whitaker, 
 and others, as well as local tradition, with equal confidence 
 have identified some of the struggles with the Lancashire 
 battle-fields now under consideration. 
 
 Dr. Sir G. Webbe Dasent, in his review of Dr. 
 Latham's Johnson's Dictionary, referring to the struggles 
 of the ancient Britons with their Anglo-Saxon invaders, 
 has the following very pertinent observations : — 
 
 " After the Roman legions left the Britons to them- 
 selves, there is darkness over the face of the land from the 
 fifth to the eighth century. Those are really our dark 
 ages. From 420, when it is supposed that Honorius 
 withdrew his troops, to 730, when Bede wrote his history, 
 we see nothing of British history. Afar off we hear the 
 shock of arms, but all is dim, as it were, when two 
 mighty hosts do battle in the dead of night. When the 
 dawn comes and the black veil is lifted, we find that 
 Britain has passed away. The land is now England ; 
 the Britons themselves, though still strong in many 
 parts of the country, have been generally worsted by 
 their foes; they have lost that great battle which has 
 
l6 ANCIENT BAITLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 lasted through three centuries. Their Arthur has come 
 and gone, never again to turn the heady fight. Hence- 
 forth Britain has no hero, and merely consoles herself 
 with the hope that he will one day rise and restore the 
 fortunes of his race. But, though there were many 
 battles in that dreary time, and many Arthurs, it was 
 rather in the every day battle of life, in that long 
 unceasing struggle which race wages with race, not 
 sword in hand alone, but by brain and will and feeling, 
 that the Saxons won the mastery of the land. Little by 
 little, more by stubbornness and energy than by blood- 
 shed, they spread themselves over the country, working 
 towards a common unity, from every shore. . . . 
 Certain it is that for a long time after the time of Bede, 
 and therefore undoubtedly before his day, the Celtic 
 and Saxon kings in various parts of the island lived 
 together on terms of perfect equality, and gave and took 
 their respective sons and daughters to one another in 
 marriage." 
 
 The Arthur of romance is, in fact, the artistic creation 
 of writers of a later age, or, indeed, of later ages, than 
 the conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, and not 
 of contemporary historians, bardic or otherwise. The 
 British chieftain who fought against Ida and his Angles 
 in the north of England, and whose territory, including 
 that of subordinate chieftains or allies, is believed at one 
 time to have extended from the Clyde to the Ribble, or 
 even the Dee, with an uncertain boundary on the east, is 
 named Uricn of Rhcged, the district north of the 
 Solway estuary, including the modern Annandale. He 
 
URIEN OF RHEGED. 1/ 
 
 is the great hero of the Welsh bard Taliesin. Amongst 
 his other qualities the poet enumerates the following : 
 "Protector of the land, usual with thee is headlong 
 activity and the drinking of ale, and ale for drinking, 
 and fair dwelling and beautiful raiment." Llywarch 
 Hen, or the Old, another Keltic poet, who lived between 
 A.D. 550-640, incidentally mentions Arthur as a chief of 
 the Kymri of the South, thus, as Professor Henry Morley 
 puts it: "What Urien was in the north Arthur was 
 in the south." This may well account for the 
 geographical discrepancies referred to by Sir Edward 
 Strachey. Llywarch Hen was present at the bloody 
 battle in which his lord, Geraint (one of the knights 
 introduced into the succeeding romances), and a whole 
 host of British warriors perished. The said bard 
 likewise brought away the head of Urien in his mantle, 
 after his decapitation by the sword of an assassin. In 
 the early English metrical romance, " Merlin," a Urien, 
 King of Scherham, father of the celebrated Ywain, is 
 mentioned as the husband of Igerna's third danghter by 
 her first husband, Hoel. Urien, of Rheged, is mentioned, 
 however, in the same romance as one of the competitors 
 with Arthur for the crown of Britain. In Sir Thomas 
 Malory's " Morte D'Arthur," a "King Uriens of Gore" 
 is introduced. "Gore" is evidently the Peninsula of 
 Gower, in Glamorganshire, South Wales. These, how- 
 ever, are merely some of the geographical dis- 
 crepancies referred to by Sir Edward Strachey; but 
 such discrepancies, owing to the intermixture of several 
 legends, under the circumstances, are inevitable, and are 
 
iS ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 in themselves evidences of the lack of unity in the 
 original sources from which the romance writers drew 
 their materials. 
 
 Nennius's " History of Britain " was written, accord- 
 ing to some authorities, at the end of the eighth century. 
 Others ascribe it, in the condition at least in which 
 we have It at present, with more probability, to the end of 
 the tenth. Geoffrey of Monmouth's work was published 
 in the twelfth. He professes, indeed, to have, to some 
 extent, translated from an ancient manuscript, brought 
 by "Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford," out of Brittany. 
 This, however, notwithstanding Geoffrey's deliberate 
 assertion, is doubted and even flatly denied by many 
 competent judges. Be this as it may, no such document 
 is otherwise known or indeed referred to by any reliable 
 authority. If it ever existed, from its inherent defects, 
 it can to us possess little strictly historical value, whatever 
 amount of truthful legendary or traditional matter it may 
 have furnished to the author of the so-called " Historia 
 Britonum." Referring to the too common habit of 
 regarding mere tradition as reliable history, Mr. Fiske, 
 in his review of Mr. Gladstone's *'Juventus Mundi," 
 justly exclaims: *'One begins to wonder how many more 
 times it will be necessary to prove that dates and events 
 are of no historical value unless attested by nearly 
 contemporary evidence." 
 
 Now, one of the most significant facts in connection 
 with this investigation is that neither Bedc nor Gildas 
 makes any mention of Arthur. Mr. Stevenson, in the 
 preface to his edition of Gildas's work, in the original 
 
GILDAS, NENNIUS, AND BEDE. I9 
 
 Latin, says, " We are unable to speak with certainty as 
 to his parentage, his country, or even his name, or of the 
 works of which he was the author." The title of the old 
 English translation, however, is as follows : " The 
 Epistle of Gildas, the most ancient British author : who 
 flourished in the yeere of our Lord, 546. And who, by 
 his great erudition, sanctitie, and wisdome, acquired the 
 name oi Sapiens y Bede was born in the year 673, and 
 died in 735. The Rev. R. W. Morgan (Cambrian 
 History) says, **The genuine works of Aneurin — his 
 'British History,' and 'Life of Arthur,' — are lost ; the 
 work of Gildas, which at one time passed for the former 
 is a forgery by Aldhelm, the Roman Catholic monk of 
 Malmesbury." If ever Arthur lived in the flesh it must 
 have been in the fifth or sixth centuries, and yet, as I 
 have previously observed, these writers make no 
 reference whatever to the renowned king and warrior. So 
 that, even if we grant the earlier assumed date to the 
 work of Nennius, about three centuries must have 
 elapsed between the performance of his deeds and their 
 earliest known record ! In Geofl'rey of Monmouth's 
 case the interval is no less than seven hundred years ! 
 Mr. John R. Green (*' The Making of England") says : 
 " The genuineness of Gildas, which has been doubted, 
 may now be looked upon as established (see Stubbs 
 and Haddan, ' Councils of Britain,' i. p. 44). Skene 
 ('Celtic Scotland,' i. 116, note) gives a critical account 
 of the various biographies of Gildas. He seems to 
 have been born in 516, probably in the north Welsh 
 valley of the Clwyd ; to have left Britain for Armorica 
 
20 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 when thirty years old, or in 546; to have written his 
 history there about 556 or 560; to have crossed to 
 Ireland between 566-569 ; and to have died there in 
 
 570 Little, however, is to be gleaned 
 
 from the confused rhetoric of Gildas ; and it is only 
 here and there that we can use the earlier facts which 
 seem to be embedded among the later legends of 
 Nennius." Mr. Haigh, however, contends that an 
 "earlier S. Gildas" was a relative of Arthur, and 
 was born about A.D. 425. He says — "He had written, 
 so a British tradition preserved by Giraldus Cam- 
 brensis" [twelfth century] "Informs us, noble books 
 about the acts of Arthur and his race, but threw them 
 into the sea when he heard of his brother's death;" 
 [at the hands of Arthur] "and this tradition he says 
 satisfactorily explains — what has been made the ground 
 of an argument against the genuineness of the works 
 ascribed to him — his studied silence with regard to Arthur." 
 Mr. Haigh likewise conjectures that "Nennius's History 
 of the Britons " was written by St. Albinus, from con- 
 temporary records which had been carried to Armorica 
 (Brittany), and subsequently lost. However, neither 
 traditions first recorded seven centuries after the events 
 transpired, nor "lives" of early British saints, are 
 considered very trustworthy historical authorities. It 
 requires very little knowledge of the state of literature, 
 either in England or elsewhere, during these long 
 periods of time, to remove any lingering doubt as to the 
 purely legendary character of much of the contents of 
 these books, even if we grant, as in the case of the 
 
ARTHUR'S TWELVE VICTORIES. 21 
 
 Venerable Bede, that the authors themselves honestly 
 related that which they honestly, however foolishly, 
 believed to be true. Singularly enough, according to 
 Spurrell's dictionary, the modern Welsh word aruthr 
 signifies "marvellous, wonderful, prodigious, strange, 
 dire," which is not without significance. 
 
 Nennius says: — "A.D. 452. Then it was that the 
 magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military 
 force of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And 
 though there were many more noble than himself^ yet he 
 was twelve times chosen their commander, and was as 
 often conqueror." He then informs us that the second, 
 third, fourth, and fifth of these battles were fought on 
 the banks of a '' river by the Britons called Duglas, 
 in the region Linuis." Some copies give " Dubglas," 
 which has been identified with the little stream Dunglas, 
 which formed the southern boundary of Lothian. The 
 Rev. John Whitaker, however, contends that the 
 Douglas, in Lancashire, is the stream referred to. He 
 advances, amongst much conjectural matter, the follow- 
 ing archaeological and traditional details, in support of 
 his position : — 
 
 " The name of the river concurs with the tradition, 
 and three battles prove the notice true.-^ On the tradi- 
 tionary scene of this engagement remained till the year 
 1770 a considerable British barrow, popularly denomi- 
 nated Hasty Knoll. It was originally a vast collection 
 
 * The Rev, E. Sibson says: — "A piece of high ground near the Scholes 
 is called King Arthur's camp." — Man. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Transactions, 
 April, 1845. 
 
22 ANCIENT BATTLEFIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 of small stones taken from the bed of the Douglas, and 
 great quantities had been successively carried away by 
 the neighbouring inhabitants. Many fragments of iron 
 had been also occasionally discovered in it, together 
 with the remains of those military weapons which the 
 Britons interred with their heroes at death. On finally 
 levelling the barrow, there was found a cavity in the 
 hungry gravel, immediately under the stones, about 
 seven feet in length, the evident grave of the British 
 officer, and all filled with the loose and blackish earth of 
 his perished remains. At another place, near Wigan, 
 was discovered about the year 1741 a large collection of 
 horse and human bones, and an amazing quantity of 
 horse-shoes, scattered over a large extent of ground — an 
 evidence of some important battle upon the spot. The 
 very appellation of Wigan is a standing memorial of 
 more than one battle at that place.* According to 
 tradition, the first battle fought near Blackrode was 
 uncommonly bloody, and the Douglas was crimsoned 
 with blood to Wigan. Tradition and remains concur to 
 evince the fact that a second battle was fought near 
 Wigan Lane, many years before the rencontre in the 
 civil wars. . . . The defeated Saxons appear to 
 have crossed the hill of Wi^jan, where another enefaerc- 
 
 •Giving a man 'wigan," in the present vernacular of the county, is 
 synonymous to giving him a good threshing. 
 
 Jacob Grimm, in his "Deutsche Mythologie," says the Old High German 
 «"i'i pugna» seems occasionally to denote the personal god of war. 
 
 The modern English word " vie," to contend, to fight, to strive for 
 superiority, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon xoigian, wig^xn^ which arc 
 cognate to the Gothic veigan (Collins's Die. Der.) ^^i:^. war. w.trfnjc. 
 battle (Bosworth, A.S. Die.) 
 
THE REV. J. WHITAKER ON THE WIGAN SITES. 23 
 
 ment or engagements ensued ; and in forming the canal 
 there about the year 1735, the workmen discovered evi- 
 dent indications of a considerable battle on the ground. 
 All along the course of the channel, from the termina- 
 tion of the dock to the point at Poolbridge, from forty to 
 fifty roods in length, and seven or eight yards in breadth, 
 they found the ground everywhere containing the 
 remains of men and horses. In making the excavations, 
 a large old spur, carrying a stem four or five inches in 
 length, and a rowel as large as a half-crown, was dug up ; 
 and five or six hundred weight of horse-shoes were col- 
 lected. The point of land on the south side of the 
 Douglas, which lies immediately fronting the scene of 
 the last engagement, is now denominated the Parson's 
 Meadow ; and tradition very loudly reports a battle to 
 have been fought in it." 
 
 The rev. historian of Manchester, referring to the 
 statements in Nennius, thus sums up his argument : — 
 
 "These four battles were fought upon the river 
 Douglas, and in the region Linuis. In this district was 
 the whole course of the current from its source to the 
 conclusion, and the words, ' Super Jiumen quod vacatur 
 Dug las, quod est in Linuis,' shows the stream to have 
 been less known than the region. This was therefore 
 considerable ; one of the cantreds or great divisions of 
 the Sistuntian kingdom, and comprised, perhaps, the 
 western half of South Lancashire. From its appellation 
 of Linuis or the Lake, it seems to have assumed the 
 denomination from the Mere of Marton," [Martin] " which 
 was once the most considerable object in it." 
 
24 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 The Rev. R. W. Morgan, in his " Cambrian History," 
 locates the Arthurian victories as follows : — " ist, at 
 Gloster; 2nd, at Wigan (The Combats), lo miles from 
 the Mersey. The battle lasted through the night. In 
 A.D. 1780, on cutting through the tunnel, three cart loads 
 of horse-shoes were found and removed ; 3rd, at Black- 
 rode ; 4th, at Penrith, between the Loder and Elmot, on 
 the spot still called King Arthur's Castle ; 5th, on the 
 Douglas, in Douglas Vale; 6th, at Lincoln ; 7th, on the 
 edge of the Forest of Celidon (Ettrick Forest) at Mel- 
 rose ; 8th, at Caer Gwynion ; 9th, between Edinburgh 
 andLeith; loth, at Dumbarton ; nth, at Brixham, Tor- 
 bay; 1 2th, at Mont Baden, above Bath." 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth refers but to one battle on 
 the banks of the " Duglas." This he fixes at about the 
 year 500. He tells us that " the Saxons had invited 
 over their countrymen from Germany, and, under the 
 command of Colgrin, were attempting to exterminate 
 the whole British, race. . . . Hereupon, assembling 
 the youth under his command, he marched to " [towards] 
 '* York, of which when Colgrin had inteUigence, he met 
 him with a very great army, composed of Saxons, Scots, 
 and Picts, by the river Duglas, where a battle hap- 
 pened, with the loss of the greater part of both armies. 
 Notwithstanding, the victory fell to Arthur, who pursued 
 Colgrin to York, and there besieged him." 
 
 Mr. Daniel H.Haigh, oneofthe latest advocates of tlie 
 genuine historical veracity which underlies much of the 
 Arthurian traditions, places, as we have previously 
 observed, Arthur's coronation A.D. 467, or about 32 
 
MR. HAIGH ON THE LANCASHIRE SITES. 25 
 
 years earlier than the usually received date. He says — 
 " The river Douglas, which falls into the estuary of the 
 Ribble, is certainly that which is indicated here ;" [the 
 second, third, fourth, and fifth victories referred to by 
 Nennius] "and although it was one of Arthur's tactics 
 to get round his adversaries, so as to be able to attack 
 them when least expected (which will account for the 
 scene of this conflict being considerably to the west of 
 the direct line from London to York), it is extremely 
 improbable that he would have gone so far north as the 
 Douglas in Lothian, when his object was to attack 
 Colgrin at York. The reading which the Paris MS. 
 and Henry of Huntington give is, I believe, correct, 
 and represents Ince, a name which is retained to this 
 day by a township near to this river, a little more than a 
 mile to the south-west of Wigan, and by another about 
 fifteen miles to the west, and which may possibly have 
 belonged to a considerable tract of country.-:^ . . . . 
 Neither the Brut nor Boece mention more than one 
 battle at this time ; but the latter says that Arthur 
 * pursued the Saxons, continually slaughtering them, 
 until they took refuge in York,' and that ' having had so 
 frequent victories he there besieged them ;' and these 
 expressions may well imply the four victories, gained in 
 one prolonged contest on the Douglas, and another on 
 the river Bassas, i.e., Bashall brook, which falls into the 
 Ribble near Clithero, in the direct line of Colgrin's 
 flight to York." 
 
 * The disUict referred to is variously written Liiuiis, Cinuis, and Inniis. 
 
26 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 If, therefore, the historical hypothesis be accepted, 
 the Lancashire sites for these battles would seem as 
 probable as any of the many others suggested. 
 
 From the remains described by Whitaker, it appears 
 certain that some great battles in early times have been 
 fought on the banks of the Douglas, traditions con- 
 cerning which may have served for the foundation of 
 the after statements of Nennius and others. There are 
 some recorded historical facts which countenance this 
 view. The British warrior, king of the Western Britons, 
 Cadwallon or Cadwalla,* with his ally, Penda, defeated 
 and slew Edwin, King of Northumbria, uncle of St. 
 Oswald, in the year 633, at Heathfield.f Where Heath- 
 field is we have no perfectly satisfactory evidence. § The 
 Brit- Welsh poet, Lywarch Hen, or the Old, a prince of 
 the Cumbrian Britons, celebrated his praises in song. 
 He says — 
 
 Fourteen great battles he fought. 
 For Britain the most beautiful, 
 And sixty skirmishes. 
 
 It is by no means improbable that some of Cadwalla's 
 exploits, mythical as well as real, have become inextric- 
 ably interwoven with the legendary ones of the heroes 
 of the Arthurian romances. Singularly enough a para- 
 graph in Geoffrey of Monmouth's work would seem to 
 countenance this. In book 12, chapter 2, of his so- 
 
 ♦ Nennius calls him '* Catgublaun, king of Gucneilot," Gwynedil, 
 North Wales. 
 
 f Anglo-.Saxon Chron. anil Hetlc. 
 
 § Dr. Giles, Mr. Green, and others, say— "Uatfield, in the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, about seven miles to the north-east of Doncastcr,** and 
 this seems the most probable iile. 
 
PURLOINING OF HEROES. 2/ 
 
 called " History of Britain," he refers to negotiations 
 being entered into and afterwards broken off, in the 
 year 630, by Cadwalla and Edwin, while their armies 
 lay on the opposite banks of the river Douglas^ the scene 
 of the presumed Arthurian victory over Colgrin in the 
 year 500, according to the same authority. This circum- 
 stance is not without significance, as the legendary 
 Arthur has evidently absorbed no inconsiderable portion 
 of the reputations, in the North of England, of Urien of 
 Rheged, and other veritable British warriors. Indeed, 
 Lappenberg says — " The Welsh historians adopted the 
 policy oi purloining from a successful enemy, and skilfully 
 transferring to his British contemporaries, if not to 
 imaginary personages^ the object and reward of his 
 battles, the glory and lastingness of his individuality in 
 history ;" and, as illustrations of this practice, Mr. Daniel 
 H. Haigh, in his " Conquest of Britain by the Saxons," 
 adds, " Thus, Coedwealha, Ine, and Ivar are claimed by 
 them as Cadwaladyr, Inyr, and Ivor." Mr. Haigh, not- 
 withstanding his faith in the substantial accuracy of 
 much of the contents of the works of doubtful authority, 
 says — "The peace which Ambrosius established was 
 broken in the following year, A.D. 444. The Brut says 
 nothing of this affair ; it rarely records the defeats of the 
 Britons." And, similarly, the Saxon chronicle is equally 
 reticent in the opposite direction ! 
 
 Indeedj this weakness is not exclusively an attribute 
 of either British or Anglo-Saxon historians or romance 
 writers. Mr. H. H. Howorth, in his able essay on " The 
 Early History of Sweden," in Vol. 9 of the Transactions 
 
28 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 of the Royal Historical Society, lucidly expounds the 
 character of the contents of the professedly Danish 
 History by Saxo-Grammaticus. He says — "He had 
 no scaffolding upon which to build his narrative. He 
 had to construct one for himself in the best way he 
 could, and to piece together the various fragments 
 before him into a continuous patchwork. His was not a 
 critical age, and we are not therefore surprised to find 
 that his handiwork was exceedingly rude. A piece of 
 the history of the Lombards by Paul and Deacon, and 
 another taken from the Edda, are thrust in after narra- 
 tives evidently relating to the ninth century, when 
 Ireland had been more or less conquered by the Norse- 
 men. Icelanders are introduced into the story a long 
 time before the discovery of Iceland. Christianity is 
 professed by Danish kings long before it had reached 
 the borders of Denmark. The events belonging to one 
 Harald (Harald Blatand) are transferred to another 
 Harald who lived two or three centuries earlier, and the 
 joints in the patchwork narrative are filled up by the 
 introduction of plausible links." He afterwards adds — 
 "The other important fact to remember is that our 
 author was patriotic enough to lay under contribution, 
 not only materials relating to Denmark, but to transfer 
 to Denmark the history of other countries. To appropriate 
 not only the traditions of the Anglo-Saxons, the Lom- 
 bards, and the common Scandinavian heritage of the 
 Edda, but also the particular histories of Sweden and 
 Norway, and that a good deal of what passes for Danish 
 history in his pages is not Danish at all, but Swedish, 
 
ANCIENT SPURS. 29 
 
 and relates to the rulers of Upsala, and not to those of 
 Lethra ; topographical boundaries being as lightly 
 skipped over by the patriotic old chronicler, whose home 
 materials were so scanty, as chronological ones." It is, 
 under such circumstances, vain to expect reliable his- 
 torical evidence of the identity of locality or the names 
 of the real warrior chiefs who commanded in many of 
 the presumed Arthurian battles and adventures, some of 
 them being evidently mythical or artistic creations. 
 Whitaker's " large old spur, carrying a stem four or five 
 inches in length, and a rowel as large as a half-crown," 
 does not seem to indicate so early a date as the Anglo- 
 Saxon conquests in Britain, Mr. Thomas Wright, in his 
 " Celt, Roman and Saxon," referring to spurs of the 
 Roman, Saxon and Norman periods, says — *' Amongst 
 the extensive Roman remains found in the camp at 
 Hod Hill were several spurs of iron, which resembled so 
 closely the Norman prick-spurs, that they might easily 
 be mistaken for them. I suspect that many of the 
 prick-spurs which have been found on or near Roman 
 sites, and hastily judged to be Norman, are, especially 
 when made of bronze, Roman. As far, however, as com- 
 parison has yet been made, the Roman and the Saxon 
 spurs are shorter in the stimulus than those of the Nor- 
 man." Spurs with long stimuli or large rowels do not 
 appear to have been in use until some time after the 
 Norman Conquest. This, however, does not necessarily 
 affect the antiquity of the whole of the remains referred 
 to, which, of course, may have been deposited at different 
 periods. 
 
30 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Hollingworth, in his "Mancuniensis," written in the 
 earlier portion of the seventeenth century, seems to have 
 been aware of the existence of a tradition that referred 
 to several bloody battles fought in Lancashire in some 
 portion of the mysterious " olden time." He, however, 
 assigns them to the period of the Roman conquest, to 
 which I have previously referred. If the incidents in 
 the Arthurian "romances" are no more historically 
 tenable than those in the Iliad or the Odyssey, and as 
 the Roman invasions of the Brigantine territory are un- 
 doubted, the elder Manchester historian's conjecture as 
 to the time of the conflicts indicated by the tradition 
 and the remains found near Wigan and Blackrod, may 
 possibly be preferred to that of his successor, as the more 
 probable of the two. Indeed, as has been previously 
 observed, the romance writers and story-tellers have 
 evidently absorbed and modified the historical traditions 
 of many antecedent periods. HoUingworth says — 
 
 " In Vespatian's time Petilius Carealic " (Petilius 
 Cerealis) "strooke a terror into the whole land by 
 invading upon his first entry the Brigantes, the most 
 populous of the whole province, many battailes, and 
 bloody ones, were fought, and the greatest part of the 
 Brigantes were either conquered or wasted." HoUing- 
 worth, indeed, does afterwards refer to a battle near 
 Wigan, in which he says Arthur was victorious. His 
 words are — " It is certaine that about Anno Domini 520, 
 there was such a prince as King Arthur, and it is not 
 incredible that hee or his knights might contest about 
 this castle (Manchester) when he was in this country, 
 
OLD BALLAD INCONSISTENCIES. 3 I 
 
 and (as Nennlus sayth) he put the Saxons to flight In a 
 memorable battell neere Wigan, about twelve miles 
 off." 
 
 Bishop Percy, in his introduction to the ancient 
 ballad of " Chevy-Chase," says — " With regard to its 
 subject, although it has no countenance from history, 
 there is room to think that it had some foundation in 
 fact. . . . There had long been a rivalship between 
 the two martial families of Percy and Douglas, which, 
 heightened by the national quarrel, must have produced 
 frequent challenges and struggles for superiority, petty 
 invasions of their respective domains, and sharp contests 
 for the point of honour, which would not always be 
 recorded in history. Something of this kind we may 
 suppose gave rise to the ancient ballad of the Hunting 
 O' THE Cheviat." He afterwards adds "the tragical 
 circumstances recorded in the ballad are evidently 
 borrowed from the BATTLE OF Otterbourn, a very 
 different event, but whicJi after times woidd easily con- 
 found zvith it. . . . Our poet has evidently jumbled 
 the two events together." 
 
 During the seventh century many sanguinary en- 
 counters must have taken place in Lancashire, many of 
 which are unrecorded, and the sites of others utterly 
 forgotten. Professor Boyd-Dawkins, in a paper, entitled 
 " On the Date of the Conquest of South Lancashire by 
 the English," read before the Manchester Literary and 
 Philosophical Society, referring to the subjugation of 
 what he aptly terms the " Brit-Welsh " of Strathclyde, 
 (or the north-western part of the present England and 
 
32 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 the western portion of the lowlands of Scotland), by 
 Ethelfrith, the powerful Northumbrian monarch, says 
 that Chester was " the principal seat " of their power in 
 that district. The whole of Lancashire, at this period, it 
 would appear, was unconquered by the Angles or 
 English. Under the date 607, the Anglo-Saxon 
 Chronicle says — " And this year Ethelfrith led his army 
 to Chester, and there slew numberless Welshmen : and 
 so was fulfilled the prophesy of Augustine, wherein he 
 saith, 'If the Welsh will not be at peace with us, they 
 shall perish at the hands of the Saxons.' There were 
 also slain two hundred priests who came to pray for the 
 army of the Welsh." The death of these ecclesiastics, 
 said to be monks of Bangor-Iscoed, was celebrated in 
 song by a native poet. Florence of Worcester, referring 
 to this battle, says Ethelfrith " first slew twelve hundred 
 British priests, who had joined the army to offer prayers 
 on their behalf, and then exterminated the remainder of 
 this impious armament." This is evidently an antago- 
 nistic priestly exaggeration, although other authorities 
 state that the monastery at Bangor, at one time, 
 contained 2,400 monks. This powerful body of Brit- 
 Welsh Christians, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
 "disdained subjection to Augustine, and despised his 
 preaching." Hence the strong clerical antipathy which 
 characterised the conflict. Chester was utterly ruined, 
 and is said to have remained desolate for about two 
 centuries. Mr. Boyd Dawkins says — " In all probability 
 South Lancashire was occupied by the English at this 
 time, and the nature of the occupation may be gathered 
 
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF LANCASHH^E. 33 
 
 from the treatment of the city of Chester. A fire, to use 
 the metaphor of Gildas, went through the land, and the 
 Brit-Welsh inhabitants were either put to the sword or 
 compelled to become the bondsmen of the conquerors." 
 
 Mr. J. R. Green (''The Making of England ") traces 
 Ethelfrith's march through Lancashire to his victory at 
 Bangor-Iscoed. He says — "Though the deep indent 
 in the Yorkshire shire-line to the west proves how 
 vigorously the Deirans had pushed up the river valleys 
 into the moors, it shows that they had been arrested by 
 the pass at the head of the Ribblesdale ; while further 
 to the south the Roman road that crossed the moors 
 from York to Manchester was blocked by the un- 
 conquered fastnesses of Elmet, which reached away to 
 the yet more difficult fastnesses of the Peak. But the 
 line of defence was broken as the forces of Ethelfrith 
 pushed over the moors along the Ribblesdale into our 
 southern Lancashire. His march was upon Chester, the 
 capital of Gwynedd, and probably the refuge place of 
 Edwine." 
 
 The more northern portion of the county was not 
 subdued till about half a century afterwards, when 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland were absorbed into the 
 Northumbrian kingdom by Ecfrith (670-685). Mr. J. R. 
 Green, in the work referred to, says — "The Welsh 
 states across the western moors had owned, at least from 
 Oswald's time, the Northumbrian supremacy, but little 
 actual advance had been made by the English in this 
 quarter since the victory of Chester, and northward of 
 the Ribble the land between the moors and the sea still 
 
 D 
 
34 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 formed a part of the British kingdom of Cumbria. It 
 was from this tract, from what we now know as northern 
 Lancashire and the Lake District, Ecgfrith's armies 
 chased the Britons in the early years of his reign." 
 
 Some severe struggles must have taken place during 
 this period ; and, therefore, it is by no means improbable 
 that a portion, at least, of the remains on the banks of 
 the Douglas, referred to by the Rev. John Whitaker as 
 evidence of Arthur's historical existence, may pertain to 
 the struggles of the Brit-Welsh and their Angle or 
 English conquerors of the seventh century. This con- 
 fusion of names and dates is a common feature in the 
 folk-lore of all nations and periods, but in none is it 
 more strongly developed than in the Arthurian romances. 
 The ' author of the metrical " Morte D'Arthur," after 
 describing the victory of the hero over his rebellious 
 nephew, Modred, at "Barren-down," near Canterbury, tells 
 us that the barrows raised on the burial of the slain were 
 still to be seen in his day. Barham Down is still 
 covered with barrows, which recent examination has 
 demonstrated to be the remains of a Saxon cemetery, 
 and not a battle-field. 
 
 Bangor-Iscoed, the Bovium, and, at a later period, 
 the Banchorium, of the Romans, is situated on the river 
 Dee, some fourteen miles south of Chester. Sharon 
 Turner laments the destruction of its magnificent 
 library at the sacking of the monastery, which he 
 regarded as an " irreparable loss to the ancient British 
 antiquities." Gildas, the quasi-historian, is said to have 
 been one of its abbots. The Brit-Wclsh commander 
 
SIR TARQUIN AND SIR LANCELOT DU LAKE. 35 
 
 during this struggle was Brocmail, the friend of Taliesin, 
 who, in his poem on the disastrous battle, says — 
 
 I saw the oppression of the tumult; the wrath and tribulation ; 
 
 The blades gleaming on the bright helmets ; 
 The battle against the lord of fame, in the dales of Hafren ; 
 
 Against Brocvail* of Powys, who loved my muse. 
 
 Sharon Turner says the precise date of this battle is 
 uncertain. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle says it was 
 fought in the year 607, and the Annals of Ulster in 612. 
 Other authorities assign dates between the two. 
 
 The Rev> John Whitaker seems to have had not 
 only a perfect faith in the historical existence of Arthur, 
 but also of his famous knights of the " table round." 
 Following tradition he locates at Castle-field, Manchester, 
 the legendary fortress of "Sir Tarquin," a gigantic hero, 
 to whose prowess several of Arthur's doughty knights 
 had succumbed, before he himself fell beneath the 
 stalwart arm of " Sir Lancelot du Lake." Whitaker 
 regards Lancelot's patronymic, "du Lake," as referabk 
 to the Linius which gave the name to the district, 
 according to the hypothesis previously advanced. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that, notwithstanding 
 all this ingenuity, Sir Tarquin, Sir Lancelot, and their 
 knightly compeers, are as much creatures of the imagina- 
 tion as the heroes of any acknowledged work of fiction, 
 such as the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " of Homer, or the 
 novels of Scott, Thackeray, Lord Lytton, and Dickens. 
 
 The gradual growth of what are generally regarded 
 as the spontaneous products of the imagination, in the 
 
 * Variation, Brocmail. 
 
36 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 region of art, is well expressed in Mr. Tylor's admirable 
 work on " Primitive Culture." He says — " Amongst 
 those opinions which are produced by a little knowledge, 
 to be dispelled by a little more, is the belief in the 
 almost boundless creative power in the human imagi- 
 nation. The superficial student, mazed in a crowd of 
 seemingly wild and lawless fancies, which he thinks to 
 have no reason in nature nor pattern in the material 
 world, at first concludes them to be new births from the 
 imagination of the poet, the tale-teller, and the seer. 
 But little by little, in what seemed the most spontaneous 
 fiction, a more comprehensive study of the source of 
 poetry and romance begins to disclose a cause for each 
 fancy, an education that has led up to each train of 
 thought, a store of inherited materials from out of which 
 each province of the poet's land has been shaped and 
 built over and peopled. Backward from our own times, 
 the course of mental history may be traced through the 
 ciianges wrought by modern schools of thought and fancy 
 upon an intellectual inheritance handed down to them 
 from earlier generations. And through remote periods, 
 as we recede more nearly towards primitive conditions of 
 our race, the threads which connect new thought with old 
 do not always vanish from our sight. It is in large 
 measure possible to follow them as clues leading back to 
 that actual experience of nature and life which is the 
 ultimate source of human fancy." 
 
 Perhaps no finer illustration, at least in English 
 literature, of the truthfulness of this position can be cited 
 than the Arthurian art-products with which I am dealing. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH METRICAL ROMANCES. 37 
 
 In them we have embodied thoughts and fancies of the 
 earlier myth-makers of our common Aryan race, legends 
 and quasi-historical traditions of mediaeval times, the 
 more artistic romances of a relatively recent and more 
 highly- cultured period, and, lastly, the lyrics of Morris 
 and others, and the splendid capital which worthily 
 crowns this truly historic literary column, in the exquis- 
 itely felt and gracefully wrought " Idylls of the King," 
 by the laureate of the Victorian age, Alfred Tennyson. 
 The last named says — 
 
 Lancelot spoke 
 And answered him at full, as having been 
 With Arthur in the fight which all day long 
 Rang by the white mouth of the violent Glem : 
 And in the four wild battles by the shore 
 Of Douglas. {Idylls, p. 1 62. ) 
 
 Referring to the parentage of the Arthurian legends, 
 in the essay prefixed to his " Specimensof Early English 
 Metrical Romances," Mr. George Ellis says — " Although 
 Geoffrey's 'British Chronicle' is justly regarded as one of 
 the corner-stones of romantic fiction, yet its principal, if 
 not sole effect, was to stamp the names of Arthur, Merlin, 
 Kay, and Gawain with the character of historical veracity ; 
 and thus to authorise a collection of all the fables already 
 current respecting these fanciful heroes and their com- 
 panions. For not one word is to be found in that 
 compilation concerning Sir Lancelot and his brothers ; 
 Sir Tristram ; Sir Ywain ; Joseph of Arimathea and 
 the Sangrael ; the round table with its perilous seat ; 
 and the various quests and adventures which fill so many 
 folio volumes. These were subsequent additions, but 
 
38 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 additions apparently derived from the same source. The 
 names, the manners of the heroes, and the scenes of their 
 adventures, were still British ; and, the taste for these 
 strange traditions continuing to gain ground for at least 
 two centuries, the whole literature of Europe was 
 ultimately inundated by the nursery-tales of Wales and 
 Armorica, as it had formerly been by the mythology 
 of Greece and Egypt." 
 
 Of course there sometimes is, and there oftener is not, 
 recognisable historical or biographical fact at the basis 
 of so-called historical novels, poems, or plays, but 
 the difficulty of separating the one from the other is 
 generally insurmountable, and the labour bestowed 
 thereon often profitless. This is especially the case where 
 quasi-history has become inextricably interwoven with 
 faded nature-myths and more modern artistic 
 inventions. Mr. Fiske, in the work previously quoted, 
 has the following very pertinent remarks on this 
 subject : — 
 
 " I do not suppose that the struggle between light 
 and darkness was Homer's subject in the * Iliad ' any 
 more than it was Shakespeare's subject in * Hamlet.' 
 Homer's subject was the wrath of the Greek hero, as 
 Shakespeare's subject was the vengeance of the Danish 
 prince. Nevertheless, the story of * Hamlet,' when 
 traced back to its Norse original, is unmistakably the 
 quarrel between summer and winter ; and the moody 
 prince is as much a solar hero as Odin himself. (See 
 Simrock, Die Qucllen des Shakespeare, I., 127-133.) 
 Of course Shakespeare knew nothing of this, as Homer 
 
FADED SOLAR MYTHS. 39 
 
 knew nothing of the origin of Achilleus. The two stories 
 are therefore not to be taken as sun-myths in their present 
 form. They are the offspring of other stories which 
 were sun -myths. They are stories which conform to the 
 
 sun-myth type The sun and the clouds, the 
 
 h'ght and the darkness, were once supposed to be 
 actuated by wills analagous to the human will ; they 
 were personified and worshipped or propitiated by sacrifice ; 
 and their doings were described in language which applied 
 so well to the deeds of human or quasi-human beings, 
 that in course of time its primitive import faded from 
 recollection. No competent scholar now doubts that the 
 myths of the Veda and the Edda originated in this way, 
 for philology itself shows that the names employed in 
 them are the names of the great phenomena of nature. 
 And when once a few striking stories had thus arisen — 
 when once it had been told how Indra smote the Panis, 
 and how Sigurd rescued Brynhild, and how Odysseus 
 blinded the Kyklops — then certain mythic or dramatic 
 types had been called into existence ; and to these types, 
 preserved in the popular imagination, future stories 
 
 would inevitably conform In this view I am 
 
 upheld by a most sagacious and accurate scholar, Mr. E. A. 
 Freeman, who finds in Carlovingian romance an excellent 
 illustration of the problem before us." 
 
 The Carlovingian romance thus cited is, indeed, 
 almost an exact counterpart of the Arthurian one, with 
 the certainly very important exception that we can ap- 
 peal to reliable history in the former case to prove our 
 position, while the mythical gloom of legend and tradi- 
 
40 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 tion obscures so much of the probable historical facts in 
 connection with the latter that our path is beset with 
 difficulties which cannot be solved otherwise than by 
 analogical inference. History informs us of the acts and 
 deeds of Karl der Gross, a German by birth, name, race, 
 and language. This warrior, who conquered nearly the 
 whole of Europe and founded one of the most important 
 dynastic houses in mediaeval times, was born about the 
 year 742, in the castle of Silzburg, in Bavaria, and died 
 in 814 at Aachen, now called Aix-la-Chapelle. On the 
 other hand, as Mr. Fiske says, " the Charlemagne of 
 romance is a mythical personage. He is supposed to be 
 a Frenchman at a time when neither the French nation 
 nor the French language can properly be said to 
 have existed ; and he is represented as a doughty 
 crusader, although crusading was not thought of until 
 long after the KaroHngian era. He is a myth, and what 
 is more he is a solar myth — an avatar, or at least a 
 representative of Odin in his solar capacity. If in his 
 case legend were not controlled by history, he would be 
 for us as unreal as Agamemnon. ... To the historic 
 Karl corresponds in many particulars the mythical 
 Charlemagne. The legend has preserved the fact, which 
 without the information supplied by history we might 
 perhaps set down as a fiction, that there was a time when 
 Germany, Gaul, Italy, and part of Spain formed a single 
 empire. And as Mr. Freeman has well observed, the 
 mythical crusades of Charlemagne are good evidence that 
 there zvcrc crusades, although the real Karl had nothing 
 whatever to do with one." 
 
SAXO GRAMMATICUS, DANISH HISTORIAN. 4 1 
 
 In the old ballad legend of Sir Guy, of Warwick, this 
 chronological confusion is equally apparent. One of the 
 earlier stanzas says — 
 
 Nine hundred twenty yeere and odde 
 
 After our Saviour Christ his birth, 
 When King Athel stone wore the crowne, 
 
 I lived heere upon the earth. 
 
 And yet this same legendary hero slays Saracens 
 and other "heathen pagans" during the crusades some 
 three centuries afterwards. The " Scop " or Geeman's 
 song, and others, exhibit similar instances of this con- 
 fusion of personages and dates. 
 
 Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish historian, has, like 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, mingled so much legendary and 
 irrelevant matter with his genuine material, that it is 
 often difficult and sometimes impossible to distinguish 
 one from the other. Mr. H. H. Howorth, in the work 
 previously quoted, referring to Harald Hildetand, "the 
 most prominent figure in Scandinavian history at the 
 close of the heroic period," says — "Although Saxo's 
 notice of him is long, it will be found to contain scarcely 
 anything about him. It is filled up with parenthetical 
 stories about other people, referring doubtless to other 
 times altogether, while the stories it contains about his 
 exploits in Aquitania, and Britain, and Northumbria, 
 show very clearly, as Miiller has pointed out, that he has 
 confused his doings with those of another, and much 
 later, Harald, probably Harald Blaatand {Op. Cit. $66, 
 note 3). It is only when we come to the close of his 
 reign that we have a more detailed and valuable story. 
 
42 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 This is the account of the famous fight at Bravalla, of 
 which we have two recensions, one in Saxo and the other 
 in the Sogubrot, and which have preserved for us one of 
 the most romantic epical stories in the history of the 
 north. The story was recorded in verse by the famous 
 champion Starkadr, whom Saxo quotes as his authority, 
 and whom he seems closely to follow. Dahlman has, I 
 think, argued very forcibly that the form and matter of 
 this saga as told by Saxo is more ancient, and preserves 
 more of the local colour of the original than that of the 
 Sogubrot (Forsch, etc., 307-308). And yet the story as 
 it stands is very incongruous, and makes it impossible for 
 us to believe that it was written by a contemporary at all. 
 How can we understand Icelanders fighting in a battle a 
 hundred years before Iceland was discovered, and what 
 are we to make of such champions as Orm the English- 
 man, Brat the Hibernian, etc., among the followers of 
 Harald ? It would seem that on such points the story 
 has been somewhat sophisticated, perhaps, as in the Roll 
 of Battle Abbey, names have been added to flatter later 
 heroes." 
 
 It is a recognised element in popular tradition or 
 folk-lore, that the deeds of one historic or mythological 
 hero are sure, when he is forgotten, to be attributed to 
 some other man of mark, who, for the time being, fills 
 the popular fancy. I am, therefore, inclined to think 
 that the imaginary victories of Arthur on the continent 
 of Europe in the sixth century, as recorded in Geoffrey's 
 tenth book, owe their origin mainly to the real ones of 
 Karl der Gross in the ninth. Geoffrey, or his Breton 
 
THE LEGENDARY CROMWELL. 43 
 
 authority, had three centuries of tradition to fall back 
 upon, time amply sufficient for mediaeval myth makers 
 and romance writers to torture them to their own 
 purposes. Instances of this re-crystallisation of several 
 stories, mythical and otherwise, around the name of a 
 single hero, by the vulgar, may be found in relatively 
 modern history. There is, in the region of traditional 
 lore, in various parts of England, a mythical Cromwell, 
 as well as the two well-known historical personages of 
 that name. In whatever part of the country stands a 
 ruined castle or abbey, or other ecclesiastical edifice, the 
 nearest peasant, or even farmer, will assure an inquirer 
 that it was battered into ruin by Oliver Cromwell ! 
 Here the Secretary Cromwell, of Henry the Eighth's 
 reign, and the renowned Protector, of the following 
 century, are evidently amalgamated. Indeed, the 
 redoubted Oliver seems to have absorbed all the castle 
 and abbey-destroying heroes of the national history, 
 old Time himself included. There is a weather-worn 
 statue on the triangular bridge at Croyland, erected in 
 honour of King Ethelbald, the founder of the neighbour- 
 ing abbey now in ruins, which is popularly supposed to 
 be an effigy of Cromwell, and by some the bridge is 
 likewise named after him. It is, however, more than 
 probable that the neighbouring ruin is alone responsible 
 for this nomenclature. A similar fate has befallen 
 Alexander the Great in the East. Arminius Vambery, 
 in his " Travels in Central Asia," says — " The history of 
 the great Macedonian is invested by the Orientals with 
 all the characteristics of a religious myth ; and although 
 
44 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 some of their writers are anxious to distinguish Iskender 
 Zul Karnein (the two-horned Alexander), the hero of 
 their fable, from Iskenderi Roumi (the Greek Alexander), 
 I have yet everywhere found that these two persons 
 were regarded as one and the same." There is likewise 
 a mythical as well as an historical Taliesin (the Welsh 
 poet), but they are generally confounded by the populace. 
 
 Mr. C. P. Kains-Jackson, in "Our Ancient Monuments 
 and the Land around them," referring to the huge 
 rock, named "Arthur's Quoit," Gower, Llanridian, 
 Glamorganshire, says — "The reason why the name of 
 Arthur should attach to the Titantic boulder represented 
 in our engraving docs not readily appear. The name 
 has probably come by that process of accretion which 
 has caused every witty cynicism to be attributed to 
 Talleyrand, or, in another way, every achievement of the 
 Third Crusade to Richard Coeur de Lion, and every 
 contemporary woodland exploit to Robin Hood. No 
 name from Druidical times attaching to the monument, 
 the local tradition joined to the rock the name of the 
 only man whose legendary repute and fame at all 
 admitted of a super-human feat of strength being 
 attributed to him." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Metcalfe, in his " Englishman and 
 Scandinavian," says — "Then again our old institution, 
 trial by jury, to our immortal King Alfred, the people's 
 darling, it has been assigned, along with other tithings, 
 hundreds, and a host of other inventions and institutions, 
 which, we are persuaded, he would have been the first 
 to repudiate. Indeed, he has become a sort of Odin to 
 
THK BATTLE BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT. 45 
 
 some antiquaries, on whom everything bearing the 
 stamp of remote antiquity was gathered, the invention 
 of names amongst the rest." 
 
 The same writer, referring to the " famous story of 
 Theophilus," says — " The legend, as we have said, ran 
 through Europe in various shapes, and was fitted to all 
 people imaginable. It is referred to in one of ^Ifric's 
 homilies (i. 448), while in an Icelandic legend Anselm 
 and Theophilus are thus blended. Now we know that 
 Eormenric, who died 370, Attila, 453, Gundicar of 
 Burgundy, 436, and the Ostrogothic King Theordoric or 
 Dietrich, 536, become contemporaries and merge one 
 into another in heroic mythus. But one is hardly pre- 
 pared to find Dietrich of Bern and Theophilus of Sicily 
 getting confused into one. But so it is. Amongst the 
 Wends it has become a popular story, and is told of 
 Dietrich (Theodoric of Verona), who among the peasantry 
 is transmuted into the Wild Huntsman." 
 
 Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, in his learned lecture on 
 " A Chaldean Heliopolis," at Manchester, in December, 
 188 1, after referring to the manner in which Berosus 
 "had resort to an ingenious literary fiction to preserve 
 the continuity of the narrative in his history of Chaldea, 
 which he claimed to have based on documentary evidence, 
 extending back over fifteen myriads of years," says — 
 " The daily recurring war of day and night, which had 
 belonged to the nomadic age, now became national 
 wars and combats of Samson, Shamgar, and Gideon, 
 the solar heroes, against the dark forces of the Philistine 
 and Midianite. But in this period of the heroic age — 
 
4^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 the * once upon a time ' of the Chaldean story-teller, the 
 nation was not one consolidated whole ; it was the age 
 of polyarchy. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was 
 not one capital city, it was the tetrapolis of Babel 
 Akkad, Erech, and Calrech, and each city was a little 
 kingdom. So each city had its hero. The giant Isdubar 
 was the hero of Erech ; Sargon the Moses of Chaldea — 
 the hero of Aganne ; Etanne and Ner, of Babylon. In 
 the labours and wars of these heroes we saw the labours 
 and wars and struggles of the city kingdom, but lit with 
 the lustre of divinity which shone forth from the age of 
 the gods and clothed with its brightness the characters in 
 the heroic age. But, in time, as the nation became 
 consolidated, all became blended and absorbed into the 
 great national hero, Isdubar, the great king." 
 
 The Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, in his " Mythology of the 
 Aryan Nations," successfully shows that the principal 
 materials of the Arthurian legends are identical with 
 those which underlie the Hindoo, Grecian, Teutonic, and 
 other common Aryan myths. He contends that Arthur 
 is a solar hero, of the same type as Phoibus Chrysitor, or 
 Heracles, or Bellerophon, or Perseus, or Achilleus, or 
 Sigurd ; and he illustrates this position by the citation 
 of numerous instances in which their common orisrinal is 
 clearly perceptible, notwithstanding the great modifica- 
 tion, especially in costume and morals, to which the 
 original materials have been subjected. A single 
 instance of this uniformity, but an important one, will 
 suffice for the present purpose. The peculiar form as 
 well as the name of the supernatural weapon of Indra, 
 
INDRA'S LIGHTNING WEAPON. 4/ 
 
 the Vedic lightning god, has undergone many changes 
 in its progress through the mythical lore of the various 
 Aryan nations, and yet its identity is rarely, if ever, 
 doubtful. It is the "Durandal" of Roland; it is 
 Arthur's famous sword " Excalibur," as well as the 
 similar weapon which no one could draw from the *' iron 
 anvil-sheaf embedded in stone " except himself. It is 
 the sword of the maiden drawn by Balin, after Arthur 
 had failed in the attempt. It is the " Macabuin," the 
 weapon of the Manx hero, Olave of Norway ; it is Odin's 
 sword *'Gram," stuck in the roof-tree of Volsung's hall. 
 It is the sword of Chrysaor ; it is that of Theseus, and that 
 of Sigurd. It is very palpably the spear (Gungnir) which 
 Odin lent, in the form of a reed, to King Erich, in order 
 to ensure him the victory in a battle against Styrbjorn. 
 The reed in its flight is said to have assumed the form of 
 a spear and stmck with blindness the whole of the 
 opposing army. It is the arrow with which Apollo slew 
 the Python ; it is the lance of St. George, the patron 
 saint of England ; it is the " sword of sharpness " of 
 " Jack-the-Giant- Killer ; " nay, it is the relatively humble 
 magic cudgel of popular Norse story, which, like Thor's 
 hammer, voluntarily returned to the lad's hand on the 
 completion of the rascally innkeeper's well-merited 
 castigation. 
 
 So fascinating are the so-called "historical novels" 
 of such men as Sir Walter Scott and the late 
 Lord Lytton, such "historical plays" as Shakspere's, 
 and the popular ballads and other lyric narratives of 
 great historical events, that some of the most permanent 
 
48 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 impressions on the mind of the studious, and many on 
 that of the relatively non-studious sections of mankind, 
 have been derived therefrom. Indeed, there are persons 
 who roundly assert that "good historical novels" convey 
 to the ordinary reader a better idea of the manners and 
 customs and general aspect of society, as well as of the 
 idiosyncrasies, or special characteristics, of distinguished 
 individuals, than historical works of a more definite and 
 presumedly more reliable character. Those who enter- 
 tain these views, however, as a rule, are not themselves 
 historical students in its higher or more legitimate sense, 
 but merely dabblers in history with an aesthetic object. 
 Besides, if the hypothesis be a sound one, these "his- 
 torical novelists" must themselves be more fully and 
 accurately informed concerning all the hard elements of 
 fact and individual feeling with which they deal than 
 their rivals (which, unfortunately, they never or 
 rarely are), or how could they, by any human process, 
 produce their presumedly more truthful artistic " counter- 
 feit presentments.?" The late Lord l.ytton, in the 
 preface to the third edition of his novel, " Harold, the 
 last of the Saxon Kings," expressly says " It was indeed 
 my aim to solve the problem how to produce the 
 greatest amount of dramatic effect at the least expense of 
 historical tnith^ 
 
 On the other hand, Sir Francis Palgrave denounces 
 " historical novels " as the " mortal enemies to history," 
 and Leslie Stephen adds, " they arc mortal enemies to 
 fiction " likewise. The latter writer contends, under such 
 conditions, one of two evils necessarily results, notwith- 
 
HISTORIC FACT AND ARTISTIC FICTION. 49 
 
 standing the fact that perhaps an isolated exception or 
 two might be cited in opposition : " Either the novel 
 becomes pure cram, a dictionary of antiquities dissolved 
 in a thin solution of romance, or, which is generally more 
 refreshing, it takes leave of accuracy altogether and 
 simply takes the plot and the costumes from history, but 
 allows us to feel that genuine moderns are masquerading 
 in the dress of a bygone century." Dean Milman, in his 
 review of Ranke's work on the Papacy, referring to the 
 scene in the conclave on the elevation of Sixtus V. to the 
 Papal chair, which, he says, Gregoria Leti " has drawn 
 with such unscrupulous boldness," adds, " All the minute 
 circumstances of his (the Pope's) manner, speech, and 
 gesture is like one of Scott's happiest historical descrip- 
 tions, but, we fear, of no better historical authority than 
 the picture of our great novelist." 
 
 The false impressions often formed of actual fact from 
 implicit reliance on artistic fiction, as authority in such 
 matters, is admirably illustrated in a passage in " Travels 
 in Central Asia," by Arminius Vc4mbery. After journeying 
 from Tabris to Teheran, he says—" It is a distance of 
 only fifteen, or perhaps we may rather say of only 
 thirteen caravan stations ; still, it is fearfully fatiguing, 
 when circumstances compel one to toil slowly from 
 station to station under a scorching sun, mounted upon 
 a laden mule, and condemned to see nothing but such 
 drought and barrenness as characterise almost the whole 
 of Persia. How bitter the disappointment to him who 
 has studied Persia only in Saadi, Khakani, and Hafiz ; 
 or still worse, who has received his dreamy impressions 
 
so ancip:nt battle-fields in Lancashire. 
 
 of the East from the beautiful imaginings of Goethe's 
 
 * Ost-Westlicher Divan/ or Victor Hugo's ' Orientales,' or 
 the magnificent picturings of Tom Moore." 
 
 If, under circumstances so favourable as those atten- 
 dant upon such a *' Dryasdust " historical student as Sir 
 Walter Scott, historical truth is violated or perverted as 
 often as it is illustrated, it is painful to reflect what must 
 have resulted when solar and other myths, miraculous 
 legends and traditions of pagan times, have become 
 interwoven with the faith and morals of Christianity, and 
 the pomp and pageantry of mediaeval chivalry ! Leslie 
 Stephens asserts that "* Ivanhoe,' and * Kenilworth,' and 
 
 * Quentin Durward,' and the rest are, of course, bare, 
 blank impossibilities." " No such people," he declares, 
 *' ever lived or talked on this planet." He is willing to 
 allow that some fragments of genuine character may be 
 embedded in what he terms " the plaster of Paris ;" but 
 he insists that " there is no solidity or permanence in the 
 workmanship." If this be true, how has history fared at 
 the hands of such craftsmen as Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
 Archdeacon Walter Map, Sir Thos. Malory, and a whole 
 host of mediaeval romance writers, with their King Arthur, 
 Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, their magicians, sorcerers, 
 giants, dragons, and other monsters > History, in its 
 highest, indeed its only legitimate, sense, most unquestion- 
 ably has suffered to a much greater extent than can be 
 conceived, except by those who have patiently plodded 
 amongst the details of a portion at least of its dim and 
 dusty, and oft-times doubtful, raw material. But, on the 
 other hand, to the novelist or the poet historical truth- 
 
THE IDEAL AND THE REAL. 51 
 
 fulness in the incidents of which his plot is composed, or 
 biographical truthfulness in the characters delineated, is 
 simply surplusage, if it be nothing worse, (Esthetic or 
 artistic verities having no necessary foundation there- 
 upon. It is this aesthetic ideal, evolved from general 
 rather than individual truths, this poetic element, which 
 lies at the root, and, indeed, furnishes the raison d'etre, 
 the very life-giving blood, of such art products as those 
 under consideration. Hamlet, Lear, Imogen, Ophelia, 
 Cordelia, Oberon, Elaine, Sir Galahad, Achilleus, Arthur, 
 et hoc genns omne, possess an inherent subjective 
 vitality and truthfulness of their own, drawn from the 
 universal and everlasting fountains of human emotion, 
 passion, and psychical aspiration, however little realistic, 
 individual, or strictly historic value the learned may 
 place on the legends of Saxo Grammaticus and Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth, or the myths of our common Aryan 
 ancestors. Thos.' Carlyle, in ''Sartor Resartus," aptly 
 asks — " Was Luther's picture of the devil less a reality, 
 whether it were formed within the bodily eye, or without 
 it .-* Dean Milman, in his essay on " Pagan and Christian 
 Sepulchres," referring to the " two large mounds popularly 
 known as the tombs of the Horatii and the Curiatii," on 
 the Appian way, near Rome, says — '' Let us leave the 
 legend undisturbed, and take no more notice of those 
 wicked disenchanters of our old belief " Yet he feelingly 
 and truthfully adds — " They will leave us at least the 
 poetry, if they scatter our history into a mist." Truly 
 the aesthetic element, if in itself worthy, will ever survive 
 the destruction of the presumed historical verity with 
 
52 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 which it may have been for ages allied. Who now 
 believes in the historic truthfulness of the reputed deeds 
 of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome ? 
 And yet the aesthetic beauties of Homer, ^schylus, 
 Virgil, and Ovid are none the less admired and enjoyed. 
 Mr. Philip Gilbert Hamerton, in his Life of J. M. W. 
 Turner, when commenting on the lack of" topographical," 
 and other realistic truthfulness, both in colour and details, 
 in many of the great landscape painter's finest productions, 
 thus aptly deals with the difference between aesthetic and 
 literal truthfulness— " It is with these drawings as with 
 the romances of Sir Walter Scott : a time comes in the 
 life of every intelligent reader when he perceives that 
 Scott was not, and could not be, really true to the times 
 he represented, except when they approached very near 
 his own ; but a student of literature would be much to 
 be pitied who was unable to enjoy 'Ivanhoe' after this 
 discovery. So when we have found out the excessive 
 freedom which Turner allowed himself; when we have 
 discovered that he is not to be trusted for the representa- 
 tion of any object, however important — that his chiaros- 
 curo, though effective is arbitrary, and his colour though 
 brilliant is false ; when we have quite satisfied ourselves, 
 in a word, that he is a poet, and not an architectural 
 draughtsman, or an imitator of nature, is that a reason 
 why we should not enjoy the poems } There is a wide 
 difference, I grant, between the pleasure of real belief and 
 the pleasure of confessed imagination : the first belongs 
 to imaginative ignorance, and is only possible for the 
 uncritical; the second belongs to a state of knowledge, 
 
ESTHETIC AND HISTORIC TRUTH. 53 
 
 and is only possible for those in whom the acquisition of 
 knowledge has not deadened the imaginative faculties. 
 Show the ' Rivers of France ' to a boy who has the natural 
 faculties which perceive beauty, but who is still innocent 
 of criticism, he will believe the drawings to be true, and 
 think as he dreams over them that a day may come 
 when he will visit these enchanting scenes. Show them 
 to a real critic, and he will not accept for fact a single 
 statement made by the draughtsman from beginning to 
 end, but he will say — * The poetic power is here,' and then 
 he will yield to its influence, and dream also in his own 
 way — not like the boy, in simple faith, but in the pleasant 
 make-belief faith which is all that the poet asks of us." 
 
 This aesthetic truthfulness, in contradistinction to 
 literal historic fact, is admirably expressed by Macaulay 
 in an entry in his journal, in August, 1851. He says — 
 " I walked far into Herefordshire," (from Malvern) " and 
 read, while walking, the last five books of the * Iliad,' with 
 deep interest and many tears. I was afraid to be seen 
 crying by the parties of walkers that met me as I came 
 back ; crying for Achilles cutting off his hair; crying for 
 Priam rolling on the ground in the court-yard of his 
 house ; mere imaginary beings, creatures of an old ballad 
 maker who died near three thousand years ago." 
 
 Lord Byron wrote under the influence of the traditions 
 of his youth or of his classical college education, and not 
 as the true poet, when he said — " I stood upon the plain 
 of Troy daily for more than a month, in 1810 ; and if 
 anything diminished my pleasure it was that the black- 
 guard Bryant had impugned its veracity." On the con- 
 
54 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 trary, I felt no such lack of pleasurable emotion when 
 I first gazed on the Thames at Datchet, or on the 
 withered trunk of " Heme's Oak," or on the Trossachs 
 and Loch Katrine, or on the Rialto or the Ducal palace 
 at Venice, or on the Colisseum or the adjacent ruins of the 
 " lone mother of dead empires," because the mere 
 historical wQXiiy of Jack Falstaff s unwieldly carcase, or of 
 Shakspere, Otway, Byron or Scott's ideal and semi- 
 historical personages, never once entered into my mind. 
 It was sufficient for me that the scenes before me were 
 those which were contemplated and portrayed by the 
 great dramatists and the great novelist and the great 
 poet. For the time being, thanks to the law of mental 
 association, to my imagination their characters were as 
 real personages as was necessary for the fullest apprecia- 
 tion and enjoyment of the ideal of their artistic creators, 
 and anything more, beijig unnecessary, might have been 
 intrusive, or even impertinent, in the original and non- 
 metaphorical meaning of that somewhat abused word. 
 Byron spoke more to the purpose in the opening stanzas 
 of the fourth canto of " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," 
 when, after lamenting the fate of Venice, and recalling the 
 glories of her past history, he exclaims : — 
 
 But unto us she hath a spell beyond 
 Her name in stoiy and her long array 
 Of mighty shadows whose dim forms despond 
 Above the dogcless city's vanish'd sway ; 
 Ours is a trophy which will not decay 
 With the Rialto ; Shylock and the Moor 
 And Pierre can not be swept and worn away — 
 The keystones of the arch ! Though all were o'er, 
 For us repeopled were the solitary shore. 
 
"HISTORICAL" PICTURES. 55 
 
 He adds, with more significant meaning : — 
 
 The beings of the mind are not of clay ; 
 Essentially immortal, they create 
 And multiply in iis a brighter ray 
 And more beloved existence. 
 
 Dr. Gervinus says — " Shakspere's representations of 
 the passionate, the prodigal, the hypocrite, are not 
 portraits of this or that individual, but examples of those 
 passions elevated out of particular into general trtUh, of 
 which, in real life, we may find a thousand diminished 
 copies, but never the original in the exact proportions 
 given by the poet." And so it is with the aesthetic 
 truth embodied in artistic creations of a plastic or 
 pictorial character. No one acquainted with art products 
 of its class imagines that the colossal statue recently 
 erected in Germany to the memory of Hermann, or 
 Arminius, the conqufi^ror of the Roman legions under 
 Varus (A.D. 9), is an absolute every-day portrait- 
 likeness of that not very morally scrupulous '' hero and 
 patriot ;" or that the faces, figures, costumes, and other 
 accessories, in the " Last Supper " of Da Vinci, or the 
 " Cartoons " of Raffaelle, represent, historically or de 
 facto, the scenes as they actually occurred. Though con- 
 ventionally called " historical pictures," they are 
 emphatically creations of the imaginations of the artists, 
 notwithstanding their historic basis, and consequently 
 the great truths that pervade them, and for which they 
 are justly admired, are of an artistic or aesthetic, and not 
 of a strictly historic, character. 
 
 Notwithstanding this general lack of historic truth- 
 fulness we, nevertheless, do gain valuable knowlege of a 
 
S6 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 psychological, ethnological, and even of a strictly 
 historical character from stories of the mythical and 
 legendary class ; but much of that knowledge pertains 
 to the age and its mental associations in which the 
 story-tellers or other artistic exponents themselves lived. 
 In the Arthurian romances we find an immense amount 
 of historic truthfulness with reference to the habits of 
 thought, costume, and religious sentiment, which 
 obtained in and about the twelfth century ; but which 
 truths are utterly untrue, as applied by the writers, to 
 the fifth and sixth, the era in which Arthur and his 
 Christian knights, magicians, and giants are presumed to 
 have been corporal existences. The same maybe said of 
 much of Bede's, and, indeed, of most other early 
 chronicles. Although we may refuse our assent to the 
 improbable and miraculous stories therein narrated, we 
 feel convinced, in Bede's instance especially, that the 
 writer is thoroughly in earnest, and honest in his work, 
 and that he, at least, correctly describes the manners, 
 customs, faiths, superstitions, and legendary history 
 prevalent at the period in which he lived. This view is 
 now the one generally accepted by the best historians 
 and ethnological and psychological students. Mr. Ralph 
 N. Wornum, in his " Epochs of Painting Characterised," 
 says — "Ancient opinions are of themselves facts, and 
 the history of any subject is indeed imperfect when the 
 ideas of early ages regarding it are altogether overlooked, 
 for the impressions and associations made or suggested 
 by any intellectual pursuit are, as one of its effects, a part 
 of the subject itself" Mr. Tylor, in the work already 
 
iMYTHS A SOURCE OF HISTORY. 57 
 
 quoted, says — " The very myths that were discarded as 
 lying fables prove to be sources of history in ways that 
 their makers and transmitters little dreamed of Their 
 meaning has been misunderstood, but they have a 
 meaning. Every tale that was ever told has a meaning 
 for the times it belongs to. Even a lie, as the Spanish 
 proverb says, is a lady of birth. {^ La inentira es hija de 
 algo!) Thus, as evidence of the development of thought 
 as records of long passed belief and usage, even in some 
 measure as materials for the history of the nations 
 owning them, the old myths have fairly taken their 
 place among historic facts ; and with such the modern 
 historian, so able and so willing to pull down, is also 
 able and willing to rebuild." 
 
 M. Mallet, in his "Northern Antiquities," referring 
 to the semi-historical romances of the Scandinavians, 
 says — " It is needless to observe that great light may be 
 thrown on the character and sentiments of a nation, by 
 those very books, whence we can learn nothing exact or 
 connected of their history. The most credulous writer, 
 he that has the greatest passion for the marvellous, 
 while he falsifies the history of his contemporaries, paints 
 their manners of life and modes of thinking without 
 perceiving it. His simplicity, his Ignorance, are at once 
 pledges of the artless truth of his drawing, and a 
 warning to distrust that of his relations." 
 
 Dr. A. Dickson White, In his treatise on ''The 
 Warfare of Science," forcibly Illustrates the absolute 
 necessary harmony of all truth, subjective and objective, 
 although we may not always possess sufficient Insight to 
 
58 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 perceive it. He says—" God's truths must agree, whether 
 discovered by looking within upon the soul, or without 
 upon the world. A truth written upon the human heart 
 to-day, in its full play of emotions or passions, cannot be 
 at any real variance even with a truth written upon a 
 fossil whose poor life ebbed forth millions of years ago." 
 
 Professor Gervinus, in his " Shakespeare Com- 
 mentaries," has skilfully analysed the distinction between 
 historic and aesthetic truth. He says — " Where the 
 historian, bound by an oath to the severest truth in every 
 single statement, can, at the most, only permit us to 
 divine the causes of events and the motives of actions 
 from the bare narration of facts, the poet, who seeks to 
 draw from these facts only a general moral triithy and not 
 one of facts, unites by poetic fiction the action and 
 actors in a distinct living relation of cause and effect. 
 The more freely and boldly he does this, as Shakespeare 
 has done in 'Richard HI,,' the more poetically interest- 
 ing will his treatment of the history become, but the 
 more will it lose its historical value ; the more truly and 
 closely he adheres to reality, as in 'Richard H.,* the 
 more; will his poetry gain in historic meaning and forfeit 
 in poetic splendour." 
 
 Shakspere so thoroughly felt and understood this, 
 that in the construction of his plot, and even in the 
 determination of the specialities of the characters of 
 Macbeth and his indomitable wife, he has selected his 
 incidents from more than one epoch in early Scottish 
 history. The famous murder scenes in the first and 
 second acts, so far as they are " historically " true, are 
 
HISTORICAL DRAMAS. 59 
 
 drawn from the assassination of a previous king, Dufife, 
 in 971 or 972, by Donwald, captain of the castle of Fores, 
 whose wife is the "historic" original of the "aesthetic" 
 Lady Macbeth of the tragedy, and not the spouse (if he 
 had one) of the chieftain who, history simply says, 
 "slew the king [Duncan] at Inverness," in an ordinary 
 battle in 1040. 
 
 Professor Gervinus adds — " It is a common pride on 
 the part of the poets of these historical plays, and a 
 natural peculiarity belonging to this branch of the art, 
 that truth and poetry should go hand in hand. It is 
 more than probable that * Henry VIII.' bore. at first 
 the title so characteristic in this respect — * All is True.' 
 But this truth is throughout, as we have seen, not to be 
 taken in the prosaic sense of the historian, who seeks it 
 in the historical material in every most minute particular, 
 and in its most different aspects ; it is only a higher and 
 universal truth which is gathered by a poet from a series 
 of historical facts, yet which from the very circumstance 
 that it springs from historical, true and actual facts, and is 
 supported and held by them, acquires, it must be admitted, 
 a double authority, that of poetry and history combined. 
 The historical drama, formed of these two component 
 parts, is therefore especially agreeable to the imaginative 
 friend of history and the realistic friend of poetry." 
 
 It will thus be seen that there is no necessary 
 antagonism between individual, or historic, and ideal, or 
 aesthetic, truth. Their respective lines of action may be 
 divergent, but they are, when thoroughly understood, 
 both in harmony with the great central and "eternal 
 
6o ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 verity" which embodies all truth, The only danger to 
 be guarded against by the historic or aesthetic student 
 arises from the too common habit of confounding the 
 one with the other. 
 
 Tennyson, in his " Queen Mary," says — 
 
 The very Truth and very Word are one, 
 But truth of story, which I glanced at. girl, 
 Is like a word that comes from olden days. 
 And passes thro' the peoples : every tongue 
 Alters it passing, till it spells and speaks 
 Quite other than at fust. 
 
 Nennius speaks of a tenth battle fought and won by 
 Arthur on the banks of the river Trat Treuroit, or Ribroit. 
 This has been identified by commentators as the Brue, 
 in Somersetshire, and the Ribble, in Lancashire; but 
 the evidence advanced is not very conclusive in favour of 
 either locality. Mr. Haigh prefers Trefdraeth, in the 
 island of Anglesea, as the place indicated. 
 

 ^1 
 
 MAP I 
 
 /ls/i;(n/i/-i/z,-.,^^Ac^/f/'/£i' 
 
 I 
 I 
 I 
 I 
 
 <tl. 
 
 I 
 
 
 \ ^S/" (PsH^a/r/:^ n?// 
 
 TPF/fhY^e. 
 
 
 Tfh//Y//^^^/f 
 
 J/fT^^M 
 
 Za/i/zA/Y^ / ^ ^ ^ /f^j^^sj ^ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DEFEAT AND DEATH OF ST. OSWALD, 
 OF NORTHUMBRIA, AT MASERFELD, 
 
 (a.d. 642). 
 
 the legend of the wild boar, "the monster in 
 
 FORMER AGES, WHICH PROWLED OVER THE 
 
 NEIGHBOURHOOD OF WINWICK, INFLICTING 
 
 INJURY ON MAN AND BEAST." 
 
 HE Venerable Bede, in the ninth chapter of his 
 "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," 
 says, in the year 642 — " Oswald was killed in 
 a great battle, by the same Pagan nation and Pagan 
 king of the Mercians who had slain his predecessor, 
 Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue, Maser- 
 felth, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day 
 of the month of August." * 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the same date, 
 says — " This year Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, 
 was slain by Penda and the South-humbrians at 
 Maserfeld, on the nones of August, and his body was 
 buried at Bardney (Lincolnshire). His sanctity and 
 
62 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 miracles were afterwards manifested in various ways 
 beyond tliis island, and his hands are at Bamborough " 
 (Northumberland), " uncorrupted." 
 
 The battle is likewise recorded by relatively more 
 recent chroniclers, yet its site, hitherto, has not been 
 satisfactorily determined. Camden, Capgrave, Pennant, 
 Sharon Turner, and some others fix it at Oswestry, in 
 Shropshire ; while Archbishop Usher, Alban Butler, 
 Powell, Dr. Covvper, Edward Baines, Thomas Baines, 
 W. Beaumont, Dr. Kendrick, Mr. T. Littler, and others 
 prefer the neighbourhood of Winwick, in the " Fee of 
 Makerfield," Lancashire.* 
 
 Mr. Edward Baines says — "The district in which 
 Winwick is seated has, from a very distant period, been 
 denominated Mackerfield or Macerfield — a battle-field, 
 with variations in the orthography usually found in 
 Norman and Anglo-Saxon writers." The late Rev. 
 Edmund Simpson, vicar of Ashton-in-Mackerfield, 
 however, disputes this etymology, and contends that 
 " Mackerfield is Mag-er-feld, a great plain cultivated : 
 mag and cr being Gaelic and feld Saxon. Thus Mag- 
 
 ♦ Dean Ilowson, in .in address delivered at Chester, in 1S73, in 
 reference to the disputed site of Oswald's death, said—" He was not going 
 to decide between the claims of the two places, but he was inclined to 
 think both views might be reconciled. .Oswald had a pal.nce at Winwick, 
 and there was a well there that bore his name, and an inscription that 
 recorded his attachment to the locality. Oswestry was said to mean 
 Oswald's tree, 'i'here was no reason why they should not believe that he 
 was killed at Winwick, and that his head and arms were taken away and put 
 on a stump of wood at Oawestry. The conflicting statements would then 
 be reconciled." Such an act would, in no way, be inconsistent with the 
 character of Penda. He might send the remains to his Welsh allies as 
 trophies of his victory over the vanquisher of their great chief, Cadw.illa. 
 
ETYMOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES. 63 
 
 hull, near Liverpool, is a hill on the plain : thus, also, 
 Maghera-felt in Ireland." 
 
 The " Fee of Makerfield " was co-extensive with the 
 Newton hundred of the Domesday record, and included 
 nineteen townships. It extended from Wigan to 
 Winwick, and was traversed in its entire length by the 
 great Roman road, which entered Northumbria from the 
 south near Warrington. 
 
 Professor Dwight Whitney, in his " Life and Growth 
 of Language" (p. 39), says — '^ ^cer meant in Anglo- 
 Saxon a ' cultivated field,' as does the German acker to 
 the present day ; and here, again, we have its very 
 ancient correlatives in Sanscrit agra, Greek oiypog^ Latin 
 ager ; the restriction of the word to signify a field of 
 certain fixed dimensions, taken as a unit of measure for 
 fields in general, is something quite peculiar and recent. 
 It is analagous with the Hke treatment oi rod 2a\A foot 
 and grain^ and so on, except that in these cases we have 
 saved the old meaning while adding the new." 
 
 Field is from A.S., O.S., and Gcr.feld, Danish veld, 
 the open coimtiy, cleared lawn (Collins's Die. Der.) 
 With respect to acre the old meaning is still retained, 
 in one instance at least. We still say " God's acre," 
 when speaking of a churchyard or burial ground. 
 
 The following are some of the principal variations in 
 the writing of the name : Bede calls it Maserfelth, King 
 Alfred writes it Maserfeld, as in one MS. of the Anglo- 
 Saxon 'Chronicle. Another copy, however, has it 
 Maresfeld. The latter is probably a clerical error 
 resultant from the accidental misplacement of the letters 
 
64 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 r and s by the copyist, or it may be an ordinary 
 example of what philologists call "metathesis," or 
 transliteration. Matthew of Westminster writes it 
 Marelfeld, and John of Brompton, Maxelfeld. Matthew 
 and John, however, are relatively modern authorities in 
 comparison with Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and 
 Alfred. Their orthography, however, furnishes an apt 
 illustration of the mutation which has taken place in 
 local nomenclature during the transition of the language 
 from Anglo-Saxon to modern English, and hence the 
 occasional difficulty of satisfactory identification at the 
 present day. 
 
 The phonetic difficulty between Maserfeld, Macerfeld, 
 and Makerfield is, perhaps, not insurmountable. The letter 
 c in English is useless, having either the sound of k or s. 
 Before a, o, and //, it becomes /', as in cat, cot, cure ; 
 before e and i it becomes s^ as in century, certain, cinder, 
 and city. Cer, likewise, by metathesis, or the trans- 
 position of the r, becomes ere, as in lucre, massacre, etc. 
 Thus it would appear the modern word " Makerfield " 
 probably accordsboth etymologically an d topographically 
 with the Anglo-Saxon name of the site of the battle. 
 As no other hamlet, township, or parish, or other 
 territorial designation'*' (the nearest being Macclesfield), 
 
 * The etymology on which Mr. Ilowel W. Lloyd, the recent nble 
 advocate for the Shropshire site, and others, rely, (Earwaker's Local 
 Gatherings relating to Lancashire, vol. i., 1876, and the summary, by Mr. 
 Askew Roberts, in his "Contributions to Oswestry History,") is as 
 follows: — Referring to Mr. Lloyd's paper, Mr. Roberts states his position 
 thus: — "Mesbury (now Maesbury, called in Domesday Meresbury), 
 a hamlet in the parish of Oswestry, is now called * Llysfoisir or L1)'S 
 feisydd.' " He adds—'* Thus a basis is supplied for a correct inference as 
 
ETYMOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES. 65 
 
 does this, especially when taken in conjunction with 
 the many corroborative evidences, would appear to 
 satisfactorily identify the locality.-^ These corroborative 
 evidences are by no means either scanty or unimportant. 
 The parish church of Winwick is dedicated to St. 
 
 to the order of nomenclature. i. The Welsh Te-fesen, corrupted by the 
 Saxons into Mesafelth or Maserfelth, and then into Maserfield, the name of 
 the district in which is Oswestry, as Winwick is in Makerfield. 2. The 
 monastery founded on the spot in honour of St. Oswald, called Album 
 Monasterium, Candida Ecclesia Y Fonachlog Wen (by the Welsh according 
 to Davies), and Blancmonster and Blancminster by the Normans, 
 all meaning the same thing, viz.: — White Monastery, applied latterly 
 also to the town, which grew up around the monastery. 3. Mesbury, 
 corrupted into Maesbury, when the town in Trefesen, to which a Fitzalan 
 granted a charter, grew into a borough ; and 4, Oswaldestree or Oswestry, 
 from the * tre ' or district, or else possibly from the traditional tree, on 
 which the king's arm was recorded to have been hung. A further basis is 
 supplied for reconciling the statement of Nennius, that the battle was 
 fought at Codoy, with that of the Saxon historian that it was fought at 
 Maserfield. For just as Winwick is in Mackerfield, so may Codoy have 
 been in the larger locality of Maserfield ; and Nennius, as a British 
 historian, representing, as his editors believe him to do, a much earlier 
 author, gives, as might naturally be expected, the precise situation of the 
 spot, the territorial appellation only for which reached the foreign and more 
 distant chroniclers. From all this it is certain that Oswestry had its 
 Maserfield as Winwick its Mackerfield, the former, however, more nearly 
 reflecting the ancient British name, as well as character of the place, but 
 both alike designating a district rather than a town, that being the ancient 
 meaning of the word * tre.' Maserfelth is, therefore. Oak-field, a transla- 
 tion of the original British name of Trefesen (compare English 'mast,') and 
 the arms connected St. Oswald with the Oak." 
 
 * Bosworth, in his Anglo-Saxon dictionary, under the letter K, says, 
 "Though the A. S. generally used c, even before <r, t, and y, yet as /^ is 
 sometimes found," he gives a list of words commencing with that consonant 
 under such conditions. The Anglo-Saxon " Cymen's ora" is now repre- 
 sented by Keynor. Kemble says the homes of the Elsingas and Elcinghas, 
 are now represented by Elsing and Elkington, in Northamptonshire. Mr. 
 Green speaks of *' those Gewissas, the Hwiccas, as they were called," and 
 Peille says, " Indo-European ky and fy become ss, as in ' prasso ' for 
 'prack-yo' (root * prack.' formative suffix 'yo.')" 
 
66 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Oswald, and Mr. Baines says — "Little more than half a 
 mile to the north, on the road to Golborne and Wigan, 
 is an ancient well, which has been known from time 
 immemorial by the name of 'St. Oswald's Well,*" This 
 well is still in existence, and a certain veneration at the 
 present time hovers about it in the minds of others than 
 the superstitious peasantry. On the upper portion of 
 the south wall of the church is an inscription in Latin, 
 purporting to be a " renovation " of a previous one, by a 
 person named Sclater, in the year 1530, in the curacy 
 of Henry Johnson. On a recent visit, this inscription, 
 as well as other portions of the edifice, I found had 
 undergone further renovation. Gough translates the 
 first three lines as follows : — 
 
 This place of old did Oswald greatly love : 
 Who the Northumbeis ruled, now reigns above, 
 And fiom Marcelde did to Heaven remove. 
 
 Mr. Beamont gives the translation of the inscription 
 as follows : — 
 
 This place of yore did Oswald greatly love, 
 Northumbria's King, but now a saint above, 
 Who in Marcelde's field did fighting fall. 
 Hear us, oh blest one, when here to thee we call. 
 
 (A line over the porch obliterated.) 
 In fifteen hundred and just three times ten, 
 Sclater restored and built this wall again, 
 And Henry Johnson here was curate then. 
 
 This, and its repetition by Hollingworth in his 
 " Mancuniensis," appears to have alone constituted " the 
 highest authority" relied upon by Edward Baines for 
 his statement that Winwick parish was the favourite 
 residence of King Oswald. The inscription docs not, as 
 
OSWALD'S VICTORY AT " HEAVENFIELD." 6/ 
 
 some have assumed, state the church is built in, on, or 
 near Marcelde. It merely asserts that Oswald died at a 
 place so named, and which may have been Winwick, 
 the site of the church dedicated to St. Oswald, or any 
 other locality, Marcelde being evidently a corruption 
 and a rythmical contraction of the undoubted Anglo- 
 Saxon name of the scene of Oswald's defeat and 
 death. 
 
 Objection has been taken to the word "Marcelde," 
 as a bad Latin substitute for " Maserfeld." But the 
 goodness or badness of mediaeval Latin substitutes for 
 English names is of no consequence to the question at 
 issue, as the reference to the place of Oswald's death is 
 undeniable. It is but an apt illustration of the strange 
 tranformations local nomenclature sometimes has under- 
 gone in transmission from past centuries to the present 
 time. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Welsh Bruts curiously 
 confound the incidents attendant upon this and a 
 previous battle, in which Oswald was engaged and was 
 victorious. Geoffrey says that Cadwalla, a Brit- Welsh 
 king, one of the heroes of Lywrich Hen's poetic 
 effusions, hearing of Oswald's victory over Penda (f) at 
 " Heavenfield," ** being inflamed with rage, assembled 
 his army and went in pursuit of the holy king, Oswald ; 
 and in a battle which he had with him, at a place called 
 Burne, broke in upon him and killed him." 
 
 Geoffrey here, as noted by Sharon Turner, shows his 
 irrational partiality to the fame of the British chieftain, 
 and his disregard of historical truth when it did not 
 
68 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 minister to his prejudices or presumed patriotism. 
 Cadvvalla was slain in the battle with Oswald at 
 " Heavenfield," in 635, seven years previously to the 
 saintly Northumbrian warrior's defeat and death ; and, 
 consequently, the British hero was, in accordance with 
 ordinary mortal notions, somewhat incapacitated for the 
 performance of the after-deeds of valour, ascribed to him 
 by his panegyrist — without miraculous intervention — 
 which, however, Geoffrey does not even suggest, not- 
 withstanding its presumed frequency on other momentous 
 occasions.* 
 
 Referring to Oswald's death, Bede says — " It is also 
 given out and become a proverb, 'that he ended his life 
 in prayer ; ' for when he was beset with weapons and 
 enemies, he perceived he must immediately be killed, 
 and prayed to God for the souls of his army, hence 
 it is proverbially said, * Lord have mercy on their souls, 
 said Oswald, as he fell on the ground.' His bones, 
 therefore, were translated to the monastery which we 
 mentioned (Bardsea), and buried therein ; but the king 
 that slew him commanded his head, hands, and arms 
 to be cut off from the body, and set upon stakes. But 
 the successor in the throne, Oswy, coming thither the 
 next year with his army, took them down, and buried 
 
 • There is great difliculty in reconciling the various statements 
 respecting this Cadwalla. Mr. Skene ("Four Ancient Books of Wales") 
 thinks it not improl)al)le that it was his father, Cadvan. who fell at Heaven- 
 field, and not himself. IfCadwalla fought at Maserfcld, Dean Howson's 
 conjecture is rendered more probable. See Ante, p. 62. Revenge for 
 his father's death might induce him to display his trophies of victory over 
 his previously successful rival before his Brit- Welsh subjects at a locality 
 afterwards named Oswestry. 
 
MIRACLES ATTRIBUTED TO OSWALD'S RELICS. 69 
 
 his head in the church of Lindisfarne, and the hands and 
 arms in the royal city " (Bamborough). 
 
 Bede relates many anecdotes, illustrative of the 
 sanctity of Oswald, and the miracles wrought by his 
 bones, as well as by the earth which received his blood 
 on the battle-field. One instance I give entire, in Dr. 
 Giles's translation of the venerable historian's own words. 
 In chapter x., book iii., he says — 
 
 " About the same time, another person of the British 
 nation, as is reported, happened to travel by the same 
 place, where the aforesaid battle was fought, and 
 observing one particular spot of ground, green and more 
 beautiful than any other part of the field, he judiciously 
 concluded with himself that there could be no other 
 cause for that unusual greenness but that some person 
 of more holiness than any other in the army had been 
 killed there. He therefore took along with him some of 
 that earth, tying it up in a linen cloth, supposing it 
 would some time or other be of use for curing sick 
 people, and proceeding on his journey, he came at night 
 to a certain village, and entered a house where the 
 neighbours were feasting at supper ; being received by 
 the owners of the house, he sat down with them at the 
 entertainment, hanging the cloth in which he had 
 brought the earth, on a post against the wall. They sat 
 long at supper and drank hard, with a great fire in the 
 middle of the room ; it happened that the sparks flew 
 up and caught the top of the house, which being made 
 of wattles and thatch, was presently in a flame ; the 
 guests ran out in a fright, without being able to put a 
 
70 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 stop to the fire. The house was consequently burnt 
 down, only that post on which the earth hung remained 
 entire and untouched. On observing this, they were all 
 amazed, and inquiring into it diligently, understood 
 that the earth had been taken from the place where the 
 blood of King Oswald had been shed. These miracles 
 being made known and reported abroad, many began 
 daily to frequent that place, and received health to 
 themselves and theirs." 
 
 In June, 1856, whilst I was engaged superintending 
 the excavations at " Castle Hill," Penwortham, near 
 Preston, an incident occurred, which, **in the olden 
 time," would have been regarded as a conclusive proof 
 not only of the miraculous quality of the earth on which 
 St. Oswald expired, but of the site of the battle-field. 
 We found, under the mound excavated, the remains 
 of an edifice which had been destroyed apparently 
 partly by fire, and on the ruins of which to the height of 
 about 12 or 14 feet, the Anglo-Saxon tumulus had been 
 piled. The hill, situated at the nose of the promontory 
 overlooking the upper portion of the Ribble estuary, had 
 evidently been occupied at one time as a specula^ or 
 outpost, in connection with the Roman station at 
 Walton-le-dale. The wattle and thatch characteristics 
 of the remains of the fallen roof of the edifice were very 
 apparent. But the most remarkable, nay, inexplicable 
 feature disclosed, was a single oak pillar, with wooden 
 peg-holes in it, standing erect near the centre of the 
 mound, while the remainder of the structure was 
 scattered in confusion on a mass of debris and vegetable 
 
MIRACULOUS MEDICINAL EARTEL 71 
 
 litter, in which were found, together with several articles 
 in metal, etc., an enormous quantity of bones of 
 animals, evidently killed and eaten f^r food. To the 
 persistent enquiries of several somewhat bewildered 
 persons, anxious to discover an immediate explanation 
 of so remarkable a fact, I at length yielded, and related, 
 in a serious, but not aiitJioritative manner, the statement 
 of Bede, and I feel confident several persons returned 
 home with a conviction that the story was probable 
 enough, or at least there was something either miraculous 
 or "uncanny" about the whole affair. Without, of 
 course, assenting to the miraculous medicinal quality of 
 the earth, it is highly improbable that so conscientious, 
 if credulous, a writer as Bede would relate such a 
 story, unless there had been some substratum of 
 prosaic fact reported to him, on which the miraculous 
 element might easily have been engrafted in those 
 superstitious days. It is not improbable that the 
 accidental preservation of the pillar to which was 
 hung the presumed sacred earth on which the saintly 
 monarch breathed his last, prevented its destruction 
 or removal, and hence its position near the centre 
 of the mound raised above the ruined edifice, and, 
 doubtless, afterwards used as a " mote hill," or 
 out-of-door justice seat, or place of public assembly. 
 If Winwick be the site of the battle-field, the traveller 
 passing from thence northward by the great Roman 
 road would arrive at Penwortham in time for supper, 
 presuming that his journey commenced three or four 
 hours previously. 
 
72 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 All this may not be worth much more than some of 
 the idle tales of the old "historians" in support of the 
 claims of the Lancashire site as the locality of the great 
 battle between the Christian and Pagan elements in the 
 population of the northern portion of England in the 
 seventh century.* Nevertheless, it presents, at least, one 
 of those remarkable coincidences that occasionally puzzle 
 our reason and perplex our faith. Deeper insight into 
 the psychological aspect of the humanity of any period 
 may often be gained by a careful study of their legendary 
 lore and cherished superstitions than, from the perusal of 
 the more orthodox historical chronicles. But there are 
 other evidences respecting the site of this important 
 Anglo-Saxon conflict, more reliable than the miracles 
 of tradition, which demand our attention. 
 
 From the antecedents of the respective belligerents, 
 and the statement of Bede, it seems almost certain that 
 the Pagan chieftain, Penda, was the aggressor, and, 
 anxious to avenge the death of Cadwalla, his quasi- 
 Christian ally, invaded the Northumbrian kingdom, on 
 the frontier of which he was successfully confronted by 
 his Christian antagonist. The tradition in Geoffrey's 
 day, at least, distinctly states that Oswald's conqueror 
 was the aggressor. He says — " inflamed with rage, he 
 went in pursuit of the holy king." Sec Ante, p. 6^. 
 
 Referring to the antecedents of the war under Oswy, 
 which followed Oswald's death, and in which Penda was 
 
 * Mr. Ilartshorne, however, refers to this story in connection with his 
 claim of "Maesbrook, a place in a direct line between M.iesbury and 
 Coedway, and about five miles from Oswestry," as the site of Oswald's 
 defeat, and connects a local legend with it. 
 
BRYN, 13RUN, AND BURNE. 'jl 
 
 slain near the river Winwid, Mr. Green (" Making of 
 England)" says — "That Oswiu strove to avert the 
 conflict we see from the delivery of his youngest son, 
 Ecgfrith, as a hostage into Penda's hands. The 
 sacrifice, however, proved useless. Penda was again the 
 assailant, and his attack was as vigorous as of old." 
 We, therefore, in the first instance, should naturally 
 look for the battle-field in Northumbria, rather than in 
 North Wales, -!• or even in Mercia. 
 
 Another important element with reference to the 
 disputed site has not hitherto, to my knowledge, received 
 the attention it deserves. Geoffrey of Monmouth, and 
 the Welsh Bruts, notwithstanding their determination to 
 give all the honour to the defunct British chief, 
 Cadwalla, could have no motive for falsifying the site 
 of the battle. Indeed, his reference to it by name, 
 as will be seen by the extract previously given, is 
 of an ordinary passing character. 
 
 Now, there is a locality, in the parish of Winwick, 
 and in the "Fee of Makerfield," to the north of the 
 great barrow or tumulus, to which I shall call further 
 attention, that answers, on true phonetic laws, to this 
 nomenclature. Mr. Edward Baines says — "The original 
 proprietors of the township of Ashton " (which is the 
 largest township in the old parish of Winwick) " derived 
 their name from Bryn Hall, the place of their residence, 
 or gave their name to that place, and Alan le Brun 
 
 * For a long time after the death of Oswald, the present Shropshire 
 remained Biitish, or as Professor Boyd Dawkins appropriately terms it, 
 "Brit-Welsh," territory. — See Mr. Green's maps. 
 
74 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 occurs in the ' Testa de Nevill/ as holding by ancient 
 tenure two bovates of land for 6s. of Sir Henry de Le." 
 It is here apparent that the present name Bryn was 
 originally Brun, and, as brun and burn are, by what 
 philologists term transliteration, but different renderings 
 of the same word, meaning a spring or brook, Geoffrey's 
 varied reading of the name of the locality — " at a place 
 called BurnCy strongly supports the other evidence in 
 favour of the Lancashire site. Edward Baines, referring 
 to the ancient Lancashire family, the Gerards of Bryn, 
 says — "This family have had four seats within the 
 township of Ashton," (in Makerfield), "namely. Old 
 Bryn, abandoned five centuries ago ; New Bryn, erected 
 in the reign of Edward VI. ; Garswood, taken down at 
 the beginning of the present century ; and the new hall, 
 the present residence of the family." 
 
 Nennius says Penda slew Oswald at the "battle of 
 Cocboy,"* and that " he gained the victory by diabolical 
 agency." No attempt, however, within my knowledge, 
 has been made to identify "Cocboy" with any existing 
 locality. There is, however, I understand, a place 
 near the ancient pass of the Mersey, or Latchford, and 
 contiguous to the great Roman road, named Cock- 
 edge. As Cocboy is unknown this may be a corruption 
 of it. Etymologists identify coc with the British gosh or 
 red. As the new red sandstone crops out in the 
 neighbourhood, this interpretation accords with the 
 local condition. 
 
 ♦ The Welsli auihoriwes write this word " Codoy." The Rev. W. 
 Gunn and Dr. Giles, "Cocboy." 
 
PHONETIC LAWS. 75 
 
 Latchford, too, would be significant, if like Z/V//field, 
 it had its root in the Anglo-Saxon lie, but this is doubtful. 
 Lichfield or Litchfield, the "field of dead bodies," 
 is said to have derived its name from the circumstance 
 that " many suffered martyrdom there in the time of 
 Dioclesian."* In Gibson's '• Etymological Geography," 
 JF/;/-feld, where Arminius, or Hermann, defeated the 
 Roman legions under Varus, A.D. lO, is said to signify 
 the "field of victory." A similar etymology is equally 
 valid for rF/;/wick, and hence its significance. Indeed, 
 the intransitive form of the Anglo-Saxon verb ivinnan, 
 whence our zvin, signifies " To gain the victory." A 
 similar interpretation will equally apply to Winwidfield, 
 near Leeds, the scene of Penda's subsequent defeat and 
 death. 
 
 When dealing with the identification of modern with 
 ancient names, it is well to bear in mind the remarks 
 of so erudite a philologist as Professor Dwight Whitney. 
 In his " Life and Growth of Language," he says — 
 " It must be carefully noted, indeed, that the reach 
 of phonetics, its power to penetrate to the heart of 
 its facts and account for them, is only limited. There 
 
 * The martyrdom is a very doubtful matter ; indeed, it is more than 
 probable this name of the field, and its presumed etymology, gave birth to 
 the legend, or it may have been an ancient burial place. A Lancashire 
 peasant pronounces the word neither, nather and nother, at the present 
 day, while some clergymen pronounce it nigh-ther. The Lancashire con- 
 traction for James is Jim not Jem, as in the South of England. I have 
 often heard China pronounced *'Chaney" by Lancashire people. The 
 number of ancient burial tumuli to the north of the ford may possibly 
 have influenced the local nomenclature. In Webster's dictionary a third 
 meaning to the word ''latch" is thus described : "3. [Fr. lecher, to lick, 
 pour. O. H. Ger. kcchm. See Lick,] To smear [Obs ] " 
 
^6 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 is always one element in linguistic change which refuses 
 scientific treatment, namely, the action ofthe human will. 
 The work is all done by human beings, adapting means 
 to ends, under the impulse of motives and the guidance 
 of habits which are the resultant of causes so multifarious 
 and obscure that they elude recognition and defy 
 estimate." Again, " Every period of linguistic life, 
 with its constantly progressive changes of form and 
 meaning, wipes out a part of the intermediates which 
 connect a derived element with its original. There are 
 plenty of items of word-formation in even the modern 
 Romanic languages, which completely elude explanation. 
 Mere absence of evidence, then, will not in the least 
 justify us in assuming the genesis of an obscure form to 
 be of a wholly different character from that which is 
 obvious or demonstrable in other forms. The presump- 
 tion is wholly in favour ofthe accordance of the one with 
 the other; it can only be repelled by direct and con- 
 vincing evidence." And again, "As linguistics is a 
 historical science, so its evidences are historical, and 
 its methods of proof of the same character. There 
 is no absolute demonstration about it : there is only 
 probability^ in the same varying degree as elsewhere in 
 historical enquiry. There are no rules, the strict 
 application of which will lead to infallible results. 
 Nothing will make dispensable the wide gathering-in of 
 evidence, the careful sifting of it, so as to determine what 
 bears upon the case in hand and how directly, the 
 judicial balancing of apparently conflicting testimony, the 
 refraining from pushing conclusions beyond what the 
 
THE '= CASTLE HILL" TUMULUS. 17 
 
 evidences warrant, the willingness to rest, when necessary, 
 in a merely negative conclusion, which should characterize 
 the historical investigator in all departments." 
 
 The most important ancient structure at present 
 remaining in the parish of Winwick is an immense 
 tumulus called " Castle Hill." Mr. Edward Baines says — 
 " At the distance of half-a-mile from and to the north of 
 Newton, stands an ancient barrow, called Castle Hill. It 
 is romantically situated on elevated ground, at the junction 
 of two streams, whose united waters form the brook which 
 flows past the lower part of the town of Newton.* The 
 sides and summit of the barrow are covered with venerable 
 oaks, which to all appearance have weathered the rude 
 and wintry blasts for centuries. It is a spot well adapted 
 for the repose of the ashes of the mighty dead." 
 
 Mr. W. Beamont, in a paper read before the Lanca- 
 shire and Cheshire Historic Society, on the " Fee of 
 Makerfield," etc., in March, 1873, says, — "On the west 
 side of this rivulet" (the Golbourne brook), "where the 
 red rock rises above it, there is scooped out a rude alcove 
 or cave, which the country people assign to Robin Hood, 
 the popular hero, who in most of our northern counties 
 divides with Arthur of the Round Table and Alfred the 
 Great the right to legendary fame. The Castle Hill, 
 which stands in a commanding position above the other 
 bank of the stream, and is boul-shaped, is 320 feet in 
 circumference at the base, 226 feet in circumference at 
 
 *The Rev. E. Sibson says—" The streams which unite at this barrow 
 are the Dene and the Sankey." Mr. Beamont says the tumulus is situated 
 on the Golbourne brook. 
 
73 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 the top, and it has an elevation of 17 feet above the level 
 of the field below." 
 
 On a recent visit I found the old oaks, like faithful 
 veteran sentinels, still guarding, in Mr. Baines's 
 language, "the repose of the mighty dead." One or 
 two of them, however, exhibited unmistakeable evi- 
 dence that the rude blast of the storm-wind and fiery 
 embrace of the lightning-flash had shattered their aged 
 limbs, while the benumbing grasp of Time had chilled 
 their heretofore invigorating sap. Yet, although they 
 arc destined, in a relatively very short period, from their 
 chronological standpoint, to succumb to the destiny of 
 all organic life, and finish their lengthened existence in 
 ignominious association with the faggot-shed, still their 
 venerable forms, notwithstanding the dilapidations which 
 attest the force of years of elemental conflict, in con- 
 junction with the historic and legendary memories 
 with which they are associated, render them more 
 suggestive teachers in their decay than they were in the 
 pride of their stalwart and umbrageous prime. 
 
 Another change has likewise come over the scene 
 since Mr. Beamont's description was written. The 
 stream near Newton has been blocked by an earthen 
 embankment, and the "Castle Hill" now overlooks a 
 beautiful artificial lake, with three branches. Robin 
 Hood's cave, alas ! had to be sacrificed ; four or five feet 
 of water now placidly flows over the site of its former 
 entrance. 
 
 This tumulus, situated on the QoVbounic brook, in 
 the Fee of Mackerfield, was opened on the 8th of July, 
 
THE CONTENTS OF "CASTLE HILT." 79 
 
 1843. An account of this excavation, by the Rev. E. 
 Sibson, was published in the " Transactions of the Man- 
 chester Literary and Philosophical Society " at the time, 
 from which I gather the following important particulars. 
 Mr. W. Beamont, who was present during the excava- 
 tions, likewise (in the paper previously quoted) gives a 
 detailed account of the mode of procedure adopted, and 
 of the remains discovered. The mound was found to be 
 artificial, and composed of earth, sand, and rock taken 
 from a trench on the south and west sides. This trench 
 was then found to be about five feet deep and forty feet 
 wide. It appeared to have been originally seven feet 
 deep, two of which had been excavated out of the solid 
 rock. A shaft six feet wide was sunk in the centre of 
 the tumulus, and an adit to meet it, from the west side, 
 on the level of the original soil. Mr. Beamont says — 
 "At the distance of about ten feet from the centre of the 
 barrow, on the south side of the shaft, a chamber was 
 discovered. The base of this chamber was two feet 
 broad, and it was curved. Its length was twenty-one feet, 
 its height two feet, and the roof was a semi-circular arch. 
 It seemed to be constructed of masses of clay, about a 
 foot in diameter, rolled into form In a moist state, and 
 closely compacted by pressure. When the chamber was 
 first opened the candles were extinguished, and there 
 was great difficulty in breathing. The sides and bottom 
 of the chamber were coated with impalpable powder, of 
 smoke colour. The bottom of the chamber was covered 
 with a dark-coloured substance. The external surface of 
 this substance was like peat earth, being rough, uneven, 
 
8o ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 and of a black colour. The inside of it, when broken. 
 was close and compact, and somewhat similar to black 
 sealing-wax, which, when examined by the microscope, 
 was found to be closely dotted with particles of lime. It 
 was thought to be a mixture of wood ashes, half burned 
 animal matter, and calcined bones. On this plate of 
 animal matter, which had been placed on the edge of the 
 original green sward, was a covering of loose earth, about 
 two inches in thickness, which might have fallen from 
 the roof and sides of the chamber. Immediately below 
 the plate of animal matter a trench had been cut, about 
 fifteen inches deep, and two tiers of round oak timber 
 had been placed in it. The first tier was notched into 
 the green sward, and the second tier was nine inches below 
 it. The horizontal distance of the several pieces was 
 about eighteen inches, and the pieces in the lower tier 
 were placed exactly opposite to those in the upper one. 
 Several of the pieces were charred, and many of them 
 had entirely disappeared, leaving black marks in the 
 sides of the trench, where they had formerly been placed. 
 These pieces of oak appeared to have been three or four 
 inches in diameter. In almost all the cases the wood of 
 these pieces had been absorbed ; in some cases the bark 
 on the under side of these pieces was carbonised, and had 
 nearly the appearance of coal ; and in other cases the 
 bark on the under side of these pieces retained its original 
 form and colour. In one case, however, one of these 
 pieces, in contact with the animal matter, had the 
 appearance of dry decayed wood. The trench, below the 
 plate of animal matter, was filled with clay." 
 
THE "WHITE LADY," AND ALFRED THE GREAT. Si 
 
 Mr. Beamont gives several other interesting details, and 
 adds, — " It is probable that this chamber contained the 
 original deposit, and that it had never been opened before. 
 On the roof of the east side of the chamber there was 
 discovered a very distinct and remarkable impression of 
 a human body. There was the cavity formed by the 
 back of the head, and this cavity was coated with a very 
 thin shell of carbonised matter. The depression of the 
 back of the neck, the projection of the shoulders, the 
 elevation of the spine, and the protuberance of the lower 
 part of the body, were distinctly visible. The body had 
 been that of an adult, and the head lay towards the west. 
 The exact form and vertical position of the circular 
 chamber was indicated by a ridge on the crest of the hill, 
 which was one reason why the tunnel was driven from 
 the bottom of the shaft towards the south." The writer 
 further informs us that the " Castle Hill is said to be 
 haunted by a white lady, who flits and glides, but never 
 walks. She is sometimes seen at midnight, but is never 
 heard to speak." The Rev. Mr. Sibson adds — " There 
 is a tradition that Alfred the Great was buried here, with 
 a crown of gold, in a silver coffin." He likewise says that 
 in a "drift, on the east side of the shaft, and near the 
 centre of the hill, a broken whetstone' was found. It was 
 of freestone of a fine grain, of a dull white colour, slightly 
 veined with red ; and the surface was finely polished. 
 It was about five inches in length and three in 
 breadth." He likewise figures a fragment of an urn, 
 apparently of Roman manufacture, from the presence 
 of which he inferred that "the Castle Hill had been 
 
S2 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 a place of interment for persons of distinction for a 
 long period." 
 
 Dr. James Fergusson, in an appendix to his work on 
 " Rude Stone Monuments of All Countries," gives, at 
 length, an account of the opening, in 1846, of a huge 
 tumulus, named " Oden's Howe," near UpsaU, by Herr 
 Hildebrand, the royal antiquary of Sweden. The 
 similarity of many of the remains brought to light to 
 those found in the " Castle Hill," seems to suggest that 
 these tumuli were erected by cognate people, and at no 
 very distant periods from each other. Herr Hildebrand 
 says, — "During the diggings were found unburnt 
 animal bones, bits of dark wood, charcoal, bits of burnt 
 bones, etc. This was evidently a sepulchral mound. 
 Diggings have also been made in the smaller cairns near 
 by, and, although they have been opened before, burial 
 urns have been found, burnt human bones, bones of 
 animals and birds, bits of iron and bronze, etc. . . . 
 At the middle of the howe, the grave-chamber is nine 
 feet above the level of the soil, 18 feet under the top of 
 the howe. On the bed of the clay, under the great stones, 
 have been found an iron clinker three inches long, 
 remains of pine poles partly burnt, a lock of hair chestnut 
 coloured, etc. The numerous clusters of charcoal show 
 that the dead had been burned on the layer of clay, and 
 the bones have been collected in an urn not yet found. 
 In one of the nearest small howes have been found a 
 quantity of burnt animal and human bones, two little- 
 injured bronze brooches, a fragment of a golden ornament, 
 etc." After further examination of the contents of the 
 
*'ODEN'S HOWE," NEAR UPSALA. Ss 
 
 howe, Herr Hildebrand says, "June 29th, 1847, — The 
 burial urn has been found in the grave-chamber, also have 
 turned up bones of men, horses, dogs, a golden ornament 
 delicately worked, a bone comb, bone buttons, etc." He 
 afterwards writes to say that the burial urn was found 
 three inches under the soil, and was covered with a thin 
 slab. " It was seven inches high, nine inches in diameter, 
 filled with burnt bones, human and animal (horse, dog, 
 etc.), ashes, charcoal (of needle and leaf trees), nails, 
 copper ornaments, bone articles, a bird of bone, etc. 
 In the mass of charcoal also were found bones, broken 
 ornaments, bits of two golden bracteates, etc. Coins of 
 King Oscar were then placed in the urn, and everything 
 restored as before. Frey's Howe was opened, and 
 showed the same results." 
 
 " Dr. Fergusson, commenting on this, says — " With a 
 little local industry, I have very little doubt, not only 
 that the date of these tombs could be ascertained, but 
 the names of the royal personages who were therein 
 buried, probably in the sixth or seventh century of our 
 era." 
 
 In a paper read before the Lancashire and Cheshire 
 Historic Society, in March, i860, the late Dr. Robson 
 says — " In the Ordnance survey as first published on 
 the inch scale, about half a mile to the east of Winwick 
 church, we find a couple of tumuli, one on each side of 
 a bye-lane ; but in the later and larger map, a single 
 tumulus is marked, through the centre of which the road 
 seems to have been cut. The earlier survey gives the 
 more correct representation of the place, as there have 
 
84 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 certainly been at least two barrows, one in the field on 
 the east, the other in that of the west side of the lane." 
 The latter is on a farm called "Highfields." As the 
 land has long been under cultivation, the tumulus was not 
 very well defined, but it appeared to have been about 
 thirty yards in diameter. The summit is ** distinct 
 enough," says Dr. Robson, and " is about six feet above 
 the level of the lane." This mound was dug into in 
 November, 1859, ^^'^^ ^^^ Dr. records that "deposits of 
 burned bones were found at some distance from its 
 centre, on the slopes to the east and south. These 
 bones were in small fragments, apparently in distinct 
 heaps, mixed with minute particles of burnt wood, and 
 one or two fragments of brown, thick, ill-burnt and rude 
 pottery turned up, not, however, appearing to have any 
 connection with the bone deposits — the only portion 
 of which offering any recognisable character, was the 
 head of a thigh bone of a subject twelve or fourteen 
 years old. About six feet deep in the centre, the 
 red sandstone rock was reached. . . . Some 
 labourers working in the field on the other side of 
 the lane, fifteen years ago, came upon an urn with 
 bones in it, apparently of a similar description. 
 This tumulus was removed at the beginning of the 
 present year, and the men in their operations cutting 
 into some soft black stuff, struck a spade into an urn 
 and broke it into pieces ; it seems to have been of large 
 size, and has a feathered pattern scored on the outside, 
 in other respects agreeing with the fragments already 
 described. It contained bones in the same fragmentary 
 
TUMULI AT ARBURY. 85 
 
 state as those found on the west side of the lane, and 
 with them a stone hammer-head and a bronze dart." 
 
 Near these tumuli, on the ordnance map, is a place 
 named Arbury. This name has evidently had originally 
 some connection with' these mounds. In the "Imperial ' 
 Gazetteer," Arbury, in Herts, on the Icknield-st, is 
 described as a "Roman camp," and so is Arbury or 
 Harborough, near Cambridge, as well as Arbury Banks, 
 on the Watling-st, near Chipping Norton, Northampton- 
 shire. In Anglo-Saxon the prefix ar^ according to 
 Bosworth's Dictionary, signifies " glory, honour, respect, 
 reverence," etc. 
 
 Dr. Robson discusses at some length the presumed 
 date of these interments, and contends that such 
 nomenclature as "stone and bronze periods" only 
 mislead. He says — " In some graves are coins which 
 carry a date with them, and in others Roman remains 
 which belong to the first four centuries of our era. But 
 in tumuli such as those at Winwick, there is nothing to 
 show whether it was raised six centuries before or six 
 centuries after that period." From the drawings which 
 accompany Dr. Robson's paper, there appears nothing to 
 vitiate the hypothesis that these mounds were raised on 
 the battle-field of 642. The stone hammer is highly 
 finished and polished. The form of the spear-head 
 agrees with some of the examples figured by Mr. 
 Thomas Wright and Mr. L. Jewitt, as pertaining to the 
 earlier Anglo-Saxon period. It presents a kind of 
 transition from between the shorter Roman bronze 
 and the more elongated iron of the later Anglo-Saxon 
 
86 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN L/^NCASHIRE. 
 
 time. The "feathery pattern" scored on the pottery 
 resembles the rude "herring-bone," or zig-zag ornamenta- 
 tion of late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon masonry. 
 
 Another and much larger tumulus until recently was 
 situated opposite to the parish church at Warrington, 
 and contiguous to the ancient Latchford, by which the 
 British trackway and the great Roman road crossed the 
 Mersey. For some miles both on the east and west, in 
 early times, no other route was practicable ; the mosses 
 on the one hand and the tidal estuary on the other 
 presenting insuperable obstacles, especially to heavy 
 traffic. The tumulus at Warrington, named the " Mote 
 Hill," was entirely removed in 1852. Pennant had 
 conjectured it to be Roman; Ormerod, Norman; and 
 John Whitaker, Saxon. In a paper read before the 
 Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, on November, 
 1852, Dr. Kendrick gave a detailed account of the 
 excavation, and exhibited the discovered remains. 
 Some of the pottery was rude (apparently Romano- 
 British), and cremated human remains were present, as 
 well as an immense quantity of the remains of animals. 
 Referring to Whitaker's conjecture of the Saxon origin 
 of the mound, or of that race having utilised it, Dr. 
 Kendrick says — " to this opinion I think all the appear- 
 ances detailed this evening afford strong support." Mr. 
 Sibson, likewise, who was present at the examination of 
 the hill in 1832, and again in 1841, coincides in this view, 
 and suggests that it originally constituted a tumulus, or 
 burial place, raised after the battle fought at Winwick." 
 Dr. Kendrick thought that as the church was dedicated 
 
ROMAN BOUNDARY MARKS. 8/ 
 
 to St. Elphin, slain in 679, the mound might have 
 covered his remains ; but the Pagan character of the 
 interment or interments negatives this view. 
 
 Mr. W. T. Watkin, in a note to the present writer, 
 says — " Dr. Kendrick's account compared with that of Mr. 
 Sibson evidently shows that the mound was originally 
 a Roman boundary mark, used afterwards in Saxon and 
 mediaeval times for various purposes. The second 
 excavation merely shows the contents of the mound as 
 they were thrown in after the first exploration, with the 
 exception of the well and one or two smaller details." 
 He adds — "All these things are in accordance with the 
 rules of the Roman agrimensoresr This view seems 
 very probable. -f- 
 
 I am inclined to regard these tumuli, in the main, as 
 monuments of the site of some great battle or battles, 
 and that amongst others, Maserfeld may be, perhaps, the 
 latest and most important fought in the neighbourhood 
 previous to the disuse of cremation and the general 
 adoption of the modern Christian mode of interment. 
 The whole of these large barrows were evidently erected 
 by people who burned and buried their dead on the spot 
 where the memorial mound or monument was afterwards 
 erected. We know from the Venerable Bede's record, 
 
 * •' Siculus Flaccus says that it was the practice of some agrimensoris 
 to place under termini ashes, or charcoal, or pieces of broken glass or 
 pottery, or asses, or lime, or plaster (gypsum). . . . The writer of 
 a later treatise, or rather compilation, attributed to Boethius, speaking upon 
 the same subject, enumerates as the objects to be so placed, ashes, or 
 charcoals, or potsherds, or bones, or glass, or assce of iron, or brass, or lime, 
 or plaster, or a fictile vessel." — ^^The Roma?is of Britain,'^ by H. C, Coote 
 F.S.A, 
 
SS ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 how the body of King Oswald was disposed of. Besides 
 the king being a pious Christian, such a mode of 
 sepulture would not have been adopted by his followers. 
 Penda, on the contrary, was a Pagan, and strongly 
 attached to the superstitions and customs of his Teutonic 
 ancestors. We know that the Pagan Anglo-Saxons in 
 England practised both modes of interment, the burial 
 of the body entire and cremation. Mr. Thomas Wright 
 says — (Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 401) "The custom in 
 this respect appears to have varied with the different 
 tribes who came into the island. In the Anglo-Saxon 
 cemeteries in Kent, cremation is the rare exception to 
 the general rule; while it seems to have been the 
 predominating practice among the Angles from Norfolk 
 into the centre of Mercia." It is, therefore, highly 
 probable, if the battle of Maserfeld was fought in this 
 district, that these tumuli, or some portion of them, were 
 raised by the Pagan Mercian victors over the bodies of 
 chieftains of their party slain in the battle. Nennius 
 says that in the conflict Penda's brother Eawa was slain, 
 and, consequently, he and the other Pagan chieftains 
 who fell in the battle would be interred in Pagan 
 fashion by the victorious survivors. 
 
 The oldest Anglo-Saxon poem extant, "Beowulf,'* 
 the scene of the events of which Mr. D. Haigh, in his 
 ** Conquest of Britain by the Saxons," contends to be 
 the neighbourhood of Hartlepool, in Durham,* has 
 
 ♦ This, of course, b disputed by other authorities, Mr. Thorpe regards 
 the only copy now extant as an Anglo-Saxon version of an older Scan- 
 dinavian poem. 
 
PAGAN FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 89 
 
 preserved to us a description of such a ceremonial in 
 detail. On Beowulf's death, his warriors raised a 
 funeral pile to burn the body. It was — 
 
 hung round with helmets, 
 with boards of war, [shields] 
 and with bright byrnies, 
 
 [coats of mail] 
 as he had requested. 
 Then the heroes, weeping, 
 laid down in the midst 
 the famous chieftain, 
 their dear lord. 
 
 Then began on the hill, 
 
 the warriors to awake 
 
 the mightiest of funeral 
 
 fires ; 
 the wood-smoke rose aloft 
 dark from the fire ; 
 noisily it went, 
 mingled with weeping. 
 
 His faithful followers afterwards erected the barrow 
 over his ashes : — 
 
 a mound over the sea ; 
 
 it was high and broad, 
 
 by the sailors over the 
 waves 
 
 the beacon of the war- 
 renowned. 
 
 They surrounded it with 
 a wall 
 
 in the most honourable 
 manner 
 
 that wise men 
 
 could desire. 
 
 They put into the mound 
 
 rings and bright gems, 
 
 all such ornaments 
 
 as before from the hoard 
 
 the fierce-minded men 
 
 had taken. 
 
 The date of the erection of the first parish church at 
 Winwick is not known with certainty. Some contend 
 that it was coeval with the introduction of Christianity 
 into the North of England by Paulinus. Although this 
 is incapable of absolute verification, it is generally con- 
 
90 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 ceded that a church must have existed for some time 
 antecedent to the Norman conquest. The Domesday 
 Survey, under the head of " Newton Hundred," seems 
 to confirm this. It says, " Under the reign of King 
 Edward " (the Confessor) " there were five hides in 
 Newton : one of these was held in desmene. The 
 church of this manor had one carucate of land, and St. 
 Oswald, of this village, had two carucates, exempt from 
 all taxation^ Mr. Baines says — " In 1828, while digging 
 a vault in the chancel of this church, there were found, 
 at the depth of eight or ten feet below the floor, three 
 human skeletons of gigantic size, laid upon each other, 
 and over them a rude heap of cubical sandstone blocks 
 of irregular dimensions, varying from one to two feet. 
 No remains of coffins were found in the grave, and the 
 history of the occupants of this mysterious tomb remains 
 undiscovered." It seems, however, not improbable that 
 these interments took place anterior to the building of 
 the church, that the skeletons were the remains of 
 chieftains who perished with Oswald, and that the sacred 
 edifice, dedicated to the warrior saint, was afterwards 
 erected on the spot. 
 
 The first known record of the old church at Oswestry 
 is thus referred to by the Rev. D. R. Thomas (His: 
 Diocese of St. Asaph) :— " The Parish Church of St. 
 Oswald is first definitely mentioned in 1086 in the Grant 
 of Warin, Vicecomes .... to the abbot and monks of 
 Shrewsbury Abbey, dcdit cis Ecclcsiam Sancti Oswaldi 
 cum decima ville ;' but there is a belief that there was a 
 still earlier one elsewhere than on the present site, which 
 
ST. OSWALD'S WELLS. 9^ 
 
 may be due partly to the fact that the town was 
 originally built on some other site, partly to the circum- 
 stance that several of the earlier mission stations are 
 still indicated by such names as Maen Tysilio, Croes- 
 Wylan, Cae Croes, and Croes Oswaldt, or The Cross ; 
 and to the tradition which Leyland records, * that at 
 Llanforda was a church now " (sixteenth century) " de- 
 caid. Sum say this was the paroche church of Oswestre.' " 
 
 I have previously referred to the ancient well, 
 situated about half-a-mile from Winwick Church, known 
 from time immemorial as " St. Oswald's Well." Mr. 
 Edward Baines regards this sacred spring as having been 
 originally formed by the excavation of earth on the spot 
 where Oswald fell, and he fortifies his position by 
 reference to Bede, who says — " Whereupon many took up 
 of the very dust of the place where his body fell, and 
 putting it into water, did much good with it to their 
 friends who were sick. This custom came so much into 
 use, that the earth being carried away by degrees, there 
 remained a hole as deep as the height of a man." 
 
 Perhaps the most important objection to the Oswestry 
 site lies in the fact that there is no satisfactory repre- 
 sentative of the name of Maserfeld to be found in its 
 neighbourhood.* One writer says — " In the vicinity of 
 
 * Mr. Askew Roberts, in his "Contributions to Oswestry History," 
 has the following:— "Is not all the alluvial tract of country which lies 
 between Buttington and Oswestry, called in the Welsh tongue ' Ystrad 
 MarchelL'= Strata Marcella, at one end of which stood the once famous 
 monastery of Ystrad Marchell or Strata Marcella? Is it not more likely 
 that Oswald should have been overwhelmed by a combined force of 
 Mercians, Welsh, and Angles somewhere in the large plain of Ystrad' 
 marchell, which lies on the boundary of the Welsh and Mercian territories, 
 
92 ANCIENT Battle-fields in Lancashire. 
 
 the town, at a place called by the Welsh 'CaeNaef 
 (Heaven's Field) there is a remarkably fine spring of 
 water, which bears the name of Oswald's Well, and over 
 which, as recently as the year 1770, were the ruins of a 
 very ancient chapel likewise dedicated to him/' Com- 
 menting on this, Mr. E. Baines says — '* The well in that 
 country is a spring and not a fosse, as described by Bede, 
 and is as the well at Winwick," and he regards this 
 feature as additional evidence in favour of the presumed 
 Lancashire site of the battle. The saint's well is not, 
 however, of much value, as Bede makes no mention of any 
 spring, natural or otherwise, and wells dedicated to saints 
 in the "olden time," are common all over the country. 
 Indeed, there is a natural spring near the main highway 
 about a mile to the north of Winwick Church, which is 
 likewise called St. Oswald's well. From Bede's context 
 it is evident Oswald died on the ordinary dry earth, 
 which, in consequence, thenceforth produced greener grass 
 than the surrounding land, and the soil was afterwards 
 mixed with water and used medicinally. In England 
 
 than at Winwick, in Lancashire, and does not the above line prove that 
 * Oswald from Marchelldy [Marcelde the House or Monastery of MarchellJ 
 did to Heaven remove.' — BoNiON, writing in Bygones, August 6, 1873." 
 This would have more value had the inscription been on Oswestry Church. 
 It is not very probable the Cleric of Winwick would be a Welsh scholar, 
 or that he would translate the Welsh word into Latin in preference to the 
 English one by which the locality was well known. What business had 
 Oswald "somewhere in the large plain of YstraJmarchell, which lies on 
 the boundary of the Welsh and Mercian territory," if Pemla were the 
 aggressor, as GeofTrey and others testify. Besides, as Mr. Green's maps 
 show, the district in question was, in the seventh century, a long way from 
 cither the Mercian or Northumbrian boundary. To be in the locality at 
 all would constitute Oswald the attacking and not the defending parly, 
 as Bcdc's expression, ^^pro patria dimkansy^ seems to imply. 
 
THE BATTLE AT HEAVENFIELD. 93 
 
 there are at least five different places named after St. 
 Oswald, and, in addition, many ecclesiastical edifices 
 have been dedicated to him. 
 
 There is something mysterious, or at least curiously 
 coincident, about this Welsh *' Cae Naef," or ** Heaven's 
 Field," as this latter, according to Bede, is the name of 
 the site of the previous battle in 635, when Oswald de- 
 feated and slew Cadwalla. The same authority likewise 
 refers to it as being fought " at a place called Denises- 
 burn, that is Denis's-brook." Dr. Giles says " Dilston 
 is identified with the ancient Deniseburn, but on no 
 authority." Dilston is situated about two miles from 
 Hexham. Sharon Turner says — " Camden places this 
 battle at Dilston, formerly Devilston, on a small brook 
 which empties into the Tyne." He adds, " Smith, with 
 greater probability, makes Errinburn as the rivulet on 
 which Cadvvallon perished, and the fields either of 
 Cockley, Hallington, or Bingfield, as. the scene of the 
 conflict. The Angles called it Hefenfield, which name, 
 according to tradition, Bingfield bore." Dr. Smith says 
 that Hallington was anciently Heavenfelth, but adds 
 that probably the whole country from Hallington south- 
 ward to the Roman wall was originally included in the 
 name. On the place where Oswald is said to have 
 raised a cross, as his standard during the battle, a church 
 was afterwards erected. Thus it would at first sight 
 appear that Oswestry might enter into competition with 
 Bingfield for the site of the Heavenfeld struggle, rather 
 than with Winwick for that of Maserfeld. There is, 
 however, one important fact which fatally militates 
 
94- ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 against this. Bede says, referring to the Heavenfield 
 where Cadwalla met his death, the " place is near the 
 wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the 
 island from sea to sea, to restrain the fury of the barba- 
 rous nations, as has been said before." The greater 
 probability is as the two engagements are intertwined 
 by the Welsh Bruts, and in the Oswestry and Geoffrey 
 traditions, that the place owes its designation directly to 
 neither the one nor the other ; but that, like the sites I 
 have mentioned, the dedication of a church to the saint 
 has been sufficient to confer his name on the locality. 
 That a neighbouring well, under such circumstances, 
 should receive a similar designation, is too ordinary a 
 matter to require special consideration. 
 
 It is not at all improbable that, as Geoffrey and the 
 Welsh Bruts both refer to the battle in which Oswald 
 fell as fought at or near Burne, the Oswestry traditions 
 may have originally only had reference to the battle of 
 Denis-BURN or Denis-brook, in which the Welsh 
 Christian hero, Cadwalla, was slain by his hated rival, 
 the Anglican Christian king Oswald, of Northumbria. 
 It is utterly improbable that the Welsh Christians would 
 dedicate a church to St. Oswald. The first Christian 
 king of Northumbria, Edwin, the friend of Paulinas and 
 Augustine, was slain by Cadwalla, " king of the Britons," 
 or Brit-Welsh, in a battle at Heathficld (Hadfield, in 
 the West Riding of Yorkshire), A.D. 633, in which he was 
 aided by the pagan Penda. The Brit-Welsh Christians 
 and the disciples of Augustine and Paulinus hated each 
 other with more than ordinary sacerdotal intensity, and 
 
DEFEAT OF KING EDWIN AT HEATHFIELD. 95 
 
 the former often entered into alliances with the pagan 
 Anglo-Saxons, in order to avenge themselves on their 
 detested rivals. One of the subjects of fierce contention 
 between them, as is well known, related to the time for 
 the celebration of Easter. Bede, referring to the defeat 
 of Edwin at Heathfield and the consequences attendant 
 thereon, says — 
 
 "A great slaughter was made in the church or 
 nation of the Northumbrians ; and the more so because 
 one of the commanders by whom it was made was a 
 pagan, and the other a barbarian more cruel than a 
 pagan ; for Penda, with all the nation of the Mercians, 
 was an idolator and a stranger to the name of Christ ; 
 but Cadwalla, although he bore the name and professed 
 himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition 
 and behaviour, that he neither spared the female sex, 
 nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty 
 put them to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their 
 country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the 
 race of the EngHsh within the borders of Britain. Nor 
 did he pay any respect to the Christian religion which 
 had newly taken root among them ; it being to this day " 
 (the 8th century) "the custom of Britons not to pay 
 any respect to the faith and religion of the English, 
 nor to correspond with them any more than with 
 pagans." 
 
 Unquestionably no Christian church was dedicated 
 to St. Oswald at Oswestry until after the final subjection 
 of the district by the Anglican Christians. The 
 probability therefore is that the locality was merely 
 
9^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 named, as in the other instances referred to, from the 
 fact that it had become the location of a place of 
 worship dedicated to him, and that gradually the 
 various traditions about the saint and his rivals became 
 inextricably confused. The last syllable '^ tre'^ is 
 indicative of British influence in the formation of the 
 word Oswestry, as in Pentre, Gladestry, Coventry (in 
 Radnorshire), Tremadoc, Trewilan, Tredegar, etc., which 
 simply means, according to Spurrell's Welsh dictionary, 
 " resort, homestead, home, hamlet, town (used chiefly in 
 composition)." Indeed, Oswestry is more suggestive of 
 Oswy's-tre, and may refer to a successor who, some time 
 after Oswald's death, built a church and dedicated it 
 to the saintly monarch. 
 
 The pagan Mercian king, Penda, was himself slain in 
 the following year by Oswy, the successor to St. Oswald. 
 Bede says "the battle was fought near the river Vinwed, 
 which then with the great rains had not only filled its 
 channel, but overflowed its banks, so that many more 
 were drowned in the flight than destroyed by the sword." 
 Most authorities place this battle at Winwidfield, near 
 Leeds. Mr. Thos. Baincs, however (" Historical Notes on 
 the Valley of the Mersey," His. Soc. Lan. and Ches. 
 Pro. session 5), claims for Winwick the scene of both 
 engagements. He says — " Penda and upwards of thirty 
 of his principal officers were drowned in their flight, 
 having been driven into the river Winweyde, the waters 
 of which were at that time much swollen by heavy rains. 
 There is no stream in England which is more liable to 
 be suddenly flooded than the stream which joins the 
 
EAST ANGLIA AND OSWALD. 97 
 
 Mersey below Winwick-is and there both the resemblance 
 of the names, and the probability of the fact, induce me 
 to think that Penda met with his death within two or 
 three miles of the place at which Oswald had fallen." 
 
 This seems, at first sight, plausible enough, but as 
 Bede distinctly states that " King Oswy concluded the 
 aforesaid war in the country of Loides " (Leeds), Win- 
 widfield must unquestionably have preference over the 
 Lancashire site, as the scene of Penda's discomfiture and 
 death. 
 
 It is generally accepted that Oswald died either at 
 Oswestry or Winwick. There are some, however, who 
 accept neither, but contend that the true site of the 
 battle may yet, possibly, be found in a different locality. 
 This appears to be the opinion of Mr. John R. Green. 
 In support of this view he says (" Making of England ") — 
 "Though the conversion of Wessex had prisoned it 
 (Mercia) within the central districts of England, heathen- 
 dom fought desperately for life. Penda remained its 
 rallying point ; and the long reign of the Mercian king 
 was in fact one continuous battle with the Cross. But 
 so far as we can judge from his acts, Penda seemed to 
 have looked on the strife of religion in a purely political 
 light. The point of conflict, as before," [that is when 
 Edwin was defeated and slain at Hatfield] " seems to 
 have been the dominion over East Anglia. Its possession 
 was vital to Mid-Britain as it was to Northumbria, 
 which needed it to link itself with its West-Saxon 
 
 * This is a very daring assertion, and is by no means confirmed by a 
 visit to the locality. 
 
 H 
 
9^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 subjects in the south ; and Oswald must have felt that 
 he was challenging his rival to a decisive combat when 
 he marched, in 642, to deliver the East Anglians from 
 Penda. But his doom was that of Eadwine ; for he 
 was overthrown and slain in a battle called the battle of 
 Maserfeld." 
 
 If this view be accepted, the claim of Oswestry must 
 be at once dismissed, while that of Winwick is rendered 
 still more doubtful. But Mr. Green does not state on 
 what authority he relies when he states that Oswald 
 "marched in 642, to deliver the East- Anglians from 
 Penda." In consequence I am unable to test its value 
 or probability. He certainly would not march by 
 either Oswestry or Winwick if such were his destination. 
 This statement, however, appears to be not exactly in 
 accordance with another by Mr. Green, previously 
 quoted, in which he says, referring to the antecedents of 
 the war under Oswy, which followed Oswald's death, 
 and in which Penda was slain near the river Winwid — 
 " That Oswiu strove to avert the conflict we see from 
 the delivery of his youngest son Ecgfrith as a hostage 
 into Penda's hands. The sacrifice, however, proved 
 useless. Penda was again the assailant^ and his attack 
 was as vigorous as of old." 
 
 If Penda was the assailant, his assault must, in the 
 first instance, have been not on Oswald himself, but on his 
 East-Anglian allies, or Oswald would not have thought of 
 marching in that direction for their relief. But if Penda, 
 having previously humbled the East-Anglians, had 
 become aware of such intention on the part of the 
 
THE WILD BOAR LEGEND AT WINWICK. 99 
 
 Northumbrian monarch, there is nothing improbable in a 
 vigorous warrior of Penda's stamp, by a rapid march, 
 surprising him on the frontier of his own dominions, 
 defeating him, and thus warding off the threatened blow. 
 Under such circumstances Winwick might very probably 
 have been the scene of the conflict. The advocates of 
 Oswestry do not deny the great probability that Oswald 
 had a favourite residence in the locality. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Winwick, however, is the 
 undisputed site of a battle in more recent times. After 
 the Duke of Hamilton's defeat at Preston, by Cromwell, 
 in 1648, the former made a stand against his pursuers 
 at a place called " Red Bank," where he was totally 
 routed by the less numerous but highly disciplined army 
 of his more skilful antagonist. 
 
 A rude piece of sculpture built in the outer wall, 
 evidently a relic from an older edifice, was long supposed 
 to be a representation of the crest of St. Oswald ; but 
 this is disputed by Mr. Edward Baines. He says — " The 
 heralds assign to that monarch azure, a cross between 
 four lions rampant, or." He adds — "Superstition sees 
 in the chained hog the resemblance of a monster in 
 former ages, which prowled over the neighbourhood, 
 inflicting injury on man and beast, and which could only 
 be restrained by the subduing force of the sacred edifice." 
 This sculpture he regards as not improbably a rude 
 attempt to " represent the crest of the Gerrards — a lion 
 rampant, armed and langued, with a coronet upon the 
 head." This is certainly more probable than the 
 heralds' assignment of "azure, a cross between four 
 
IOC ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 lions rampant, or," to Oswald, which is suggestive of 
 mediaeval Norman-French associations and nomenclature, 
 without the slightest Anglo-Saxon ingredient. The 
 late Mr. T. T. Wilkinson refers to a tradition which 
 asserts that "the demon-pig not only determined the 
 site of St. Oswald's Church, at Winwick, but gave a 
 name to the parish." This attempt to solve the enigma 
 by the assistance of the squeak of a sucking pig, has 
 evidently originated in some rural jesting or lame 
 attempt to divine the connection of the animal with the 
 church and neighbourhood. 
 
 This traditionary "monster in former ages, which 
 prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting injury on 
 man and beast," is worthy of a little more serious 
 attention than has hitherto been paid to it. The legend 
 is evidently but a northern form of the wide-spread 
 Aryan myth concerning Vritra, the dragon, or storm- 
 fiend, who stole the light rain clouds (the "herds of 
 Indra," the Sanscrit "god of the clear heaven, and of 
 light, warmth, and fertilising rain "), and hid them in the 
 cave of the Panis (the dark storm-cloud). Indra, launch- 
 ing his lightning-spcar into the black thunder-cloud, 
 (personified by the dragon, snake, or monster whose 
 poisonous breath parched the earth and destroyed the 
 harvest), released the confined waters and thus refertilised 
 the land. The Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, in his " Manual of 
 Mythology," says — " In the Indian talcs Indra kills the 
 dragon Vritra, and in the old Norse legend Sigurd kills 
 the great snake Fafnir." The myth survives in the 
 exploits of the patron saint of England, St. George, the 
 
THE ANCIENT POEM, "BEOWULF." lOI 
 
 slayer of the dragon. In one Teutonic form Odin, or 
 Wodin, hunted the wild boar, the representative of the 
 stormy wind-clouds. His tusk was a type of the 
 lightning. This mythical devouring monster is reproduced 
 in Grendel, the " great scather," in the old Anglo-Saxon 
 poem " Beowulf," the scene of which Mr. D. Haigh, in 
 his " Conquest of the Britons by the Saxons," regards 
 as the neighbourhood of Hartlepool, in Durham. 
 
 There exists a great diversity of opinion as to the 
 genesis and original habitat of the poem, Beowulf. Mr. 
 Frederick Metcalfe, in his "Englishman and Scandi- 
 navian," says — " There is, however, one Saxon work 
 which tells us of the northern mythology, ' Beowulf,' 
 the oldest heroic, or, as some will have it, mythic — per- 
 haps it will be best to call it mytho-heroic — poem in 
 any German language, and which has been pronounced 
 to be older than Homer." In another place he says — 
 " The date of its composition has been much debated. 
 By Conybeare it was thought, in its present shape, to be 
 the work of the bards about Canute's court. The 
 leading incidents of the plot are as follows : — Beowulf, 
 the son of Ecgtheow and prince in Scania (South 
 Sweden), hearing how for twelve years King Hrothgar 
 and his people in North Jutland had been mightily 
 oppressed by a monster, Grendel, resolves to deliver 
 him, and arrives at Hart Hall, the Jutish palace, as an 
 avenger." 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Thorpe, in the preface to his edition 
 of the poem (1855) says — "With respect to this the 
 oldest heroic poem in any Germanic tongue, my opinion 
 
102 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 is, that it is not an original production of the Anglo- 
 Saxon muse, but a metrical paraphrase of an heroic 
 Saga composed in the south-west of Sweden, in the old 
 common language of the north, and probably brought 
 to this country during the sway of the Danish dynasty. 
 It is in this light only that I can view a work evincing a 
 knowledge of northern localities and persons, hardly to 
 be acquired by a native of England in those days of 
 ignorance with regard to remote foreign parts. And 
 what interest could an Anglo-Saxon feel in the valourous 
 feats of his deadly foes, the northmen.'* in the encounter 
 of a Sweo-Gothic hero with a monster in Denmark ? or 
 with a fire-drake in his own country ? The answer, I 
 think, is obvious — none whatever^ In a note Mr. Thorpe 
 says — " Let us cherish the hope that the original Saga 
 may one day be discovered in some Swedish library." 
 The only MS. of the poem extant, (MS. Cott. Vitellius 
 A. 15), he says— "I take to be of the first half of the 
 eleventh century." 
 
 With respect to the strictly historical character of 
 this poem, Mr. Thorpe says — "Preceding editors have 
 regarded the poem of Beowulf as a myth, and its heroes 
 as beings of a divine order. »!' To my dull perception 
 these appear as real kings and chieftains of the North, 
 some of them as Hygclac and Offa, entering within the 
 
 ♦''Were there no other record of the existence of our own Richard I. 
 than the Romaunt bearing his name, and composed within a century of his 
 death, he would unquestionably have been numbered by the Mylhists 
 among their shadowy heroes ; for among the superhuman feats performed 
 by that pious crusader, we read, in the above mentioned authority, that 
 having torn out the heart of a lion, he pressed out the blood, dipt it in salt, 
 
THE ROMAUNT OF "RICHARD, CCEUR DE LION." IO3 
 
 pale of authentic history, while the names of others may- 
 have perished, either because the records in which they 
 were chronicled are no longer extant, or the individuals 
 themselves were not of sufficient importance to occupy 
 a place in them." 
 
 Mr. Haigh likewise contends for the historic value 
 of the poem ; but attributes its locality to Britain. 
 Some of the legends and traditions of the North of 
 England certainly suggest that the Scandinavian popula- 
 tion settled there were either acquainted with the poem 
 or the legendary elements which strongly characterise it, 
 and upon which it is evidently mainly constructed, 
 whatever strictly historical matter, as in the romances of 
 Richard Coeur de Lion, Charlemagne, Arthur, and 
 others, may have become incorporated therewith.* 
 
 and ate it without bread ; that being sick, and longing after pork (which 
 in a land of Moslems and Jews was not to be had), 
 
 *' They took a Sarezyne young and fat 
 * * * * 
 
 And soden full hastely, 
 
 With powder and with spysory, 
 
 And with saffron of good colour." 
 
 Of this Apician dish ' the kyng eet the flesh and gnew the bones.' Richard 
 afterwards feasts his infidel prisoners on a Saracen's head each, every head 
 having the name of its late owner attached to it on a slip of parchment. 
 Surely all this is as mythic as it is possible to be, and yet Richard is a really 
 historic earth-born personage." 
 
 Yes, there was a truly historical Richard, as there doubtless was an 
 Arthur, but the Richard and Arthur of romance, nevertheless, are not 
 historical characters, in the strict sense of the word, and ought not to be 
 confounded with them. 
 
 * At the meeting of the British Association, held at York, in 1861, 
 Dr. Phene, F.S.A., &c., read a paper on Scandinavian and Pictish customs 
 on the Anglo-Scottish Border. He spoke of the persistent retention of 
 
104 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Mr. John R. Green (" The Making of England") says, 
 " The song as we have it now is a poem of the eighth 
 century, the work it may be of some English missionary of 
 the days of Beda and Boniface, who gathered in the 
 homeland of his race the legend of its earlier prime." 
 
 curious customs, and the handing down from generation to generation of 
 the traditionary lore of ages long past, and then referred to some of those 
 which were corroborated by ancient monuments of an unusual kind still 
 famous on the Scottish border. These consisted of sculptured stones, earth 
 works, and actual ceremonies. Quoting from former writers, from family 
 pedigrees, and other documents, he showed that the estates to which this 
 traditionary lore pertained, had been held alternately by those claiming 
 under the respective rationalities, or more local powers, and which from 
 their natural defensive features must have been places of border importance 
 earlier than history records. The district was occupied by the descendants — 
 often still traceable— of Danes, Jutes, Frisians, Picts, Scots. Angles, and 
 Normans ; and by a comparison of several of the languages of these 
 people, as well ancient as now existing, and also of the Gothic, it was 
 shown in relation to a particular class of the most curious monuments, that 
 the Norse "ormr," Anglo-Saxon "vyrm," old German " wurm," Gothic 
 "vaiirms," pronounced like our word worm; and the word 'Mint," or 
 "lind," also German, and the Norse " linni," are all equivalent, and 
 mean serpent ; and in some cases the two words are united as in modern 
 German "lindwurm," and the Danish and Swedish "lindorm." On this 
 apparently rested the names of some of the places having these strange 
 traditions, as I/inton or serpent town, Wormislon or worm's (ormr's) 
 town, Lindisfarne, the Fame serpent island, now Holy Island, &c., and 
 also the various worm hills, or serpent mounds of those localities. It was 
 curious that the contests to which the traditions referred (like that of St. 
 George) were sometimes with two dragons, as shown on a sculptured stone 
 in Linton Church, and on a similar stone at Lyngby, in Denmark, in the 
 churchyard, where there was a tradition that two dragons had their haunt 
 near the church. From these and other facts, the author concluded ih.it 
 the contests were international, and in the case of two dragons, an allied 
 foe, either national, religious, or both, was overcome. He showed from 
 the Scottish seals that Scotland used the dragon as an emblem, apparently 
 deriving it from the Picts ; that the Scandinavians also used it. and that 
 these nationalities were antagonistic to the Saxon. In the lime of David 
 the First of Scotland, the first great centralisation of Saxon power took 
 place, and the powerful family of the Cumyns took, apparently by conquest, 
 at least two of the localities having these strange traditions. And as the 
 
SCANDINAVIAN AND PICTISH CUSTOMS. I05 
 
 After referring to the interpolations in which there 
 " Is a distinctly Christian element, contrasting strongly 
 with the general heathen current of the whole," Mr. 
 Sweet, in his " Sketch of the History of the Anglo-Saxon 
 Poetry," in Hazlitt's edition of Warton's " His. of 
 English Poetry," says — "Without these additions and 
 alterations it is certain that we have in Beowulf a poem 
 composed before the Teutonic conquest of Britain. 
 The localities are purely continental ; the scenery is laid 
 amongst the Goths of Sweden and the Danes; in the 
 
 political object was to suppress the Celtic and Scandinavian, or other 
 local national feeling, there could be little doubt that however they 
 obtained them, the persons dispossessed were of one or other of the 
 Northern tribes. Hence probably the middle-age tradition of the slaying 
 of the serpent or dragon, or the serpent or dragon bearer, on the Anglo- 
 Scottish border. But he considered such traditions would hardly have 
 originated through such conquests, had not previous marvellous stories 
 existed of the prowess and conquest by the dragon (bearers) of the lands 
 they invaded, all the wonders of which would be transferred to the 
 conqueror's conqueror. Hence these stories were not to be set aside with 
 a sneer, as in them was a germ of history, giving us, perhaps, the only 
 insight we could obtain of the prehistoric customs and mythology of some 
 of the ancient tribes of Britain. Earthen mounds, tumuli, standing stones, 
 &c., still existed in some of these localities, with all of which the dragon 
 serpent or worm was associated in the legends. The author described his 
 personal experiences in the still existing dragon ceremonies in the south 
 of France and Spain, which were always either on the present national or 
 former less important provincial frontiers, and which still formed the 
 subjects of great ecclesiastical ceremonies. One of the high ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries of the north of England — the Bishop of Durham — is in the 
 position of having to take part in such a ceremony. Whenever a bishop 
 of that diocese enters the manor of Sockburn for the first time, the Lord 
 of the Manor, who holds under the see of Durham, subject to the following 
 tenure, has to present the Bishop, " in the middle of the river Tees, if the 
 river is fordable, with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers 
 destroyed the wcr;;z, dragon, ox fiery fly itig serpent which destroyed man, 
 woman, and child" in that district, and an ancient altar called " Greystone''^ 
 still marks where the dragon was buried. — Manchester Examiner. 
 
I06 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 episodes the Swedes, Frisians, and other continental 
 tribes appear, while there is no mention of England, or 
 the adjoining countries and nations." 
 
 Mr. Jno. Fenton, in an able article on "Easter" in the 
 Antiquary for April, 1882, says — "To us in western lands 
 the equinox is the beginning of spring and the new life 
 of the year ; but in the east it is the beginning of sum- 
 mer, when the early harvest is also ripe, when the sun is 
 parching the grass and drying up the wells, when, as 
 Egyptian folk-lore has it, a serpent wanders over the 
 earth, infecting the atmosphere with its poisonous 
 breath."=i'' 
 
 These mythical huge worms, serpents, dragons, wild 
 boars, and other monsters, " harvest blasters," are still 
 very common in the North of England. The famous 
 " Lambton worm," of huge dimensions and poisonous 
 breath, when coiled round a hill, was pacified with 
 copious draughts of milk, and his blood flowed freely 
 when he was pierced by the spear-heads attached to the 
 armour of the returned Crusader. The Linton worm 
 curled itself round a hill, and by its poisonous breath 
 destroyed the neighbouring animal and vegetable life. 
 The Pollard worm is described as " a venomous serpent 
 which did much harm to man and beast," while that at 
 Stockburn is designated as the "worm, dragon, or fiery 
 flying serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and 
 child." 
 
 In the ancient romance in English verse, which cele- 
 brates the deeds of the renowned Sir Guy, of Warwick, 
 ♦ •* Klunzinger : Upper Egypt, 184." 
 
SIR GUY OF WARWICK. 10/ 
 
 is the following quaint description of a Northumberland 
 dragon, slain by the hero : — 
 
 No man may it pierce it is so harde ; 
 His neck is great as any summere ; 
 He renneth as swift as any distrere ; 
 Pawes he hath as a lyon ; [downe, 
 All that he toucheth he sleath dead 
 Great winges he hath to flight, 
 That is no man that bare him might, 
 There may no man fight him agayne, 
 But that he sleath him certayne ; 
 For a fowler beast then is he, 
 Ywis of none never heard ye. 
 
 A messenger came to the king. 
 
 Syr king he sayd, lysten me now, 
 
 For bad tydinges I bring you. 
 
 In Northumberlande there is no man, 
 
 But that they be slayne everychone j 
 
 For there dare no man route, 
 
 By twenty myle rounde aboute, 
 
 For doubt of a fowle dragon, 
 
 That sleath men and beastes downe. 
 
 He is blacke as any cole, 
 
 Ragged as a rough fole ; 
 
 His body from the navill upwards. 
 
 The said Guy, amongst other marvellous exploits, 
 killed at " Winsor," 
 
 A bore of passing might and strength, 
 
 Whose like in England never was, 
 
 For hugenesse both in breadth and length. 
 
 Mr. Barrett, a saddler, of Manchester, with antiquarian 
 taste, in an illuminated MS., now in the Chetham 
 Library, refers to an old tradition concerning a dragon 
 whose den was amongst the red sandstone rocks in the 
 neighbourhood of Lymm, about five miles from War- 
 rington. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in Merlin's prophesy 
 especially, often refers to these mythical monsters ; and 
 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is equally expressive in 
 attributing disaster to their influences. In the latter 
 work we read : "A.D. 793. This year dire forewarnings 
 came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably 
 terrified the people ; these were excessive whirlwinds 
 and lightnings ; and fiery dragons were seen flying in 
 the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens." 
 Mr. Baring-Gould says, as recently as the year 1600, — "A 
 
I08 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 German writer would illustrate a thunderstorm destroying 
 a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the 
 produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth." 
 That this tradition at Winwick respecting a ** monster 
 in former ages, which prowled over the neighbourhood, 
 inflicting injury on man and beast," is a legitimate 
 descendant from our Aryan ancestors* personification of 
 natural phenomena, seems very apparent, and aptly 
 illustrates what Sir G. W, Dasent terms the " toughness 
 of tradition," especially when interwoven with the mar- 
 vellous or supernatural. Mr. Walter K. Kelly, in his 
 " Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk- 
 Lore," says — " These phenomena were noted and desig- 
 nated with a watchfulness and a wealth of imagery 
 which made them the principal groundwork of all the 
 Indo-European mythologies and superstitions. The 
 thunder was the bellowing of a mighty beast or the 
 rolling of a wagon. The lightning was a sinuous 
 serpent, or a spear shot straight athwart the sky, or a 
 fish darting in zigzags through the waters of heaven. 
 The stormy winds were howling dogs or wolves ; the 
 ravages of the whirlwind that tore up the earth were tJte 
 work of a wild boar!''^'' Mr. Fiske, in his " Myths and 
 
 * " There exists yet a traditionary superstition very prevalent in Lanca- 
 shire and its neighbourhood to the effect that pigs can * see tlw witid? I 
 accidentally heard the observation made, not long ago. in the city of Man- 
 chester, in what is termed ' respectable society,' and no one present audibly 
 dissented. One or two individuals, indeed, remarked that they had often 
 heard such was the case, and seemed to regard the phenomenon as relate<l 
 to the strong scent and other instincts peculiar to animals of the chase. 
 Indeed, Dr. Kuhn says that in Westphalia this phase of the superstition is 
 the prevalent one. There pigs are said to smell the wind." — Traditiom^ 
 Superstitions, and Folk- Lore, p, 6g. 
 
ORIGIN OF HERALDRY. IO9 
 
 Myth-makers," says that these mythical monsters "not 
 only steal the daylight, but they parch the earth and 
 wither the fruits, and they slay vegetation during the 
 winter months." 
 
 These traditionary " Harvest Blasters," as they are 
 sometimes styled, have a wide range, and are not con- 
 fined even to the various branches of the Aryan race. 
 
 Most writers agree in assigning the origin of heraldry, 
 in the modern acceptation of the term, to the crusades. 
 At least little is recorded concerning the " science," or 
 " art," as it is sometimes termed, previously to the middle 
 of the twelfth century. It was found necessary during 
 the religious wars in the east that the knights should 
 wear some device or distinguishing badge on the field of 
 battle, on account of the diversity of the languages 
 spoken by the combatants, and hence the term "cogni- 
 zance " was often applied to these symbols. This, in the 
 following century, eventuated in the adoption of the 
 warlike badges or "arms" of the original bearers by 
 their families. They afterwards became hereditary 
 characteristics, and hence the development of the qtiasi 
 science. These devices were figured on crest, banner, 
 and shield. One authority (Pen. Cyclop.) says — " The 
 crest is said to have been carved on light wood, or made 
 of leather, in the shape of some animal^ real or fictitiotcSy 
 and fastened by a fillet of silk round the helmet, over 
 which was a large piece of fringed sam it or tafieta, pointed 
 with a tassel at the end." The same writer adds — " The 
 custom of conferring crests as distinguishing marks seems 
 to have originated with Edward III., who, in 1333 (Rot. 
 
no ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Pat, 9 Edward III.), granted one to William Montacute, 
 Earl of Salisbury, his * tymbre,' as it is called, of the 
 eagle. By a further grant, in the thirteenth of the same 
 king (Rot. Vase., 13 Edward III., m. 4), the grant of this 
 crest was made hereditary, and the manor of Wodeton 
 given in addition to support its dignity." 
 
 I am inclined, notwithstanding, to regard heraldry in 
 its more extended significance, that is if the term can 
 properly be applied to practices anterior to the establish- 
 ment of heralds, as of much greater antiquity than the 
 crusades. Herodotus tells us that the Carians first set 
 the Greeks the example of fastening crests upon their 
 helmets, and of putting devices upon their shields. The 
 " totems," or beast symbols, of our savage ancestors un- 
 doubtedly preceded the mediaeval practice, and influenced 
 its incipient development. The " White Horse " of Hen- 
 gist, the " Raven " of the Scandinavian vikings, the 
 " Golden Dragon " of the kings of Wessex, as well as 
 others, might be mentioned, which clearly demonstrate 
 this position. Uther, the father of Arthur, according to 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, caused " two dragons to be made 
 of gold, which was done with wondrous nicety of work- 
 manship." The quasi-historian adds — "He made a 
 present of one to the cathedral church of Winchester, 
 but reserved the other for himself to be carried along 
 with him to his wars. From this time, therefore, he was 
 called Uther Pendragon, which in the British tongue 
 signifies the dragon's head." Indeed, amongst savage 
 nations at the present or relatively recent time, we find 
 " totems " or symbols, such as beaver, snake, hare, corn- 
 
ANIMAL CRESTS OR ''TOTEMS." HI 
 
 stalk, black hawk, dog, wolf, bear, beaver, little bear, 
 crazy horse, and sitting bull, not only used by the war- 
 rior chiefs, but even the tribes sometimes take their 
 names therefrom. 
 
 Mr; E. B. Tylor, in his " Early History of Mankind," 
 says — *'More than twenty years ago, Sir George Grey 
 called attention to the divisions of the Australians into 
 families, and distinguished by the name of some animal 
 or vegetable, which served as their crest or kobongr He 
 adds — "The Indian tribes" (of America) "are usually 
 divided into clans, each distinguished by a totem 
 (Algonquin do-daim, that is ' town mark,') which is com- 
 monly some animal, as a bear, wolf, deer, etc., which 
 may be compared on the one hand to a crest, and on the 
 other to a surname." 
 
 Indeed, until very recently, some of our own regiments 
 had their "beast totem" in the shape of a goat, a 
 bear, or a tiger, which generally marched at the head 
 of the corps. The goat, I believe, yet survives, and the 
 men of one regiment are designated " tigers " to this day. 
 
 The crest is evidently one of the oldest, if not the 
 oldest, forms in which the beast symbol was displayed. 
 The bronze Roman helmet, or rather bust or head of 
 Minerva, found at Ribchester, in 1796, had originally a 
 sphinx as a crest. This appendage, however, having 
 become detached, has since been lost. The gladiators' 
 helmet decorations, in the pictures found at Pompeii, are 
 generally plumes or tufts of horsehair, but some of their 
 shields exhibit devices suggestive of those of more recent 
 date. The Roman historians, recording the events per- 
 
112 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 taining to the great Cimbri-Teutonic invasion rather 
 more than a century before the Christian era, state that 
 each of the fifteen thousand horsemen, which formed the 
 elite of the army of Bojorix, " bore upon his helmet the 
 head of some savage beast, with its mouth gaping wide." 
 
 Osman, the son of Ertoghrul, was the founder of the 
 Turkish empire fA.D. 1288 -1326). One writer (Pen. 
 Cyc.) says — "The name Osman is of Arabic origin 
 (Othman), and signifies literally the bone-breaker; but 
 it also designates a species of large vulture, usually 
 called the royal vulture, and in this latter acceptation it 
 was given to the son of Ertoghrul." 
 
 The Rev. Isaac Taylor, in his "Etruscan Researches," 
 referring to the origin of the tribal "totem" of the Asena 
 horde, afterwards named Turks, says — " It is not diffi- 
 cult to discover the genesis of the legend. It has been 
 already shown that the ancient Ugric word sena meant a 
 * man.' The analogy of a host of ancient tribe-names 
 leaves little doubt that the Asena simply called them- 
 selves *the men.' This obvious etymology of the name 
 having in lapse of time become obscure by linguistic 
 changes, the word schino^ a wolf, was assumed to be the 
 true source of the national appellation, and the myth 
 came into existence as a means of accounting for the 
 name of the nation which proudly called itself the 'wolf- 
 race,* and bore the wolves' heads as its * totem.' " 
 
 It is said the Kabyls tattoo figures of animals on 
 their foreheads, cheeks, nose, or temples, in order to dis- 
 tinguish their various tribes. A similar practice obtains 
 generally in central Africa and the Caroline archipelago. 
 
THE BOAR, A FAVOURITE HELMET CREST. II3 
 
 The plague, sent by Artemis to punish ^neus, who 
 had neglected to offer up to her a portion of a sacrifice, 
 was a " monstrous boar," afterwards slain by Meleagros, 
 Atalanta, and others, in the famous Kalydonian hunt, is 
 evidently a Greek form of a mythical " monster, which in 
 former ages prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting 
 injury on man and beast." 
 
 The boar, or the boar's head, was a favourite helmet 
 crest or " totem " amongst our Teutonic ancestors, both 
 Scandinavian and German. This animal was sacred to 
 the goddess Friga, or Freya, whom Tacitus, in his " Ger- 
 mania," styles the " mother of the gods," and from whom 
 our Friday is named. She was propitiated by the war- 
 riors in order to secure her protection in battle. This 
 practice is often referred to in the sagas, as well as in 
 the earliest known example of Anglo-Saxon poetry 
 extant, " Beowulf" The following illustrations are from 
 this remarkable poem : — 
 
 "When we in battle our mail hoods 
 
 defended, 
 When troops rushed together and 
 
 boar-crests crashed. 
 
 Then commanded he to bring in 
 The boar, an ornament to the head, 
 The helmet lofty in war. 
 
 Surrounded with lordly chains, 
 Even as in days of yore, 
 The weapon-smith had wrought it, 
 Had wondrously finished it, 
 Had set it round with shapes of 
 swine, 
 
 That never afterwards brand or war- 
 knife 
 Might have power to bite it. 
 They seemed a boar's form 
 To bear over their cheeks ; 
 Twisted with gold, 
 Variegated and hardened in the fire ; 
 This kept the guard of life. 
 
 At the pile was 
 
 Easy to be seen 
 
 The mail shirt covered with gore, 
 
 The hog of gold, 
 
 The boar hard as iron. 
 
 In the episode relating the events attendant on the 
 battle of Finsburgh, in the same poem, we find similar 
 
114 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 importance attached to the boar, as the warrior's pro- 
 tector. We read — 
 
 Of the martial Scyldings, 
 The best of warriors, 
 On the pile was ready ; 
 At the heap was 
 
 Easy to be seen 
 The blood-stained tunic, 
 The swine all golden, 
 The boar iron-hard, etc. 
 
 In the " Life of Merlin," Arthur and his kinsman, 
 Hoel, are described as "two lions," and "two moons." 
 In the same poem, Hoel is styled the " Armorican boar." 
 
 In the Welsh poem, "The Gododin," by Aneurin, 
 are several allusions to the boar and the bull, as warlike 
 appellations : — 
 
 It was like the tearing onset of the woodland boar ; 
 Bull of the army in the mangling fight. 
 
 The furze was kindled by the ardent spirit, the bull of conflict. 
 
 And those shields were shivered before the herd of the roaring Beli.* 
 
 The boar proposed a compact in front of the course— the great plotter. 
 
 Adan, the son of Ervai, there did pierce, 
 Adan pierced the haughty boar. 
 
 Mr. F, Metcalfe, in his "Englishman and Scandi- 
 navian," says — " Indeed this porcine device was common 
 to all the Northern nations who worshipped Freya and 
 Freyr. The helmet of the Norwegian king, Ali, was called 
 HildigoUtr, the boar of war, and was prized beyond 
 measure by his victors (Prose Edda, I., 394). But long 
 before that Tacitus (Germ., 45) had recorded that the 
 Esthonians, east of the Baltic, wore swine-shaped amulets, 
 as a symbol of the mother of the gods. 
 
 ♦ The Rev. Jno.Wiiliams, in a note to his translation of ** The Gododin," 
 says :— *• Beli, son of Benlli, a famous warrior in North Wales." 
 
THE WALHALLA BANQUETS. Il5 
 
 Tacitus adds — "This" (the wild-boar symbol) "serves 
 instead of weapons or any other defence, and gives safety 
 to the servant of the goddess, even in the midst of the foe." 
 
 This connection of the boar with the religious cere- 
 monies and warlike exploits of our pagan ancestors is 
 often referred to in the Edda. The valiant Norseman 
 believed that when he entered Walhalla he should join 
 the combats of the warriors each morning, and hack and 
 hew away as in earthly conflict, till the slain for the day 
 had been " chosen," and mealtime arrived, when the van- 
 quished and victorious returned together to feast on the 
 "everlasting boar" (soehrimnirj, and carouse on mead 
 and ale with the ^Esir. The boar's head, which figured 
 so conspicuously in the Christmas festivities of our an- 
 cestors, is evidently a relic, like the mistletoe and the 
 yule-log, of pagan times. 
 
 There is nothing, therefore, improbable in the pro- 
 position that the standard, totem, or helmet-crest of 
 some devastating Teutonic chieftain like Penda, the 
 ferocious pagan conqueror of Oswald, may have been 
 of this porcine character. The Christian adherents of 
 the Northumbrian king and saint would very easily con- 
 found him and the devastation attendant upon his vic- 
 torious march through their country, with the dethroned 
 and abhorred pagan deity whose emblem formed his crest 
 or " totem," as well as with the older wild boar storm -fiend, 
 or " the monster who prowled over the neighbourhood, 
 inflicting injury on man and beast," and for the subdual 
 of which the sanctity of the edifice of the saintly monarch 
 was alone effectual. In the prophecy attributed to Mer- 
 
Il6 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 lin, King Arthur is described as the wild boar of Corn- 
 wall, that would "devour" his enemies. The mingling 
 of ancient superstitious fears with the more modern 
 Christianity, especially with reference to such matters as 
 charms, prophylactics, etc., is of very common occurrence 
 even at the present day. Sir John Lubbock, in his 
 "Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of 
 Man," says — " When man, either by natural progress or 
 the influence of a more advanced race, rises to a con- 
 ception of a higher religion, he still retains his old beliefs, 
 which linger on side by side with, and yet in utter 
 opposition to, the higher creed. The new and more 
 powerful spirit is an addition to the old pantheon, and 
 diminishes the importance of the older deities ; gradually 
 the worship of the latter sinks in the social scale, and 
 becomes confined to the ignorant and young. Thus a 
 belief in witchcraft still flourishes amongst our agricul- 
 tural labourers and the lowest class in our great cities, 
 and the deities of our ancestors survive in the nursery 
 tales of our children. We must, therefore, expect to 
 find in each race traces— nay, more than traces — of 
 lower religions." 
 
 Some parties regard the Winwick sculpture as " St. 
 Anthony's pig," but they acknowledge they know of no 
 connection of that saint with the parish. But, as I have 
 shown in the previous chapter, "the deeds of one 
 mythical hero are sure, when he is forgotten, to be 
 attributed to some other man of mark, who for the time 
 being fills the popular fancy." Keightley, in his " Fairy 
 Mythology," says — " Every extraordinary appearance is 
 
RUSSIAN AND FINNISH CUSTOMS. U/ 
 
 found to have its extraordinary cause assigned, a cause 
 always connected with the history or religion^ ancient or 
 modern, of the country, and not unfrequently varying 
 with the change of faith. The mark on Adam's Peak, in 
 Ceylon, is by the Buddhists ascribed to Buddha ; by the 
 Mohammedans to Adam." 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, in his " Russia," speaking of 
 the Finns and their Russian neighbours, says — "The 
 friendly contact of two such races naturally led to a 
 curious blending of the two religions. The Russians 
 adopted many customs from the Finns, and the Finns 
 adopted still more from the Russians. When Yumala 
 and the other Finnish deities did not do as they were 
 desired, their worshippers naturally applied for protec- 
 tion or assistance to the Madonna and the * Russian god.' 
 If their own traditional magic rites did not suffice toward 
 off evil influences, they naturally tried the effect of 
 crossing themselves as the Russians do in moments of 
 danger." In another place he says — "At the harvest 
 festivals, Tchuvash peasants have been known to pray 
 first to their own deities and then to St. Nicholas, the 
 miracle-worker, who is the favourite saint of the Russian 
 peasantry. This dual worship is sometimes recommended 
 by the Yornzi — a class of men who correspond to the 
 medicine men among the Red Indians." He truly 
 observes — "popular imagination always uses heroic names 
 as pegs on which to hang traditions." 
 
 Bishop Percy, in the preface to his translation of 
 " Mallet's Northern Antiquities," says—" Nothing is more 
 contagious than superstition, and therefore we must not 
 
Il8 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN L.\NCASHIRE. 
 
 wonder if, in ages of ignorance, one wild people catch up 
 from another, though of very different race, the most 
 arbitrary and groundless opinions, or endeavour to 
 imitate them in such rites and practices as they are told 
 will recommend them to the gods, or avert their anger." 
 
 Jacob Grimm says (Deutsche Myhologie) — " A people 
 whose faith is falling to pieces will save here and there a 
 fragment of it, by fixing it on a new and unpersecuted 
 object of veneration." 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the Winwick monster, in 
 this respect, is but an apt illustration of ordinary mytho- 
 logical transference of attributes or emblems, which in 
 no way invalidates the more remote origin to which I 
 have ascribed it, or its connection with the totem or 
 beast symbol of the heathen warrior. The boar, indeed, 
 has been a sacred symbol for ages amongst the Aryan 
 nations. Herodotus (b. 3, c. 59) says that the Eginetae, 
 after defeating the Samians in a sea-fight, " cut off" the 
 prows of their boats, which represented the figure of a 
 boar, and dedicated them in the temple of Minerva, in 
 Egina." 
 
 The Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, in his "Introduction to 
 Mythology and Folk-Lore," referring to the Greek war 
 god Arcs, says — " In the Odyssey his name is connected 
 with Aphrodite, whose love he is said to have obtained ; 
 but other traditions tell us that when she seemed to 
 favour Adonis, Arcs changed himself into a boar, which 
 slew the youth of whom he was jealous." 
 
 The Mussulman's abhorrence of roast pork is well 
 known. Amongst the Turkomans of Central Asia (the 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS. I IQ 
 
 ancient home of our Aryan ancestors) the prowess of 
 the living animal is likewise regarded with a strange 
 superstitious dread, evidently akin to some more ancient 
 belief in the supernatural attributes of the animal. 
 Arminius Vambery, in his " Travels in Central Asia " 
 (having narrowly escaped serious injury from a wild 
 porcine assailant), informs us he was seriously assured 
 by a Turkoman friend that he might regard himself as 
 very lucky, inasmuch as " death by the wound of a wild 
 boar would send even the most pious Mussulman nedgis 
 (unclean) into the next world, where a hundred years' 
 burning in purgatorial fire would not purge away his 
 uncleanness." 
 
 Since the above was written I have perceived a 
 passage in Mr. Fiske's essay on " Werewolves," in his 
 "Myths and Myth-makers," that seems not only to 
 strengthen the conjecture that the boar was the crest or 
 " totem " of the pagan Penda, but likewise the probability 
 of the influence of the older mythical story with which I 
 have associated it. The boar, it must be remembered, in 
 all the Indo-European mythologies, is associated with 
 stormy wind and lightning. Mr. Fiske, referring to what 
 he terms one of the " more striking characteristics of 
 primitive thinking," namely, " the close community of 
 nature which it assumes between man and brute," says — 
 " The doctrine of metempsychosis, which is found in 
 some shape or other all over the world, implies a funda- 
 mental identity between the two : the Hindu is taught to 
 respect the flocks browsing in the meadow, and will on 
 no account lift his hand against a cow, for who knows 
 
120 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 but that it may be his own grandmother ? The recent 
 researches of Mr. Lennan and Mr. Herbert Spencer have 
 served to connect this feeHng with the primeval worship 
 of ancestors and with the savage customs of totemism. 
 , . . This kind of worship still maintains a languid 
 existence as the state religion of China, and it still exists 
 as a portion of Brahmanism ; but in the Vedic religion it 
 is to be seen in all its native simplicity. According to 
 the ancient Aryan, the Pitris, or * Fathers ' (Lat. Patres) 
 live in the sky along with Yama, the great original Pitri 
 of mankind. . . . Now if the storm-wind is a host 
 of Pitris, or one great Pitri, who appeared as a fearful 
 giant, and is also a pack of wolves or wish-hounds, or a 
 single savage dog or wolf, the inference is obvious to the 
 mythopoeic mind that men may become wolves, at least 
 after death. And to the uncivilised thinker this in- 
 ference is strengthened, as Mr. Spencer has shown by 
 evidence registered on his own tribal * totem * or heraldic 
 emblem. The bears and lions and leopards of heraldry 
 are the degenerate descendants of the 'totem' of savagery 
 which designated a tribe by a beast symbol. To the 
 untutored mind there is everything in a name ; and the 
 descendant of Brown Bear, or Yellow Tiger, or Silver 
 Hyaina, cannot be pronounced unfaithful to his own 
 style of philosophising if he regards his ancestorSy who 
 career about his hut in the darkness of t/ie nighty as 
 belonging to whatever order of beasts his 'totem* 
 associations may suggest." 
 
 In the Volsung tale of the Northern mythology the 
 " gods of the bright heaven " had to make atonement to 
 
MODERN SURNAMES. 121 
 
 the sons of Reidmar, whose brother they had slain. 
 This brother was named "the otter." 
 
 Modern surnames have been derived from very varied 
 sources, including trades, locations, and individual 
 characteristics. Many, identical with birds, beasts, and 
 fishes, may have originally been what are vulgarly 
 termed " nicknames," or they may be corrupt modern 
 renderings of very different ancient words, such as 
 Haddock, from Haydock, a township in Lancashire j 
 Winter, from vintner ; and Sumner from summoner, &c. 
 Nevertheless, the old tribal " totem " or heraldic device 
 of a feudal superior may have given rise to some of the 
 following : Wolf, Lyon, Hog, Bull, Bullock, Buck, Hart, 
 Fox, Lamb, Hare, Poynter, Badger, Beaver, Griffin, 
 Raven, Hawk, Eagle, Stork, Crane, Woodcock, Gull, 
 Nightingale, Cock, Cockerell, Bantam, Crow, Dove, 
 Pigeon, Lark, Swallow, Martin, Wren, Teal, Finch, Jay, 
 Sparrow, Partridge, Peacock, Goose, Gosling, Bird, Fish, 
 Salmon, Sturgeon, Gudgeon, Herring, Roach, Pike, 
 Sprat, &c. Some flowers and plants may likewise 
 have formed badges or tribal or family symbols or 
 " quarterings," and thus given rise to surnames. We 
 have several of this class, such as Plantagenet (the 
 broom). Rose, Lily, Primrose, Heath, Broome, Hollyoak, 
 Pine, Thorne, Hawthorne, Hawes, Hyacinth, Crabbe, 
 Crabtree, Crabstick, &c. The leek, the Welshman's 
 "totem," is not an uncommon name, though generally 
 spelled Leak. I never, however, heard of such names as 
 Shamrock or Thistle. On the other hand, many families 
 have reversed the process and adopted a symbol or crest 
 
122 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 from a real or fancied similarity of their names and those 
 of the selected objects. The figure of a dog is borne on 
 the arms of the Talbot family, whence, perhaps, the 
 name. The talbot is a dog noted for his quick scent 
 and eager pursuit of game. 
 
 Jacob Grimm ("Deutsche Mythologie,") says: — 
 " Even in the middle ages, Landscado (scather of the 
 land) was a name borne by noble families." He further 
 says : — " Swans, ravens, wolves, stags, bears, and lions, 
 will join the heroes, to render them assistance ; and that 
 is how animal figures in the scutcheons and helmet in- 
 signia of heroes are in many cases to be accounted for, 
 though they may arise from other causes too, e. g., the 
 ability of certain heroes to transform themselves at will 
 into wolf or swan." 
 
 Mr. Charles Elton (" Origins of English History,") 
 says — "The names of several tribes, or the legends 
 of their origin, show that an animal, or some other 
 real or imaginary object, was chosen as a crest or 
 emblem, and was probably regarded with a superstitious 
 veneration. A powerful family or tribe would feign to 
 be descended from a swan or a water-maiden, or a ' white 
 lady,' who rose from the moon-beams on the lake. The 
 moon herself was claimed as the ancestress of certain 
 families. The legendary heroes are turned into 'swan- 
 knights,* or fly away in the form of wild-geese. The 
 tribe of the *Ui Duinn,' who claimed St. Bridgit as their 
 kinswoman, wore for their crest the figure of a lizard, 
 which appeared at the foot of the oak-tree above her 
 shrine. We hear of 'griffins* by the Shannon, of 'calves* 
 
MODERN SURNAMES. I23 
 
 in the country around Belfast ; the men of Ossory were 
 called by a name which signifies the wild red-deer ! 
 There are similar instances from Scotland in such names 
 as * Clan Chattan/ or the Wild Cats, and in the animal 
 crests which have been borne from the most ancient 
 times as the emblems or cognizances of the chieftains. 
 The early Welsh poems will furnish another set of 
 examples. The tribes who fought at Catraeth are 
 distinguished by the bard as wolves, bears, or ravens ; 
 the families which claim descent from Caradock or 
 Oswain take the boar or the raven for their crest. The 
 followers of * Cian the Dog' are called the *dogs of war,' 
 and the chieftain's house is described as the stone or 
 castle of * the white dogs.' " 
 
 The writer, in the Pen. Cyclop., of the memoir of 
 Owen Glendwr, says — ^"It was at this juncture that 
 Glendwr revived the ancient prophecy that Henry IV. 
 should fall under the name of 'Moldwary,' or 'the cursed 
 of God's mouth'; and styling himself 'the Dragon,' 
 assumed a badge representing that monster with a star 
 above, in imitation of Uther, whose victories over the 
 Saxons were foretold by the appearance of a star with a 
 dagger threatening beneath. Percy was denoted 'the 
 Lion,' from the crest of his family ; and on Sir Edward 
 Mortimer they bestowed the title of ' the Wolf.' " 
 
 Hugh of Avranche, Earl of Chester, was called Hugh 
 Lupus, from his cognizance or favourite device of a wolf's 
 head. 
 
 Shakspere has preserved to us at least two note- 
 worthy instances in which the ** totem " or beast symbol 
 
124 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 of our savage ancestors survived, with its original signifi- 
 cance, until the period of the " Wars of the Roses." In 
 the Second Part of "King Henry VI." (Act 5, Scene i), 
 Warwick exclaims : — 
 
 Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest, 
 The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff. 
 This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet 
 (As on a mountain top the cedar shows, 
 That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm), 
 Even to affright thee with the view thereof. 
 
 To which boast Clifford replies : — 
 
 And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear, 
 And tread it underfoot with all contempt, 
 Despite the bearward that protects the bear. 
 
 Warwick^ in the following scene, amidst the carnage 
 of battle, shouts : — 
 
 Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls ! 
 And if thou dd^ not hide thee from the bear. 
 Now — when the angry trumpet sounds alarm, 
 And dead wen's cries do fill the empty air — 
 Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me ! 
 
 The expression ^' dead men's cries do fill the empty 
 air," I have hitherto regarded, as doubtless most other 
 readers of Shakspere have done, as either a misprint or 
 an obsolete form of expression, meaning, in the more 
 modern English, " dying men's cries do fill the empty 
 air." Taken in connection, however, with the continual 
 reference of Warwick to the *' rampant bear " as his an- 
 cestral " totem " or beast symbol, I am inclined to think 
 it is not improbable that Shakspere, who has made use 
 of such an enormous number of other superstitious 
 fancies as poetic images, as well as illustrations of cha- 
 racter, may have had in his mind the old belief that the 
 
"riTRIS," OR "FATHERS." 12$ 
 
 souls of ancestors, " Pltris," or " Fathers," careered and 
 howled amongst the storm-winds in the form indicated 
 by their beast symbol or tribal "totem." Poetically, 
 the thought is singularly appropriate to the storm and 
 strife of the battlefield, and especially to the frenzied 
 agony engendered by the horrors too often attendant 
 upon '^domestic fury and fierce civil strife." Referring 
 to, and quoting from, the "Exodus," a poem of the 
 Ccedman school, Mr. Green ("The Making of England") 
 says — " The wolves sang their dread evensong ; the 
 fowls of war, greedy of battle, dewy feathered, screamed 
 around the host of Pharaoh, as wolf howled and eagle 
 screamed round the host of Penda." Shakspere places 
 in the mouth of Calphnrnia, when recounting the prodigies 
 which preceded Caesar's assassination, the following re- 
 markable words : — 
 
 The graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead : 
 
 Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds 
 
 In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, 
 
 Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol ; 
 
 The noise of battle hurtled in the air, 
 
 Horses did neigh and dying men did groan, 
 
 And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets. 
 
 * 3|e HI * « 
 
 When beggars die there are no comets seen : 
 
 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. 
 
 Again, in "Richard III." (Act 3, Scene 2), Stanleys 
 messenger informs Hastings that his master had com- 
 missioned him to say he had dreamt that night " the boar 
 (Richard) had raised off his helm." This, he adds, his 
 master regards as a warning to Hastings and himself — 
 To shun the danger that his soul divines. 
 
126 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 The boar was the cognizance, crest, or " totem" of 
 Richard. In the fourth scene of the same act, Hastings^ 
 on hearing his death sentence, exclaims : 
 
 Woe ! woe for England ! not a whit for me ; 
 For I, too fond, might have prevented this : 
 Stanley did dream the boar did raise his helm ; 
 But I disdain'd it, and did scorn to fly. 
 
 In Act 4, Scene 4, Stanley^ addressing Sir Christopher 
 Urswick, says : — 
 
 Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me : 
 That in the sty of this most bloody boar, 
 My son, George Stanley, is frank'd up in hold ; 
 If I revolt, off goes young George's head ; 
 The fear of that witiiholds my present aid. 
 
 In Richmond's address to his army, in the second 
 scene of the fifth act, the Aryan personification of the 
 destroying storm-wind and " harvest blaster," as well as 
 '^the monster in former ages, which prowled over the 
 neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast," is 
 very distinctly indicated, and adds another link to the 
 chain of evidence by which I have endeavoured to 
 justify the hypothesis that the rude sculpture of Winwick 
 may represent the crest or " totem " of Penda, the ruthless 
 pagan victor in the disastrous fight at Maserfeld, in the 
 year 642. Richmond says : — 
 
 The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar, 
 
 That spoiled your snmintr fields mtd fruitful vifus^ 
 
 Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough 
 
 In your embowell'd bosoms— this foul swine 
 
 Lies now even in the centre of this isle, 
 
 Near to the town of Leicester. 
 
 There is an old rhyming couplet, referring to the three 
 personages who were Richard's chief advisers or instru- 
 
THE "JYLGJA" OF THE ICELANDERS. 12/ 
 
 ments, in his usurpation, Ratcliffe, Catesby and Lovel, 
 which throws additional light on this beast symbolism : — 
 
 The rat and the cat, and Lovel the dog, 
 Do govern all England under the hog. 
 
 Amongst our Scandinavian predecessors the customs 
 and superstitions now under consideration seem to have 
 been deeply rooted. Sir G. W. Dasent, in the introduc- 
 tion to his translation of the Icelandic saga, the '* Story of 
 Brunt Njal," says the Icelander believed in wraiths and 
 patches and guardian spirits, who followed particular 
 persons, and belonged to certain families— a belief which 
 seems to have sprung from the habit of regarding 
 body and soul as two distinct beings, which at certain 
 times took each a separate bodily shape. Sometimes the 
 guardian spirit or Jylgja took a human shape, and 
 at others its form took that of some animal to foreshadow 
 the character of the man to whom it belonged. Thus it 
 becomes a bear, a wolf, an ox, and even a fox, in men. 
 The Jylgja of women were fond of taking the shape of 
 swans. To see one's own Jylgja was unlucky, and often 
 a sign that a man was ' fey,' or death-doomed. So, when 
 Thord Freedmanson tells Njal that he sees the goat 
 wallowing in its gore in the 'town ' of Bergthirsknoll, the 
 foresighted man tells him that he lias seen his own Jylgja, 
 and that he must be doomed to die. Finer and nobler 
 natures often saw the guardian spirits of others. . . . 
 From the Jylgja of the individual it was easy to rise to 
 the still more abstract notion of the guardian spirits of a 
 family, who sometimes, if a great change in the house is 
 about to begin, even show themselves as hurtful to some 
 
128 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 member of the house. He believed also that some men 
 had more than one shape (voru eigi einhamir) ; that they 
 could either take the shapes of animals, as bears or 
 wolves, and so work mischief; or that without undergoing 
 bodily change, an access of rage and strength came over 
 them, and more especially towards night, which made 
 them more than a match for ordinary men." 
 
 To those who may fancy that in this inquiry I have 
 carried conjecture and apparent analogy beyond the 
 domain of legitimate critical inference, I answer in 
 the words of Professor Gervinus, in his comments on 
 the sonnets of Shakspere — "The caution of the critic 
 does not require that we should repudiate a supposition 
 so extraordinarily probable ; it requires alone that we 
 should not obstinately insist upon it and set it up as an 
 established certainty, but that we should lend a willing 
 ear to better and surer knowledge whenever it is offered." 
 Professor Tyndall, too, in his "Lectures on Light," 
 referring to the genesis of all scientific knowledge, says — 
 " All our notions of nature, however exalted or however 
 grotesque, have some foundations in experience. The 
 notion of personal volition in nature had this basis. In 
 the fury and the serenity of natural phenomena the 
 savage saw the transcript of his own varying moods, and 
 he accordingly ascribed these phenomena to beings of 
 like passions with himself, but vastly transcending him 
 in power. Thus the notion of casualty — the assumption 
 that natural things did not come of themselves, but had 
 unseen antecedents — lay at the root of even the savage's 
 interpretation of nature. Out of this bias of the human 
 
BARBARISM PRECEDED CIVILIZATION. 1 29 
 
 mind to seek for the antecedents of phenomena, all science 
 has sprung." 
 
 The value of " comparative folk-lore," in the elucida- 
 tion of obscure passages in the early history of mankind, 
 especially with regard to manners, customs, and super- 
 stitious faiths, is now pretty generally acknowledged by 
 archaeological students. Since this chapter was first 
 written I find the subject has been ably treated by 
 Mr. J. A. Farrer, in the Corn/nil Magazine of January, 
 1875. He says — "The evidence that the nations now 
 highest in culture were once in the position of those now 
 the lowest is ever increasing, and the study of folk-lore 
 corroborates the conclusions long since arrived at by 
 archaeological science. For, just as stone monuments, 
 flint-knives, lake-piles, and shell-mounds point to a time 
 when Europeans resembled races where such things are 
 still part of actual life, so do the traces in our social 
 organism, of fetishism, totemism, and other low forms of 
 thought, connect our past with people where such forms 
 of thought are still predominant. The analogies with 
 barbarism that still flourish in civilised communities seem 
 only explicable on the theory of a slow and more or less 
 uniform metamorphosis to higher types and modes of life, 
 and we are forced to believe that ere long it will appear 
 a law of development, as firmly established on the incon- 
 ceivability of the contrary, that civilization should emerge 
 from barbarism as that butterflies should first be cater- 
 pillars, or that ignorance should precede knowledge. It 
 is in this way that superstition itself may be turned to 
 the service of science." 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BATTLES IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIBBLE, 
 NEAR WHALLEY AND CLITHEROE. 
 
 WADA'S DEFEAT BY KING EARDULPH, AT EILLANGAHOH, 
 A.D. 798, AND CONTEMPORARY PROPHETIC SUPER- 
 STITIONS. THE VICTORY OF THE SCOTS AT 
 EDISFORD BRIDGE IN 1138. CIVIL WAR 
 INCIDENTS BETWEEN CHARLES I. 
 AND THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 
 
 HE Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the date 798, 
 says — "This year there was a great fight at 
 Hwelleage (Whalley), in the land of the North- 
 
 umbrians, during Lent, on the 4th before the Nones of 
 April, and there Alric, the son of Herbert, was slain, 
 and many others with him." 
 
 Simeon of Durham has the following reference to this 
 battle : — " A.D. 798. A conspiracy having been organised 
 by the murderers of Ethelred, the king, Wada, the chief 
 of that conspiracy, commenced a war against Eardulph, 
 and fought a battle at a place called by the English 
 Billangahoh, near Walalega, and, after many had fallen 
 on both sides, Wada and his army were totally routed." j 
 
MAP 2 
 
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 O/eat-J^i^/ 
 
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 /f 
 
 
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 V 
 
 ^y. 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 A 
 
 JfCtf^ 
 
 r 
 
 f!/ 
 
 •s 
 
 Wka/^€r 
 
 CAi 
 
 ^'^ay?.fAci 
 
 \J) / cA/yje?)^ 
 
 
INTERNECINE CONFLICTS. 1 31 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle informs us that four 
 years previously (794), "Ethelred, king of the North- 
 umbrians, was slain by his own people, on the 13th before 
 the Kalends of May." This Ethelred seems to have been 
 a very unfortunate or a very tyrannical ruler, even for 
 those barbarous times, for we find, on the same authority, 
 he, in company with Herbert, " slew three high reves, on 
 the nth before the Kalends of April," "jjZ, and that after- 
 wards " Alfwold obtained the kingdom, and drove Ethelred 
 out of the country ; and he (Alfwold) reigned ten years." 
 This same Alfwold was evidently regarded as a patriot 
 and not as an usurper, for the Chronicle tells us that 
 he " was slain by Siga, on the 8th before the Kalends of 
 October ; and a heavenly light was frequently seen at 
 the place where he was slain ; and he was buried at 
 Hexham within the church." He was succeeded by his 
 nephew, Osred, who, the Chronicle says, afterwards "was 
 betrayed and driven from the kingdom ; and Ethelred, 
 the son of Ethelwald, again obtained the government." 
 Two years later, from the same authority, we learn that 
 "Osred, who had been king of the Northhumbrians, having 
 come home from his exile, was seized and slain on the 
 1 8th before the Kalends of October," (792). 
 
 These facts throw much light on the social and political 
 state of the country at the period, and demonstrate that 
 Ethelred's murder was by no means an exceptional occur- 
 rence. Indeed, the slaying of kings by their own people 
 appears to have been the rule rather than the exception 
 amongst our ancestors, especially in Northumbria, about 
 this period. Sharon Turner, in his " History of the Anglo- 
 
132 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Saxons," referring to the internecine conflicts which took 
 place in the North of England for a lengthened period, 
 and especially about this time, says — " Of all the Anglo- 
 Saxon Governments the kingdom of Northumbria had 
 been always the most perturbed. Usurper murdering 
 usurper is the prevailing incident. A crowd of ghastly 
 monarchs pass swiftly along the page of history as we 
 gaze, and scarcely was the sword of the assassin sheathed 
 before it was drawn against its master, and he 
 was carried to the sepulchre which he had just 
 closed upon another. In this manner, during the last 
 century and a half, no fewer than seventeen sceptered 
 chiefs hurled each other from their joyless thrones, and 
 the deaths of the greatest number were accompanied by 
 hecatombs of their friends." 
 
 The public mind, under such circumstances, must of 
 necessity have been deeply perturbed, and superstition 
 associated the social and political anarchy which prevailed 
 with the "war of elements," and other attendant 
 mysterious physical phenomena. The trusty old 
 chronicler, duly impressed with the solemnity of his 
 theme, informs us that during the year preceding the 
 murder of Ethelred " dire forewarnings came over the 
 land of the Northumbrians and miserably terrified the 
 people ; these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings, 
 and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great 
 famine soon followed these tokens ; and a little after that, 
 in the same year, on the 6th before the Ides of January, 
 the ravaging of heathen men lamentably destroyed God's 
 Church at Lindisfarnc through rapine and slaughter." 
 
FIRST LANDING OF THE NORSEMEN. 133 
 
 The " heathen men " here referred to were Danish 
 rovers. These "Northmen, out of Haeretha-land " 
 (Denmark), had a few years previously {7^7), in three 
 ships, " first sought the land of the English nation," and, 
 having found it and pronounced it good, they ceased not 
 their invasions until they became masters of the entire 
 kingdom, under Canute the Great. This conquest of the 
 Northmen mainly resulted from the fact that the English 
 monarchs of the Heptarchy were continually at war either 
 with the Britons or amongst themselves. " Domestic 
 treason and fierce civil strife " added additional strength 
 to the foe, for both regal enemy and rebellious subject 
 eagerly sought the aid of the pirates, or selected the 
 occasion of their hostile visits to harass their opponents. 
 Although we have no record of Danish or other North- 
 men's ravages in Lancashire in the reign of Ethelred or 
 his successor, yet we get a very distinct view of their 
 doings on the eastern coast of Northumbria, and of the 
 internecine strife which rendered the kingdom a relatively 
 easy prey to the brave but brutal and remorseless heathen 
 pirates. 
 
 The battles described In the previous chapters were 
 more or less conjectural in some of their aspects ; at least 
 the true character of the presumed Arthurian victories on 
 the Douglas, as well as the site of that of Penda over St. 
 Oswald, at Maserfield, have not been demonstrated with 
 such certainty as to obtain universal assent. Such, how- 
 ever, is not the case with the minor struggle now under 
 consideration. The site assigned to it has never been 
 doubted* The names recorded by the old chroniclers 
 
134 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 are still extant in the locality, with such orthographic or 
 phonetic changes in their descent from the eighth to the 
 nineteenth century as philologists would anticipate. The 
 Hwelleage of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as well as the 
 monk of Durham's mediaeval Latin Walalcga, are identical 
 with the present Whalley ; while Billangahoh is repre- 
 sented by its descendants Billinge, Billington, and Langho. 
 Archaeological remains have likewise contributed im- 
 portant evidence. Three large tumuli for centuries have 
 marked the scene of the struggle, one of which, near to 
 Langho, has been removed, and the remains of a buried 
 warrior exhumed. According to J. M. Kemble and 
 other Anglo-Saxon scholars, Billington signifies the 
 homestead or settlementof thesept or clan of the Billings, 
 as Birmingham is that of the Beormings. This rule like- 
 wise applies to many other localities where the local 
 nomenclature presents similar features. Consequently, 
 from legitimate analogy, we learn that Waddington, on 
 the right bank of the Ribble opposite Clitheroe, is the 
 homestead, town, or settlement of Wadda and his de- 
 pendents ; and Waddow, in its immediate neighbourhood, 
 the how or hill of Wadda. 
 
 In the fragment of the old Anglo-Saxon poem "The 
 Traveller's Tale," mention is made of a Wada as a chief of 
 the Hailsings. Mr. Haigh, in his " Anglo-Saxon Sagas," 
 regards him as "probably one of the companions of the 
 first Hcncgcst." Hence the probability of his being an 
 ancestorof the chief conspirator against King Eardulph. 
 Mr. Kemble ("Saxons in England,") says — " Among the 
 heroes of heathen tradition are Wada, Weland, and Eigii. 
 
WADE'S BOAT, and the LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER. 135 
 
 All three so celebrated in the mythus and epos of Scan- 
 dinavia and Germany, have left traces in England. Of 
 Wada, the " Traveller's Song " declares that he ruled the 
 Haelsings ; and even later times had to tell of Wade's 
 boat, in which the exact allusion is unknown to us : the 
 Scandinavian story makes him wade across the 
 Groenasund, carrying his son across his shoulder. Perhaps 
 our tradition gives a different version of this story." 
 
 This story may have something to do with the genesis 
 of the legend of St. Christopher bearing the infant Christ 
 on his shoulders over a broad stream, a subject of one of 
 the early mediaeval pictures discovered some time ago, on 
 the removal of the whitewash from the walls of Gaws- 
 worth Church, near Macclesfield. The historical 
 anachronism in ascribing such an action to him may 
 have resulted from the mere transference of it from the 
 pagan hero to the Christian saint. The original story 
 seems to have been pretty familiar to the people as late 
 as the fourteenth century. Mr. Kemble says—" Chaucer 
 once or twice refers to this (Wade's boat) in such a way 
 as to show that the expression was used in an obscene 
 sense. Old women, he says, * connen so moche craft in 
 Wade's boat.' Again of Pandarus : 
 
 ' He song, he plaied, he told a tale of Wade.' 
 
 Troil. Cressid. 
 
 *In this there seems to be some allusion to what 
 anatomists have termed fossa naviailariSy though what 
 immediate connection there could be with the mythical 
 Wade, now escapes us.' " 
 
13^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 The " Traveller's Tale " likewise refers to a chieftain 
 named " Billing," who " ruled the Wa^rns," and who, in 
 Mr. Haigh's opinion, was likewise a " probable associate 
 of Hencgest." Mr. Haigh likewise identifies Whaley in 
 Cheshire, Whalley in Northumberland, and Whalley in 
 Lancashire, with a chieftain described in the same poem 
 as " Hwala once the best." Dr. Whitaker, Mr. Baines, 
 and others, however, derive Whalley from Walalcga^ 
 "Field of Wells." 
 
 Mr. Jno. R. Green (" Making of England,") says — " In 
 the star-strown track of the Milky Way, our fathers saw a 
 road by which the hero-sons of Waetla marched across 
 the sky, and poetry only hardened into prose when they 
 transferred the name of Watling Street to the great 
 trackway which passed athwart the island they had won, 
 from London to Chester. The stones of Weyland's 
 Smithy still recall the days when the new settlers told 
 one another, on the conquered ground, the wondrous tale 
 they had brought with them from their German home, 
 the talc of the godlike smith Weland, who forged the 
 arms that none could blunt or break ; just as they told 
 around Wadanbury and Wadanhlaew the strange tale of 
 Wade and his boats. When men christened mere and 
 tree with Scyld's name, at Scyldsmere and Styldstreow, 
 they must have been familiar with the story of the godlike 
 child who came over the waters to found the royal line 
 of the Gwissas. So a name like Hnaefs-scylf was then 
 a living part of English mythology ; and a name like 
 Aylesbury may preserve the last trace of the legend told 
 of Wcland's brother, the sun-archer Egil." 
 
TUMULI ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. 13/ 
 
 Although we possess but little information respect- 
 ing the details of the fight, or of the political com- 
 plications out of which it arose, we are, at least, perfectly- 
 certain of the locality of the struggle. In addition, the 
 magnificent scenery by which it is surrounded, in which 
 grandeur and beauty are seen in the most harmonious 
 combination, the interesting archaeological remains, and 
 the numerous other historic associations of the neigh- 
 bourhood, including those connected with Whalley 
 Abbey, Clitheroe Castle, Mytton, and Stonyhurst, give 
 an interest to the locality which is denied to the sites of 
 many battle-fields, the names of which have become 
 " household words," not merely with one nation or people, 
 but with all the so-called civilised section of mankind. 
 
 One of the tumuli to which I have referred was 
 partially opened by Dr. T. D. Whitaker, the historian of 
 Whalley. But, as in his day Anglo-Saxon antiquities 
 were very little sought after and, consequently, very im- 
 perfectly understood, his labours were productive of 
 nothing but negative results. Canon Raines, however, 
 in a note to his edition of the "Notitia Cestriensis," 
 published by the Chetham Society, says — " In the year 
 1836, as Thomas Hubbertsty,' the farmer at Brockhall, 
 was removing a large mound of earth in Brockhall Eases, 
 about five hundred yards from the bank of the Ribble, 
 on the left of the road leading from the house, he dis- 
 covered a Kist-vaen, formed of rude stones, containing 
 some human bones and the rusty remains of some spear- 
 heads of iron. The whole crumbled to dust on exposure 
 to the air. Tradition has uniformly recorded that a 
 
138 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 battle was fought about Langho, Elker and Buckfoot, 
 near the Ribble ; and a tumulus was opened within two 
 hundred yards of a ford of the Ribble (now called 
 BuUasey-ford), one of the very few points for miles where 
 that river could be crossed. The late Dr. Whitaker 
 repeatedly, but in vain, searched for remains of this 
 battle, as he appears to have erroneously concluded that 
 the scene of it was higher up the river, near Hacking 
 Hall, at the junction of the Calder and the Ribble." 
 
 Dr. Whitaker does not appear to have noticed all 
 the tumuli in the neighbourhood. In his " History of 
 Whalley " he says — " Of this great battle there are no 
 remains, unless a large tuniichis near Hacking Hall, and 
 in the immediate vicinity of Langho, be supposed to 
 cover the remains of Alric, or some other chieftain among 
 the slain." The site of the tumulus, on the left bank, or 
 south-east side of the Ribble, is marked on the Ordnance 
 map. It is scarcely three quarters of a mile from Hack- 
 ing Hall, and rather more than a mile from Langho 
 chapel. No other tumulus is noticed by the Ordnance 
 surveyors on the south-cast side of the river. 
 
 Canon Raines states that the " large mound " re- 
 moved by Thomas Hubbertsty, in 1836, was situated 
 " about five hundred yards from the bank of the Ribble," 
 and that the tumulus that had been previously opened 
 was only two hundred yards distant from that stream. 
 The "large mound" of Canon Raines, removed in 1836, 
 in which remains were found, seems to have been a 
 smaller affair than the other tumuli. This is affirmed by 
 Mr. Abram, in a very able paper on the history of the 
 
TUxMULI ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. 1 39 
 
 township of Billington, in the Lancashire and Cheshire 
 Historical Society's Transactions, otherwise he says, " the 
 farmer would hardly have undertaken to level it." The 
 tumuli on the right bank or north-west side of the river 
 are named " lowes " on the six-inch Ordnance map, and 
 "mounds" on the smaller one. The former name is 
 evidently the Anglo-Saxon hloeiv, a conical hill or a 
 sepulchral mound, or tumulus, in the latter sense a 
 synonym of beorh or bearw^ a barrow. Although these 
 large tumuli are on the north-west side of the river, the 
 nearest is scarcely half a mile distant from the site of the 
 removed one near Bullasey-ford on the south-east. 
 
 There is some confusion in the various descriptions of 
 these mounds. Mr. Abram says, referring to the large 
 tumulus called the " Lowe " on the north-west side of the 
 Ribble — " Into this mound Whitaker had some excavation 
 made about the year 1815, but he found the work heavy 
 and gave it up without reaching the centre of the 
 tumulus, where the relics of sepulture might be expected 
 to be found." As Dr. Whitaker expressly says, he saw 
 no remains of the battle except " a large tumulus near 
 Hacking Hall," he must not only have been ignorant of 
 the character of its immediate neighbour, as well as of 
 the one on the Langho side of the river, near Bullasey-ford, 
 if this "lowe"was the mound he but partially disturbed. 
 This can scarcely be the tumulus referred to by Canon 
 Raines if the distance (two hundred yards) from the river 
 be correct. Neither can the five hundred yards distance 
 of Mr. Hubbertsty's mound be reconciled with the site of 
 the tumulus at Brockhall, near Bullasey-ford. Perhaps 
 
140 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 his figures have been accidently transposed. I had 
 previously laboured under an impression that Hubbertsty 
 had merely completely cleared away the mound but im- 
 perfectly excavated by Dr. Whitaker. 
 
 Being anxious to arrive at some more definite 
 knowledge respecting these " lowes " or " mounds," on 
 the ninth of Nov.. 1876, I visited the locality, and by 
 the aid of Mr. Parkinson, the present tenant of Brockhall, 
 I was enabled to make a far more detailed inspection of 
 the battle-field than on a hurried visit about twenty 
 years previously. Mr. Parkinson pointed out the site of 
 the tumulus removed by Mr. Hubbertsty in 1836. 
 Nothing of it, of course, now remains. He said that it 
 was the only mound of the kind he had ever heard of on 
 the Langho side of the Ribble. He, however, pointed 
 out a curious circular agger, about five or six feet broad 
 and a couple of feet high, which enclosed a level area 
 some sixteen or seventeen yards in diameter. It is 
 evidently an artificial work, but without additional 
 evidence it is impossible to say, with any reasonable 
 degree of probability, by whom it was constructed, or to 
 what use it was originally applied. On the steep pro- 
 montory called " Brockhole Wood-end," Mr. Parkinson 
 called my attention to curious masses of cemented sand 
 and pebble stones, which some persons regarded as 
 artificial grout, that had originally formed part of the 
 massive masonry of an ancient building, the foundations 
 of which had been undermined by the falling in of the 
 earth in consequence of the erosive action of the flood 
 water of the Ribble at the base of the cliff. This, how- 
 
GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 141 
 
 ever, I found, on examination, to be erroneous. The 
 "grout" in question is a geologlcarphenomenon, a kind 
 of conglomerate or breccia, formed by the percolation of 
 rain water, charged with carbonic acid and lime, through 
 the mass of glacial or boulder "till" and its sandy and 
 pebbly contents. The " till " contains limestones brought 
 by ice from both the Ribble and the Hodder valleys. 
 The phenomenon is a common one to geologists, and 
 the " concrete " at " Brockhole V/ood-end " is an excellent 
 example of it. On gazing across the river at the larger 
 "lowe"of the six-inch Ordnance map, Mr. Parkinson 
 remarked that it appeared to him to be what is termed 
 by geologists an outlier of the boulder deposits on each 
 side of the valley, and therefore, not an artificial mound. 
 He pointed out that the flood waters of the Ribble, 
 Hodder, and Calder met in the plain, and when the " till " 
 was excavated by a kind of circular motion of the com- 
 bined waters, which the present appearance of the valley 
 indicates, the land situated in the centre or vortex would 
 the longer resist the abrading action, and eventually, as 
 the passage of the currents became enlarged, remain a 
 surviving outlier of the general mass of glacial deposit. 
 On passing the river in the ferry-boat, and, by the aid of 
 a pickaxe, exposing the material of which this mound is 
 formed, I confessed that I could detect no difference in 
 its character or structure from that of the neighbouring 
 geological deposits. Still, as the mound, if artificial, 
 must have been constructed from the boulder clay and 
 its unstratified contents, this is not surprising. It is, 
 however, impossible to solve this problem without a much 
 
142 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 more searching investigation. Even if a mound existed 
 at the time the battle was fought, nothing is more pro- 
 bable than that it would be utilised by the victors in the 
 interment of their honoured dead. The second and 
 smaller mound seems very like an artificial one ; but 
 this cannot be satisfactorily affirmed without more com- 
 plete investigation. Both mounds have been partially 
 opened near their summits, but with only negative 
 results, as might have been anticipated, as the Christian 
 Anglo-Saxons in such cases buried the body in the earth, 
 and afterwards heaped the tumulus or barrow above it, 
 as a monument to the memory of the deceased warrior 
 or warriors. This mode of interment had been adopted 
 in the instance of the tumulus removed by Mr. 
 Hubbertsty in 1836. Interesting results, both to 
 geologists and archaeologists, may, therefore, be anticipated 
 from a thorough examination of the contents of these 
 remarkable " lowes " or " mounds ;" but, as some expense 
 would be attendant thereupon, they may yet, for some 
 time, remain an interesting puzzle, both to the learned 
 and the unlearned in such matters. They are situated 
 in the midst of the level alluvial plain. The largest is 
 nearly twenty feet high, and forms a prominent object. 
 When I first visited the locality I was much amused at 
 the rough and ready way in which some of the country 
 people accounted for their construction, or rather the 
 object thereof They had seen sheep, when the Ribble 
 valley was flooded, mount on the top of them for safety, 
 and they innocently concluded that these historic monu- 
 ments, mementoes of deadly civil strife during the eighth 
 
DETAILS OF THE BATTLE. 1 43 
 
 century, or of the glacial period of geologists, had been 
 erected by some benevolent or thrifty ancestor of the 
 owner of the soil for the especial accommodation of ovine 
 refugees during the deluges to which the low-lying land 
 on the margin of the river is occasionally subjected. 
 
 It is, of course, at the present time, impossible to de- 
 fine the extent of ground covered by the contending 
 armies during the conflict, or to give even a satisfactory 
 outline of the general features of the battle. The Roman 
 road, the seventh iter of Richard of Cirencester, which leads 
 from the Wyre (the Portus Setantiorum of Ptolemy), by 
 Preston and Ribchester to York, passed through the 
 township of Billington, crossed the Calder near the 
 present "Potter's Ford," a little above its junction with 
 the Ribble, and proceeded a little south of Clitheroe and 
 north of Pendle-hill, by Standen Hall, and Worston, in 
 Lancashire, and Downham, in Yorkshire. Mr. Abram 
 seems to think that the battle was most probably fought 
 on this line of road. He says — " Eardulf encountered the 
 insurgent army on the extreme verge of his kingdom (for 
 it seems certain that the country south of the Ribble was 
 then a part, not of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, 
 but that of Mercia). Wada and his army had probably 
 been driven upon the neutral territory before the decisive 
 battle could be forced upon him." 
 
 This notion that the Ribble and not the Mersey was 
 the southern boundary of Northumbria in the earlier 
 period of the Heptarchy, was first propounded by Dr. 
 Whitaker, but upon very slight evidence. It is sufficient 
 here to say that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the 
 
144 ANC lENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 date 923, expressly states that King Edward sent a force 
 of Mercians to take possession of "Mameceastre (Man- 
 chester), in Northumbrian and repair and man it." 
 Again, the same chronicle, when referring to this very 
 battle, A.D. 798, expressly states that it took place *' at 
 Whalley, in the land of the Northumbrians^ Against 
 such evidence, Dr. Whitaker's mistaken dialectal 
 argument, as well as that based on the extent 
 of the episcopal see of Lichfield, at some period of the 
 Heptarchy, is utterly valueless. His authority is the 
 ancient document entitled " De Statu Blackborneshire," 
 supposed to have been written in the fourteenth century 
 by John Lindeley, Abbot of Whalley. Some notion of 
 the value of this monkish compilation, with reference to 
 the earlier history of the district, may be gathered from 
 the fact that the author makes Augustine, and not 
 Paulinus, the missionary who planted Christianity 
 amongst the Northumbrian Angles. Dr. Whitaker like- 
 wise contends that the Ribble is the dialectic boundary 
 between the two kingdoms. My own observation, how- 
 ever, leads me to a very different conclusion. To my 
 ear the change is by no means so distinctly marked on 
 the north and south sides of the Ribble as it is on the 
 north and south banks of the Mersey. The swampy 
 country between the two rivers would rather seem to 
 have been a kind of " march " or " debateable ground," 
 during the earlier portion of the Anglo-Saxon and 
 Danish periods, districts in it being sometimes governed 
 by tributary British chieftains under both Northumbrian 
 and Mercian kings as the fortune of war from time to 
 
THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF NORTHUMBRIA. I45 
 
 time prevailed. Lancashire is not referred to as a 
 county till the middle of the twelfth century. The name 
 is never mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. As 
 we find the " Lands between the Ribble and the Mersey" 
 are surveyed with those of Cheshire, in the Domesday 
 book, it seems highly probable that they formed a part 
 of Leofric's earldom of Mercia, at the tim^e of the Nor- 
 man conquest. Consequently it is to the latter and not 
 to the earlier portion of the Anglo-Saxon period that 
 the Ribble formed the southern boundary of the earldom 
 of Northumbria, rather than of the earlier independent 
 kingdom. 
 
 Mr. J. R. Green ("Making of England,") says— 
 **The first missionaries to the Englishmen, strangers in 
 a heathen land, attached themselves necessarily to the 
 courts of the kings, who were their earliest converts, and 
 whose conversion was generally followed by that of their 
 people. The English bishops were thus at first royal chap- 
 lains, and their diocese was naturally nothing but the 
 kingdom. The kingdom of Kent became the diocese of 
 Canterbury, and the kingdom of Northumbria became 
 the diocese of York. So absolutely was this the case 
 that the diocese grew or shrank with the growth or 
 shrinking of the realm which it spiritually represented, 
 and a bishop of Wessex or of Mercia found the limits of 
 his see widened or cut short by the triumphs of Wolfhere 
 or of Ine. \\\ this way two realms, which are all but 
 forgotten, are commemorated in the limits of existing 
 sees. That of Rochester represented, till of late, an 
 obscure kingdom of West Kent, and the frontier of the 
 
146 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 original kingdom of Mercia might be recovered by 
 following the map of the ancient bishopric of Lichfield." 
 
 After describing in detail some of the subdivisions 
 made by Archbishop Theodore (a.d. 669-672), he adds — 
 " The see of Lichfield thus returned to its original form 
 of a see of the Mercians proper, though its bounds on the 
 westward now embraced much of the upper Severn 
 valley, with Cheshire and the lands northward to the 
 Mersey." 
 
 Notwithstanding this error with regard to the southern 
 boundary of Northumbria at that period, the Roman 
 road, in all probability, was utilised by the contending 
 forces, and some portion of the main battle was, doubt- 
 less, fought in its immediate vicinity. On the other 
 hand, it is equally probable, as the two larger tumuli are 
 situated on the north-west bank of the Ribble, that the 
 chief conflict occurred in their neighbourhood. On this 
 hypothesis, Wada and his allies, on leaving Waddington, 
 crossed the Hodder, at the ford nearest its mouth, met 
 the King's army on the banks of the Ribble, and 
 the possession of Bullasey-ford was the immediate object 
 of the encounter in which the rebellious chieftain was 
 discomfited. Or the route may have been reversed. 
 Wada may have crossed the Ribble, at the Bungerley 
 "hyppyngstoncs," to the north-west of Clitheroc, or the 
 Edisford, to the south-west, and after penetrating the 
 southern portion of the present county, had to fall back 
 before the advance of the King's army, and, unable to 
 retrace his steps he made for the nearer ford at Bullascy, 
 where he was defeated and pursued across the river. As 
 
KING EARDULF BANISHED. 147 
 
 the slaughter is generally greater when a discomfited 
 enemy is routed, perhaps the two large tumuli, named 
 ** lowes," mark the spot where the greatest carnage 
 ensued. This, however, of course, is merely conjecture. 
 Its value cannot be tested unless a thorough investigation 
 of the contents of these huge mounds should throw ad- 
 ditional light upon the subject. 
 
 The good fortune of King Eardulf deserted him on 
 a future occasion. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says — 
 "A.D. 806. This year the moon was eclipsed in the 
 Kalends of September ; and Eardulf, King of the North- 
 humbrians, was driven from his kingdom. . . . Also 
 in the same year, on the 2nd before the Nones of June, 
 a cross appeared in the moon on a Wednesday at dawn ; 
 and afterwards in this year, on the 3rd before the Kalends 
 of September, a wonderful circle was seen about the 
 sun." This is the last we hear of the victor of Bil- 
 langahoh, and the manner of his exit from the historic 
 stage would seem to indicate that his rule, like that of 
 his predecessor, had become so intolerable that further 
 revolts ensued, and that Wada's successors, whoever they 
 may have been, being successful in their contumacy, 
 would be regarded, not as traitors, but as "saviours of 
 their country." Truly, in struggles of this character, in 
 all ages, successful " rebels," writing their own history, 
 are ever lauded as heroes or patriots, while discomfited 
 rulers are, with equal verity, denounced as tyrants and 
 enemies of the common weal. 
 
 A little higher up the Ribble than its junction with 
 the Hodder, and about a mile below the venerable ruin 
 
14^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 of the keep of Clitheroe Castle, the ancient stronghold 
 of the De Lacies, is a handsome modern bridge, named 
 Edisford or Eadsford, to which I have previously referred. 
 The country people, however, call it " Itch-uth Bridge," 
 pronouncing the latter syllable as in Cuthburt. 
 
 Johannes,PriorofHagulstald,recordsthat in this neigh- 
 bourhood, in the year 1138, one William, the son of the 
 bastard brother of David, king of Scotland, when engaged on 
 a foray into England, was gallantly encountered by a small 
 band, near Clitheroe, but, being overpowered by numbers, 
 the Lancashire men sustained a slight defeat, and the 
 Scots took a considerable number of prisoners. The 
 monkish chronicler calls the northern assailants " Picts 
 and Scots," and adds that they with difficulty held their 
 own till the fight had lasted three hours. Tradition has 
 preserved both the memory and the site of this conflict. 
 Mr. Edward Baines says : — "Vestiges of this sanguinary 
 engagement have been found at Edisford Bridge, and 
 along the banks of the Ribble, during successive ages up 
 to the present time." 
 
 The " Bashall-brook," after passing "Bashall Hall," 
 enters the Ribble a little above Edisford Bridge. This is 
 the stream referred to by Mr. Haigh,'-' as the " Bassus " of 
 Nennius, and the site of one of the Arthurian victories which 
 attended Colgrin's flight to York, after his defeat on the 
 Douglas, near Wigan. I have, however, never heard of any 
 legend or tradition which referred to a battle in the 
 neighbourhood, except the one recorded by the Prior of 
 Hagulstald. 
 
 •See Chapter I., page 25. 
 
HENRY VI. TAKEN PRISONER. 149 
 
 Near the bridge above Clitheroe may yet be seen the 
 ancient '* hyppyngstones " to which I have previously 
 referred, and by means of which the river was crossed 
 before the erection of the present viaduct. These 
 " hyppyngstones " have at least one mournful historical 
 association. After the fatal battle of Hexham, in the 
 year 1464, the unfortunate Henry the Sixth, the defeated 
 son of the renowned victor at Agincourt, was for a time 
 concealed at Bolton-in-BoUand and Waddington Halls. 
 What transpired is best told in the words of the old 
 chronicler : — 
 
 " Also the"same yere, Kinge Henry was taken byside 
 a howse of religione [i.e., Whalley Abbey] in Lancashyre, 
 by the mene of a blacke monke of Abyngtone, in a wode 
 called Cletherwode, beside Bungerley hyppyngstones, by 
 Thomas Talbott, of Bashalle, and Jhon Talbott, his 
 cosyne, of Colebury [i.e., Salesbury, near Ribchester], 
 with other moo ; which discryvide (him) beynge at his 
 dynere at Waddington Hall ; and [he was] carryed to 
 London on horsebacke, and his legges bound to the 
 styropes." i 
 
 Mr. J. G. Nichols (Notes and Queries, vol 2., p. 229), 
 says — " Waddington belonged to Sir John Tempest, of 
 Bracewell, who was the father-in-law to Thomas Talbot. 
 Both Sir John Tempest and Sir James Harrington, of 
 Brierley, near Barnsley, were concerned in the king's 
 capture, and each received one hundred marks reward, 
 but the fact of Sir Thomas Talbot being the chief actor, 
 is shown by his having received the large sum of ;^ioo." 
 
 tWarksworth Chronicle. 
 
ISO ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 In addition to his one hundred marks, Sir James 
 Harrington received from Edward IV. large grants of 
 land, forfeited by Richard Tunstell, and other " rebels, " 
 " for his services in taking prisoner, and withholding as 
 such, in diligence and valour, his enemy, Henry, lately 
 called Henry VI." Mr. Baines says Sir John Talbot 
 likewise received, " as a reward for his perfidy, a grant of 
 twenty marks a year, from Edward IV„ confirmed by 
 his successor, Richard III., and made payable out of the 
 revenues of the county palatine of Lancaster." 
 
 In his "History of Craven," Dr. Whitaker gives 
 engravings of the unfortunate monarch's boots, gloves, 
 and a spoon, which were preserved at Bolton Hall, in 
 BoUand, Yorkshire, then the seat of Sir Ralph Pudsey, 
 who married a daughter of Sir Thomas Tunstell. I 
 understand these relics of the unfortunate king have been 
 since removed to Hornby Castle, Lancashire. The " Old 
 Hall " at Waddington, which has been converted into a 
 farmhouse, yet presents some massive masonry, and a 
 field in the neighbourhood still retains the name of" King 
 Henry's meadow." 
 
 The fate of the unhappy monarch is too well known to 
 necessitate further reference here. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Whalley was the scene of a 
 relatively more recent combat, of some local importance, 
 During the civil war between Charles I. and his 
 Parliament, the Earl of Derby advanced, in 1643, from 
 Preston, to operate in the hundred of Blackburn, One 
 of the " Civil War Tracts," edited by Ormcrod, and 
 published by the Chetham Society, says : — " The Earl of 
 
CROMWELL TRADITION. IS^ 
 
 Derby, the Lord Molineux, Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Colonel 
 Tildesley, with all the other great papists in the county, 
 issued out of Preston, and on Wednesday now came to 
 Ribchester, with eleven troops of horse, 700 foot, and an 
 infinite number of clubmen, in all conceived to be 5,000." 
 Colonels Ashton and Shuttleworth opposed them with 
 some regular troops, and a body of peasantry and militia, 
 hastily levied. A regular engagement, or rather a running 
 fight, took place between Whalley and Salesbury, in 
 which the Earl was defeated and pursued to Ribchester. 
 This success appears to have been the precursor of the 
 subsequent declension of the Earl of Derby's military 
 power in the county. It was judged to be of so much 
 importance at the time by the "Roundheads," that a day 
 of thanksgiving was set apart for the victory by order of 
 Parliament. 
 
 The ruin of Clitheroe Castle, on its well-wooded 
 limestone eminence overlooking the town, forms a 
 picturesque object in the beautiful valley of the Ribble. 
 I remember well, in my early boyhood, being seriously 
 informed that the venerable feudal stronghold of the De 
 Lacies was battered into ruin by no less a personage 
 than the redoubtable Oliver Cromwell. The truth of this 
 tradition was implicitly believed by me till some slight 
 study of Lancashire history, and a special visit to the 
 locality, threw serious doubt upon it. I have 
 likewise a distinct recollection of the con- 
 sternation I caused amongst some aged friends, 
 after a careful inspection of the ruined keep, by my 
 informing them that if, as the tradition asserted, 
 
152 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Cromwell had placed his cannon on " Salt Hill," about a 
 mile to the east of the fortress, the said ordnance must have 
 possessed some of the marvellous property ascribed to 
 the Hibernian weapon, which, on occasion, could " shoot 
 round a corner," the wall of the keep presenting the 
 largest amount of superficial damage facing directly west. 
 This dilapidated aspect had, in my hearing, often been 
 attributed to the pounding the wall had received from 
 Oliver's cannon. A careful examination, however, 
 satisfied me that the western face of the structure was 
 simply most weather-worn, on account of the lengthened 
 action of the prevailing south-westerly winds. Again, ** Salt 
 Hill " was too far distant for the eight-pounder field pieces 
 of the parliamentary army to make any serious impression 
 on the massive walls."'* But tradition is "tough" indeed, 
 and especially if an element of superstition or partizan 
 zeal be embedded in it. Of course, my critics had not 
 the slightest objection to allow that there might possibly 
 be some mistake with regard to the site of his guns, 
 but "everybody knew that Cromwell did batter the 
 castle into ruin," notwithstanding ; and I was frankly 
 told that nobody thanked me for my viischicvoiis 
 endeavour to undermine people's faith in the well- 
 known legend ! 
 
 Cromwell must certainly have sem Clitheroe Castle 
 on his memorable forced march from Gisburne to 
 Stonyhurst Hall, on August i6th, 1648, the day previous 
 
 * Several cannon balls, fired during Cromwell's military operations in 
 this short but decisive campaign, have been found in the neighbourhootl of 
 Kibbleton, Ashton, and Walton-lc-dale. They arc about eight pounds 
 weight each. One of them is in my possession at the present time. 
 
CLITHEROE CASTLE DISMANTLED. 1 53 
 
 to his decisive victory over the Marquis of Langdale, on 
 RIbbleton Moor, and the Duke of Hamilton at Preston 
 and the " Pass of the Ribble." But there are two good 
 and sufficient reasons why he did not stay to expend his 
 gunpowder on the fortress. In the first place, he had 
 not time, having important business on hand that 
 demanded the utmost expedition. In the second place, 
 the castle was garrisoned by a portion of the Lancashire 
 Militia, who held the stronghold for the Parliament, and 
 Cromwell was not the man to amuse himself by bom- 
 barding his friends on the eve of a great, and, as it proved, 
 a decisive battle. 
 
 In point of fact, the castle remained intact, till the 
 end of the civil war, when the only recorded instance of 
 its ever having been even seriously threatened with a 
 siege, occurred. An ordinance, disbanding the militia 
 generally throughout the country, did not, it seems, 
 meet with the approval of the Puritan warriors who held 
 possession of the Clitheroe fortress, and who, instigated, 
 it was said, by clerical advisers, " professed for the 
 Covenant," and, in the first instance, flatly refused to 
 disband until their terms were accepted. After the 
 enforcement of the law, however, had been entrusted to 
 Major-General Lambert, these chivalrous champions of 
 the Covenant thought, under such circumstances, dis- 
 cretion was unquestionably the better part of valour, and 
 they surrendered the castle to the Parliamentary general 
 without further pressure. By an order of a Council of 
 State, several of these strongholds throughout the 
 country were dismantled, with a view to prevent their 
 
154 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 military occupation in case of a renewal of the war, and 
 amongst those so doomed were the castles of Clitheroe 
 and Greenhaugh, in the county of Lancaster. Thus 
 ignominiously expires one element in the presumed 
 historic truth of Cromwell's numerous castle and abbey 
 battering exploits, referred to at length in the first 
 chapter of this work, and on which the most remarkable 
 and wide-spread legend of modern and strictly historic 
 times is based. 
 
 A still more astounding instance of the appropriation 
 of popular legends and famous names by localities that 
 have no historical claims to them whatever, is found in 
 connection with the ancient castle at Bury, Lancashire. 
 Mr. Edward Baines says — *' In the civil wars which 
 raged in Lancashire in 1644, Bury Castle was battered by 
 the Parliamentary army from an intrenchment called 
 'Castle-steads,' in the adjoining township of Walmersley ; 
 and from that period the overthrow of this, as well as 
 of a large proportion of other castles of the kingdom, 
 may be dated." Mr. Baines gives no authority whatever 
 for this astounding statement. He evidently merely 
 repeats a well-known local tradition. It would have 
 been worth the while of a local historian, one would 
 think, to have made some enquiry as to the history of 
 the edifice at Bury during the century which had elapsed 
 between Leland's reference to it, and the redoubtable ex- 
 ploit of the Parliamentary army in 1644. The earliest 
 authentic record of the castle is no older than the reign 
 of Henry VIII., but from the very nature of the record 
 it must have been in existence for a long time previously. 
 
"WARS OF THE ROSES." 155 
 
 Leland, the *' king's antiquary," when travelling through 
 the country *'in search of England's antiquities," circa 
 1 542-9, thus writes about the place — " Byri-on-Irwell, 4 
 or V. miles from Manchestre, but a poore market. There 
 is a Ruine of a Castel by the paroch chirch yn the 
 Towne. It longgid with the Towne sumetime to the 
 Pilkentons, now to the Erles of Darby. Pilkenton had 
 a place hard by Pilkenton Park, 3 miles from Manchestre." 
 Leland's distances are, of course, merely guesses. In 
 this respect he is frequently in error. It is certain that 
 the de Bury family held land in the parish as recently as 
 161 3, and we find the manorial rights, at the time of the 
 "Wars of the Roses," were held by the Pilkington family. 
 Sir Thomas Pilkington, a devoted adherent to the for- 
 tunes of the House of York, obtained from Edward IV. 
 a licence to " kernel and embattle " his manor-home at 
 Stand, in Pilkington. It is not, therefore, improbable 
 that the Bury castle at this time ceased to be a manorial 
 residence, and gradually fell into the ruinous condition 
 in which it was seen by Leland. 
 
 During the time I was inspecting the excavation by 
 the local commissioners of the site of Bury castle, in 
 October, 1865, I was courteously permitted by Mr. J. 
 Shaw, of that town, to copy a MS., formerly the pro- 
 perty of his late father, and, I understood, in that gentle- 
 man's handwriting. It is, however, dated " Bury, April 
 13th, 1840," and signed "T. Crompton," or "Krompton," 
 it is difficult to determine which. As the document may 
 be said to embody all the " traditional lore " respecting 
 the subject under consideration, I give it entire :— 
 
15^ ancient battle-fields in lancashire. 
 
 "Bury in the Olden Time, or the Siege of the 
 Castle, etc. 
 
 "Bury Castle, supposed to be built in the reign of 
 Richard II., in 1380. The date when erected cannot be 
 positively ascertained. The coin of the Stuarts, etc., 
 have been found in the foundations. The whole of the 
 castle was destroyed by the Parliamentary arms, in 
 1642-3, when the wars between Charles I. and Cromwell 
 deluged poor England in the blood of her own children. 
 Edward de Bury was attached to the unfortunate 
 Charles's cause. He fell, with many others, a prey to 
 the party spirit then raging so horribly in the land. The 
 river Irwell passed by the north side of the castle, and 
 run by the north-east turret, the site of the castle, which 
 forms a parallelogram, was about 1 1 roods square, and 
 from the foundation [the walls] seem to have been about 
 two yards thick, with four round towers, about 60 feet 
 high each. A large stone has been found which belonged 
 to the archway, with the arms of De Bury engraved 
 thereon. This drama [sic] is principally taken from a 
 legendary tale of Bury Castle. Cromwell's army (by 
 Stanley) was placed on Bury Moor. The cannon in an 
 intrenchment at Castle Head [sic] on the Walmesley 
 side of the river. Lord Strange arrayed his army of 
 20,000 for the Royal cause on Callow's Hill, Tottington 
 Side. The river opposite the Castle, before the course 
 was altered, was about 100 to 120 yards wide." 
 
 Traditionary lore, though on the whole generally 
 founded on some fact or facts, which have become dis- 
 torted, owing to their frequent oral transmission by per- 
 
THE BURY CROMWELL LEGEND. 1 5/ 
 
 sons utterly ignorant of their original signification, is 
 scarcely ever to be relied on so far as individuals or 
 dates are concerned. The stories do unquestionably 
 attest the retention in the popular mind of something 
 of import that took place in that vague period denomi- 
 nated the " olden time," but not always accurately what 
 that something may have been. The Adam de Bury 
 referred to in the document quoted is either a myth, or 
 the name has reference to some earlier individual in- 
 terested in the castle at Bury. Indeed the family appears 
 to have become extinct before the commencement of 
 the civil wars referred to. On this point the documentary 
 evidence quoted by Mr. E. Baines is very conclusive. 
 There can have been no " Adam de Bury attached to 
 the unfortunate Charles's cause," or his name would 
 have appeared amongst the Lancashire '' lords, knights, 
 and gentlemen," who compounded with the sequestration 
 commissioners for their estates in 1646. 
 
 Cromwell's army could not have been placed on 
 Bury Moor, by either Stanley or anyone else, in 1642-3, 
 as that general did not enter Lancashire till 1648, and 
 then his route lay by Stonyhurst, Preston, Wigan, and 
 Warrington. Lord Strange's " army " of 20,000 men is 
 but another form of expression for the public meeting 
 held on Bury Moor, the numbers stated as attending 
 which are doubtless much exaggerated. A similar 
 meeting was held on Preston Moor, and, singularly 
 enough, as it was a numerous one, the same authority 
 employs the same terms — 20,000 — to express the fact. 
 The placing of the cannon at Castle Stead is another 
 
158 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 proof of the ignorance of some of the transmitters of the 
 tradition, the ordnance during Charles's time being use- 
 less at such a distance. 
 
 The statement in Mr. Shaw's document that " coin 
 of the Stuarts, etc., have been found in the foundations," 
 is valueless, inasmuch as until the excavations in 1865, 
 the soil about the foundations does not appear to have 
 been disturbed ; and yet above the original surface, 
 remains were found of various relatively modern dates, 
 as might have been anticipated. 
 
 I have said there is generally some germ of truth at 
 the bottom of this class of legendary stories. In this 
 case it is not only possible but highly probable, that 
 older traditions having reference to the " Wars of the 
 Roses," may have been confounded with more recent 
 events. This is by no means an uncommon occurrence, 
 as I have previously contended. Singularly enough, Mr. 
 Baines laments the lack of historical documents relating 
 to Lancashire during this eventful period, and which he 
 attributes to the wilful destruction to which they were 
 subjected by the partizans of both the contending houses. 
 The only historical event of any public interest recorded 
 in connection with the bloody struggle for the crown of 
 England between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, 
 relates to the capture of the unfortunate Henry VL at 
 " Bungerley hyppyngstones," previously referred to. It 
 is therefore not improbable that some local events, lost 
 to history, may have survived in the mutilated form in 
 which tradition presents them at the present day, 
 although their strictly historical signifiance is lost, and. 
 
COUNCIL OF WAR ON HODDER BRIDGE. 1 59 
 
 what is worse, flagrant error has usurped its place in the 
 popular mind. 
 
 It does not appear, on the authority of any trustworthy 
 evidence, that Cromwell ever visited Lancashire, at least 
 in a military capacity, except on the occasion of his 
 great victory over Langdale and Hamilton in 1648. Of 
 his movements immediately preceding that event, we 
 have his own statement in a dispatch addressed to " The 
 Honourable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the 
 House of Commons." He says — "Hearing that the 
 enemy was advanced with their army into Lancashire, 
 we marched the next day, being the 13th of this instant 
 August, to Otley [having cast off our train, and sent it to 
 Knaresborough, because of the difficulty of marching 
 therewith through Craven, and to the end that we might 
 with more expedition attend the enemy's motion) : and on 
 the 14th to Skipton ; the 15th to Gisburne ; the i6th to 
 Hodder Bridge, over Ribble; where we held a council 
 of war, at which we had in consideration, whether we 
 should march to Whalley that night, and so on, to 
 interpose between the enemy and his further progress into 
 Lancashire, and so southward, — which we had some 
 advertisement the enemy intended, and [we are] since 
 confirmed that they intended for London itself: or 
 whether to march immediately over the said Bridge, 
 there being no other betwixt that and Preston, and there 
 engage the enemy, — who we did believe would stand his 
 ground, because we had information that the Irish forces 
 under Munro lately come out of Ireland, which consisted 
 of twelve hundred horse and fifteen hundred foot, were 
 
l60 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 on their march towards Lancashire to join them. It was 
 thought that to engage the enemy to fight was our 
 business ; and the reason aforesaid giving us hopes that 
 our marching on the north side of Ribble would effect it, 
 it was resolved we should march over the bridge, which 
 accordingly we did, and that night quartered the whole 
 army in the field by Stonyhurst Hall, being Mr. 
 Sherburn's house, a place nine miles distant from 
 Preston. '^ Very early the next morning we marched 
 towards Preston, having intelligence that the enemy was 
 drawing together thereabouts from all his out quarters." 
 
 At first sight it appears that Cromwell refers to some 
 bridge which spanned the river Ribble, and named 
 Hodder Bridge. This, however, is not the case. By the 
 word "over" he means beyond, that is they passed over 
 the Ribble to a bridge spanning the Hodder. Stony- 
 hurst can be approached from the east by two bridges 
 over this stream called the "upper" and the "lower." 
 Both have been superseded by new structures, but some 
 picturesque ruins of their predecessors yet remain. In 
 a note at page 187, "History of Preston and its 
 Environs," I say — '*As Cromwell's army advanced by 
 way of Gisburn he would necessarily pass through 
 Waddington to the higher bridge, over the river 
 Hodder, on his route to Stonyhurst." In this case he 
 could ford the Ribble near Salley Abbey a few miles 
 above Clitheroe, or at the Bungerley " hyppyngstones/* 
 nearer the town. From Cromwell's slight reference to 
 
 • This is an error, excusable under ihe circumstances. Stonyhurst is 
 about twelve miles from Preston. 
 
CAPTAIN HODGSON'S NARRATIVE. l6l 
 
 Clitheroe, and his uncertainty respecting the troops 
 occupying the place, together with Colonel Hodgson's 
 reference to "Waddey," both of which will be again 
 referred to, this is the most probable route. But from 
 Gisburn, he may have come direct to Clitheroe, and, 
 passing through the town, have crossed the Ribble at 
 Eddisford a little below, and proceeded from thence to 
 Stonyhurst by the "lower bridge of Hodder." 
 
 Further, in the evening after the battle, in a letter to 
 the ** Honourable Committee of Lancashire, sitting at 
 Manchester," dated "Preston, 17th August, 164S/' 
 Cromwell expresses some uncertainty as to the forces 
 stationed at Clitheroe, which evidently shows he made no 
 stay in the immediate neighbourhood. He says — " We 
 understand Colonel-General Ashton's [forces] are at 
 Whalley ; we have seven troops of horse or dragoons that 
 we believe lie at Clitheroe. This night I have sent order 
 to them expressly to march to Whalley, to join to these 
 companies ; that so we may endeavour the ruin of the 
 enemy." 
 
 Captain John Hodgson, of " Coalley," near Halifax, 
 whom Thomas Carlyle somewhat unceremoniously and 
 unnecessarily describes as an " honest-hearted, 
 pudding-headed Yorkshire Puritan,"* left behind him a 
 
 * So savage a critic as Joseph Ritson seems to have entertained a much 
 higher opinion of Captain Hodgson's literary qualities than the '' seer of 
 Chelsea." In his preface to the memoir he says — "Without meaning to 
 dispute the merit of Defoe, in his peculiarly happy manner of telling a story, 
 or, in other words, in the art of book-making, it will probably be found, 
 that, truth or falsehood being out of the question, in point of importance, 
 interest, and even pleasantry. Captain Hodgson's narrative is infinitely 
 superior to tht ' Memoirs of a Cavalier.' " 
 
 M 
 
l62 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 kind of journal, in which the details of the campaign are 
 described with great clearness and minuteness. Hodgson, 
 as his conduct shows, was not only an honest, but a brave 
 and skilful soldier. He says — " The next day we 
 marched to Clitheroe ; and at Waddey [VVaddow, 
 between Clitheroe and Waddington,] our forlorn of horse 
 took Colonel Tempest and a party of horse, for an 
 earnest of what was behind. That night we pitched our 
 camp at Stanyares Hall, a Papist's house, one Sherburne ; 
 and the next morning a forlorn was drawn out of horse 
 and foot ; and, at Langridge Chapel, our horse gleaned up 
 a considerable parcel of the enemy, and fought them all 
 the way until within a mile of Preston." 
 
 If any military action, of even trifling importance, had 
 taken place at Clitheroe it could not possibly have 
 escaped the notice both of the general and his detail- 
 loving "commander of the forlorn of foot." After 
 describing the earlier portion of the struggle with Lang- 
 dale's troops on Ribbleton moor, he says — " My captain 
 sees me mounted* and orders me to ride up to my colonel, 
 that was deeply engaged both in front and flank : and I 
 did so, and there was nothing but fire and 
 smoke ; and I met Major-General Lambert coming oflfon 
 foot, who had been with his brother Bright, and coming 
 to him, I told him where his danger lay, on his left wing 
 chiefly. He ordered me to fetch up the Lancashire 
 regin*ent ; and God brought me off, both horse and 
 myself. The bullets flew freely ; then was the heat of the 
 battle that day. I came down to the muir, where I met 
 
 ""He had overcome a cavalry ofltcer, and " appropriated *' his horse. 
 
BRAVERY OF THE LANCASHIRE TROOPS. 163 
 
 with Major Jackson, that belonged to Ashton's regiment, 
 and about three hundred men were come up ; and I 
 ordered him to march, but he said he would not, till his 
 men were come up. A serjeant, belonging to them, asked 
 me, where they should march ? I shewed him the party 
 he was to fight ; and he, like a true bred Englishman, 
 marched, and I caused the soldiers to follow him ; which 
 presently fell upon the enemy, and losing that wing the 
 whole army gave ground and fled. Such valiant acts 
 were done by contemptible instruments : The major had 
 been called to a council of war, but that he criQd peccavi." 
 These Lancashire troops, under the command of 
 " Colonel-General " Ashton, appear to have been brave 
 fellows enough ; but, like militia-men in general, they ap- 
 pear to have had only lax notions of discipline. If not 
 actually mutinous, they sometimes lacked the subordina- 
 tion essential to military discipline. Their qualities 
 Captain Hodgson sums up in the following pithy 
 sentences — " The Lancashire foot were as stout men as 
 were in the world, and as brave firemen. I have often 
 told them, they were as good fighters, and as great 
 plunderers, as ever went to a field." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ATHELSTAN'S GREAT VICTORY AT BRUNAN- 
 BURH, A.D. 937., 
 
 AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE GREAT ANGLO-SAXON 
 AND DANISH HOARD, DISCOVERED AT CUERDALE, 
 
 IN 1840. 
 
 Harold— (On the morn of the battle of Senlac or Hastings)— Our 
 guardsmen have slept well since we came in ? 
 
 Leofwin. — * * They are up again 
 
 And chanting that old song of Brunanburg, 
 Where England conquer'd. 
 
 Tcnuvsons Ilarohl. 
 
 PWARDS of three centuries had elapsed since 
 the departure of the Roman legions from 
 Britain, and the presumedly first regularly 
 organised invasion of the island by the Angles, Saxons, 
 and Jutes, when a new enemy of the same Teutonic blood 
 and language appeared upon her shores. The country 
 had been but partially conquered by the first Teutonic 
 invaders. Picts and Scots held their own in Ireland and 
 that portion of Great Britain to the north of the estuaries 
 of the Clyde and the Forth. The Britons were not only 
 masters in old Cornwall and in a more extended territory 
 than is now included in the present principality of Wales, 
 
^.7!T>— f-c;r-^~ MAP 3 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 ^Ho/Arr/iyamy Top 
 
 I 
 
 L 
 
THE FIRST DANISH INVASIONS. 165 
 
 but they remained dominant in Strathclyde and Cumber- 
 land, which comprised the lands on the western side of 
 the island between the Clyde estuary and Morecambe 
 Bay. Christianity had become the recognised religious 
 faith of both the Britons and the Teutons, but the newly 
 arrived kinsmen of the latter were still worshippers of 
 Odin, and marched to battle with his sacred " totem " or 
 cognizance, the ".swart raven" emblazoned on their 
 banners. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the date 
 'j'^j, says — "This year king Bertric took to wife 
 Eadburga, King OfFa's daughter ; and in his days first 
 came three ships of Northmen, out of Hoeretha-land 
 [Denmark.] And then the reve rode to the place, and 
 would have driven them to the king's town, because he 
 knew not who they were : and they there slew him. 
 These were the first ships of Danish men which sought 
 the land of the English nation." These three ships 
 landed in Dorsetshire, and the gerefa or reve, named 
 Beaduheard, of Dorchester, supposed them to be con- 
 traband traders rather than pirates. This mistake cost 
 him his life, as well as the lives of the whole of his 
 retinue. 
 
 The conflicts which followed for many years after- 
 wards between these heathen pirates and their Christian- 
 ised kinsmen were characterised by deeds of remorseless 
 atrocity as well as of indomitable valour. Truly, every 
 now relatively civilized nation has had to pass through 
 what may not be inaptly termed its Bashi-Bazouk stage 
 of culture before from it evolved its present more highly 
 developed intellectual and moral human features. Mn 
 
1 66 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Jno. R. Green ( " Short History of the Enghsh 
 People,") sums up the more prominent characteristics of 
 this internecine strife as follows : — 
 
 " The first sight of the Danes is as if the hand of the 
 dial of history had gone back three hundred years. The 
 same Norwegian fiords, the same Frisian sandbanks, 
 pour forth their pirate fleets as in the days of Hengest 
 and Cerdic. There is the same wild panic as the black 
 boats of the invaders strike inland along the river reaches, 
 or moor round the river islets, the same sights of horror 
 — firing of homesteads, slaughter of men, women driven 
 off to slavery or shame, children tossed on pikes or sold 
 in the market-place — as when the English invaders 
 attacked Britain. Christian priests were again slain at 
 the altar by worshippers of Woden, for the Danes were 
 still heathen. Letters, arts, religion, governments dis- 
 appeared before these Northmen as before the Northmen 
 of old. But when the wild burst of the storm was over, 
 land, people, government reappeared unchanged. 
 England still remained England ; the Danes sank quietly 
 into the mass of those around them ; and Woden yielded 
 without a struggle to Christ. The secret of this difference 
 between the two invasions was that the battle was no 
 longer between men of different races. It was no longer 
 a fight between Briton and German, between Englishmen 
 and Welshmen. The Danes were the same people in 
 blood and speech with the people they attacked ; and 
 were in fact Englishmen bringing back to an England 
 that had forgotten its origins the barbaric England of its 
 pirate forefathers. Nowhere over Europe was the fight 
 
RAGNAR LODBROCK. 1 6/ 
 
 so fierce, because nowhere else were the combatants men 
 of one blood and one speech. But just for this 
 reason the fusion of the Northmen with their foes was 
 nowhere so peaceful and complete." 
 
 The chief Danish ravages for nearly a century were 
 confined to the southern coast and the coast of East 
 Anglia. In 855, the Chronicle says — "The heathen men 
 for the first time remained over winter in Sheppey." In 
 ^G^y it records that "this year the Danish army went 
 from East Anglia over the mouth of the Humber to 
 York, in North-humbria. And there was much dissention 
 among that people, and they had cast out their king 
 Osbert, and had taken to themselves a king, ^Ua, not of 
 royal blood ; but late in the year they resolved that they 
 would fight against the army, and therefore they 
 gathered a large force, and fought the army at the town 
 of York, and stormed the town, and some of them got 
 within and there was an excessive slaughter made of the 
 North-humbrians, some within, some without, and the 
 kings were both slain, and the remainder made peace 
 with the army." 
 
 Some writers say that ^Ua was put to death with the 
 most frightful tortures in revenge for similar cruel treat- 
 ment, on his part, of his conquered foe, Ragnar Lodbrock, 
 by the three sons of that somewhat mythical hero, 
 named Halfden, Ingwar, and Hubba, who commanded the 
 expedition. The story runs that Ragnar, being taken 
 prisoner by ^EUa, was thrown into a dungeon, and bitten 
 to death by vipers. This Ragnar, however, has proved 
 so troublesome to northern scholars, that many regard 
 
1 68 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 him as a mythical personage, belonging to an earlier, or 
 what they term the ''heroic period." Scandinavian reliable 
 history only dates from about the middle of the ninth 
 century, ^lla usurped the Northumbrian throne in the 
 year Z62, and Mr. J. A. Blackwell, in his edition of 
 Mallett's "Northern Antiquities," says " Ragnar's death 
 is placed by Suhm, who has brought it down to the 
 latest possible epoch, in 794, and by other writers at a 
 much earlier period." Some of the deeds attributed to 
 this hero are unquestionably mythical. From the 
 " Death Song," said to have been written by him, but 
 which Mr. Blackwell regards as more probably the 
 composition of a Skald of the ninth century, we learn 
 that Ragnar succeeded, like Indra, Perseus, St. George, 
 and other solar heroes, in conquering a monster 
 serpent that held in captivity Thora, the daughter 
 of a chieftain of Gothland, and received the lady in 
 marriage, as the reward of his prowess. In order to 
 protect himself against the serpent's venom, it is said 
 that Ragnar "put on shaggy trousers, from which 
 circumstance he was afterwards called Lodbrok {Shaggy- 
 brogues)!' Be this as it may, Ingvvar, his presumed son, 
 on the defeat of .^Ua and Osbert, ascended the North- 
 umbrian throne, and the Danes remained masters of the 
 situation, until the partition of the kingdom between 
 Godrun and Alfred the Great gave them peaceful posses- 
 sion of the territory. In the year ^^6, Halfden, a famous 
 Danish viking, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 
 " appropriated the lands of Northumbria ; and they 
 thenceforth continued ploughing and tilling them." 
 
SUCCESSION OF ATHELSTAN. 169 
 
 Consequently, from this period, the great mass of the 
 men of Scandinavian blood in Northumbria must be 
 regarded rather in the light of emigrants or settlers than 
 roving pirates, although, doubtless, with them the sword 
 was always ready to supersede the ploughshare whenever 
 the arrival of a fleet of their buccaneering relatives on the 
 coast afforded an opportunity for a successful foray on the 
 lands of their Anglo-Saxon neighbours. 
 
 On the death of Edward the Elder, in the year 925, 
 the "right royal" grandson of the Great Alfred, the 
 " golden haired " Athelstan, succeeded to the kingdom of 
 Wessex and its dependencies, which included the whole of 
 England south of the Humber and the Mersey, with the 
 exception of Cornwall and East Anglia, and the " over- 
 lordship " of the whole of the Anglo-Saxon and Danish 
 rulers, as well as those of the Welsh and Scots, whose 
 kings rendered him homage and acknowledged him the 
 legitimate successor to his father Edward, whom they 
 regarded as " their Father, Lord, and Protector." Edward 
 the Elder was, at the time of his highest prosperity, un- 
 questionably the most powerful " Bretwalda " or " over- 
 lord " that had ruled in Britain since the departure of the 
 Romans. 
 
 Soon after Athelstan's succession, however, the kings 
 of the present Principality, or North Wales, as the whole 
 country from the Severn to the Dee was then called, 
 rebelled against the authority of the hated fair-haired 
 Sassenach. Athelstan instantly attacked Edwall Voel, 
 king of Gwynnedd, and wrested the entire sovereignty 
 of his dominion from him. He, however, on the 
 
I/O ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 submission of the other Welsh princes, and their per- 
 formance of homage to him at his court held at Hereford, 
 generously restored it to him. Afterwards the country 
 between the Severn and the Wye were added to Mercia, 
 and a heavy tribute was imposed on all the revolted 
 Welsh monarchs. Twenty pounds weight of gold and 
 three hundred pounds of silver were to be yearly paid 
 into the treasury, or, as it was then styled, the " Hoard " 
 of the " King of London." To this was to be added 
 an annual gift of twenty thousand beeves and the swiftest 
 hounds and hawks that the country possessed. 
 
 The Cornish Britons, or West Welsh, as they were 
 then termed, were afterwards subdued, and thus all 
 Britain south of the Humber and the Mersey again 
 acknowledged Athelstan's supremacy or " overlordship." 
 
 In the year 925, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle informs 
 us that Athelstan and Sihtric (or Sigtryg), king of the 
 North-humbrians, " came together at Tamworth, on the 
 3rd before the Kalends of February ; and Athelstan gave 
 him his sister." But this marriage failed to secure the 
 proposed future alliance between the Scandinavian and 
 Anglo-Saxon sovereigns. The Dane, who had embraced 
 Christianity, relapsed into the faith of his forefathers and 
 returned his wife to her former home. Sihtric's death, 
 however, intervened between the repudiation of Queen 
 Editha, who afterwards became Abbess of Tamworth, and 
 the vengeance of Athelstan, which fell upon Anlaf and 
 Godefrid, sons of Sihtric by a former marriage. Anlaf 
 fled to Ireland, on the east coast of which the Danes held 
 the supreme authority, and his brother sought refuge 
 
THE LEAGUE AGAINST ATHELSTAN. I/I 
 
 with Constantine, king of the Scots. Referring to 
 these events the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says — " A. 926. 
 This year fiery lights appeared in the north part of the 
 heavens. And Sihtric perished ; and king Athelstan 
 obtained the kingdom of the North-humbrians. And he 
 ruled all the kings who were in the island ; first, Ho\vel, 
 king of the West- Welsh ; and Constantine, king of the 
 Scots ; and Owen, king of the Monmouth people ; and 
 Aldred, son of Ealdulf, of Bambrough : and they con- 
 firmed the peace by pledge, and by oaths, at the place 
 which is called Eamot, on the 4th before the Ides of 
 July ; and they renounced all idolatry, and after that 
 submitted to him in peace." 
 
 But the peace was not of very long duration, for the 
 king of the Scots raised the standard of revolt, and the 
 old Chronicler, or perhaps a successor, tells us that in the 
 year 933, " Athelstan went into Scotland, as well 
 with a land army as with a fleet, and ravaged a 
 great part of it." This defeat of the Scottish king for a 
 time restored Athelstan's dominion, but the peace which 
 followed was, four years afterwards, broken by a powerful 
 combination of Athelstan's enemies, which shook the 
 " overlordship " of the English monarch to its foundation, 
 and threatened the safety of his inherited kingdoms. 
 The Scots, the Cumbrian Britons, the North and West 
 Welsh, entered into a league with Anlaf of Dublin and 
 the Danish chiefs of Northumbria and their Scandinavian 
 allies to lower the prestige of the English monarch, and 
 to seat the son of Sihtric on the throne of his ancestors. 
 This fierce conflict culminated in the great battle of 
 
172 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Brunanburh, in the year 937, in which, after a desperate 
 two days' struggle, the confederate forces of his enemies 
 were utterly routed, and Athelstan reigned supreme 
 monarch to the end of his kingly career. 
 
 There is some difficulty in determining the exact 
 date of this celebrated engagement. Sharon-Turner 
 gives it as 934. Worsaae in his " Danes and Norwegians 
 in England," says 937. Ethehverd's Chronicle says 939. 
 Sharon-Turner refers to the fact that one MS. of the 
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the date 937, notwith- 
 standing which he prefers 934. Dr. Freeman in his 
 " Old English History" adheres to 937, which seems to 
 be the most probable date. 
 
 We find that British Christians, as on previous 
 occasions, espoused the cause of the heathen Danes, 
 rather than fraternize with their hated Anglo-Saxon 
 rivals, the disciples of Augustine and Paulinus. 
 Thus many elements combined to render this battle 
 one of the bloodiest and most destructive ever 
 fought on British soil. The great struggle did not take 
 place immediately on the arrival of Anlaf and his allies. 
 Athelstan's two governors, Gudrekir and Alfgeirr first 
 confronted the invaders. The former was slain and the 
 latter fled to his sovereign, with the news of their dis- 
 comfiture. Athelstan, with wise forethought, tried the 
 effect of diplomacy, if only for the purpose of gaining 
 sufficient time for the assembling of all his forces before 
 staking his sovereignty upon the issue of a single battle. 
 
 The authorities, contemporary or nearly so, for the 
 details of this decisive campaign, although meagre in 
 
ATHELSTAN AT BRUNANBURH. 1 73 
 
 comparison with those of more recent struggles, are 
 nevertheless fuller than usual for the period. We have 
 the poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a notice in 
 Ethelwerd's Chronicle, and some Scandinavian accounts, 
 notably Egil's Saga. Sharon-Turner, however, regards 
 the northern authorities as not entitled to implicit 
 reliance, as their great object was the laudation of Egil 
 and Thorolf, Scandinavian mercenaries in the pay of 
 Athelstan, who, they contend, mainly contributed to the 
 victory by the annihilation of the "disorderly Irish " con- 
 tingent. 
 
 Athelstan, when his diplomatic finesse had answered 
 his purpose, suddenly appeared at Brunanburh, and 
 pitched his camp in front of the enemy. It is related 
 that Anlaf, taken by surprise, imitated Alfred's strata- 
 gem, and entered the royal camp in the disguise of a 
 harper. He was admitted into the presence of Athelstan, 
 who was ever liberal in his patronage of poets and 
 musicians, and the Danish king played, sang, and 
 danced before the assembled chieftains, at a banquet, in 
 the enjoyment of which he found them engaged pre- 
 viously to the holding of a council of war. On his 
 dismissal a purse, filled with silver groats, was given to 
 him as a reward for his services. Anlaf's observant 
 military eye had detected the weakest point in his 
 adversary's position, and the exact locality in which the 
 royal tent was pitched, and he determined to surprise the 
 camp by a sudden night attack, and either slay or carry 
 off the king a prisoner. One false step, however, robbed 
 him of the advantage his daring had gained. On leaving 
 
1/4 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 the enemy's lines, he was observed by a sentinel, who 
 had formerly served under him, to bury the king's 
 gratuity, which he disdained to appropriate to other use, 
 in a hole in the earth. This aroused the soldier's sus- 
 picion, and Athelstan was informed of the circumstance. 
 The king, in the first instance, was disposed to treat the 
 man somewhat harshly, and demanded why the infor- 
 mation as to the identity of the pretended itinerant 
 minstrel had not been communicated to him before his 
 departure. To this the faithful soldier replied, " Nay, 
 by the same oath of fealty which binds me to thee, O 
 king, was I once bound to Anlaf ; and had I betrayed 
 him, with equal justice mightest thou have expected 
 treachery from me. But hear my counsel. Whilst 
 awaiting further reinforcements, take away thy tent 
 from the spot upon which it now stands, and thus 
 mayest thou ward off the blow of thine enemy." This 
 advice Athelstan followed, and shortly afterwards the 
 Bishop of Sherborne arrived with his contingent, and 
 pitched his tent in the locality vacated by his royal 
 master, which circumstance cost him his life during the 
 night surprise which followed. We have Alfred's harper 
 story on the authority of Ingulf and William of Malmes- 
 bury, the former of whom was born in 1030, and the 
 latter in 1095 or 1096, so that they were recording 
 events which had transpired between one and two 
 centuries before their own adult experience. The Anlaf 
 talc is too exact a counterpart of the one related about 
 Alfred, not to suggest doubt as to its veracity ; or, if it 
 be a veritable incident in the life of the Scandinavian 
 
THE FIGHT AT BRUNANBURH. 1/5 
 
 warrior, the doubt will have to be transferred to the 
 story related of his Saxon predecessor. It is not very 
 probable so transparent an artifice would succeed a 
 second time, especially when played upon such a clear- 
 headed chieftain as Alfred's grandson.-- But, however 
 Anlaf gained his information, the night the attack took 
 place, Adils, a Welsh prince, detected the strategy of 
 Athelstan. After the death of the Bishop of Sherborne, 
 he and Hyngr (a chieftain described in Egil's Saga as a 
 Welshman, but whose name, Sharon-Turner thinks, 
 sounds very like a Danish one), led the attack on the 
 main body of the English army. But Athelstan was 
 prepared, and Thorolf and Alfgeirr-'s detachments were 
 instantly opposed to them. Alfgeirr was soon over- 
 powered and fled, on perceiving which Thorolf threw 
 his shield behind him, and hewed his way with his heavy 
 two-hand sword through the opposing mass until he 
 reached the standard of Hyngr. A few moments 
 decided the fate of that chieftain. Thorolf ordered 
 Egil, though weakened by the defeat and flight of 
 Alfgeirr, to resist Adils, but to be prepared to retreat 
 to the cover of a neighbouring wood, if necessary. Adils, 
 mourning the death of his colleague, at length gave 
 
 * Mr. F. Metcalfe, in his "Englishman and Scandinavian," says, — "It 
 is this same historian (William of Malmesbury), and not Asser, who relates 
 the story of Alfred masquerading as a minstrel, and so gaining free access 
 to the Danish camp, meanwhile learning their plans. It is not mentioned 
 in the most ancient Saxon accounts. Indeed, it sounds more like a Scandi- 
 navian than a Saxon story, an echo of which has reached us in the tale of 
 King Estmere, who adopted a similar disguise. A story was current of 
 Olaf Cuaran entering Athelstan's camp disguised as a harper two days 
 before the battle of Brunanburh." 
 
17^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 way, and the preliminary nocturnal combat ended. 
 After a day's rest * Egil led the van of the Anglo- 
 Saxon army, and Thorolf opposed the " irregular 
 Irish," which formed part of Anlaf's own division, and 
 extended to the wood previously mentioned. Turketal, 
 the English chancellor, a man of stalwart proportions, 
 who commanded the citizens of London, and Singin 
 of Worcestershire, were opposed to Constantine, king 
 of the Scots, while Athelstan, at the head of his West 
 Saxons, confronted Anlaf in person. Thorolf attempted 
 to turn the enemies' flank, when Adils rushed from his 
 ambush in the wood, and countered the movement. 
 Egils saw with dismay Thorolf's banner retreating. He 
 knew by this that he must have fallen ; and, rushing to 
 the spot, he rallied the scattered band, successfully 
 renewed the attack, and, in Sharon-Turner's words, 
 "sacrificed Adils to the manes of Thorolf." The 
 Councillor pierced the enemy's centre, heedless of the 
 arrows and spears which fastened on his armour. Con- 
 stantine and he met and fought hand to hand for some 
 time, and Singer slew the prince, his son, who 
 fought valiantly by his father's side. This vigorous and 
 successful onslaught produced a panic among the Scots, 
 and correspondingly elated the English. In the mean- 
 while Athelstan and his brother, Edmund, the Atheling, 
 were engaged with the main body of the enemy under 
 Anlaf. The grandson of the Great Alfred and the 
 
 * Some writers say two days intervened, and Sir Francis Palgrave sa)'s 
 the main battle was hut a continuation of the night attack, and was 
 
 tliercforc fought on the following day. 
 
ROUT OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMIES. 1 7/ 
 
 presumed grandson of Radnor Lodbrog contended both 
 for dominion and renown. In the midst of the fight 
 Athelstan's sword-blade snapped near the handle. 
 Another was supplied to him, it was said, by miraculous 
 agency, which saved his life. At length the tremendous 
 struggle, which lasted throughout the day, was brought 
 to a close by Turketal chasing the Scots from the 
 battle-field, and turning Anlafs flank. Immense 
 slaughter ensued ; the enemy's ranks began rapidly 
 to thin ; the English shouted " victory ! " and Athel- 
 stan, profiting by the auspicious opportunity, ordered 
 his banner to the front, and by a determined and well- 
 directed onslaught, broke the enemy's now enfeebled 
 ranks. They fled in various directions, and, according 
 to Egil's saga, "the plain was filled with their bodies." 
 Anlaf and his immediate followers narrowly escaped 
 to their ships and embarked for Ireland. Sharon- 
 Turner says — 
 
 " Thus terminated this dangerous and important 
 conflict. Its successful issue was of such consequence, 
 that it raised Athelstan in the eyes of all Europe. The 
 kings of the continent sought his friendship, and England 
 began to assume a majestic port amid the other nations 
 of the west. Amongst the Anglo-Saxons it excited such 
 rejoicings that not only their poets aspired to com- 
 memorate it, but the songs were so popular, that one of 
 them is inserted in the Saxon Chronicle as the best 
 memorial of the event." 
 
 The following is Dr. Giles's literal rendering of this 
 remarkable poem into modern English : — 
 
 N 
 
178 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 A. 937. — Here Athelstan, king, 
 of earls the lord, 
 of heroes the bracelet giver, 
 and his brother eke, 
 Edmund etheling, 
 life-long glory 
 in battle won 
 with edges of swords 
 near Brunanburh. 
 The board-walls they clove, 
 they hewed the war-lindens, 
 
 Hamora lafan ' 
 offspring of Edward, 
 such was their noble nature 
 from their ancestors, 
 that they in battle oft 
 'gainst every foe 
 the land defended, 
 hoards and homes. 
 The foe they crushed, 
 the Scottish people 
 and the shipmen 
 fated fell. 
 
 The field * d^eniede ' 
 with warriors' blood, 
 since the sun up 
 at morning tide- 
 mighty planet — 
 glided o'er grounds, 
 God's candle bright, 
 the eternal Lord's — 
 till the noble creature 
 sank to her settle. 
 There lay many a warrior 
 by javelins strewed ; 
 northern men 
 over shield shot ; 
 so the Scots, eke, 
 weary, war-sad. 
 West Saxons onwards 
 throughout the day, 
 in bands, 
 pursued the footsteps 
 
 of the loathed nations. 
 They hewed the fugitives 
 behind, amain, 
 with swords mill-sharp. 
 Mercians refused not 
 the hard hand-play 
 to any heroes 
 who, with Anlaf, 
 over the ocean, 
 in the ship's bosom, 
 this land sought 
 fated to the fight. 
 Five lay 
 
 on the battle-stead, 
 youthful kings, 
 by swords in slumber laid : 
 so seven, eke, 
 of Anlafs earls ; 
 of the army countless, 
 shipmen and Scots. 
 There was made^flee 
 ' the North-men's chieftain, 
 by need constrained, 
 to the ship's prow 
 with a little band. 
 The bark drove afloat ; 
 the king departed. 
 on the fallow flood 
 his life preserved. 
 So there, eke, the sage 
 came by flight 
 to his country north, 
 Constant! ne, 
 hoary warrior. 
 He had no cause to exult 
 in the communion of swords. 
 Here was his kindred band 
 of friends o'erthrown 
 on the folk-stead, 
 in battle slain ; 
 and his son he left 
 on the slaughter-place 
 mangled with wounds, 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON POEM. 
 
 179 
 
 young in the fight. 
 
 He had no cause to boast, 
 
 hero grizzly haired, 
 
 of the bill-clashing, 
 
 the old deceiver ; 
 
 nor Anlaf the moor, 
 
 with the remnant of their armies 
 
 they had no cause to laugh 
 
 that they in war's works 
 
 the better men were 
 
 in the battle-stead, 
 
 at the conflict of banners, 
 
 meeting of spears, 
 
 concourse of men, 
 
 traffic of weapons, 
 
 that they on the slaughter-field 
 
 with Edward's 
 
 offspring played. 
 
 The North-men departed 
 in their nailed barks — 
 bloody relic of darts — 
 on roaring ocean, 
 o'er the deep Avater, 
 Dublin to seek ; 
 again Ireland 
 shamed in mind. 
 
 So, too, the brothers, 
 both together, 
 king and etheling. 
 their country sought. 
 
 Some of the MSS. of 
 lowing additional reference 
 
 the 
 
 West-Saxons' land, 
 in the war exulting. 
 They left behind them, 
 the corse to devour, 
 the sallowy kite 
 and the swarthy raven 
 with horned nib, 
 and the dusky * pada,' 
 erne white-tailed, 
 the corse to enjoy, — 
 greedy war-hawk, 
 and the grey beast, 
 wolf of the wood. 
 
 Carnage greater has not been 
 in this island 
 ever yet 
 of people slain, 
 before this, 
 by edges of swords, 
 as the books say — 
 old writers — 
 since from the east hither 
 Angles and Saxons 
 came to land, — 
 o'er the broad seas 
 Britain sought, — 
 mighty war-smiths 
 the Welsh o'ercame ; 
 earls most bold 
 this earth obtained. 
 
 Chronicle have the fol- 
 
 to the battle : — 
 
 " A. 937. This year King Athelstan and Edmund 
 his brother led a force to Brunanburh, and there fought 
 against Anlaf ; and Christ helping, had the victory ; and 
 they there slew five kings and seven earls." 
 
 Simeon, of Durham, says one of these five monarchs 
 was " Eligenius, an under-king of Deira," or the eastern 
 portion of the then kingdom of Northumbria. 
 
l80 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Athelstan died in 940, and, in the following year, the 
 Chronicle says his successor "Edmund received king 
 Anlaf at baptism." In 942, it says — " This year King 
 Anlaf died." There were, however, two other chieftains 
 of the same name, who flourished somewhat later. 
 
 Historians are scarcely, even at the present day, unani- 
 mous in their views as to what monarch ought to be 
 regarded as the first " king of England." Some say 
 Egbert ; but his authority rarely if ever extended over 
 the whole of the country now so named, and a very large 
 proportion of it was merely a kind of nominal " over 
 lordship," which carried with it very little governing 
 influence, and, such as it was, it was held on a very 
 precarious tenure. Others contend that the distinction 
 belongs to Alfred the Great. Yet Alfred, though 
 beloved by all the English-speaking people in the land, 
 was compelled to share the territory with his Danish 
 rival, Gothrun. Sharon-Turner says — "The truth 
 seems to be that Alfred was the first monarch of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, but Athelstan was the first monarch of 
 England^ He adds — " After the battle of Brunanburh, 
 Athelstan had no competitor; he was the immediate 
 Sovereign of all England. He was even nominal lord of 
 Wales and Scotland." This seems to be the true solution 
 of the query. 
 
 It is a most remarkable circumstance that the site of 
 this great victory, notwithstanding the magnitude of the 
 contending armies and the importance of its political 
 and social results, was, until recently, at least, absolutely 
 unknown, and it cannot yet be said that the true locality 
 
THE SITE OF THE BATTLE. l8l 
 
 has been demonstrated with sufficient clearness to 
 entirely remove all doubt. Many places have been sug- 
 gested on the most frivolous grounds. The question 
 where is, or was, Brunanburh is still sounding in the ear 
 of the historical student, and echo merely answers 
 "Where.?" Yet I think I have made the nearest 
 approach to the solution of this problem, in the " History 
 of Preston and its Environs," that has yet been 
 attempted, and further investigation enables me to add 
 considerably to the evidence there adduced. 
 
 It is, perhaps, necessary that some attempt should be 
 made to determine the cause or causes why the site of so 
 important a victory, celebrated in the finest extant short 
 poem in the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and so important in 
 its political results, should have become lost both to the 
 history and tradition of the English victors. At first 
 sight there appears something singularly exceptionable 
 in the fact. But a closer inspection of the details of 
 what may be termed the Anglo-Saxon period of conflict 
 with their Scandinavian enemies, Danish, Norwegian, or 
 Norman-French, soon removes this impression, the sites 
 of many other, almost equally important struggles, and 
 notoriously some of those in which the Great Alfred was 
 engaged, having been subjected to similar doubt, if not 
 oblivion. 
 
 In the first place it must not be forgotten that after 
 the death of Athelstan, the Danish invasions were 
 renewed, and, after various successes and defeats, the 
 Scandinavian monarchs, Sweyn and Canute, before the 
 end of the tenth century, ruled despotically over all 
 
1 32 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 England. Even the temporary restoration of the Anglo- 
 Saxon dynastic element, in the person of Edward the 
 Confessor, in consequence of his Norman-French con- 
 nection and early education, did little to remove the 
 pressure of the foreign yoke, in the provinces at least ; 
 and what influence it may have exerted was speedily 
 eradicated by the decisive victory of William the Norman, 
 near Hastings, in the middle of the following century. 
 Conquest, in those days, meant subjugation to the 
 extent of a deprivation of all rights — at least all political 
 rights — and many social privileges, and absolute serfdom 
 for the great mass of the population. Consequently it 
 was the policy of the conquerors to ignore, and, as far as 
 possible, enforce the ignorement of all past glorious 
 achievements of the ancestors of the subjugated peoples. 
 Doubtless, tradition would still, with its tenacious grasp, 
 retain some recollection of the great exploits of their fore- 
 fathers, and, in secret, the people would cherish their 
 memory with a more intense love, on account of the 
 persecution to which its open expression would be sub- 
 jected. But in those days there were no printing presses, 
 nor journalism, local or metropolitan. The people could 
 not read, and even the nobles, in the main, like old King 
 Cole, in the song, because he could afford to salary a 
 secretary, " scorned the fetters of the four and twenty 
 letters, and it saved them a vast deal of trouble." Now, 
 these secretaries were almost, if not entirely, ecclesiastics ; 
 and they were likewise the only literary, or learned men, 
 existing during the period to which I refer. These 
 ecclesiastics, in different monasteries, kept records of the 
 
MEAGRENESS OF THE RECORDS. 1 83 
 
 general events of the period in which they lived, of a 
 very meagre character, and devoted more time and 
 space to matters ecclesiastical, as might reasonably 
 be anticipated. Again, when the Danish and Norman 
 warriors obtained the supreme power, it is easy to 
 understand that the ecclesiastical domination was 
 speedily transferred to their clerical confreres ; and, 
 of course, whatever obscurity rested on the details of 
 previous victories or glories of the subject race, would 
 be intensified rather than lessened, by any action 
 of theirs, even supposing (which is anything but 
 probable), that they themselves possessed much authentic 
 information respecting such events. Subsequent writers, 
 of course, dealt largely in mere conjecture, on the flimsiest 
 of evidence ; and, as they sometimes differ so widely from 
 each other, or as they are so obscure in their topographical 
 definitions and nomenclature, little is derivable from 
 their labours of value to the modern historian and 
 antiquary. Consequently, although there are many 
 references to the great battle itself, both in the several 
 chronicles, the poem to which I have referred, and in 
 some Scandinavian sagas, written in honour of two of 
 their warriors of the free-lance, or Dugal Dalgetty class, 
 who fought on the side of the English monarch, the site 
 of the great conflict has remained doubtful to the present 
 time. 
 
 Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote in the earlier portion 
 of the twelfth century, referring to the twelve presumed 
 victories of Arthur, accounts for the then loss of their 
 sites in the following characteristic fashion — " These 
 
1 34 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 battles and battle-fields are described by Gildas," 
 [Nennius,] " the historian, but in our times the places are 
 unknown, the Providence of God, we consider, having so 
 ordered it that popular applause and flattery, and 
 transitory glory, might be of no account." 
 
 The clerical historian seems to have thoroughly 
 understood the motives of his predecessors in the 
 destruction of the records of a heretical or pagan race. 
 
 Mr. Daniel H. Haigh, in his "Conquest of Britain by 
 the Saxons," referring to the absence of Runic inscriptions 
 in the south of England, and their partial preservation in 
 the Northumbrian kingdom, has the following pertinent 
 observations : — 
 
 "The first missionaries, St. Augustine and his 
 brethren, used all their endeavours to destroy every 
 monument of Runic antiquity, because runes had been 
 the means of pagan augury, and of preserving the 
 memory of pagan hymns and incantations ; for, knowing 
 how prone the common people were to their ancient 
 superstitions (of which even after the lapse of twelve 
 centuries many vestiges still remain), and how diflficult it 
 would be to teach them to distinguish the use of a thing 
 from its abuse, they feared that their labours would be 
 in vain so long as the monuments of ancient superstition 
 remained. So every Runic writing disappeared ; and we 
 may well believe, that records which to us would 
 be invaluable, perished in the general destruction. 
 In the first instance S. Gregory had commanded 
 that everything connected with paganism should be 
 destroyed ; but afterwards, in a letter to S. Milletus, he 
 
DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS. 1 85 
 
 recommended that the symbols only of paganism should 
 be done away with, but that the sanctuaries should be 
 consecrated and used as churches. These instructions 
 were in force when S. Paulinus evangelized North- 
 umbria; and we cannot doubt that the work of 
 destruction would be effectively done under the auspices 
 of a prince whose police was so vigorous as we are in- 
 formed that Eadwine's was. But after his death, and the 
 flight of S. Paulinus, the restoration of Christianity in 
 Northumbria was effected by missionaries of the Irish 
 school, whose fathers in Ireland had pursued from the 
 first a different policy, by allowing the memorials of 
 antiquity to remain, and contenting themselves with con- 
 secrating the monuments of paganism, and marking them 
 with the symbols of Christianity. Under their auspices 
 Runic writing was permitted, for we can trace its use in 
 Northumbria to the very times of S. Oswald, whilst every 
 vestige has disappeared of the Runic records of an 
 earlier period. Mercia received its Christianity from the 
 Irish school of Lindisfarne, and we have runes on the 
 coins of the first Christian kings, Peada and CEthelraed." 
 
 But for the zealous labour of Archbishop Parker, in 
 the sixteenth century, even few of the remaining Anglo- 
 Saxon MSS. would have been preserved to the present 
 day. John Bale, writing in 1549, says — "A great 
 number of them that purchased the monasteries reserved 
 the books of those libraries ; some to scour their candle- 
 sticks, some to rub their boots, some they sold to grocers 
 and soapsellers, some they sent over sea to the book- 
 binders, not in small numbers, but at times whole ships 
 
1 86 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 full, to the wondering of foreign nations." Religious and 
 political rancour has too often consigned to destruction 
 the archives and monuments of hated rivals. Cardinal 
 Ximines, somewhat earlier, committed to the flames an 
 immense mass of valuable Arabic MSS. and, not long 
 afterwards, Archbishop Zumarraga committed a similar 
 .act of insensate vandalism on the picture-written national 
 archives of Mexico. Our mediaeval historians, indeed, 
 have themselves much to answer for in this direction. 
 Strype says that Polydore Vergil, having, by licence from 
 Henry VIII., when writing his history, procured many 
 valuable books from various libraries in England, 
 on its conclusion, piled " those same books together, and 
 set them all on a light fire." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Metcalf (" Englishman and Scandina- 
 vian") waxed wrath as he contemplated the irreparable 
 loss sustained through the ignorance and fanaticism of 
 our forefathers. He exclaims — " Cart loads of Old 
 English mythical and heroic epics, finished histories in 
 the vernacular, heaps of pieces teeming with sprightly 
 humour, with vivid portraiture, with precious touches of 
 nature, may or may not have been destroyed by the 
 Danes, by the Normans, in their contempt for everything 
 Anglo-Saxon, by insensate scribes in want of vellum — 
 who scraped out things of beauty to make room for 
 their own doting effusions, or pasted the leaves of MSS. 
 together to make bindings — by the Reformers, by the 
 Roundheads, by fire, by crass folly." 
 
 Independently of wilful neglect or active destruction, 
 the Anglo-Norman transcripts of previous Anglo-Saxon 
 
INACCURACY OF THE MSS. 1 8/ 
 
 MSS. now existing are not only rarities, but wretchedly 
 deficient, owing to both accidental damage, and the care- 
 lessness, or ignorance, of their monkish transcribers. 
 Thorpe, referring to the only existing early MS. of the 
 poem *• Beowulf," in his preface to his work on the 
 "Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, the Scop or Gleeman's 
 Tale, and the Fight at Finnesburg," says — " Un- 
 fortunately, as of Csedmon and the Codex Exoniensis, 
 there is only a single manuscript of Beowulf extant, 
 which I take to be of the first half of the eleventh 
 century (MS. Cott. Vitellius A. 15). All manuscripts of 
 Anglo-Saxon poetry are deplorably inaccurate, evincing, 
 in almost every page, the ignorance of an illiterate 
 scribe, frequently (as was the monastic custom) copying 
 from dictation ; but of all Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, 
 that of Beowulf may, I believe, be conscientiously 
 pronounced the worst, independently of its present 
 lamentable condition, in consequence of the fire at 
 Cotton House, in 173 1, whereby it was seriously injured, 
 being partially rendered as friable as touchwood. 
 In perfect accordance with this judgment of the 
 manuscript and its writer is the testimony of Dr. 
 Grundtvig, who says — 'The ancient scribe did not 
 rightly understand what he himself was writing ; and, 
 what was worse, the conflagration in 1731 had rendered 
 a part wholly or almost illegible.' Mr. Kemble's words 
 are to the same effect — ' The manuscript of Beowulf is 
 unhappily among the most corrupt of all the Anglo- 
 Saxon manuscripts, and corrupt they all are without 
 exception.' " 
 
1 88 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 My attention was first called to the probable site 
 of Athelstan's great victory at Brunanburh, when 
 dealing with the " great Cuerdale Find," of May, 1840. 
 Mr. Hawkins, vice-president of the Numismatic Society, 
 who devoted much attention to the contents of this re- 
 markable chest, says " the hoard consisted of about 975 
 ounces of silver in ingots, ornaments, etc., besides about 
 7,000 coins of various descriptions." From my own 
 knowledge many of the coins and some of the ornaments 
 were never seen by Mr. Hawkins. Referring to this 
 subject, in the " History of Preston," I say — " Many of 
 the coins unquestionably found their way surreptitiously 
 into the hands of collectors ; consequently there is some 
 difficulty in determining the precise number discovered. 
 It is pretty generally believed, however, that the chest 
 originally contained about ten thousand coins." These 
 coins were all of silver. " Many of the silver rings and 
 smaller bars were, likewise, * appropriated ' before any 
 record of the *find* was made." 
 
 The collection contained numismatic treasures both 
 of English and foreign mintage, and all were coined 
 antecedent to the great battle, although the most 
 modern amongst them date within a very few years of 
 that event. Dr. Worsaae, the celebrated Danish anti- 
 quary, speaking of this ** find," says — "To judge from the 
 coins, which, with few exceptions, were minted between 
 the years 815 and 930, the treasure must have been 
 buried in the first half of the tenth century, or about a 
 hundred years before the time of Canute the Great." 
 
 My position, therefore, is that this great treasure chest 
 
VARIOUS SITES SUGGESTED. 1 89 
 
 was buried near the " pass of the Ribble," at Cuerdale, 
 opposite Preston, during this troubled period, and 
 probably on the retreat of the confederated Irish, Scotch, 
 Welsh, Scandinavian, and Anglo-Danish armies, after 
 their disastrous defeat by the English under Athelstan, 
 at the great battle of Brunanburh, in 937, which may not 
 inaptly be styled, on account of its magnitude and im- 
 portant results, the Waterloo of the tenth century. 
 
 Various places have from time to time been sug- 
 gested as the probable locality of the conflict, but upon 
 the very slenderest of evidence. Some say Colecroft, 
 near Axminster, Devonshire. One authority assigns the 
 following reason for this site — "Axminster is supposed 
 to have derived its present name from a college of 
 priests, founded here by Athelstan, to pray for the souls 
 of those who fell in the conflict, and who were buried in 
 the cemetery of Axminster ; there were five kings and 
 eight earls amongst them." A claim has been advanced 
 for Beverley in Yorkshire, for a similar reason. But the 
 founding of a monastery, or other expression of thanks- 
 giving for a victory, does not necessarily indicate the 
 locality of the conflict. William the Conqueror did 
 certainly found Battle Abbey on the site of his great 
 victory ; but such a practice is by no means of ordinary 
 occurrence, and without corroborative evidence is value- 
 less. Camden thought the battle was fought at Ford, 
 near Bromeridge, in Northumberland. Skene, in his 
 " Celtic Scotland," prefers Aldborough, on the Ouse, 
 and regards the huge monoliths, known as " the devil's 
 arrows," as memorials of the victory. Gibson and 
 
1 90 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 others suggest Bromborough, in Cheshire. The editor 
 of the "Imperial Gazetteer" assigns Broomridge, no 
 doubt on Camden's authority, and Brinkburn, in the 
 Rothsay district, in Northumberland, or some other, as 
 probable sites of the battle. Brinkburn is said to be the 
 " true situation of Brunanburh," in " Beauties of England 
 and Wales." The name was written in 1154, by John 
 of Hexham, Brincaburgh. Banbury, in Oxfordshire, 
 and Bourne, and the neighbourhood of Barton-on- 
 H umber, in Lincolnshire, and a Bambro', a Bambury, 
 and some other places have likewise found advocates. 
 Dr. Giles, in his annotation of Ethelvverd's Chronicle, 
 fixes Brunanburh at Brumby, in Lincolnshire, but he 
 assigns no reasons for his preference. Brunton, in 
 Northumberland, and, I believe, some other places, 
 have been suggested. The mere identity of the name 
 Brunanburh, in some corrupted form, though important, 
 is insufficient, without corroborative evidence, simply 
 because the names of so many places, in various parts of 
 the country, admit of such derivation. There are several 
 even in Lancashire, to which I shall afterwards call 
 attention. Localities on the east, the south, and the 
 west coasts of England have each found advocates, 
 some, certainly, on very slight grounds. Mr. Wcddle, of 
 Wargrovc, near Warrington, in his essay on the site, in 
 1857, pertinently reminds the investigator that the very 
 " uncertainty of the whereabouts of the battle-field" is 
 a good reason why it should be sought for "in some 
 place half-forgotten." Such being the case, I may, 
 without much presumption, after studying the subject 
 
THE "GREAT CUERDALE HOARD." I9I 
 
 now for five and twenty years, adhere to my previously 
 suggested solution of this great historical and topo- 
 graphical enigma. 
 
 The available evidence is very diversified in its 
 character, and may be dealt with under several distinct 
 heads. In the first place I will endeavour to show why 
 I maintain that the discovery of the long buried treasure 
 at Cuerdale, in 1840, has furnished the key by which we 
 may probably unlock the mystery. 
 
 From its great value in the tenth century, the 
 evidence of recent mintage at the time of its deposition, 
 and the vast number of rare and foreign coins, many of 
 which were struck by Scandinavian kings or jarls, all 
 lead to the conjecture that the treasure had not originally 
 belonged to some private individual or inferior chief- 
 tain. It must not be forgotten that coin was first made 
 "sterling" in the year 12 16, before which time Stowe 
 says rents were mostly paid in " kind," and money was 
 found only in the coffers of the barons. 
 
 The great probability, therefore, appears to be that 
 some powerful monarch, or confederacy, owned the chest, 
 and that its burial near one of the three fords at the 
 " pass of the Ribble" was caused by some signal 
 discomfiture or military defeat, in order to prevent its 
 falling into the hands of the enemy. Its non-recovery 
 afterwards would naturally result from the slaughter of 
 the parties acquainted with the precise locality of its 
 deposit in the disastrous riot attendant upon so great 
 victory as that achieved by Athelstan at Brunanburh. 
 Tradition had, however, preserved the memory of its 
 
192 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 burial, but the exact site was unknown. It was 
 popularly thought, however, that it could be seen from 
 the hill on which the church of Walton-le-dale stands, 
 and which overlooks all the three fords which con- 
 stituted the "famous pass of the Ribble." The late Mr. 
 Barton F. Allen, of Preston, remembered that in his 
 youth a farmer ploughed a field which had remained in 
 pasture from time immemorial, in hope of finding the 
 treasure. At the time T came upon the Roman remains, 
 near the great central ford, 1855, I was surprised to 
 learn a rumour was abroad that we had *'come on't 
 goud" at last. This resulted from the fact that the 
 Anglo-Danish hoard consisted entirely of silver, and 
 the belief of the workmen that the Roman brass coins, 
 found at the time, from their colour, when polished, were 
 golden ones. I therefore contend that these facts 
 (taken in conjunction with the more important one, that 
 the date of the deposit, as demonstrated by the coins them- 
 selves, coincides with that of Athelstan's great victory), 
 indicate, in a very high degree, the probable connection of 
 the two events. The burial of treasure, in times of great 
 disaster, was a very ordinary occurrence during the 
 Roman dominion in Britain, and was not unusual with 
 their successors, the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Two 
 hoards, one found at Walmersley, to the north of Bury, 
 and the other at Whittle, near the present presumed site 
 of Athelstan's victory, to the south of the Ribble, from the 
 date of the coins, coincide with the time of the defeat of 
 the usurpers Carausius and Allectus, commanders of the 
 Roman fleet stationed to protect the shores of Britain 
 
burif:d treasure. 193 
 
 from the ravages of Saxon pirates. Later the Anglo- 
 Saxon Chronicle says— "A. 418, this year the Romans 
 collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some 
 they hid in the earth, so that no one has since been able to 
 find them ; and some they carried with them into Gaul." 
 Ethelwerd's Chronicle furnishes further details — "A. 418. 
 In the ninth year also, after the sacking of Rome by 
 the Goths, those of Roman race who were left in Britain, 
 not bearing the manifold insults of the people, bury 
 their treasures in pits, thinking that hereafter they 
 might have better fortune, which never was the case ; 
 and, taking a portion, assembled on the coasts, spread 
 their canvass to the winds, and seek an exile on the 
 shores of Gaul." 
 
 The " pass of the Ribble" is marked on the old map, 
 published by Dr. Whitaker, with the crossed swords, 
 indicative of a battle having been fought there, but this, 
 though not unimportant in most cases, is of little value as 
 evidence in favour of my hypothesis, inasmuch as, from 
 its geographical position, it has, of necessity, often been 
 the site of military conflicts, several of which are recorded 
 in both local and other historical works. 
 
 The site now suggested agrees best, in a topographical 
 sense, with the various descriptions of the conflict, the 
 primary object of the war, and the necessary movements of 
 the several combatants engaged. The great Roman road 
 from the north passed through the county, and entered 
 Cheshire at Latchford near Warrington. This road would 
 serve both the invading Scots and Athelstan, and his 
 army of West Saxons, Mercians, and other allies. A 
 
194 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Roman road, from the Ribble and Wyre, called " Watling- 
 street," crossed the country to York and the eastern coast. 
 We have distinct information that Anlaf s great object was 
 the re-conquest of the kingdom of Northumbria, and that, 
 in the first instance, success crowned his efforts. Athel- 
 stan's two governors, Gudrekir and Alfgeirr, were de- 
 feated, and the former slain. His colleague fled to his 
 sovereign with the tidings of their discomfiture. The 
 grandson of the Great Alfred immediately assembled his 
 army and marched northward to confront in person his 
 successful rival and his powerful allies. It appears, 
 therefore, nearly absolutely certain that the struggle took 
 place in Northumbria, or on its border, and, consequently 
 other localities outside this region may almost be said to 
 be " not in the hunt." Anlaf was the ruling chief of 
 Dublin, and the virtual organizer and head of the con- 
 federacy. One wing of his army, according to Egil's 
 saga, " was very numerous, and consisted of the disorderly 
 Irish." The coast of Lancashire being part of the then 
 Danish kingdom of Northumbria, was, in every respect, 
 adapted for the landing of this portion of the invading 
 army. Hoveden, Mailros, and Simeon of Durham 
 certainly say that Anlaf commenced the warfare by 
 "entering the Humber with a fleet of 615 ships." This, 
 however, may refer merely to the ''fleets of the ivaniors 
 from Norivay and the Baltic^' who joined in the con- 
 federacy. If Anlaf himself commanded this expedition 
 in person, then he must have deputed the leadership of 
 his "disorderly Irish " to one of his lieutenants. From 
 an inspection of the map it will be found, after the defeat 
 
BRUNANBURH. I95 
 
 of Gudrekir and Alfgeirr, that the "pass of the Ribble," 
 from a military point of view, was one of the most 
 probable places at which the junction of the allies would 
 take place. The Cumbrian Britons and the North and 
 West Welsh could easily, by good Roman roads, join the 
 Scottish monarch, as well as Anlaf's Irish troops and the 
 warriors from Norway and the Baltic, at this spot, and 
 dispute the passage of the fords with Athelstan's forces 
 from the south. The "pass of the Ribble," from a 
 topographical and military point of view, may there- 
 fore be assumed as very probably the site of the 
 conflict. 
 
 I have previously referred to the fact that the name 
 Brunanburh, in any corrupted form, is of little value in 
 the present investigation without very strong supporting 
 evidence, simply because so many localities have equal 
 claim to it. The name itself is likewise variously written 
 by the older writers when referring to the battle. It is 
 termed " Bellum Brune," or the " Battle of the Brune," in 
 the Bruty Tywysogion, or the " Chronicle of the Princes of 
 Wales," and the " Annales Cambria^ Henry of Hunting- 
 don calls the locality Brunesburh; and the name is 
 variously written by Geffrei Gaimar as Brunewerche, 
 Brunewerce, and Brunewest. Ethelwerd, a contemporary 
 chronicler, calls the place Brunandune. The author of 
 Egil's saga calls the site Vinheid. Simeon of Durham 
 says the battle was fought near Weondune or Ethrun- 
 nanwerch, or Brunnan byrge. William of Malmesbury 
 gives the name Brunsford, and Ingulph says Brunford in 
 Northumbria. Notwithstanding the very important 
 
19^ ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 fact that the southern portion of the county of Lancaster 
 suffered so much in the raids of Gilbert de Lacy and 
 his soldiery after the Norman conquest, and the 
 consequent non-productive character of m.uch of the 
 territory at the time of the Domesday survey, which 
 caused very few names of places to be recorded in that 
 valuable historical document, still I think present topo- 
 graphical nomenclature south of the " pass of the Ribble" 
 sufficient to identify the locality from etymological 
 evidence equal or superior in value to that yet 
 advanced in favour of any other site. The word 
 bninaii means simply, in modern English, springs, 
 and burh refers to any work of military defence of an 
 artificial character. Brun has been corrupted, accord- 
 ing to the conjectures of the authorities which I have 
 previously cited, into Biirn^ Bro7n, Brum, Broovi, Bran, 
 Ban, Botirnc, Brink, and Brin. 
 
 The name of the parisli of Brindle, to the south-cast 
 of the " pass of the Ribble," has been written in various 
 documents during the past few centuries, Burnhull, 
 Brinhill, Brandhill, and, after becoming Brandle and 
 Bryndhull, ends in its present Brindle. Now, burn and 
 brun are acknowledged to be identical, the metathesis, 
 as philologists term it, or transposition of the letter r 
 under such circumstances being very common, especially 
 in Lancashire. We say brid for bird, brun for burn, 
 brunt for burnt, brast for burst, thurst for thrust, and 
 some others. Birmingham is often called " Brummigem." 
 Indeed, Taylor, the "Water Poet," in his account of 
 Old Parr, writes it " Brimicham." The short u with us 
 
LOCAL NAMES ON OLD MAPS. 197 
 
 is ofttimes sounded nearly like /, as in burst, burn, etc., 
 like the German il in Reiiter, Miiller, Priissien, etc. 
 Hence the interchangeability of brin for brun, of which 
 the following are examples : The Icelandic Brynhildr, 
 of the Eddaic poems, is the Brunhild of the Nibelungen- 
 lied ; Brinsley, in Nottinghamshire, is sometimes written 
 Brunsley ; Burnside, near Kendal, was once Brynshead ; 
 Brynn, the seat of Lord Gerrard, between Wigan and 
 Newton-in-Mackerfield, was, as I have shown in a 
 previous chapter, anciently written Brun ; and, in addi- 
 tion, I have recently seen, in Herman Moll's atlas, 
 published in 1723, this same Brindle, south of Ribble, 
 written Brunall, and, what is still further corroborative, 
 in Christopher Saxton's much earlier map, pubHshed in 
 Camden's "Britannia," it is written Brundell, while 
 Bryne and Burnley are spelled as at present. Bryji or 
 bro7t signifies a little hill, or the slope of a hill. As 
 burk sometimes signifies a hill or eminence, as well as a 
 fortification, the interchange of the British bryn with its 
 Teutonic neighbour is in no way remarkable, but rather 
 what might have been anticipated. Indeed, we find 
 this phonetic substitution in Bernicia (the northern por- 
 tion of Northumbria), the British equivalent being 
 Bryneich. Brtinan, as I have before said, signifies 
 springs. Brindle church is situated on the slope of a 
 hill, and the district, as a personal visit, or a glance at 
 the six-inch ordnance map, will show, is remarkable for 
 its numerous "wells," from which pure water issues from 
 the surface of the ground. Dalton springs, Denham 
 springs, and the well-known Whittle springs are in 
 
I9S ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 the neighbourhood, and one hamlet is named Many- 
 springs. 
 
 In addition to Brindle we have Brinscall and Burni- 
 
 croft, and Brownedge or Brunedge within the district. 
 Between what I will now term Brunhull and Brunedge, 
 we have the hamlet Bdixnber, now termed Bamber 
 Bridge. Baumber, in Lincolnshire, is sometimes written 
 Bamburgh. Bramber, in Sussex, in Herman Moll's 
 map (1723) is written Bamber, and in the Domesday 
 survey Branber. Bromley, sometimes written Bramley, 
 in Kent, is Brunlei, in the Domboc, and Bromborough, 
 in Cheshire, is written Brunburgh, in Herman Moll's 
 map. Hence if bam be likewise a corruption of brun, 
 we have Brunberg, with Brunhull and Brunedge in 
 immediate contiguity. The Rev. Jno. Whitaker and the 
 Rev. E. Sibson say bam signifies war. This is a very sig- 
 nificant corruption, if a great battle were fought in its 
 neighbourhood. Other authorities say bam means a 
 "beam, a tree, a wood." This might imply that a 
 fortification or stockade occupied the spot, or it might 
 mean the fort in the wood, or in the neighbourhood of 
 the wood, like the Welsh Bettws»y-coed. In Egil's saga 
 " the wood " is often referred to in the detailed description 
 of the battle. We have yet Worden-wood, Whittle-le- 
 woods, Clayton-le-woods, and some others contiguous. 
 
 Kemble, in his (appendix) list of " patronymical 
 names," which he regards as " those of ancient Marks," 
 has two references, from the " Codex Diplomaticus," to 
 " Bruningas," but he gives no conjecture as to the locality 
 of its modern representative. 
 
WORDEN OR WEARDON. 1 99 
 
 Mr. C. A. Weddle, of Wargrove, near Warrington, in 
 1857, when advocating the claims of Brunton, in North- 
 umberland, after summing up the various names men- 
 tioned by the old writers, and referring to their evident 
 corruption and variation, says — 
 
 " Two of them in particular, Weardune and WendunCt 
 I have never seen noticed by any modern writer, yet 
 Weardune appears to me the most important namCy if 
 Brunanburh be excepted, and EVEN THIS IS NOT MORE 
 SO. As to Wendune it is evidently a mistake in the 
 transcribing for Werdune, the Anglo-Saxon r being 
 merely n, with a long bottom stroke on the left." 
 
 Mr. Weddle finds a Warden Hill, about two miles 
 from the farm-house in " Chollerford field," in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Brunton. This he considers as very con- 
 elusive evidence in favour of the locality being the 
 Brunanburh of which we are in search. If such be the 
 case, the existence of "Wearden, or Worden, in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of Brunhill, Bamber, and 
 Brunedge, must unquestionably be more so, and especially 
 when taken in connection with the large amount of 
 corroborative evidence with which it is surrounded. The 
 term Weardune is sometimes written Weondune, which, 
 after the correction of the n, as suggested by Mr. Weddle, 
 is Weorden. The ancient seat of the Faringtons, of 
 Leyland and Farington, is variously written Werden, 
 Worden, and Wearden, and it is pronounced by the 
 inhabitants of the neigbourhood Wearden at the present 
 day. It must have been a place of some importance in 
 the time of the Roman occupation. Many coins, and a 
 
200 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 heavy gold- signet ring, bearing the letters S P Q R, 
 have been found there. The place is situated near the 
 great Roman highway, and, if Anlafs troops covered 
 the "pass of the Ribble" near Brunhull, Brunburh 
 and Brunedge, Wearden is precisely the neighbourhood 
 where Athelstan's forces, coming from the south, would 
 encamp in front of them. Dr. Kuerden, upwards of two 
 centuries ago, describes the northern boundary of the 
 township of Euxton-burgh as the " Werden broke." Mr. 
 Baines states that there is in Leyland churchyard "a 
 stone of the 14th century, covering all that remains of 
 the Weardens of Golden Hill." It is highly probable 
 that the present Cuerden is itself a corruption of Wearden. 
 The prefix Cuer is found in Cuerden, Cuerdale (where 
 the great hoard was found), and Cuerdley near Prescot, 
 and in no other part of England. The names* in the 
 locality, as I have previously said, are not recorded in 
 the Domesday survey, but the Norman-French generally 
 represented the English sound w by gu. Philologists 
 regard the consonants c, q, ch, and g, as " identical " 
 or " convertible," consequently, if I assume the initial 
 C in Cuerden to be equivalent to G^ we have a Norman- 
 French method of writing Wearden. That cu was used 
 to represent the sound of our w, is demonstrated by a 
 reference to the survey itself, for in the Domesday record, 
 Fishwick, now a portion of the borough of Preston, and 
 situated on the opposite bank of the Ribble to Cuerdale, 
 is actually written Fiscuic. Leland, too, in his Itinerary, 
 spells the river Cocker indifferently with the initials C, 
 '*' Mr. Thompson Watkins, His. Soc. Trans., says the metal is bronze. 
 
ETHRUNANWERCH. 20I 
 
 G, and K. The district in the parish of Leyland, 
 anciently styled Cumiolvesmores^ is sometimes found 
 written Gtmoldsmores. 
 
 Simeon of Durham says the battle was fought near 
 Weondune, or Ethnmanweirh^ or Brunnan byrge. I have 
 never seen any attempt to identify this Ethrunanwerch 
 with any modern locality in any part of the country. 
 There is no such name to be found now, nor anything 
 suggestive of it, in a gazetteer of England and Wales, 
 and I therefore presume that it has either entirely dis- 
 appeared or become so altered as to be unrecognizable. 
 Consequently, if I fail in an attempt to identify it, not 
 much injury will result therefrom. The termination 
 zverch presents no difficulty. It is evidently worth, as in 
 Saddleworth, Shuttleworth, etc., and could easily give 
 place to some other suffix indicating residence or 
 occupation, or even locality. The prefix Ethrunan is 
 more difficult to deal with, and I should perhaps not 
 have attempted its solution, if I had not seen on a map 
 the name Rother applied to one of the head waters which, 
 uniting near Stockport, form the Mersey. This stream 
 is generally called the Etherow.* This is the nearest 
 approach to Ethrunan that I have been able to meet 
 with. If rother, by a kind of metathesis, is an 
 equivalent to ether, perhaps I can detect two distinct 
 remains of the word Ethrunanwerch, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Wearden. On the ordnance map we have, 
 about a mile from Werden Hall, Rotherham Top, and a 
 
 * In Herman Moll's map, the EtheroW, before its junction with the 
 Goyt and Tame, is written Mersey. 
 
202 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 stream, recently diverted for the purpose of the Liverpool 
 water supply, named the Roddlesworth. This word 
 implies a place on the bank of a stream, and as the d 
 and /// are phonetic equivalents, it may be read 
 Rothelsworth or Ethrunlesworth ; indeed, Mr. Baines 
 expressly says, "Withnall, or Withnell, also a part of 
 the lordship of Gunoldsmores, containing Rothelsworth, 
 a name derived from Roddlesworth, or Mouldenwater, a 
 rapid stream." On the one-inch to the mile ordnance 
 map there is a name which preserves the form of the 
 first part of the word without the transposition, or 
 metathesis, to which I have referred. Not far from 
 Worden Hall is a small hamlet named " Ethrington." 
 The fact that these names exist in the neighbourhood 
 strengthens the probability that the etymology is not 
 altogether fanciful, and consequently lends support to 
 the presumption that the locality suggested may be 
 the true site of Athelstan's great victory. 
 
 I have said that there are several places in Lanca- 
 shire, even, which answer to Brunan or Brun. The fol- 
 lowing are amongst the number : On the Wyre, near the 
 commencement of the Roman agger or " Danes' Pad!' 
 as it is locally termed, which led from the Portus 
 Setantiorum of Ptolemy to York, is a place named 
 Bourne, written in the Domesday survey Brune. Bourne 
 Hall is situated upon a " dune " or hill, which commands 
 a relatively recently blocked up channel of the Wyre. 
 Therefore Brunnandune or Brunford would strictly apply 
 to it. Bryning-with-Kcllamcrgh, near Warton, in the 
 parish of Kirkham, is described in a charter of the reign 
 
ANLAF'S FLIGHT TO DUBLIN. 203 
 
 of John, as Brichscrach Brun and Kelmers<5//r^//. In 
 the time of Henry III. it is described as Brininge. Not 
 far from Rochdale is a spot named " Kildanes," near 
 Bamford. The site is not much more than two miles 
 from a place named Burnedge or Brunedge. There is a 
 Burnage between Manchester and Stockport. Burnley is 
 situated on the river Burn, generally, however, called the 
 Brun. This demonstrates how utterly impossible it is to 
 identify the locality by the name Brunanburh. The 
 Manchester, Rochdale, and Burnley sites are too far from 
 the seashore. The fine old poem, describing the battle, 
 says emphatically — " There were made flee the North- 
 man's chieftain, By need constrained, To the ship's prow. 
 With a little band. The bark drove afloat — The king 
 departed — On the fallow flood his life he preserved." 
 And, again, the poem says — " The Northmen departed 
 In their nailed barks ; Bloody relic of darts ; On roaring 
 ocean, O'er the deep water, Dublin to seek ; Again 
 Ireland shamed in mind." And further — " West Saxons 
 onwards Throughout the day. In numerous bands. Pur- 
 sued the footsteps of the loathed nations." I therefore 
 contend that, in this particular, as well as those already 
 disposed of, the " pass of the Ribble " answers to the 
 locality of the struggle, as described by contemporary 
 authority. Where this topographical feature is wanting, 
 I hold it to be fatal. The ships of Anlaf might be 
 attending the army in the estuaries of the Ribble or 
 Wyre, and to them the defeated and routed forces would, 
 of course, repair with headlong speed, after crossing the 
 fords, the defence of which they had so gallantly, if 
 
204 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 unsuccessfully, attempted. During this hasty retreat, I 
 contend it is highly probable the great Cuerdale hoard 
 was deposited, and, owing to death, or other disaster, the 
 precise locality could not be determined in after times, 
 although the tradition of its deposition remained. There 
 is plenty of analagous evidence in support of such a 
 conjecture, to some of which I have already referred. In 
 the seventh volume of " Collectania Antiqua," Mr. 
 Charles Roach Smith, referring to the then recent dis- 
 covery near the Roman station, " Procolitia," near the 
 great Roman Wall, of an enormous mass (15,000) of 
 Roman coins, weighing about 400 pounds, says he 
 regards the hoard as part of the money set apart for the 
 payment of the troops occupying the adjoining castrum, 
 which, owing to some sudden panic in the reign ofGratian^ 
 was concealed in the well or fountain dedicated to a 
 local divinity, Conesstina. The Saxon Chronicle, as 
 well as Ethelwerd, as I have already stated, refer to the 
 burying of treasure under similar circumstances. The 
 former says — " This year (A.D. 418) the Romans 
 collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and 
 some they hid in the earth, so that no one has since been 
 able to find them, and some they carried with thefti 
 into Gaul." 
 
 Athelstan's connection with Preston and its neigh- 
 bourhood, at the head of his army, is attested by stronger 
 evidence than mere tradition. In the year 930 he 
 granted the whole of the hundred of Amounderness to 
 the cathedral church at York. He is said to have 
 ''purchased'' the territory with his own money, a some* 
 
"PICKERING CASTLE." 20$ 
 
 what remarkable financial operation for a conquering 
 king in the tenth century, in Anglo-Saxon and Pagan 
 Danish times. But perhaps a previous grant to the 
 church at Ripon influenced him in this matter. 
 
 In the early part of the seventeenth century lived 
 one William Elston, who, in a MS. entitled, " Mundana 
 Mutabllia, or Ethelestophylax," now in the Harleian 
 collection in the British Museum, placed upon record 
 the following interesting particulars relative to this 
 monarch — " It was once told me by Mr. Alexander 
 Elston, who was uncle to my father and sonne to Ralph 
 Elston, my great grandfather, that the said Ralph 
 Elston had a deede or a copy of a deede in the Saxon 
 tongue, wherein it did appear that king Ethelstan lying 
 in camp in this cotmty upon occacon of warres, gave the 
 land of Ethelston vnto one to whom himself was Belsyre." 
 (godfather). 
 
 The township of Elston, in the parish of Preston, 
 formerly written Ethelstan, is situated on the north bank 
 of the Ribble a little above Cuerdale and Red Scar. 
 
 To the south of Brindle and the east of Worden, near 
 Whittle Springs, is a large tumulus, and the hill side on 
 which it is situated has the appearance of having been, 
 at some time, disturbed by human agency. A Roman 
 vicinal way, from Wigan to Blackburn, or Mellor, where it 
 joins the main highway from Manchester to Ribchester, 
 passes near it. Remains of this road were discovered 
 near Adlington not many years ago. Another ancient 
 road, probably of similar origin, leaves the main Roman 
 military way from Warrington to Lancaster at Bamber- 
 
206 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 bridge, and running in the direction of Manchester, 
 crosses this in its neighbonrhood. This tumulus is 
 named " Pickering Castle ;" which has an important 
 significance. Tumuli are often termed " castles." We 
 have the "Castle Hill " near Newton-in-Mackerfield, and 
 the "Castle Hill" at Penwortham, near Preston. The 
 tumulus near to " Whittle Springs " is very similar to 
 these in appearance, and may, on excavation, prove 
 to be a sepulchral mound. Pickering, according to 
 the method of interpretation adopted by John Mitchell 
 Kemble, in his "Saxons in England," should indicate 
 the " Mark " of a sept or clan bearing that name, 
 like the Faringas as at Farington, Billingas as at Billing- 
 ton, and many others. But there is not the slightest 
 reference by any writer of such a name ever holding 
 property in the neighbourhood, and Mr. Kemble places 
 the Pickering, in Yorkshire, only among the probable 
 instances, as he had never met with any account of a Saxon 
 family or mark answering to it. As the letters P and V 
 are interchangeable sounds, " vikingring " has been sug- 
 gested as the original form of the word. Dr. Smith, in 
 his annotations to Marsh's " Lectures on the English 
 Languages," speaks of the "Danes being led by the 
 vikings, the younger sons of their royal houses." As the 
 old poem says — " Five kings lay on the battle-stead. 
 "Youthful kings By swords in slumber laid. So seven eke 
 Of Anlaf s earls. Of the army countless." This interpreta- 
 tion seems not improbable ; yet it may be no more 
 than an accidental coincidence rather than a legitimate 
 derivation. As P and B are equally interchangeable 
 
THE "MAIDEN CASTLE" AT BICKERTON. 20/ 
 
 consonants, I am inclined to think that "Bickering 
 Castle " may have been the original name of the tumulus. 
 Bicrtty in the modern Welsh, means to fight, from whence 
 our word bickering. In this case, ing meaning field, the 
 interpretation would be the " Castle of the Battle-Field." 
 There is some good analogy in support of this view. 
 Mr. Thos. Baines, in his " Lancashire and Cheshire : Past 
 and Present," says — " The FecMorton Hills extend from 
 Beeston Castle to the Dee. On one of them Bickerion 
 Hill, 500 feet high, is a strong camp with a double line of 
 earthworks. One front overlooks the plain of Cheshire. 
 The earthwork is called the " Maiden Castle." Not far 
 from Bickerton Hill is BIckley, where, according to 
 Ormerod, certain brass tablets were recently discovered, 
 recording a grant of the freedom of the city of Rome to 
 certain troops serving in Britain in the reign of Trajan, 
 A.D. 98 — 117, some of whom may have been stationed 
 in the neighbourhood where the tablets were found. 
 We have in Lancashire the township of Bickerstaffe, 
 and an adjoining wood named Bickershaw. Bicker- 
 staffe was anciently written ^ickcrstat and ByViyrstath. 
 Stadt, stad, or stead means a station or settlement. 
 Thus we have battle-wood and battle -stead. We have 
 seen that the old poem says—" Five kings lay on the 
 battle-stead, youthful kings, by swords in slumber laid." 
 Besides, we find Bicker and Bickering in Lincolnshire, 
 and Bickerton in both Northumberland and the East 
 Riding of Yorkshire. Whatever this may be worth, it 
 is most desirable that this tumulus should be dug into, 
 for remains might, and probably would, be found 
 
208 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 which could throw additional light upon the subject of 
 the present investigation. 
 
 In the yard of Brindle Parish Church, beneath the 
 chancel window, is an ancient stone coffin, with a circular 
 hollow for the head of the corpse. Nothing further is 
 known respecting it, beyond that it was dug up some- 
 where in the neighbourhood, and had been removed to 
 its present position with a view to its preservation. 
 
 In 1867 I examined the Ancient British burial 
 mound and its contents, then recently discovered in the 
 park land attached to Whitehall, and contiguous to 
 that of Low Hill House, the residence of Mr. Ellis 
 Shorrock, at Over Darvven, and contributed a paper 
 respecting it to the Transactions of the Lancashire 
 and Cheshire Historic Society. In that paper I say — 
 " I heard that there is a tradition, yet implicitly relied on, 
 which speaks of a battle fought in the olden time some- 
 where in the neighbourhood of Tockholes in the 
 Roddlesworth valley, and stories that remains, including 
 those of horses, have been found, which are believed to 
 confirm it. Respecting this I may have something to 
 say in a future paper." What I have to say is this : 
 that if a severe struggle took place near the tumulus to 
 which I have referred, the routed army, following the 
 Roman vicinal way to Ribchester, would pass by the 
 locality, which is not far distant. This adds another 
 link in the chain of evidence by which I have sought to 
 demonstrate that the most probable site of Athclstan's 
 great victory at Brunanburh is that which I have 
 indicated near the famous " pass of the Ribblc," to the 
 
" THE PASS OF THE RIBBLE " the MOST PROBABLE SITE. 2O9 
 
 south of Preston, and that the great Cuerdale hoard of 
 treasure was buried on the bank of the stream, 
 during the disastrous retreat of the routed confederate 
 armies. 
 
 In the appendix to the " History of Preston and its 
 Environs," published in 1857, after discussing Mr, 
 Weddle's objections to a Lancashire site, I concluded 
 with the following words — "These reasons, in conjunc- 
 tion with those advanced in the second chapter of this 
 work, induce the author to prefer the locality, in the 
 present state of the evidence, as the most probable site of 
 the " battle of the Brun." 
 
 Although the evidence advanced in its favour on the 
 present occasion is considerably in excess of that 
 previously obtainable, T still merely reassert my previous 
 conviction, without dogmatism, that, on weighing the 
 whole of the evidence yet adduced, I am justified in 
 maintaining that the site I name is the most probable 
 which has yet been suggested; indeed, there is very 
 little reliable evidence in favour of any other. But, in 
 conclusion, I again reiterate what I wrote twenty-five years 
 ago, when dealing with the Roman topography of the 
 county, that " no permanent settlement of so difficult a 
 question ought to be insisted upon, until every means of 
 investigation and all the resources of logical inference 
 have been fairly exhausted." 
 
 I have already said that the neighbourhood of 
 Preston and " the pass of the Ribble, " as might have 
 been expected from its topographical position, and 
 consequent strategical importance, has been the scene of 
 
210 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 many known conflicts. Robert Bruce, in 1323, burned 
 the town, but ventured no further southward. Holinshed 
 says he " entered into England, by Carlisle, kept on his 
 way through Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancaster, 
 to Preston, which town he burnt, as he had done others 
 in the counties he had passed through, and, after three 
 weeks and three days, he returned into Scotland without 
 engaging." 
 
 Dr. Kuerden, writing shortly before the guild of 1682, 
 laments the destruction of documentary evidence 
 relating to this famous Preston festival during the turmoil 
 of civil war. After enumerating the dates of those still 
 preserved, in his day, in the Corporation records, he says — 
 "These are such as doth appeare within the Records 
 and Gild Books, that yet remain extant and in being, 
 though some I conceive to be omitted, as one Gild in 
 Henry 6th dayes occaslon'd, as I conceive, in those 
 distractions and civil wars betwixt the Houses of 
 Lancaster and York ; another Gild Merchant omitted 
 to be kept in K. H. 8th dayes, occasioned, as may be 
 thought, by the Revolutions at that time in Church 
 affayres ; the next that are wanting may be through the 
 loss of Records in K. Edw. 3rd dayes [sic] wheras the 
 Scottish army burnt the Burrough of Preston to the very 
 ground." Kuerden is in error with reference to the 
 king's reign in which this disaster occurred ; Bruce's foray 
 took place in the reign of Edward IL 
 
 In the " History of Preston and its Environs," p. 50, 
 I say — " A tradition still remains that Roman Ribchester 
 was destroyed by an earthquake ; another that it was 
 
ROMAN RIBCHESTER. 211 
 
 reduced to ashes in the early part of the fourteenth 
 century, during the great inroad of the Scots under 
 Bruce. Both are highly improbable. Had Roman 
 Ribchester remained a place of any importance till the 
 period referred to, it could scarcely have failed to have 
 attracted the notice of some of the elder chroniclers 
 or topographers. True, the Saxon village may have 
 shared the fate of Preston, in the celebrated foray of our 
 northern neighbours, and hence the tradition ! An 
 earthquake in England, of sufficient magnitude to bury 
 a Roman "city," (to use the elder Whitaker's emphatic 
 style,) " vmst " have found some one to record it. Other 
 facts, however, demonstrate that this tradition can have 
 no better foundation than the vague conjecture of 
 ignorant peasants ; who, on first discovering remains of 
 ancient buildings beneath the soil, naturally attributed 
 their subterranean location to the action of some earth- 
 quake, in that mysterious period usually denominated 
 the " olden time." In Leland's day, the remains of the 
 Roman temple dedicated to Minerva were believed to 
 have been connected with Jewish religious rites and 
 ceremonies, from the simple fact that they knew of no 
 other non-Christian sect with whom to associate them. 
 
 At the commencement of the campaign in 1643 
 between Charles I. and the Parliament, General Fairfax, 
 from his head quarters at Manchester, ordered an attack 
 upon Preston, then garrisoned by the king's troops. The 
 town was at that time fortified by "inner and outer 
 walls of brick," no vestige of which now remains, 
 although it was recently not very difficult to trace their 
 
212 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 site. The command was entrusted to General Sir John 
 Seaton. Captain Booth led the attack, and scaled the 
 outer wall. The garrison defended the inner wall with 
 great valour, "with push of pike," until Sir John Seaton, 
 having stormed the defences on the eastern side, entered 
 the town by Church-street, when they were overpowered, 
 and the Parliamentary army obtained complete pos- 
 session of the town, but not before the mayor, Adam 
 Morte, and his son, had fallen in the conflict. 
 
 Colonel Resworn, the celebrated Parliamentary 
 engineer, afterwards refortified the town. Shortly after- 
 wards Major-General Seaton and Colonel Ashton 
 marched from Preston, with the view to relieve Lancaster, 
 then besieged by the Earl of Derby. The earl drew off 
 his troops on their approach, and falling suddenly on 
 Preston, in its then defenceless state, stormed the works 
 in three places. After an hour's severe fighting the 
 place surrendered. Lord Derby secured the magazine, 
 and destroyed the military works, fearing the place 
 might again fall into the enemy's hands. 
 
 In August, 1664, a smart little struggle took place at 
 Ribblc Bridge, which Colonel Shuttleworth thus describes 
 in his dispatch — " Right Honourable, — Upon Thursday 
 last, marching with three of my troops upon Blackburn 
 towards Preston, where the ennemie lay, I met eleven of 
 their colours at Ribble Bridge, within a mile of Preston, 
 whereupon, after a sharp fight, we took the Lord Ogleby, 
 a Scotch Lord, Colonel Ennis, one other colonel slaine, 
 one major wounded, and divers officers and soldiers to 
 the number of forty in all taken, besides eight or nine 
 
THE GREAT BATTLE OF PRESTON. 213 
 
 slaine, with the losse of twelve men taken prisoners, which 
 afterwards were released by Sir John Meldrum upon his 
 coming to Preston the night following, from whence the 
 enemy fled." 
 
 Four years afterwards, Cromwell achieved his great 
 victory over the Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of 
 Langdale. Reference has been made, in the previous 
 chapter, to the rapid march of the Parliamentary forces 
 from Sklpton, by Clitheroe, to Stonyhurst, where they 
 encamped on the evening of August i6th, 1648. Some 
 difference respecting the then famous "Covenant" pre- 
 vented Langdale's forces from combining heartily with 
 those of the Duke. His English troops were encamped 
 on RIbbleton Moor, to the east of Preston. Hamilton's 
 Scotch forces were widely scattered. Some of his 
 advanced horse lay at Wigan ; his main army occupied 
 Preston, while his rear, und^r Monro, were in the 
 neighbourhood of Garstang. Short work was made, 
 notwithstanding the great numerical superiority, with 
 such discipline and divided councils, by a soldier of 
 Cromwell's calibre, In the words of Thomas Carlyle, 
 he "dashed In upon him, cut him in two, drove him north 
 and south, Into as miserable ruin as his worst enemy 
 could wish." "The bridge of Ribble" was fiercely 
 contested. When the Parliamentary troops, with " push 
 of pike" (Cromwell's equivalent for the modern phrase 
 " at the point of the bayonet "), at length prevailed, the 
 duke's army retreated over the Darwen, which joins the 
 Ribble in the Immediate neighbourhood. Night put an 
 end to the conflict. Before daylight the Royalist army 
 
214 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 decamped, but was hotly pursued, through Chorley, 
 
 Wigan, and Warrington, into the midland counties, 
 
 and rapidly destroyed. The Duke of Hamilton was taken 
 
 prisoner at Uttoxeter, and a similar fate befel Langdale 
 
 at Nottingham. * 
 
 This victory is celebrated as one of Cromwell's 
 
 greatest military achievements, by Milton, in his famous 
 
 sonnet : — 
 
 TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL. 
 
 Cromwell, our chief of men, who, through a cloud 
 
 Not of war only, but detractions rude, 
 
 Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, 
 
 To peace and truth thy glorious way has ploughed, 
 
 And on the neck of crowned Fortune proud 
 
 Hast reared God's trophies and his work pursued. 
 
 While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbued, 
 
 And Dunbar field resound thy praises loud. 
 
 And Worcester's laureat wreath. Yet much remains 
 
 To conquer still ; Peace hath her victories 
 
 No less renown'd than War ; new foes arise 
 
 Threat'ning to bind our souls with secular chains : 
 
 Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
 
 Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. 
 
 The number of the troops engaged in this short but 
 brilliant campaign is stated variously by different 
 authorities. There is an entry in the records of the 
 Corporation of Preston which says ** Decimo Septimo 
 die Augustie, 1648, 24 Car, — That Henry Blundell, gent, 
 being mayor of this town of Preston, the daie and yeare 
 aforesaid, Oliver Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the 
 forces of the Parliament of England, with an army of 
 about 10,000 at the most, (whereof 150C were Lancashire 
 men, under the command of Colonel Ralph Assheton, of 
 
 * For details of this battle sec '* History of Preston and its Environs."' 
 
CAPTAIN HODGSON'S NARRATIVE. 21$ 
 
 Middleton), fought a battail in and about Preston afore- 
 said, and over-threw Duke Hamilton, general of the Scots, 
 consisting of about 26,000, and of English, Sir Marma- 
 duke Langdale and his forces, joined with the Scots, 
 about 4,000; took all their ammunition, about 3,000 
 prisoners, killed many with very small losse to the 
 parliament army ; and in their pursuit towards Lancaster, 
 Wigan, Warrington, and divers other places in Cheshire, 
 Staffordshire, and Nottinghamshire, took the said Duke 
 and Langdale, with many Scottish earls and lords, and 
 about 10,000 prisoners more, all being taken [or] slayne, 
 few escaping, and all their treasure and plunder taken. 
 This performed in less than one week." 
 
 Captain Hodgson notices the plundering propensities 
 of the enemy, but, as we have seen in the previous 
 chapter, he entertained no higher an opinion of his 
 Lancashire allies, with respect to their " looting " pro- 
 clivities. His estimate of the numbers of the army of 
 the Parliament is somewhat less than that in the Corpora- 
 tion record. He says — " The Scots marched towards 
 Kendal, we towards Rippon ; where Oliver met us with 
 horse and foot. We were then betwixt eight and nine 
 thousand ; a fine smart army, and fit for action. We 
 marched up to Skipton; and the forlorn of the enemy's 
 horse was come to Gargrave, and took some men away, 
 and made others pay what money they pleased ; having 
 made havock in the country, it seems intending never to 
 come there again." 
 
 Cromwell, in his despatch "to the Honourable 
 William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of 
 
2l6 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Commons," dated "Warrington, 20th August, 1648," 
 of course attributes all the honour and glory to the 
 Almighty, yet, modestly enough, he claims some credit as 
 due to the Parliamentary army, if it rested merely upon 
 the disparity in the number of the combatants. He 
 says — " Thus you have a Narrative of the particulars of 
 the success which God hath given you ; which I could 
 hardly at this time have done, considering the multiplicity 
 of business, but truly, when I was once engaged in it, I 
 could hardly tell how to say less, there being so much of 
 God in it ; and I am not willing to say more, lest there 
 should seem to be any of man. Only give me leave to 
 add one word, showing the disparity of forces on both 
 sides, that you may see, and all the world acknowledge, 
 the great hand of God in this business. The Scots army 
 could not be less than twelve thousand effective foot, well 
 armed, and five thousand horse ; Langdale not less 
 than two thousand five hundred foot, and fifteen 
 hundred horse ; in all Twenty-one-Thousand : and 
 truly very few of their foot but were as well armed 
 if not better than yours, and at divers disputes 
 did fight two or three hours before they would quit 
 their ground. Yours were about two thousand five 
 hundred horse and dragoons of your old Army ; about 
 four thousand foot of your old Army ; also about sixteen 
 hundred Lancashire foot, and about five hundred 
 Lancashire horse ; in all about Eight thousand Six 
 hundred. You see by computation about two thousand 
 of the Enemy slain ; betwixt eight and nine thousand 
 prisoners ; besides what are lurking in hedges and 
 
CROMWELL TRADITIONS. 21/ 
 
 private places, which the County daily bring in or 
 destroy." 
 
 Notwithstanding the great social and political im- 
 portance of this victory, and the renown of the general 
 by whom it was achieved, whose very name is yet 
 associated in the minds of some with every odious 
 moral feature, and, in the judgment of others, with the 
 highest English statesmanship, unselfish patriotism, and 
 sincere religious conviction, the amount of legendary 
 story which it has left behind is singularly limited. I 
 have heard of several localities in Lancashire, and some 
 neighbouring counties, where tradition records that 
 Oliver Cromwell once visited the district and slept in 
 some specified house or mansion, although there exists 
 not the slightest reliable evidence that Oliver was ever 
 in the neighbourhood. This, in some instances, I fancy, 
 may be accounted for by the fact that Cromwell's name 
 has become a typical or generic one, and has done duty 
 for nearly a couple of centuries with the public generally, 
 for every commander, either generals or subordinate 
 officers, belonging to the Parliamentary armies. 
 
 One tradition, however, was well-known in my 
 youthful days. The mound planted with trees on 
 ** Walton Flats " was always regarded as " the grave of 
 the Scotch warriors." The place was rather a solitary 
 one at night, and some superstitious fear was often 
 confessed by others than children, when passing it after 
 nightfall. It was in this mound, in 1855, whilst looking 
 for remains of the said " Scotch warriors," that I came 
 upon evidences of Roman occupation. Faith in the 
 
2l8 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 legend was attested when one of the workmen informed 
 me that he had found in the mound a halfpenny with 
 the figure of a Scotchman in the place of Britannia, on 
 the reverse. I found it to be a Roman second brass 
 coin, the military costume of a soldier suggesting to the 
 labourer a kilted Highlander. Although at various 
 times relics of the fight have been picked up, they are 
 now extremely rare. The flood waters of the Ribble 
 have occasionally dislodged human bones, including 
 sculls, from the banks, and these are almost universally, 
 if somewhat vaguely, associated with " Scotch warrions," 
 but without any definite notion as to the period or cause 
 of their presence in the neighbourhood. I remember, 
 many years ago, suggesting to a very old man employed 
 on a rope-walk near the south bank of the river, that, as 
 a number of English, including some Lancashire men, 
 were slain in the great battle in 1648, it was possible a 
 portion of the bones might belong to them. He did not 
 d^ny tht possibility ; but simply remarked that he had 
 never heard the remains attributed to any but the 
 aforesaid " Scotch warriors ; " and he was evidently, 
 from his point of view, too "patriotic" to entertain, 
 himself, the slightest doubt on the subject. 
 
 A Protestant minister of Annandale, a Mr. Patten, 
 who accompanied the Stuart army, and published a 
 "History of the Rebellion" in 1715, condemns the 
 Jacobite leaders for not defending the "Pass of the 
 Ribble." The approach to the old bridge down the steep 
 incline from Preston was by a lane, which was, he says, 
 "very deep indeed." This lane was situated about 
 
CROMWELLS LIFE IN DANGER. 219 
 
 midway between the present road and the hollow, yet 
 visible, by which the Roman road passed to the north. 
 He adds — " This is that famous lane at the end of which 
 Oliver Cromwell met with a stout resistance from the 
 King's forces, who from the height rolled down upon 
 him and his men (when they had entered the lane) huge 
 large millstones; and if Oliver himself had not forced 
 his horse to jump into a quicksand, he had luckily 
 ended his days there." Commenting on this passage 
 in the " History of Preston," I say — " Notwithstanding 
 Mr. Patten's political conversion afterwards, and his 
 horror of the * licentious freedom ' of those who ' cry up 
 the old doctrines of passive obedience, and give hints 
 and arguments to prove hereditary right,' he appears to 
 have retained all the antipathy of a Stuart partizan to 
 the memory of Oliver Cromwell. Yet the loyalty of 
 1648 became rebellion in 171 5, when Mr. Patten's head 
 was in danger. Such is the mutation of human dogma- 
 tism." 
 
 Cromwell, in a letter to the Solicitor-General, "his 
 worthy friend, Oliver St. John, Esquire," shortly after the 
 battle, relates an incident which illustrates one of the 
 phases of religious thought amongst our Puritan 
 ancestors, and which is by no means extinct at the 
 present time. He says — "I am informed from good 
 hands, that a poor godly man died in Preston, the day 
 before the fight; and being sick, near the hour of his 
 death, he desired the woman that cooked to him, to 
 fetch him a handful of grass. She did so ; and when he 
 received it, he asked, whether it would wither or not, 
 
220 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 now it was cut ? The woman said * yea.* He replied, 
 *So should this Army of the Scots do, and come to 
 nothing, so soon as ours did but appear,' or words to this 
 effect, and so immediately died." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle's old Puritan blood is up, as he 
 contemplates the possibility of some adverse critic 
 citing this story as evidence of Cromwell's intellectual 
 weakness, or, at least, of his proneness to superstition. 
 He almost fiercely exclaims — " Does the reader look 
 with any intelligence into that poor old prophetic, 
 symbolic, Death-bed scene at Preston .? Any intelligence 
 of Prophecy and Symbol, in general; of the symbolic 
 Man-child Maker sJialal-hasJibaz at Jerusalem, or the 
 handful of Cut Grass at Preston — of the opening Portals 
 of Eternity, and what departing gleams there are in the 
 Soul of the pure and the just } Mahershalal-hashbaz 
 (' Hasten-to-the-spoil,' so called), and the bundle of Cut 
 Grass are grown somewhat strange to us ! Read ; and 
 having sneered duly, — consider." 
 
 In August, 165 1, Colonel Lilburne defeated the Earl 
 of Derby at Wigan-lane, in which engagement the 
 gallant Major-general Sir Thomas Tildesley fell. On the 
 day previous to the battle, a skirmish took place between 
 the Royalists and the Parliamentary troops at the "pass 
 of the Ribble." In his letter to Cromwell, Lilburne 
 says — " The next day, in the afternoone, I having not 
 foot with me, a party of the Enemies Horse fell smartly 
 amongst us where our Horses were grazing, and for 
 some space put us pretty hard to it ; but at last it 
 pleased the Lord to strengthen us so as that we put them 
 
ROYALTY AND REBELLION. 221 
 
 to flight, and pursued them to Ribble-h ridge ^ (this was 
 something like our business at Mussleburgh), and kild 
 and tooke about 30 prisoners, most Officers and Gentle- 
 men, with the loss of two men that dyed next morning ; 
 but severall wounded, and divers of our good Horses 
 killed." 
 
 Anno Domini 1715. "Time's whirligig" hath 
 brought about strange changes. A " Restoration " and 
 a " Glorious Revolution " have passed across the stage. 
 The faithful followers of the dethroned Stuarts, 
 the "royalists" of the last century, have been trans- 
 formed into the " rebels " of this. The partizans of 
 Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, styled the 
 " Elder Pretender," after a successful march from 
 Scotland, arrived at Preston, and took possession of 
 the town. 
 
 The " Chevalier " was proclaimed king. Brigadier 
 Macintosh was anxious to defend the "pass " at Ribble- 
 bridge, but, as the previous fortifications of the town 
 had been destroyed, it was determined instead to barri- 
 cade the entrance to the principal streets. The town was 
 besieged for two days by Generals Wills and Carpenter. 
 After a brave defence, notwithstanding the incompetency 
 of *' General " Forster, the partisans of the Stuart were 
 compelled to surrender at discretion.-*: 
 
 In 1745, Prince Charles Edward, or the "Young 
 Pretender," as he was styled, marched from Scotland on 
 his way to Derby, through Preston ; and again, a little 
 more expeditiously on his return therefrom. 
 * For details respecting this siege, see His. Preston, c. v. 
 
222 ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Mr. Robert Chambers says — " The clansmen had a 
 superstitious dread, in consequence of the misfortunes of 
 their party at Preston, in 17 15, that they would never get 
 beyond this town ; to dispel the illusion, Lord George 
 Murray crossed the Ribble, and quartered a number of 
 men on the other side." A single repulse could scarcely 
 justify such foreboding. The name of the Ribble had 
 evidently become associated with previous disasters, as 
 well as with the relatively recent surrender of the Scotch 
 and English forces under Forster, Derwentwater, and 
 Macintosh in 1715. 
 
 Considering the many exquisite poetical effusions 
 which the misfortunes of the Stuarts added to Scottish 
 literature, it is surprising that nothing, but some of the 
 veriest doggrels in relation thereto, can be met with on 
 the southern side of the border. " Brigadier Macintosh's 
 Farewell to the Highlands" is beneath criticism, and 
 " Long Preston Peggy to Proud Preston went " is not 
 much better. In May, 1847, a story appeared in " New 
 Tales of the Borders and the British Isles." It is 
 introduced by the first stanza of the ballad. The scene 
 is laid at Walton-le-dale and Preston, 181 5. It is a sad 
 jumble of fact and fiction. It confounds with one 
 another events in the campaigns of 171 5 and 1745, and 
 illustrates, to some extent, the confusion of history and 
 artistic fiction discussed in the preceding pages of this 
 work. Peggy, who, in her old age, after a somewhat 
 profuse indulgence in ardent spirits, had still some 
 remains of a handsome face and fine person, frequently 
 sung the song of which she was the heroine, five and 
 
BALLAD: "LONG PRESTON PEGGY." 223 
 
 twenty years after the occurrence of the events which 
 gave rise to it.-:* 
 
 * Mr. J. P. Morris, in Notes and Queries^ says — " Many collectors have 
 endeavoured, but in vain, to find more of this old Lancashire ballad than 
 the two verses given by Dr. Dixon, in his * Songs and Ballads of the 
 English Peasantry,' and by Mr. Harland, in his * Ballads and Songs of 
 Lancashire.' I have much pleasure in forwarding to Notes and Queries the 
 following version, which is much more complete than any yet given : 
 
 " Long Preston Peggy to Proud Preston went, 
 To view the Scotch Rebels ifc was her intent ; 
 A noble Scotch lord, as he passed by. 
 On this Yorkshire damsel did soon cast an eye. 
 
 He called to his servant, who on him did wait — 
 
 ' Go down to yon maiden who stands in the gate, 
 That sings with a voice so soft and so sweet. 
 And in my name do her lovingly greet.' 
 
 So down from his master away he did hie, 
 For to do his bidding, aud bear her reply ; 
 But ere to this beauteous virgin he came. 
 He moved his bonnet, not knowing her name. 
 
 ' It's, oh ! Mistress Madame, your beauty's adored. 
 
 By no other person than by a Scotch lord, 
 
 And if with his wishes you will comply. 
 
 All night in his chamber with him you shall lie.' " 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE DISPOSAL OF ST. OSWALD'S REMAINS. 
 
 Mr. John Ingram, in his *•' Claimants to Royalty," referring to the 
 defeat of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, in 1578, by the Moors, says — 
 "After the fight, a corse, recognised by one of the survivors as the king's, 
 was discovered by the victorious Moors, and forwarded by the Emperor of 
 Morocco as a present to his ally, Philip the Second of Spain. In 1583, 
 this monarch restored it to the Portuguese, by whom it was interred with 
 all due solemnity in the royal mausoleum in the church of Our Lady of 
 Eelem." It thus seems that Dean Howson's conjecture, referred to at 
 page 62, is, at least, not without precedent. 
 
 THE DUN BULL, THE BADGE OF THE NEVILLES. 
 
 Mr. W. Brailsford, in "The Antiquary" (August, 1882), referring to 
 the marriage which united the properties of the Bulmers and the Nevilles, 
 in 1 190, says — "The dun bull, which is the badge of the Norman Nevilles, 
 was in reality derived from the Saxon Bulmers, though it has been thought 
 by some antiquarian searchers to have had its origin from the wild cattle 
 which, once on a time, like those still existing at Chillingham, roamed in 
 the park here, then and at a later date." 
 
 THE GENESIS OF MYTHS. 
 
 When the preceding pages were nearly all in type, I ordered a copy of 
 the then just published essay entitled "Myth and Science," by Signor 
 Tito Vignoli, in which the gradual development of mythic thought and 
 expression is expounded with great clearness and precision. He says, p. 87-93 '■ 
 
 " Doubtless it is difficult for us to picture for ourselves the psychical 
 conditions of primitive men, at a time when the objects of perception and 
 the apprehension of things were presented by an effort of memory to the 
 mind as if they were actual and living things, yet such conditions are not 
 
226 APPENDIX. 
 
 hypotlietical, but really existed, as any one may ascertain for himself who 
 is able to realise that primitive state of mind, and we have said enough to 
 show that such was its necessary condition. 
 
 "The fact becomes more intelligible when we consider man, and 
 especially the uneducated man, under the exciting influence of any passion, 
 and how at such times he will, even when alone, gesticulate, speak aloud, 
 and reply to internal questions which he imagines to be put to him by 
 absent persons, against whom he is at the moment infuriated ; the images 
 of these persons and things are, as it were, present and in agitation within 
 him ; and these images, in the fervour of emotion and under the 
 stimulus; of excitement, appear to be actually alive, although only presented 
 to the inward psychical consciousness. 
 
 " In the natural man, in whom the intellectual powers were very 
 slowly developed, the animation and personification effected by his mind 
 and consciousness were threefold : first of the objects themselves as they 
 really existed, then of the idea or image corresponding to them in the 
 memory, and lastly of the specific types of these objects and images. 
 There was within him a vast and continuous drama, of which we are 
 no longer conscious, or only retain a faint and distant echo, but which is 
 partly revealed by a consideration of the primitive value of words and 
 their roots in all languages. The meaning of these, which is now for the 
 most part lost and unintelligible, always expressed a material and concrete 
 fact, or some gesture. This is true of classic tongues, and is well known to 
 all educated people, and it recurs in the speech of all savage and 
 barbarous races. 
 
 "/a Ran is used to express all in the Marquesas Isles. Ran signifies 
 leaves, so that the term implies something as numerous as the leaves of a 
 tree. Rait, is also now used for sound, an expression which includes in 
 itself the conception of all, but which originally signified a fact, a real and 
 concrete phenomenon, and it was felt as such in the ancient speech in 
 which it was used in this sense. So again in Tahiti hum, tat, originally 
 signified hairs; rima, five, was at first used for hand; Hri, anger, 
 literally means he shouts. Uku in the Marquesas Isles means to 
 Iffiver the head, and is now used for to enter a house. Kukn, which had the 
 same original name in New Zealand, now expresses the act of diving. The 
 Polynesian word toro at first indicated anything in the position of a 
 hand with extended fingers, whence comes the Tahitian term for ox. 
 piadtoro, stretching pig, in allusion to the way in which an ox carries his 
 head. To6 (Marquesas), to put forward the hand, is now used for to take. 
 7b«^<? (Marquesas), to grope with extended arms, \^:\A^ Ko protongo tongo^ 
 darkness. In New Zealand, 7vairua, in Tahiti varua. signifies soul or spirit, 
 from vai, to remain in a recumbent position, and rua, two ; that is to be in 
 two places, since they believed that in sickness or in dreams the soul left the 
 
APPENDIX. 227 
 
 body.* Throughout Polynesia, moe signifies a recumbent position or to 
 sleep, and in Tahiti moe pipiti signifies a double sleep or dream, from inoe^ 
 to sleep, and////, two. In New Zealand, moenakii means to try to grasp 
 something during sleep ; from nakii, to take in the fingers. 
 
 " We can understand something of the mysterious exercise of human 
 intelligence in its earliest development from this habit of symbolizing and 
 presenting in an outward form an abstract conception, thus giving a 
 concrete meaning and material expression to the external fact. We see 
 how everything assumed a concrete, living form, and can better understand 
 the conditions we have established as necessary in the early days of the 
 development of human life. This attitude of the intelligence had been 
 often stated before, but in an incomplete way ; the primitive and sub- 
 sequent myths have been confounded together ; " [See ante, p.p. 44, et seg., 
 et.;i 16.]" and it has been supposed that myth was of exclusively human origin, 
 whereas it has its roots lower down in the vast animal kingdom. ♦ * * 
 
 "Anthropomorphism, and the personification of the things and 
 phenomena of nature, and their images and specific types, were the great 
 source whence issued superstitions, mythologies, and religions, and, also, 
 as we shall presently see, the scientific errors to be found among all the 
 families of the human race. 
 
 "For the devolpment of myth, which is in itself always a human 
 personification of natural objects and phenomena in some form or other, 
 the first and necessary foundation consists, as we have abundantly shown, 
 in the conscious and deliberate vivification of objects by the perception 
 and apprehension of animals. And since this is a condition of animal 
 perception, it is also the foundation of all human life, and of the spontaneous 
 and innate exercise of the intelligence. In fact, man, by a two-fold 
 process, raises above his animal nature a world of images, ideas, and 
 conceptions from the types he has formed of various phenomena, and his 
 attitude towards this internal world does not differ from his attitude 
 towards that which is external. He personifies the images, ideas, and 
 conceptions, by transforming them into living subjects, just as he had 
 originally personified cosmic objects and phenomena. ***** 
 
 " This was the source of primitive, confused, and inorganic fetishism 
 among all peoples ; namely, that they ascribed intentional and conscious 
 life to a host of natural objects and phenomena. Hence came the fears, 
 the adoration, the guardianship of, or abhorrence for, some given species of 
 stones, plants, animals, some strange forms or unusual natural object. The 
 subsequent adoration of idols and images, all sorts of talismans, the virtue 
 of relics, dreams, incantations and exorcisms, liad the same origin, and were 
 ail due to this primitive genesis of the fetish, the internal duplication of 
 the external animation and personification of objects." 
 
 • " See Gaussin's Langue PolyniHenne." 
 
228 APPENDIX. 
 
 ANGLO-SAXON HELMET. 
 
 The remains of a very fine example of the Anglo-Saxon helmet referred 
 to in chapter ii., was found by the late Mr. Bateman, in 1848, at Benty 
 Grange, in Derbyshire. He says — *' It was our good fortune to open a 
 barrow which afforded a more instructive collection of relics than has ever 
 been discovered in the country, and which are not surpassed in interest by 
 any remains hitherto recovered from any Anglo-Saxon burial place in the 
 kingdom." Amongst these remains was the head-piece referred to. After 
 describing the details of its structure, he adds — " On the crown of the 
 helmet is an elliptical bronze plate supporting the figure of an animal 
 carved in iron, with bronze eyes, now much corroded, but perfectly distinct 
 as the representation of a hog." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 Abram 138, 143 
 
 Achilleus 39, 46, 53 
 
 Acquitania 41 
 
 Adam's Peak 117 
 
 Adils 175, et seq 
 
 Agamemnon 40 
 
 Agricola, Julius .....4 
 
 Agrimensores , 87 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle 40 
 
 Albinus, St 20 
 
 Alexander 43, 44 
 
 Alfgeirr 175 et seq. 194 
 
 Allectus 192 
 
 Alfred the Great, 44, 63, 77, 81, 
 168, 173, 175, 194 
 
 Ancient Monuments 44 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.. 7, 27, 32 
 
 35, 61, 130, 131, 134, 143, 
 
 165, 167, 170, 179, 204 
 
 Aneurin I9, "4 
 
 Anlaf 170, et. seq 
 
 Annales Cambria 195 
 
 Anselm 45 
 
 Anthony, St 116 
 
 Arbury 85 
 
 Arminius or Herman 75 
 
 Armorica (Brittany) 18, 20, 38 
 
 Artemis 1 13 
 
 Arthur ...6, et seq. 34, 35, 37, 42, 
 
 44, 46,50-56,77, 103, 114, 116 
 
 Arthur's Sepulchre at Glastonbury, 
 
 8 
 Aruthur (Welsh word) 21 
 
 Aryan Myths 100 
 
 ^Esthetic Truth... 51, 52,53, 54, 
 55-58, 59 
 
 Ashton, Col.-Gen 161., et. seq 
 
 Athelstan, King... 41, 1G4, et seq 
 Augustine. St 32, 94, 184 
 
 B 
 
 Baines, Edward... 62, 66, 73, 74, 
 
 n, 90, 92, 99, 136, 148, I53» 157 
 
 Baines, Thomas 62, 207 
 
 Bale, John ;. 185 
 
 Bamborough 62 
 
 Bamber Bridge 198 
 
 Bangor-Iscoed 32, t^t^, 34 
 
 Barbarism and Civilization 129 
 
 Bardney, Lincolnshire 61, 68 
 
 Barham-Down 34 
 
 Baring-Gould, Rev 107 
 
 Barrett 107 
 
 Battle Abbey 42 
 
 Beamont, W 64, 66, 77, 78, 81 
 
 Bede, the Venerable. 15, 18, 19, 56, 
 61, 68, 71, 87, 92. 95, 105 
 
 Beowulf. 88, loi, 105, 113, 187 
 
 Bickerton 207 
 
 Billangahoh 130, et. seq 
 
 Blackrod 22, 30 
 
 " Blackbumshire, De Statu,"... 144 
 
 Blackwell, J. A 168 
 
 Boar, or Hog, Wild. ..61, 99, loo, 
 
 108, et. seq 
 
 Boscowen, W.St. Chad 45 
 
230 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bevvcastle and Ruthwell monu- 
 ments 9 
 
 Boece 25 
 
 Bojorix 112 
 
 Bolton Hall, Bolland 150 
 
 Bosworth, Rev. J 65 
 
 Bovium 34 
 
 Bramha 120 
 
 Bravalla, Fight at 42 
 
 Brigantes 3, 5, 30 
 
 Brindle 196, 205. 208 
 
 Brinhildr or Brunhild 197 
 
 Brit-Welsh 34,45,67, 75 
 
 British Urns 4 
 
 Brockhall 137 et seq 
 
 Brocmail 35 
 
 Bruce, Robert 210, 2ii 
 
 Brunanburh 164, et. seq 
 
 Brut 7, II, 25,27, 67,73,94 
 
 Brut-y-Ty wysogion 195 
 
 Bryn, Brun, and Burne...73, 74, 97 
 
 ]kynhild 39 
 
 Budda 117 
 
 Bullasey-ford 138, 139, 146 
 
 Buried Treasure 192,193 
 
 Bungerley hyppyngstones 146, 149, 
 
 158 
 Burial Mound, Ancient British 20S 
 
 Bury, Adam de 157 
 
 Bury Castle, Traditionary Siege of 
 
 154, et seq 
 
 Byron, Lord 53 
 
 Cadwalla, or Cadwallon 26, 27 
 
 63. 67, 72, 93. 94 
 
 Caldean Heliopolis 45 
 
 Camden 93, 189 
 
 Caervvent 14 
 
 Cncdmon 125, 187 
 
 Caerleon on Usk 14 
 
 Camelot 14 
 
 Cannon-balls 152 
 
 Canute 181, 188 
 
 Cardoile, Carlisle 14 
 
 Carausius 192 
 
 Cartismandua 4 
 
 Castle Field, Manchester 35 
 
 Caster-cliff, near Colne 4 
 
 Castle Hill 70, 77, 78, 84, 206 
 
 Castle Stead, near Bury 157 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas... 51, 161, 213, 219 
 
 Catraeth, Fight at 123 
 
 Centvvine 9 
 
 Chambers, Robert 222 
 
 Charlemagne 39,40,42, 103 
 
 Charles I., King 150, et seq. 
 
 Charles Edward Stuart, Prince..22i 
 
 Chester 32, 33, 34 
 
 Chevy-Chase 31 
 
 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 54 
 
 Chivalry 6 
 
 Christianity and Paganism 165, 
 
 166, 172 
 
 Christopher, St., Legend of. 135 
 
 Chronicles of the Princes of Wales, 
 
 195 
 
 CiviHzation, Origin of ii6 
 
 Clitheioe Castle 143, et seq. 
 
 Clitheroe Castle, Traditional Siege 
 of.. .151, 153 
 
 Clifford, Lord 124 
 
 Cocboy 74 
 
 Codoy 65 
 
 Coffins, Oak Tree 10 
 
 Coffin, Stone, at Brindle 208 
 
 Coins, Roman 200, 204 
 
 Colgrin 24, 27. 148 
 
 Conybeare loi 
 
 Constantine, King of the Scots 
 171, 176 
 
 Coote, H. C 87 
 
 Cox, Rev. Sir G. W... 46, 100, iiS 
 
 Cremation 80, 82, 84. 87. 88 
 
 Crests, or Totems 109, seq. 
 
 Crusades 40 
 
 Cromwell "..43, 99, 151 et seq. 
 
 213 et .««q. 
 
 Cromwell Legends 217 
 
 Croyland 43 
 
INDEX. 
 
 231 
 
 ,188, 
 
 Cuerdale Find, The Great .. 
 
 ct seq. 
 Cuerden 200 
 
 D. 
 
 Danes' " Pad" 202 
 
 Danish Invasions. ..133, 165 et seq. 
 Dasent, Dr. Sir G.W...15, 108, 127 
 
 Darvven, Over 5, 208 
 
 Dawkins, Prof. Boyd 31, 32, 73 
 
 Deira 35 
 
 Denisburn 93 
 
 Derby, Earl of... 150, 155, 212, 220 
 
 Dialects, Provincial 144 
 
 Dickens, Charles 35 
 
 Dietrich , 45 
 
 Documents, Destruction of 182, 
 
 184, 185, 186 
 
 Domesday Book 89, 196 
 
 Douglas 7, II, 12, 14,21, 24, 
 
 26, 27, 34, 2>7, 133. 148 
 
 Dragons... loi, 105, 107, no, 123, 
 
 132 
 
 Dublin 20-? 
 
 Durham, Si 
 
 of 
 
 E. 
 
 Eardulph, King 130 et seq., 147 
 
 Earvvaker, Mr 64 
 
 Easter 106 
 
 Edda 28,39, 115 
 
 Editha, Athelstan's Sister 170 
 
 Edisford 146, 148, 161 
 
 Edmund the Athehng 176 
 
 Ed wall Voel, King of Gwynnedd, 
 169 
 
 Edward the Confessor 182 
 
 Edward the Elder, King 169 
 
 Edwin, King of Northumbria...26, 
 27, 61, 95. 185 
 
 Ecgfrith 34 
 
 Egbert, King 180 
 
 Egil 173. etseq. 
 
 Ella, King 166, 168 
 
 Ellis, Mr. G 37 
 
 Elmet 33 
 
 Elphin, St 87 
 
 Elston, William 205 
 
 Elton, C 122 
 
 England, Making of 15, 19, 21 
 
 Erich, King 47 
 
 Ethelbald, King 43 
 
 Ethelfrith, King 32, 33 
 
 Ethelred, King 130, 133 
 
 Ethrunanwerch 201 
 
 Etymological 62, et seq. 
 
 Exoniensis Codex 187 
 
 Extwistle-moor, Remains on 4 
 
 F. 
 
 Fafnir.. loo 
 
 Fairfax, Gen 2ii 
 
 P'airy Mythology 116 
 
 Fals'taff, Sir John 13 
 
 Farrar, J. A 129 
 
 Fenton. J 106 
 
 Fergusson, Dr. J ii, 82, 83 
 
 Finns, The 117 
 
 Finnesburg, Fight of. 113, 187 
 
 Fiske,Mr 6, 18, 38, 108, 119 
 
 Florence of Woicester 32 
 
 Folk-lore 129 
 
 Forster, Gen 221 
 
 Freeman, E. A 39, 40? ^72 
 
 Freya, or Friga II3» ^^4 
 
 Frey's Howe, Upsala 83 
 
 G. 
 
 Galahad, Sir 50 
 
 Gargrave, Skirmish near 215 
 
 Gawain, Sir 37 
 
 Gawsworth 135 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth... 5, 6, 7, n,. 
 
 18, 19, 24, 26.32.37,41,42 
 
 Geological Phenomena 141 
 
'32 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Geiaint 17 
 
 Gerards of Bryn 74 
 
 Gervinus, Dr 55, 58, 59, 128 
 
 Giant Stories ii 
 
 Gilbert de Lacy 196 
 
 Gildas 5, 18, 19, 20, 33, 34, 184 
 
 Giles, Dr 26, 190 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis 20 
 
 Gladstone, W. E 18 
 
 Glendvvr, Owen 123 
 
 Gododin, The 114 
 
 Godnin 168 
 
 Golborne 66, 77. 78 
 
 Gothrun, the Dane iSo 
 
 Green, J. R 15, 19, 26, 33, 65, 
 
 73. 97, 104, 125, 136, 145, 166 
 
 Gregory, St 184 
 
 Grendel lOl 
 
 Grimm, J 22, 118, 122 
 
 Gudrekir 194, 195 
 
 Guest, Dr , 15 
 
 Guilds, Preston 210 
 
 Ginevra. Queen 11 
 
 Guy of Warwick, Sir 41, 106 
 
 Gwynedd 33 
 
 H. 
 
 Hacking Hall 138 
 
 Haigh, Mr. D. n...7, 11, 15, 20,24, 
 
 27, 60, 88, loi, 134, 136. 148, 184 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of... 99, 153 ctseq., 
 
 213, 214 
 
 Hamlet 38 
 
 Hammerton, P. G $2 
 
 Harald Blatand. etc 28, 41 
 
 Harald Hildetand 41 
 
 Harrington, Sir J 149. 150 
 
 Harold, King 48 
 
 Hartlepool loi 
 
 Hartshornc, Mr 72 
 
 Harvest-Blasters 109, 126 
 
 Hasty Knoll 21 
 
 Hawkins, Mr 188 
 
 Hazlit 105 
 
 Fleavenfield 67, 68, 93 
 
 Heathfield 26, 95 
 
 " Heathen-men" (Danes) 132 
 
 Helmets in, 237 
 
 Helmet, Anglo-Saxon 227 
 
 Hengist and Horsa 6, no 
 
 Henry VI., King 149, 158 
 
 Henry of Huntingdon 183 
 
 Heraclids 6 
 
 Heraldry 109 et seq. 
 
 Herodotus no. nS 
 
 Hildebrand, Herr 82, 83 
 
 Historia Britonum 18 
 
 Historical Documents, Destruction 
 of.. .158 
 
 Historical Novels 47,48,50, 52, 
 
 54, 57, 59 
 
 Historical Pictures 55 
 
 Hodgson, Col 161, et seq. 214 
 
 Hoel 17 
 
 HoUingworth 15, 30, 66 
 
 Homer 35, 38, 52 
 
 Honorius 15 
 
 Horatii and Curiatii, Tombs of.. .51 
 
 Horse Shoes. Ancient 23, 24 
 
 Howorth, Mr. H H. 27, 41 
 
 Howson, Dean 62,68 
 
 Hrothgar loi 
 
 Ilubbcrtsty, T... 137, 138, T39, 140 
 Hvmtington, Henry of.. ..12, 25, 195 
 
 Hwiccas, or Gewissas 65 
 
 Hygelac 102 
 
 Hyngr 175 et seq. 
 
 I. 
 
 Iceland 28, 42 
 
 Iceni 3 
 
 Ida 16 
 
 Idylls of the King 57 
 
 Igerna 17 
 
 Illiad 35. 3S 
 
 Inaccuracy of Ancient MSS 187 
 
 Indra 39, 46, 100 
 
 Ingulph 195 
 
 Isdubar, Giant 45 
 
INDEX. 
 
 233 
 
 J- 
 
 Jack the Giant-Killer 47 
 
 Johannes, Prior of Hagulstal(l...i48 
 
 Johnson, Rev. H 66 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea 37 
 
 Jylgja, Guardian Spirit 127 
 
 K. 
 
 Kabyls 112 
 
 Kains-Jackson, C. P 44 
 
 Kalydonian Hunt 113 
 
 Kay, Sir 37 
 
 Keightley 116 
 
 Kelly, W. K 108 
 
 Kemble, J. M. ...65. 135, 187, 198 
 
 Kendrick, Dr 62, 86. 87 
 
 King of England, First 180 
 
 Kuerden, Dr 200, 210 
 
 Kyklops 39 
 
 L. 
 
 Lake District 34 
 
 Lambert, Major-General ...153, 162 
 Lancashire Civil War Troops. ..153, 
 
 163 
 
 Lancashire Dialect 75 
 
 Lancashire Militia 216 
 
 Landisfarne 69 
 
 Lancelot, Sir 35, 37, 50 
 
 Langdale, Marquis of... 153, et seq., 
 
 213 et seq. 
 
 Language, Life and Growth of... 75 
 
 Langho 134 et seq. 
 
 Lanscado, Scather of the Land. ..122 
 
 Lappenberg 27 
 
 Latchford 74, 75, 86, 193 
 
 Leofric, Earl 145 
 
 Lichfield, Bishopric of 146 
 
 Lilburne, Col 220 
 
 Lindeley, John, Abbot of Whalley, 
 144 
 
 Linguistics 75 
 
 Linuis ii, 21. 23, 35 
 
 Littler, T 62 
 
 Lloyd, Howel W 64 
 
 Lombards 28 
 
 Loyalty and Rebellion 219, 221 
 
 Lubbock, Sir John 116 
 
 Luther's Picture of the Devil 51 
 
 Llywarch Hen 17, 26 
 
 I Lytton, Lord 35, 47, 48 
 
 I M. 
 
 Macaulay, T, Ij 53 
 
 Magic Cudgel 47 
 
 j Mallet, M 57, 117 
 
 j Malory, Sir Thomas 14, 50 
 
 I Malmesbury, William of 9, 12 
 
 j 175- 195 
 
 I Mameceastre 144 
 
 i Manchester 12, 30, 33 
 
 ; Map, Walter 18,50 
 
 ; Marcelde 66, 67 
 
 Martin Mere 23 
 
 ; Maserfeld, Macerfeld, Marcelde, 
 ! Mackerfield...6i, 62, et seq. 
 
 Meldrum, Sir John 213 
 
 i Merchant, Guild 210 
 
 I Merlin 17, 37, 114 
 
 j Mesbury 64, 72 
 
 Metcalfe. Fred ...44, loi, 114, 175, 
 i86 
 
 Metempsychosis 119 
 
 Metrical Romances 57 
 
 Milman, Dean 49, 51 
 
 Milton, John 214 
 
 Missionaries, the first 145 
 
 Modred 34 
 
 Moll, Herman 197 
 
 Monsters, Mythical 113, 115 
 
 Morgan, The Rev. R.W.,.io, 19. 24 
 
 Moriey, Prof. H 6 
 
 Morris 37 
 
 Morte, Adam 212 
 
 Morte, D'Arthur 14. 34 
 
 Mote-hill. Warrington 86 
 
 Miiller. Max 41 
 
234 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Myths 5,6, 7,37, 38,39.43. 
 
 46, 57 
 Myths, Genesis of 224 
 
 N. 
 Nennius...5,7, 11, 12, 18, 19, 20,21, 
 23. 50. 51. 65, 67, 68. 72, 
 74, 88. 92, 107, no, 148, 184 
 
 Newbury, William of. 13 
 
 Nicholas, St 117 
 
 Nichols, J. G 149 
 
 Nimrod 45 
 
 Northumbiia, Southern Boundary 
 
 of.. .143, 145 
 
 Nursery Tales 38 
 
 O. 
 
 Odin 38,44. 47. loi 
 
 Odins' Howe, Upsala 82 
 
 Odyssey 35,39, "8 
 
 Offa 102 
 
 Origins of English History 122 
 
 Ostorious Scapula 4 
 
 Oswald, St 26, ^^, 61 et seq., 
 
 133. 224 
 
 Oswald's Well, St 66, 69. 91 
 
 Oswestry 62, 65, 72, 90 
 
 Oswy 68, 73, 96 
 
 Palgrave, Sir Francis 48, 176 
 
 Panis 39 
 
 Panizzi. Sig 6 
 
 Paulinus 89 94, 144, 185 
 
 Pagan Symbols destroyed 185 
 
 Parker, Archbishop 185 
 
 Parkinson, Mr 14001 seq. 
 
 Patten, The Kev. Mr 218 
 
 Penda 26, 61, 62. 67, 72, 73. 74, 
 
 92,95. "s» 133 
 
 Percy, Bishop 31 
 
 Petilius Cerealis 4, 30 
 
 Phene, Dr 103 I 
 
 Phonetic Laws 75 
 
 Pictish Customs 103 
 
 Pilkington, Sir T 153 
 
 Pitris, or Fathers 120, 125 
 
 Poem, Anglo-Saxon, on the Battle 
 of Brunanburh...l78 
 
 Potter's Ford 143 
 
 Prehistoric Battlefields 3, 30 
 
 Preston, Great Battle of. .213 etseq. 
 
 Pretender, the Elder 221 
 
 Primitive Culture , 36 
 
 Puritan prophetic superstition... 219 
 
 R. 
 
 Raines, Canon 137, 138 
 
 Ragnar Lodbrock 166, 168 
 
 Rebellion and Loyalty 147 
 
 Red Bank, near Winwick 99 
 
 Ribchester 12, 151, 210, 21 1 
 
 Ribble-bridge, Battle at 221 
 
 Ribbleton Moor, Fight on 162 
 
 Richard III 125 
 
 Richard Coeur de Lion. .44, I02, 103 
 
 Richard of Cirencester 143 
 
 Richmond, Earl of. 126 
 
 Roach-Smith, C 204 
 
 Roberts, Askew 64, 91 
 
 Robin Mood 44, 77, 78 
 
 Robson, Dr 83. 85 
 
 Roman Remains at Walton 218 
 
 Roman Wail 204 
 
 Round Table, The 14, 77 
 
 Rosworm, Col 212 
 
 Runes 184 
 
 Russians 117 
 
 S. 
 
 Saga I02, 127, 183 
 
 St. George 100 
 
 Salt Hill, Clitheroe 152 
 
 Samson 45 
 
 Sangraal 37 
 
 Saracens <...4i, 103 
 
INDEX. 
 
 235 
 
 Saxo-Grammaticus... 28, 41, 42, 51 
 
 Saxton, C 197 
 
 Scandinavia 57, 103 
 
 Science, Genesis of 128 
 
 Scop, or Gleeman's Tale ...41, 187 
 
 Scotch Warriors, Grave of..... 217, 
 
 218 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter 35, 47, 49, 52 
 
 Seaton, Sir John 212 
 
 Serpents 104, 106 
 
 Setantii, Sistuntii, or Segantii 3, 
 
 23 
 Shakspere....i3, 38,47,58, 123, 128 
 
 Sharon-Turner 34,67, 73, 175, 
 
 176, 177, 180 
 
 Sherburne, Bishop of 174 
 
 Shuttleworth, Col 212 
 
 Siege of Preston in 1815 
 
 Siege of Preston in 1643 211 
 
 Sigurd 39,46, lOD 
 
 Sihtric or Sigtryg 170 
 
 Simeon of Durham... 1 30, 179, 194, 
 
 195 
 
 Sibson. Rev. E 21. 62. 77, 78, 
 
 81,87 
 
 Skene, Mr 15, 19, 68, 189 
 
 Solar Myths 39, 40, 45, 4^ 
 
 Songs resultant from the Stuart 
 
 Troubles 222, 223 
 
 Spear Heads, Ancient 85 
 
 Spencer, Herbert 120 
 
 Spurs, Ancient 23, 29 
 
 Stephen, Leslie 48, 50 
 
 Stevenson, Mr 18 
 
 Stone Hammers 85 
 
 Stonyhurst 152, 157, 160 
 
 Strachey, Sir Edv/ard ...14, 16, 17 
 Stubbs and Haddon (Councils of 
 
 Britain) 19 
 
 Superstitious explanations of 
 
 Natural Phenomena 147 
 
 Surnames 121 
 
 Sweyn, King 181 
 
 Swords, Magic 47 
 
 T 
 
 Tacitus 114 
 
 Talbot, T. and J 149, 150 
 
 Taliesin 17, 35, 44 
 
 Talleyrand 44 
 
 Tarquin, Sir 35 
 
 Taylor, Rev. I 112 
 
 Tempest, Sir John ...149, 150, 162 
 
 Tennyson 37, 60 
 
 Thackeray 35 
 
 Theodoric 45 
 
 Theophilus, Story of. 45 
 
 Thor 47 
 
 Thorolf. 175, et. seq 
 
 Thorpe, B loi, 102 
 
 Tildesley, Sir Thos 220 
 
 Totems, or Crests 109 et. seq 
 
 Traveller's Tale, Poem. ..134, 136 
 
 Tre, Welsh prefix 96 
 
 Treasure, Buried 192, 193 
 
 Tristan, Sir 37 
 
 Troy 53 
 
 Tumuli, Ancient... 83, 85, 86, 87, 
 
 137, et. seq., 205, 208 
 
 Turketal, the English Chancellor 
 
 176, 177 
 
 Turkomans 118 
 
 Turner, J. M. W 52 
 
 Tylor, E, B 5, 36, 56, iii. 128 
 
 U 
 
 Ulster, Annals of. 35 
 
 Urien of Rheged 16, 17,27 
 
 Urns, Ancient 81, 83, 84 
 
 Upsala 29 
 
 Uther Pendragon no, 123 
 
 V 
 
 Vambery, Arminius 43, 49, 119 
 
 Vergil, Polydore 186 
 
 Venutius 4 
 
 Vicinal ways, Roman 205, 208 
 
2 36 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Volsung Tale 120 
 
 Vritra 100 
 
 W 
 
 Wada 13O; et. seq 
 
 Wada, Weland and Egil 134 
 
 Wade's Boat 135 
 
 Walhalla 115 
 
 Wallace, Mackenzie 117 
 
 Wars of the Roses 158, 210 
 
 Warwick, Earl of. 124 
 
 Watkin, W. T 87 
 
 Watling street 136, 194 
 
 Wearden 199 
 
 Weddle, C. A 190, 199, 2C9 
 
 Well, St. Oswald's 91, 92 
 
 Welsh Tribute, Heavy 170 
 
 Werewolves 119, 122 
 
 West Kent, kingdom of 145 
 
 Weyland's Smithy 136 
 
 Whitney, Professor D 63, 75 
 
 Whitaker, the Rev. Jno...7, ii, 15. 
 21, 26, 34, 35, 86, 198 
 
 Whitaker, Dr 136, et. seq, 193 
 
 White, Dr. A. D 57 
 
 Whittle Springs 197 
 
 Wigan 12, 22, 30 
 
 Wigan Lane, battle of. 220 
 
 Wild Huntsman 45 
 
 William, the Norman Conqueror 
 182, 189 
 
 Wilkinson, T. T 4, 100 
 
 Winwick 61. et seq 
 
 Winwidfield 97 
 
 Wornum, R 5^ 
 
 Worsaae, Dr 188 
 
 Worde, Wynkyn de 10 
 
 Worms, Huge 104. 106 
 
 Wright, T 29, 88 
 
 X 
 
 Ximines, Cardinal 186 
 
 Y 
 
 York 33 
 
 Yornzi 1..I17 
 
 Ywain, Sir 17, 37 
 
 Z 
 
 Zuniarraga, Archbishop 186 
 
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